La Raia

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La Raia 2025 'Pleo' Gavi DOCG

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La Raia is a 180 hectare biodynamic estate in the hills of Gavi, in southeastern Piedmont. Giorgio Rossi Cairo purchased the property in 2003 and immediately began converting the entire farm to biodynamic agriculture, earning Demeter certification in 2007. Only 48 hectares are planted to vines. The rest is pasture, woodland and farmland, creating a working ecosystem rather than a vineyard with a few trees around it. Today, Giorgio’s son Piero runs the estate and has continued that approach across the property.

The vineyards are planted primarily to Cortese, the grape behind Gavi, with the estate’s limestone and clay soils and relatively high elevation giving the wines their characteristic freshness and mineral edge. The farming is the important part here. Biodynamics is applied to the entire property, not just the vines, with animals, forests, crops and vineyards all treated as parts of the same system. La Raia even operates a Waldorf school and an organic farm that supplies produce to local customers.

The wines are not trying to reinvent Gavi or turn Cortese into something it is not. They are clean, energetic and mineral, with more texture and depth than most of the category. La Raia is a good reminder that you do not need to make weird wine to take farming seriously. The wines simply taste better because the estate is treated as a living farm rather than a grape factory.