GAVI, ITALY - Xhibition announces the addition of Locanda la Raia to its exclusive collection of award-winning clients around the world. Locanda La Raia is a 12-room luxury boutique hotel, spa and restaurant, situated on a lush 180-hectare estate in the verdant hills of Gavi, Italy. The La Raia estate also includes a biodynamic winery, farm and an on-site arts foundation, owned and overseen by the Rossi Cairo family. The hotel reopens March 15th after its annual winter hiatus, at which point it will unveil its newly reimagined restaurant, aró, operating under the supervision of Michelin-star chef Tommaso Arrigoni.
The Rossi Cairo family purchased La Raia in 2002 in the Gavi wine appellation of Southern Piedmont. The family's aim was to recover and give value to the original ecosystem through a huge biodynamic intervention and project. This approach was coherent with the desire of creating a balanced and harmonious place in all its components: agricultural and landscape, but also architectural, social and cultural. Today, the farm and winery extends across 180 hectares of vineyards, pastures and forrest, and combines biodynamic methods with artistic experimentation and locavore cuisine.
In 2017, the family set out to transform a former post station on the property into a chic countryside retreat for the luxury traveler. The space, a former country inn which once served as a pitstop for those passing through the region by horse, suffered decades of neglect before becoming today's "green mansion in the Gavi hills." Presently, it is an upscale boutique hotel with ten guestrooms (each different from the other), two apartments, as well as a spa, pool and farm-to-table restaurant.
The restoration carefully preserved the property's stunning original features, such as its vaulted ceilings and exposed brickwork, and carved out large windows to offer sweeping views of the vineyards and welcome light from the hills. The renovation of Locanda La Raia and its expansive grounds was overseen by firm deamicisarchitetti with the goal of creating a design-driven dialogue between inside and outside. The Locanda is one with the surrounding landscape: the gardens, fields and vineyards in the Gavi hills.
On March 15, 2020, upon the hotel's spring reopening, La Raia will unveil the launch of aró restaurant, an intimate estate-to-table dining experience that operates under the supervision of Michelin Star Chef Tommaso Arrigoni. In addition to pouring biodynamic wine from La Raia's own vineyards, aró will serve an ample and diversified menu including beef, honey, herbs, and cereals grown on its own estate.
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 was built with an ancient environmentally-friendly construction technique called pisé. This technique harmonizes with Piedmont's gentle hills that surround La Raia. For the realization of the cellar, the family collaborated with Austrian architect Martin Rauch, one of the world's foremost experts on this particular technique.
The estate's most eye-catching project is the Fondazione La Raia. Established in 2013 by Giorgio Rossi Cairo and his wife, Irene Crocco, who runs Milan's contemporary art gallery, Viasaterna, the aim was to launch a project to encourage artists of different disciplines to create special site-specific works and exhibitions to spotlight the local landscape.
One of several installations along "The Art Path," a walking route across the La Raia estate that features contemporary works exhibited by the family's Fondazione La Raia art foundation.
Tags: Xhibition PR Locanda la Raia
