Gavi Di Gavi, Conte di Alari, 2024

Grapes

Cortese

Vintage report

The 2024 vintage in Piemonte arrived with all the drama of a Verdi opera. Spring brought welcome rainfall after several parched years, filling the water tables and setting the vines up beautifully for the growing season ahead. Summer proved mercifully cooler than recent scorchers, allowing the grapes to ripen slowly and steadily without the stress that had marked too many harvests in the preceding decade. By September, producers were grinning like cats with cream as they surveyed fruit with proper acidity intact and tannins that had developed real structure rather than the rushed ripeness they'd battled in hotter years.

What we've tasted so far suggests a vintage that combines the best of both worlds: the concentration that comes from modern viticulture with the freshness that makes Piemontese wines sing. The Nebbiolo shows particular promise, displaying that iron-fist-in-velvet-glove character that defines great Barolo and Barbaresco when the stars align. Barbera has bounced back magnificently, delivering wines with proper zip and focus rather than the soft, overripe fruit we saw too often in the 2010s. Most of these wines want at least five years in the cellar to show their true colours, though the best examples should reward patience until 2040 and beyond.