Locanda La Raia Gavi

Locanda La Raia is located in the Gavi region, in Southern Piedmont, and is surrounded by the vineyards, pastures and woods of biodynamic farm La Raia, owned by the Rossi Cairo family.

This large green house used to be a mail station in the past, and is currently a boutique hotel with twelve rooms, each one different to the others, furnished with 1600 and 1800’s Piedmont pieces matched with contemporary design furniture, rich in organic colours, fabrics and materials.

The renovation of Locanda La Raia and its expansive grounds by firm deamicisarchitetti has created a continuous dialogue between inside and outside. The house’s original structure, with its arches, vaults and large windows overlooking the vineyards was saved and embellished, including a wide space for the light coming from the hills.

The Locanda is one with the landscape around: the gardens, fields and vineyards in the Gavi hills. At the entrance, the garden that welcomes guests is a new interpretation of a typical Italian garden: a choice of aromatic herbs shaped like a big leaf.

The largest garden, that joins the vineyards and becomes one with them, is composed of just indigenous species linked to the farming world; it was created by the French team Coloco, pupils and collaborators to garden designer Gilles Clément. Welcome to the big green house in Gavi. Italian style hospitality, slow pace in harmony with nature.

ROOMS & APARTMENTS
All rooms, suites and apartments at Locanda La Raia are different from one another and are furnished with pieces that reflect the taste of the property. The seventeenth-century Piedmont wardrobe, the antique desks, the chest of drawers that date back to the nineteenth-century are paired with pieces of contemporary design.

On the walls, antique family portraits hang next to contemporary artworks selected among the artists represented by the Milanese gallery Viasaterna. Materials, colours and fabrics tell a story of Italian taste of simple beauty, and the resulting effect, achieved through the skilful combination of antique and modern, is a home-feeling of large, comfortable and sophisticated rooms.

SUITE
At the end of a long day spent among the vineyards and the Gavi hills, you can relax with a book or your favorite music in the welcoming and spacious living area.

THE APARTMENTS
The two Locanda’s apartments are ideal for those who want a stay in the Gavi with all the comforts to feel at home. The unique furniture combines pieces of modern design with antique Piedmont decor – creating a rare and precious atmosphere.

THE RESTAURANT
Form January 2019 Tommaso Arrigoni, a chef who owns Innocenti Evasioni in Milan, Michelin-starred for 13 years, signs the menu of Locanda La Raia restaurant. He focused his proposal on the seasonality and on the interpretation of the ancient tradition of Gavi cuisine, a unique crossroads of Ligurian and Piedmontese influences.

“My mission – says Arrigoni – is to enhance the products of the biodynamic farm La Raia: ancient cereals such as einkorn wheat, fruit and vegetables from the organic garden and meats that come from Fassona cows, raised in the pasture. Local are also cheeses and cured meats, such as the famous testa in cassetta, which come from the Slow Food presidents of the area. “

The Locanda restaurant is open every evening except Wednesday, and for lunch on Saturday and Sunday for external customers.

THE SPA
The SPA at Locanda La Raia offers a discreet relaxation programme according to your preferences and the intensity you choose. Sauna, hammam and indoor and outdoor heated swimming pools exhort you to enjoy wellness overlooking the Gavi hills.

Inside the relaxation area, a Himalayan pink salt wall neutralises anxiety and stress, while an infrared chair and a dry sauna will give you an immediate wellness feeling. Our outdoor fitness trail extends at the foot of the hill. A wide range of body treatments given by our experts is also available.

EVENTS
Locanda La Raia was an ancient mail station for the travellers that went from Piedmont to the sea. Thanks to the skilful restoration that has embellished the large common areas and has re-designed its gardens, now it is the ideal venue for small events, be it an anniversary with friends or a business meeting.

With its twelve rooms, its intimate location in the green and its indoor SPA, it is the perfect venue for exclusive events, small ceremonies and private parties that we organize in our typical style: privacy, care for details, relaxed pace and a close attention to our guests’ requirements.

Chef Tommaso Arrigoni proposes the traditional Gavi cuisine in our restaurant: his special menus enhance the estate’s organic products. Tastings and visits to La Raia wine cellar can be organized to learn about our biodynamic and organic wines.

One step away from the Locanda the artworks commissioned by Fondazione La Raia to international artists can be admired: a temptation to long strolls to discover La Raia, a marvellous mosaic of wild and cultivated environments.

BUSINESS MEETINGS
Locanda La Raia is the perfect venue for business meetings too. The suitable room, overlooking the Gavi hills and the vines, is equipped with a video projector and the WiFi, and can accomodate about fifteen people.

This is the ideal choice, together with the quality of our services and the exclusive activities that we will offer, to make your business meeting an unforgettable experience. The large green house continues its hospitality tradition along the Gavi historic road.

THE ESTATE
La Raia is a Demeter certified byodinamic farm. It is located in the heart of Gavi hills, in an area with an ancient wine tradition thanks to a unique microclimate that promotes the maturation of the grape and the production of red and white biodynamic wines.

The estate extends over 180 hectars, including 48 of vineyards, 60 of fields and the remaining are pastures, chestnut, elderflower and acacia woodlands protecting numerous species of wild animals.

The Rossi Cairo family bought La Raia in 2003, with the aim of recovering and enhancing the original ecosystem through a broad intervention project, inspired by the biodynamic principles.

The first change was the conversion of the vine cultivations: green manure among the rows, dynamized horn manure to fertilize the marly soil deeply, intense aeration, absence of pesticides, moderate quantities of cave sulphur and copper sprayed during specific periods of the year. Pruning happens during a descending moon.

Crop rotation was reintroduced with the recovery of ancient cultivations such as monococcum einkorn and rye. Finally, livestock pasture farming was reintroduced as well with cows of fassone race.

The variety and richness of the vegetation within the estate make La Raia a true biodiversity oasis for bees and other pollinator insects: hence a copious production of acacia, multi-flower and woodland honey.

Today, La Raia produces three kinds of multi-awarded Gavi D.O.C.G. – Gavi, Gavi Riserva Vigna della Madonnina and Gavi Pisé and two kinds of Piemonte D.O.C. Barbera. The cellar has been thought and built with an ancient environmentally friendly construction technique called pisé.

This technique harmonises with Piedmont’s gentle hills that surround La Raia. For the realisation of the cellar we called the Austrian architect Martin Rauch, one of the most experts of this technique on an international scale.

The 48-hectare Cortese and Piemonte Barbera indigenous vineyards are planted in limestone clay soil and their density is around 4.500 plants per hectare.

Our biodynamic white wines are obtained from the Cortese grape’s oldest plants: Gavi DOCG Riserva, that comes from vineyards La Madonnina at the property entrance, and Gavi DOCG Pisé, whose grapes are cultivated at La Cascinetta and display a red soil veining, more suitable to the production of grapes for rich white wines.

The Barbera vineyards occupy a South-facing area with an excellent drainage. The graft was made by a massal selection: we cut and grafted thousands of shoots, choosing one by one the best plants of some ancient local vineyards.

The cultivation follows the biodynamic method, whose aim is reinforcing the plants’ vitality and their power to react in the best way to the environment changes. The fostering method is Guyot, perfect for our mainly droughty terrains.

The vine trunk’s height is around 50 cm, while the fruit end (shoot) is tied to the support thread horizontally with respect to the ground: this assures a reduced expansion and a better management of the leaf wall and of the bunch exposure.

Conventional agriculturefeeds plants with soluble food that the roots absorb passively, so vines lose their identity and their relationship with the soil, and their fruits’ taste and characteristics become less varied.

The biodynamic method, on the contrary, aims at reinforcing every component of the plant starting from its roots, so that it keeps the best possible balance with nature and the climate in which it lives.

At La Raia all the lines are grass covered with natural species and grass planted in autumn for the green manure: we sow leguminous plants (Faba beans), cereals (oat and barley) that improve the soil’s fertility in spring.

Natural grass in the lines also increases the soil’s biodiversity, helping the development of humus and making it more stable. These plants will be subsequently cut and interred, which is most beneficial to the soil.

THE WINES
White Cortese and red Piemonte Barbera La Raia are wines with strong personality and surprising ability to evolve. Thanks to the biodynamic method they fully express the originality and vitality of the Gavi terroir.

The vines from which our Gavi and our Piemonte Barbera come from are grown without resorting to synthetic products or chemicals. We follow the principles of biodynamics aiming at the vitality of the soil and the harmonious growth of all the components of each plant.

The production phases follow the procedures and values that inspire our work in the vineyards. Wines ferment with indigenous yeasts and save their characteristics thanks to a careful low-temperature technique that allows to limit the use of sulphites well below the Demeter rules.

When the Cortese grape reaches the correct ripening level it is selected twice: the first time directly in the vineyard by hand harvest, and the second one in the wine cellar on the selection table. Here the best bunches are separated from the others and the grapes are put in the automatic presses.

These machines guarantee a soft pressing and light musts, and they prevent the extraction of brown mixtures caused by an excessive pressing of the skins, that would give a bitter taste.

The must obtained is then put in stainless steel tanks where the controlled-temperature fermentation begins, made with indigenous yeasts that intensify the typical scent of our grape and produce expressive peculiar wines.

Once the alcohol fermentation is finished the wine is left on the lees for a variable time before it is bottled: a couple of months for our Gavi DOCG, one year for Gavi DOCG Riserva and up to two years for Gavi DOCG Pisé.

The Barbera grape, that gives origin to our Piedmont biodynamic red wines Piemonte DOC Barbera and Piemonte DOC Barbera Largé, goes through a different type of fermentation called “emerged cap”, during which the must stays in contact with the skins for about ten days. By pumping over, which means wetting with pomaces the cap that emerges as a result of fermentation, colour and tannins are extracted.

Once the alcohol fermentation is finished, if the vintage is good, a quick maceration is done, leaving the wine in contact with the skins for some days, which helps a better extraction of mixtures and gives the wine more character.

The following step is racking, separating the liquid part (flower wine) from the waste pomace cap. The flower wine goes through malolactic fermentation, that softens the vigorous sourness of Barbera; after the pouring, necessary to have a clear product, the wine stays in controlled-temperature stainless steel tanks until it is bottled.

This is how our Gavi and Barbera reach our customers’ tables, through several phases that are always the same and nevertheless every year different, as Nature decides.

WINE TOUR
Welcome to La Raia. We have built our Wine Tours to satisfy our guests’ different requests: from the aficionados who would like to know more about our farm and taste our biodynamic wines, to the guests who have more time and wish for a light lunch to try the local cuisine, and also the guests accompanied by a group of friends.

We also organize more articulated tastings in the Gavi and Langhe regions, with the Nebbiolos and Barolos produced in our organic farm Tenuta Cucco at Serralunga d’Alba.

Take your time now that you are in the Gavi! We suggest a stroll in our oldest vineyards to learn about biodynamic farming and visit the wine and the barrel cellars. And to end with a bang, a tasting of our wines with garden vegetables lasagne and a choice of local products, such as cheese with our farm’s honey. The visit is available both in Italian and English.

WELLNESS IN THE HEART OF GAVI
Discovering the territory, tasting the Gavi tradition and relaxing in the vineyards: at Locanda La Raia granting oneself time means experiencing moment of pure wellness enjoying the beautiful nature.

The indoor and heated outdoor swimming pools, the sauna, the Turkish bath and the gym fully equipped by Technogym overlooking the hills allow our guests to dedicate themselves to relaxation and wellness.

Playing golf in the vineyards in the three golf courses that can be reached in a few minutes, or renting a bike for a ride among the Gavi hills, admiring their beauty. And finally treating yourself with a tasting of La Raia biodynamic wines in the farm and learning about the biodynamic farming method.

ART & LANDSCAPE
Since 2013 Fondazione La Raia, established by Giorgio Rossi Cairo and Irene Crocco, has invited Italian and international artists to create culture opportunities and give a new identity to the Gavi’s landscape through their artworks and contributions. A pleasant stroll in the vineyards around Locanda La Raia will unveil the works and installations created in the last years.

Three sculptures by Remo Salvadori: Nel momento, a vertical installation made of sixteen tin elements placed on the manor’s Southern facade; Continuo infinito presente, a continuous ring made of steel cables, placed in front of the wine cellar; Il Sabato piantare il cipresso…, made of marble, water and essences, is near the Vignone, one of La Raia’s oldest vineyards.

OUSSSER by Korean artist Koo Jeong A. is at Borgo Merlassino, and due to its amazing characteristics, it can only be admired in the nights that follow very bright days.

BALES 2014/2017, the coloured plastic balls by German artist Michael Beutler, are placed near the entrance to Locanda La Raia.

Palazzo delle Api by Adrien Missika, a Luserna stone inverted pyramid created to shelter nomad bees and pollinating insects, can be admired near La Raia’s lake.

Inside the cellar there is an artwork by Francesco Jodice from the project Il Cavaliere Nero e la vendetta del Gavi, and a sound installation created following the performance of the musical body of Novi Ligure alla Raia, part of the same project. Finally, at Locanda La Raia, Piralide: the emblematic work from BIOMEGA Multiverso, a personal show made by the Cosimo Veneziano at Tenuta Cucco.

In 2021 Michael Beutler has returned to La Raia, creating Oak Barrel Baroque, a small shelter in the form of a votive temple built with wooden beams and staves from barriques at the end of their life cycle. The form of the work suggests the architecture of Palladio and the churches seen on the squares of Italian towns, reproportioned in a single building and placed in an unexpected context.

In 2023 a new work, Inventory by Tami Izko, was inaugurated: the biodiversity of La Raia inspired the creation of this chamber of wonders inside a natural cave where 32 porcelain works, natural casts and manual labor objects are enshrined.

La Raia continues to be the a gathering place for discussions on the landscape, fostering a new perception of the territory in which we live.

EXPLORE THE LOCANDA
For breakfast, we serve fragrant bread together with our organic honey, jams, fresh fruit from Tenuta, sweet as well as savoury omelettes that burst with the flavours of our garden’s vegetables and cereals. In summer guests can sit at the big garden table, around the pool or have a picnic in the shady areas of the Tenuta.

We love the rituals of tea, which we serve every afternoon with a different sweet treat, and aperitivo, the ideal moment to taste La Raia biodynamic wines. Dinner at Locanda is a special moment: small round tables decorated with garden flowers, candles and white tablecloths create that pleasant sense of intimacy that we want for our guests.

Locanda La Raia organizes Italian cuisine residential courses and cooking classes. We aim at spreading the knowledge and appreciation for the most representative dishes of our cuisine, wellknown and beloved all over the world. Fresh-made pasta, gnocchi, risottos, roasts, meat and vegetable sauces, pies are the must-haves of our cuisine and the dishes you can find at Locanda.

We share moments where you can learn how to prepare them, choose the ingredients, use different cooking styles and serve them. Our guests will also have the opportunity to create, with the help our chefs, a menu to cook and enjoy together.

SPORT & SURROUNDINGS
In the estate there is a tennis court, ideal for having fun with some exchange between nature before enjoying a dip in the pool. At Locanda La Raia there is also a health trail for sports activities in the Gavi hills, and a gym fully equipped by Technogym.

For those who love cycling, it is possible to rent one to ride along the roads loved by champions such as Fausto Coppi and Costante Girardengo, all around Locanda La Raia, with many itineraries for every taste and athletic preparation. For those wishing to be accompanied by a guide, we suggest our partner Bikesquare.

From here you can easily reach three golf courses that open between the vineyards. The nearest is the Golf Club Colline del Gavi 6 km away, in an area surrounded by woods: it has 18 championship holes and 9 executive holes and a restaurant.

The Golf Club Serravalle is also 6 km from Tenuta La Bollina, it has 9 championship holes and 3 executive holes. The Golf Club Villa Carolina (Capriata d’Orba), 12 kilometres away, has 2 18-hole courses set in an area of 110 hectares between woods and vineyards.

The club house is housed in the former summer residence of the Gavotti family. On the hill above the holes, stands the Monastery of the contemplative Friars in Villa bricco, donated to the order by Carolina Gavotti.

A WORLD TO DISCOVER
Some very interesting historical villages are located a few kilometres away from Locanda La Raia. Visit Forte di Gavi and stroll around Novi Ligure admiring the painted aristocratic palaces.

A visit to the Libarna archeological site is a must: the Roman town dates back to the second century B.C. and is among the most important archeological areas in Northern Italy, along the Postumia road that linked Genoa to Aquileia: a bewitching place where you will discover this territory’s origins. Also available children activities.

The picture gallery of Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Tortona dedicated to Divisionism is also worth visiting to admire important works by Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo and Angelo Barabino.

The nice village Voltaggio too has a rich picture gallery. Borgo Marengo, with its interesting monument Santa Croce and the splendid Last Judgement by Giorgio Vasari in the village’s church, definitely deserves a visit.

Chocolate’s lovers can’t miss a visit to the Bodrato factory in Novi Ligure, observe the production live and taste the brand’s iconic products: cream chocolates, chocolate-covered cherries with liqueur, fruit chocolates. Shopping aficionados can easily reach the McArthurGlen Serravalle Designer Outlet, the largest in Europe.

If you have more time reach the Langhe region, with its UNESCO world heritage vineyards and hills, and visit Tenuta Cucco at Serralunga d’Alba owned by the Rossi Cairo family, for a tasting of Barolo and Nebbiolo.

In one hour by car you will be in Milan for museums, shopping and theatres, while in a half hour by car there is Genoa with its marvellous downtown palaces, the famous Portofino’s square (85 Km), sea and trekking at Le Cinque Terre (135 Km). Another interesting destination is Turin, with the Royal Palace, the Mole Antonelliana and the Egyptian Museum.

Rooms: 12

Price: from 259 EUR per night

Source: www.la-raia.it