Giorgia Grande
Liguria, Italy
Giorgia's story begins in the tiny hilltop medieval village of Cornice in the south of Liguria. This is where she was born, and where she still lives today, in this hamlet with a total population of 14 people.
She spent her childhood split between Cornice and the nearby town of La Spezia where she went to school, and had an early passion for the work of her grandmother who farmed small plots in the middle of the forest where she grew crops but also tended to some vines. With the view to carry on this local tradition and her grandmother's work she embarked on her wine journey in 2005.
She spent her childhood split between Cornice and the nearby town of La Spezia where she went to school, and had an early passion for the work of her grandmother who farmed small plots in the middle of the forest where she grew crops but also tended to some vines. With the view to carry on this local tradition and her grandmother's work she embarked on her wine journey in 2005.
With limited knowledge at the time, she relied on a local grower and enologist to plant her first plot of vines in a forest clearing and eventually started to make her own wines. With her immediate region not really having much of a viticultural tradition for red wines, she was advised to plant a little bit of Merlot, which in an interesting turn of events actually turned out to be Syrah.
Though she always farmed her tiny 0.7ha plot with organic principles, the vinifications back then were very much classic, and 'by the book.' It wasn't until a chance encounter with various natural winemakers in 2013 that she began to change her ideas of what she wanted to do, and completely changed her vision for the project. She got rid of her enologist and in 2014 she did her first vintage completely on her own, whilst switching to natural vinifications.
A few years later came another important chapter in Giorgia's journey. She met a couple of growers in the celebrated Cinque Terre region and began a 'négoce' relationship whereby she was able to dictate the farming principles and bought all of the grapes of Albarola, Bosco, and Vermentino that they could produce. Hence her wine 'Raixe' was born in 2018, a rare skin-contact cuvée from the village of Monterosso that has become a bit of a local legend in the whole of Liguria.
Today she still considers herself at the start of her journey. She is farming under 1.5 hectares, and producing about 700-900 bottles of her white and less than 600 bottles of her red. The wines are very hard to come by, and are only available in the tiniest of quantities, but we absolutely fell in love with her story, her attitude, and ultimately the energy in the bottle. It is a project we are thrilled to be a part of, and we look forward to following her as she slowly expands the project in the coming years.