2020 Giordano Lombardo Gavi di Gavi 750 ml

Sommeliers from Atlanta to San Francisco are buying up Giordano Lombardo’s hyper-organic Gavi di Gavi en masse, resulting in sell-out status at most retailers already. 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 Master Sommelier Sur Lucero, whose devotion to laser-focused white wines like Chablis and Grüner Veltliner is the stuff of Wine Access legend. This Gavi di Gavi hits the palate like a garden margarita, crisp cucumber mingling with mouthwatering lime notes accented by a streak of sea salt and a nutty, blanched-almond character. 

The Lombardo 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 compose 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. The homemade compost that enriches the vineyard soils is handled with such care that it’s said to impart a “cosmic intelligence.”

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