A star among lunar wines

2006 Gavi, Pisé, Azienda Agricola La Raia, Piemonte, Italy

2006 Gavi, Pis, Azienda Agricola La Raia, Piemonte, Italy (£9.50, Vintage Roots, 0118-976 1999; info@vintageroots.co.uk )

There is a growing noise in the wine trade about organic wines and 'biodynamic' wines. Biodynamic wines push the organic mantra to the limit by farming the grapes and making the wine in harmony with the celestial bodies working in line with the phases of the moon.

Some of these wines are totally captivating, and others seem not to work so well. But one thing is certain: that we should all be supporting these movements, reducing the man-made chemicals and pesticides used in modern viticulture.

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The finest organic specialist in the country is Vintage Roots, near Reading. I recently tasted a huge number of their wines and this delicious Gavi was one of the stars. La Raia is a large estate in Piemonte and it is owned by Giorgio Rossi Cairo. His son-in-law,Tom Dean, who went to a Steiner school, now runs the operation. La Raia is fully Demeter certified and Pis is their most impressive wine.

Crisp, vital, mellifluous and memorable, this is a stunning dry white wine that would knock the socks off any seafood dish (and it's a fiver cheaper than the competition!).

Matthew Jukes is a winner of the International Wine & Spirit Competition's Communicator of the Year Trophy

Matthew Jukes

Matthew Jukes has worked in the UK wine business for well over three decades and during this time has written 14 wine books.  

Matthew regularly lectures, judges, speaks at wine conferences and runs masterclass tastings for both corporate and private clients all over the world. Matthew is also the creator of his ground-breaking initiative, the One Day Wine School, an indulgent day of tasting and learning first performed in 2006.

He has been the MoneyWeek wine correspondent since 2006 and has written a weekly column for the Daily Mail’s Weekend Magazine since 1999. His four highly-acclaimed, annual wine reports – the Burgundy En Primeur Report, the Bordeaux En Primeur Report, the Piemonte Report and the 100 Best Australian Wines – are published on his website, www.matthewjukes.com.

Matthew is one of the world’s leading experts on Australian wine and, with Brisbane-based wine writer Tyson Stelzer, runs an annual competition in Australia to find ‘The Great Australian Red’.  He was made Honorary Australian of the Year in the UK at the 2012 Australia Day Foundation Gala dinner. 

Matthew is a winner of the International Wine and Spirit Competition's Communicator of the Year Trophy.  His thoughts, recommendations and tastings notes are followed very closely by the wine world at large.