Ca’ d’Gal Moscato Sant’Ilario 2021 (6 Bottles) Piedmont, Italy

This wine is simply a revelation. It’s drawn from a single hectare of 70-year-old vines, some 10 kilometres from Boido’s winery in Cassinasco, on a south-facing hillside with limestone-rich soils. Cassinasco is one of only 19 villages (out of a total of 52 in the Moscato DOCG) included in the newly ratified Canelli DOCG. Moscato fruit from this subzone surrounding the town of Canelli has been grown since the 13th century and has always been associated with greatness. It is in the heart of the region, where the chalky soils and high altitude are perfect for Moscato.

For the fourth year (out of six releases) this 2020 was awarded the coveted Gambero Rosso Tre Bicchieri—an extraordinary feat for a wine style so often associated with frivolity. Those glasses are well earned here. It’s a mould-breaking wine of cut-glass purity and restraint, with a fine chalky texture and mineral zeal. The perfume offers gentle notes of grapefruit and lemon sherbet, while the palate is so fine, buoyant yet restrained, shot through with white peach, nectarine and lemon zest. Everything is in its place. It has salty, crystalline freshness, an intense, chalky finish and a length of flavour that is in class of its own.

This is a wine more than capable of expressing itself with complex food. Of course, it can work with the classics—hazelnut-based desserts, fruit and cream tarts etc.—but it also has the intensity and mineral drive to partner with all kinds of savoury foods, much like a good Mosel Spätlese. At the Ca’ d’Gal ristoro they match this with everything from cured meats, cured fish and foie gras, through to Brös—the tangy ricotta and grappa specialty of the region. This can age extremely well, developing deeper lime and aged Riesling notes. If you ever wanted a wine to completely upturn a stereotype, this classy white is it!