Italian wine and grape guide : Cortese

The Cortese grape, " corteis " in Piedmont dialect, gentle in Italian, is a native white grape variety grown in Piedmont since the ' 700 and it is found mainly in the south of Alessandria , from Ovada to the Tortona hills, but it is grown in the whole region of Piedmont, but achieve its highest level in the area of Gavi, a small village southeast of Alessandria, where it is bottled as Gavi.

The Cortese grape can produce wines of excellent quality, characterised by elegance and balance, and this is true not only for fresh and young wines , but also for those who are left aging in bottle to add depth and complexity to the wine.