Pre-Pinot Grigio, This Wine Was the Chic Italian White. Is It Time to Give Gavi Another Try?

The name is a pleasure to pronounce, and the price is reasonable, too. So why is Gavi, the white wine of Piedmont, Italy, so scarce on American wine store shelves?

A half-century ago, Gavi was the epitome of a chic Italian wine. According to Ian D’Agata in “Native Wine Grapes of Italy,” the grape Cortese, from which Gavi is made, was a welcome guest at any table, “desired by all, invited everywhere.” In the 1980s, however, the reputation of Cortese and thus Gavi suffered a blow when, as D’Agata explains, many of the wines proved “neutral, tart and meager, and wine lovers turned their fickle attention to other varieties and other wines.” I, too, have been fickle in my affection for Gavi, but a new year seemed like a good time to give this dry white wine another go. So I purchased 17 wines ranging in price from $11 to $40 a bottle and hoped for the best.