2024 La Scolca - Gavi DOCG Gavi dei Gavi Black Label (750ml)

La Scolca has been a fixture of Italian winemaking since 1919, and it was the Soldati family who put Gavi on the map when they launched Gavi dei Gavi in 1966, pioneering controlled stainless-steel fermentation to protect the delicate character of the Cortese grape. Today the estate, still owned and directed by the Soldati family, farms roughly sixty acres in Rovereto, one of the finest communes within the Gavi appellation, and the Black Label remains its flagship and trademarked signature wine.

The fruit comes from a meticulous, plot-by-plot selection of Cortese grown on vines around sixty years old, cultivated without chemical inputs on a patchwork of clay, marl, and alluvial soils near the Ligurian Apennines. Coastal breezes and the Libeccio wind help preserve freshness in the grapes. After gentle pressing, the must ferments with wild yeasts at cool temperatures in stainless steel, then rests on its lees for an extended period without oak, developing its character through natural sedimentation rather than barrel aging.

Pale straw in the glass with a hint of green, the wine opens with green apple, pear, and citrus, moving toward the flinty, almond, and hazelnut notes the Black Label is known for. Crisp and light to medium in body, it makes an excellent aperitif or a match for shellfish, white fish, and roast poultry.