2021 Giordano Lombardo Gavi di Gavi 750 ml

Sommeliers from Atlanta to San Francisco are buying up Giordano Lombardo’s biodynamically farmed Gavi di Gavi en masse. It’s one of Italy’s best-kept secrets—a jewel of Piedmont infused with Ligurian sea breezes that will thrill lovers of minerally, bone-dry white wines.

“I’m buying a case for myself,” declared Wine Access Master Sommelier Sur Lucero, whose devotion to laser-focused white wines like Chablis and Grüner Veltliner is the stuff of Wine Access legend. “It’s better than most Muscadet or Txakoli on the market—it hits a core that’s so pure and crazy alive, fresh and bright, I’ll pull a cork every time I’m thirsty.”

From a forested hamlet outside the town of Gavi in Northern Italy, the Cortese grape shines in the hands of brilliant certified-biodynamic farmer Giordano Lombardo. His Gavi di Gavi hits the palate like a garden margarita, crisp melon-rind mingling with mouthwatering salty lemon notes, accented by a nutty blanched-almond character. 

The estate is Demeter-certified—the gold standard in biodynamic practices—showing a level of care that goes far beyond the label’s understated pledge that the wine is “made with organic grapes.” Of the 50 acres that comprise the estate, 30 are planted to vineyards, with the rest set aside for rejuvenating crop rotation. The dense surrounding woods, alive with birds and beneficial insects, provide a rich, biodiverse landscape that helps the farm operate almost entirely without exterior inputs—a self-contained agricultural entity. 

“Sometimes a wine reaches its arête through purity and transparency, rather than through depth or complexity,” Sur told us. This is one such wine.