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Appellation · Italy

Gavi

Piedmont’s best-known dry white, from Cortese, in the hills towards the Ligurian coast.

Gavi DOCGcontinentalmoderate
What to expect in the glass

Dry, light-bodied, high-acid white with lemon, green apple and a faint bitter-almond finish. Unoaked and restrained. Drink young and cold.

About Gavi

Gavi is made from Cortese in the south-eastern corner of Piedmont, close enough to the Ligurian coast to feel a maritime influence.

The wine is dry, light, high in acidity and understated — citrus, green apple, a faint almond note, and very little else. That restraint is the point, and it made Gavi the standard Italian white in British restaurants for a generation.

"Gavi di Gavi" means the fruit came from the commune of Gavi rather than the wider zone. It is a real distinction and a small one.

What the name means

Legal name
Gavi DOCG
Type
Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita (DOCG)
Set by
Consorzio Tutela del Gavi, under MASAF
Recognised
1998
Regulates
Origin, plus grape varieties, maximum yields, minimum ageing.

Everything a DOC controls, plus a compulsory analytical and tasting examination before bottling and a numbered state seal on the neck. The tier above DOC in regulatory strictness, which is not the same as guaranteed quality.

Worth knowing

100% Cortese. Wine from the commune of Gavi itself may be labelled Gavi di Gavi.

Grapes

Wines from here

white

Gavi

Piedmont’s crisp, citrusy white from the Cortese grape — a seafood wine from a red-wine region.

Rules worth knowing

Confirmed in the EU register

Gavi is registered as a Protected Designation of Origin (PDO), file number PDO-IT-A1310, protected at EU level since 1976.

Article 107 of Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013

Specification published: Official Journal C 470, 22.11.2021 · Official Journal

Only the rules that change what to expect in the glass or on the label. WineHQ does not reproduce production specifications, and each entry carries the date it was last checked because appellation rules change.

The designation is confirmed above. WineHQ has not read this appellation’s production specification, so it publishes no yields, ageing minima or permitted-variety lists for it — those come from the document linked above, not from a summary of it.

What to eat, and how to serve it

Derived from this region’s signature styles. Each is listed separately, because a region does not have one serving temperature.

Gavi

Serve at 8–10°C (fridge cold).

Try with clams, fillet steak or salmon.

Where to go next

Places worth trying if you like this one — neighbours, rivals, and the obvious step across.

  • Barbera d’Asti — Piedmont’s everyday red grape in its heartland — high acidity, low tannin, and the wine the locals actually drink.
  • Asti and Moscato d’Asti — Two sweet sparkling wines from Moscato Bianco under one DOCG — one fully sparkling and industrial in scale, the other gently fizzy and far better.
Location

Approximate centroid: 44.69°, 8.80°. WineHQ stores coordinates only where it has them, and does not estimate boundaries it has not sourced.

Sources

Sources consulted