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White
750ml
Bottle: $17.05
12 bottles: $16.71
This wine is obtained by smoothly pressing the Cortese grapes grown in the villages of Gavi and Novi Ligure. Gavi is...
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White
750ml - Case of 12
Bottle: $13.80
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White
750ml - Case of 12
Bottle: $17.32
100% Cortese. The perfect white to stock your fridge with when friends and family come over. Beautiful apricot and...
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White
750ml
Bottle: $12.94 $14.30
12 bottles: $12.68
100% Cortese. The grapes used in this classic example of Gavi grew in the shadow of “Il Forte,” the iconic...
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White
750ml - Case of 12
Bottle: $17.90
Straw yellow with slightly greenish reflections. Intense scents of white flowers and fruit exacerbated by a delicate...
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White
750ml
Bottle: $13.94 $14.73
Made from 100% Cortese grapes, this delicious white is both soft and crisp. With a pleasant stony minerality, this...
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White
750ml
Bottle: $42.94 $46.00
The Monterotondo is the Villa Sparina Cru obtained from rich, complex grapes from a historic, favourably exposed part...
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White
750ml - Case of 6
Bottle: $108.95
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White
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White
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White
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White

Cortese Mencia Roter Veltliner Savatiano

The Cortese white wine grape varietal has been grown in and around south Piedmont, Italy, for at least five hundred years. Its delicate nature and moderate acidity have made it a favorite with people around the world, and it is most commonly served alongside the excellent seafood and shellfish dishes of the part of Italy it is traditionally grown in. Cortese grapes are easily identifiable by their lime and greengage flavors, and their generally delicate and medium bodied character. Cortese wines are also notable for their freshness and crispness, again, making them an ideal match for seafood. Whilst colder years often produce harsher, more acidic Cortese wines, practices such as allowing malolactic fermentation can solve any such problems and still produce delicious white wines made from this varietal.

Savatiano is probably Greece's most well known and most widely grown grape varietal, as it is the primary grape used in the production of Retsina, where the fermenting juices of the Savatiano varietal are flavored with pine resin in order to make this distinctive and famous wine. One of the reasons for the wide cultivation of this grape is due to its hardiness, and resistance to drought conditions. In the sun-drenched and dry, rocky Greek landscapes, this makes it an ideal vine to grow for wine-makers who require a strong and bounteous yield each year.

However, there are plenty of examples of Greek white wines which use the Savatiano grape but withhold from the addition the pine resin flavoring, allowing the true characteristics of this varietal to shine through. The result is often very pleasing indeed, with Savatiano grapes generally producing extremely well balanced and rounded white wines, with a juicily fruity flavor. Their aromas can vary quite a lot, with many Savatiano wines bearing the fragrance of citrus fruits, and also occasionally having a strong floral aroma reminiscent of elder and rose. Due to the relatively low acidity of Savatiano grapes, the wines which use them (including Retsina) generally bolster themselves with the addition of smaller quantities of more acidic varieties, such as Assyrtiko or Rhoditis, in order to improve their sometimes weak structure.

Additional Information on Greek Wines


Greek Wines
Ancient Greek Wines – A Brief History of Wine in Greece
The Myth of Dionysus, Greek God of Wine
What is Retsina?