“Stone fruit,” is what pretentious wineratti say when they we mean “peaches” or “apricots.” It sounds a lot more technical, plus the stoniness is evocative of terroir and the soils the wine was grown in. We do not, correspondingly, refer to “cherry” as “pit fruit”, for (I think) obvious reasons. In any event, peaches are the dominant note in the 2012 Michele Chiarlo Le Marne Gavi which is sitting on LCBO Vintages shelves for a modest $15.95 (click on its inventory number to find those LCBO stores that stock it: 228528).
It’s not super mid-summer ripe Niagara or Maynard’s Fuzzy Peach peachiness, more like canned peaches, or maybe that’s the hint of metal and minerality in this wine that makes it seem both rich and lean at the same time. However confused my tasting notes may be, it’s lovely lunch, brunch or aperitif wine at a very good price for the quality. Like all Gavis, it’s made from Cortese, which may not be a varietal quite obscure enough for GFR’s The Grape Hunter, but it’s fresh flavour is distinct from so much Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Grigio that’s worth trying for the novelty. Jancis Robinson claims in the Oxford Companion to Wine that the white wines from the Gavi region were first made to serve the fish restaurants of Genoa and the nearby Ligurian coast, and I think it hold up well to any firm white fleshed fillet.
Malcolm Jolley is a founding editor of Good Food Revolution and Executive Director of Good Food Media, the company that publishes it. Follow him at twitter.com/malcolmjolley
