Travel

Casa Bava
"Magnum" №4 (4) December 2005

’To say that Casa Bava is a wine shop is like to introduce Peterhoff palace as a big house’.

That was an awkward but precise comparison from my husband when we closed behind the doors of Casa Bava. I learned about the place from Gaia, Angelo Gaja’s daughter, who described it, not sparing the compliments — ’one of the oldest and most charming wine shops of Italy’, ’when you get there, you go crazy about the place’, ’ young and talented owner Gabriele has one of the best palates in Italy’. Casa Bava was not to be missed.

A family run shops has been open over a hundred years on the same spot at Lake Maggiore, in a picturesque town of Cannobio on the border with Switzerland. It is better to describe it as home, a cozy place where wine lives. ’For us wine will never be a commodity. We treat is as an object of art, like music and poetry’, explains Guiseppe Bava, Gabriele’s father. This is why you here music within the walls of the shop, and each room is named after classic composers — Foyer Schubert, Sala Verdi, Spazio Puccini and others.

Everyone — bottles, hosts, guests — feel comfortable in the house. There is a sitting room and a dining room, but most importantly there are several cellar rooms which are ideally suited for wine storage. The stock counts 50 thousand bottles. In Spazio Donizetti Gabriele’s great grandfather used to make own Casa Bava wine. Now the main collection is stored there. Leoncavallo is for keeping large format bottles and Spazio Tosti — for storing client’s wines. In 2001 when Casa Bava celebrated a hundred years anniversary of the shop, Spazio Bellini cellar was opened. Original building is dated 1650. The cellar features the finest and rarest wines of the world — from Bordeaux grand crus and top Hungarian Tokaji to Spanish legends and Italian cults.

Nowadays the shop is managed by Gabriele, his brother Francesco and sister Rafaela from the fourth generation of the Bava dynasty. Casa Bava was founded by their great grandfather who moved to Cannobio from the Piemontese town of Monferrato in the search of a job. Then Guiseppe started with making his own wine. Gabriele, a certified enologist, recently decided to continue the tradition. He bought vineyards near Monferrato and make first wine with Barbera and Cabernet Sauvignon grapes last year.

In Casa Bava you seldom see customers who stumbled into the shop by chance. Connoisseurs and people interested in wine culture come here specially. The Swiss make the largest group of loyal customers. Gabriele Bava explains it by the fact that, firstly, Switzerland lies very close, and secondly, its citizens have higher income. The Germans take the second place. Italians, paradoxically, only now start to treat wine as a serious subject.

The age of the customers is 30 years plus, but Gabriele finds their attitude as a more important factor. "We specially close for market days. Our shop is not a supermarket, we are not interested in moving huge volumes. It is impossible to talk to a person who thinks that wine is a beverage with no cultural connection. If the clients are enthusiastic like we are, we can always find common points. For example, yesterday there came a young man from Switzerland who wants to create own wine collection. We spent with him half a day and he left with a big purchase".

Does he have to spend much time on young clients? "There are two scenarios with 30-35-year old customers. Some live in families where the wine culture goes from generation to generation. They know the subject well and have own ideas about what they need. There are also ’novices’ — for them we hold special events. In any case, when people come, they do not simply buy wine. For them, like for us, it is a chance to talk, to taste, to receive new knowledge".

Casa Bava range for 40 percent consists of the ’obligatory’ wines — those which any reputable wine seller should have. "As for the rest, we are very flexible in forming a collection. Many clients come not for famous names, but for high quality wines. In this choice they rely on us", says Gabriele. Before such wine gets on the shelf, it undergoes a process of strict selection. "If we find an interesting sample, we check for 2-3 years that the quality stays on the same level. In general, we choose wines for our taste". Gabriele’s taste is trusted not only by the shop customers. He is a member of an authoritative European tasting committee Grand Jury Europeen, the opinion of which is valuable for the professionals of the market.

Bava cannot help noting that world winemaking has gone though grand evolution. "Before only a handful of producers had wines of high quality. Others treated wine as an everyday drink. If I can generalize, wines were ’masculine’ — hard, tough. In the past 20 years values changed. Many aspire for quality now. The cultural and hedonistic sides of consumption have become important. Wine has become more ’feminine’ — soft, fruity".

Is it vulnerable for fashion whims? "Fashion is an inevitable part of any industry. Naturally, it is present here, but wine by definition cannot depend much on fashion. It is a product of tradition which is connected with nature and soil".

There are not so many people who can feel wine as finely as they do in Casa Bava. It is worth coming here at least to get your own inspiration. "Wine gives us emotions comparable to those which come from music and poetry", say for a farewell hosts of this amazing house. Gaia Gaja was right. It won’t be long before I come back.