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Azienda Agricola Le Marie

Certified organic family estate in Barge, Cuneo province, farming red schist at 400 to 450 metres under DOC Pinerolese. Two wines: Blanc de Lissart from Malvasia Moscata, Rouge de Lissart from five indigenous varieties including the rare Chatus and Neretta Cuneese.

The producer

Valerio Raviolo farms red schist in the Pinerolese hills above Barge, a Cuneese town in the Piedmontese foothills roughly 50 kilometres southwest of Turin. This is not Barolo country. DOC Pinerolese is a small, flexible Piedmontese denomination that sits apart from the famous Langhe appellations, and Le Marie uses that latitude to work almost entirely with varieties that most Italian wine buyers will not recognise. The vineyards run between 400 and 450 metres elevation, where wider diurnal swings slow ripening and keep acidity higher than in the valley-floor appellations. Organic certification covers the approximately 10 hectares of schist parcels. Both wines carry the Lissart name, tracing to Eyssart, a locality documented in a medieval record from 1203.

Blanc de Lissart is a bone-dry white from Malvasia Moscata: elderflower and tangerine on the nose, then kiwi, jasmine, and bright green-grape fruit on a dry, mineral palate. Production is capped at 9,000 bottles annually. Rouge de Lissart blends five indigenous varieties, Barbera and Freisa for freshness and acidity, Bonarda for body and colour, Chatus and the rare Neretta Cuneese for depth and local character. Both wines are made entirely in stainless steel, no oak at any stage, which keeps the schist, the altitude, and the varieties audible in the glass.

Known for

Indigenous Piedmontese varieties on high-altitude red schist, bone-dry Malvasia Moscata, stainless-steel five-variety red blend, certified organic farming.

Notable facts

The story

From Stone to Vine

Valerio Raviolo spent his working years cutting stone, processing rock slabs from the same Cuneese hills that now hold his vines. Around 2000, he and his family made the decision to shift the estate's purpose: wine production would come first, with Luigina, Simona, and Daniele working alongside him. The soils he turned his attention to were red schist, the same geological material he had worked in a different form for most of his adult life. When the time came to name the wines, Valerio reached back further than his own biography. The name Lissart traces to Eyssart, a place documented in a medieval record from 1203, and by putting that name on the labels rather than his own surname or the appellation, he connected two bottles of certified organic Piedmontese wine to a landscape that had been identified, named, and farmed for more than eight hundred years before any of the grapes he grows were planted there.

From Stone to Vine

Valerio Raviolo spent his working years cutting stone, processing rock slabs from the same Cuneese hills that now hold his vines. Around 2000, he and his family made the decision to shift the estate's purpose: wine production would come first, with Luigina, Simona, and Daniele working alongside him. The soils he turned his attention to were red schist, the same geological material he had worked in a different form for most of his adult life. When the time came to name the wines, Valerio reached back further than his own biography. The name Lissart traces to Eyssart, a place documented in a medieval record from 1203, and by putting that name on the labels rather than his own surname or the appellation, he connected two bottles of certified organic Piedmontese wine to a landscape that had been identified, named, and farmed for more than eight hundred years before any of the grapes he grows were planted there.

From the atlas

Azienda Agricola Le Marie

At A Glance

The Producer

Valerio Raviolo farms red schist in the Pinerolese hills above Barge, a Cuneese town in the Piedmontese foothills roughly 50 kilometres southwest of Turin. This is not Barolo country. The DOC Pinerolese is a small, flexible Piedmontese denomination that sits apart from the famous Langhe appellations and permits a wide range of indigenous and international varieties. Le Marie uses that latitude to work almost entirely with varieties that most Italian wine buyers will not recognise.

The two wines Valerio produces with his family, Blanc de Lissart and Rouge de Lissart, are both named for Lissart, a locality whose name traces to Eyssart, a place recorded in a document from 1203. The estate holds organic certification and farms approximately 10 hectares across multiple plots. Small volumes and specialist importers in the UK, Australia, and the United States put these wines in a narrow distribution lane, which is part of why the estate has stayed largely below the radar of mainstream Italian wine coverage.

Place

Barge sits at the edge of the Cottian Alps, where the Piedmontese plain meets a series of valleys running south and west toward the French border. The Pinerolese hills are geologically older and compositionally different from the Langhe limestone and Monferrato clay that underpin Barolo and Barbera d'Asti. Here the dominant geology is schist, and at Le Marie it is red in colour and rich in mineral salts.

The vineyards run between 400 and 450 metres elevation. At that height, the diurnal temperature range between day and night is wider than in the valley floor appellations, which slows ripening and keeps acidity higher. Both consequences show in the bottles: the Blanc de Lissart retains sharp green-grape freshness despite full Malvasia Moscata aromatics, and the Rouge de Lissart stays light-footed despite containing five grape varieties, some of them naturally tannic. DOC Pinerolese appears on the labels, a designation that is not widely traded on for prestige but that accurately places these wines in their administrative and geographical context.

Soil And Site

The red schistose soil at Le Marie is the same geological material found throughout the Cottian alpine foothills. Schist breaks down into thin, well-drained layers that force vine roots deep in search of water, and the mineral-salt content of the Le Marie parcels contributes a saline, slightly stony quality to both wines. Red schist also absorbs heat through the day and releases it slowly, which moderates temperature swings at the vine canopy level even as the elevation brings cooler nights. The combination: aromatic intensity from the daytime warmth, preserved acidity and freshness from the altitude and drainage.

Story

Valerio Raviolo came to wine from stone. He had spent years in stone processing, cutting rock slabs from the same Cuneese hills that now hold his vines. Around 2000, the family made wine production the estate's primary purpose, and Valerio's wife Luigina and children Simona and Daniele each took on roles in the operation. The shift was not a second-generation inheritance but a deliberate pivot by a working family from one use of the landscape to another.

The estate chose organic farming from early in its current form and has held certification since. The wines carry the Lissart name, a toponym the Raviolo family traced back to Eyssart, a medieval place-name documented in 1203. In naming the wines after that old record rather than the producer surname or the appellation, the estate positioned its two bottles as expressions of a specific landscape with a documented place-name that predates any modern wine law.

Vineyards And Cellar

The approximately 10 hectares of Le Marie's vineyards divide between white Malvasia Moscata parcels and red variety plots carrying Barbera, Freisa, Bonarda, Chatus, and Neretta Cuneese. Certified organic farming across all plots means no synthetic herbicides, pesticides, or fertilisers. The schistose soils drain well enough that fungal pressure is lower than in valley-floor sites, which helps organic management at this elevation.

In the cellar, both wines are made entirely in stainless steel. For the Blanc de Lissart, the approach preserves Malvasia Moscata's volatile perfume compounds intact. No wood, no extended oxidation, no softening of the grape's forward aromatic character. For the Rouge de Lissart, maceration runs 7 to 10 days in temperature-controlled steel tanks, extracting colour and soft tannin from the five-variety blend without overworking any single component. After malolactic fermentation, the red spends 8 to 10 months in steel vats before bottling. No oak at any stage. The cellar work is minimal in the best sense: it keeps the schist, the altitude, and the varieties audible in the glass.

Wines

Le Marie makes two wines, and they are genuinely different from each other in grape, colour, and style.

Blanc de Lissart is a DOC Pinerolese white from Malvasia Moscata, one of several Malvasia sub-varieties grown in northern Italy. Malvasia Moscata is naturally aromatic, producing wines where the grape's perfume is prominent from the first pour. Le Marie makes it bone dry. The nose is floral and heady: summer meadow, elderflower, tangerine. The palate follows through on the aromatics but without sweetness: kiwi, jasmine, and bright green-grape fruit, with acidity from the altitude cutting through and keeping the wine from feeling heavy. Production is capped at 9,000 bottles annually. For a wine from an obscure Piedmontese appellation made from an underplanted grape variety, those numbers make it genuinely rare.

Rouge de Lissart is a DOC Pinerolese red that blends five indigenous varieties: Barbera and Freisa for freshness and acidity, Bonarda for body and colour, and Chatus and Neretta Cuneese as the unusual components. Chatus, also known in France as Joubertin, is a late-ripening variety with dark colour that contributes depth to the blend. Neretta Cuneese is a rare local variety largely confined to the Cuneo province. Together the five varieties produce a vibrant ruby wine with floral notes of rose and violet on the nose, earthy undercurrents, and soaring red and black berry fruit. The palate is soft-tannined and velvety, with enough freshness from the Freisa and altitude to stay lively through the finish.

In The Glass

Blanc de Lissart opens with a rush of elderflower and tangerine. The aromas are floral and citrus-led, while the palate is dry. What follows in the mouth is dry and precise: kiwi, green grape, a thread of jasmine, and a clean acid line that extends the finish and keeps the floral notes from becoming cloying. The schist minerality adds a faint saline note beneath the fruit that grounds the wine and distinguishes it from the broader category of Italian aromatic whites.

Rouge de Lissart is lighter on its feet than its five-grape blend might suggest. It pours a clear, vibrant ruby, and the nose is floral before it is fruity: rose petal and violet first, then red cherry, darker black berry, and a layer of earthy, slightly mineral depth from the schist parcels. In the mouth the tannins are fine and soft, the fruit is round and velvety, and the finish carries enough freshness to make the wine work well at the table alongside food. The entire-steel production keeps the wine clean and unoaked, which means fruit and variety character dominate throughout rather than wood.

A Bottle To Understand It

Start with Blanc de Lissart. Malvasia Moscata made bone dry at 400 metres on red schist is an unusual proposition in the Italian white wine landscape, and Le Marie's version is fragrant on the nose, elderflower and tangerine, and dry and mineral on the palate, with bright acidity drawing the finish long. There is no oak, no residual sweetness, and no attempt to soften what the grape and the site produce. The 9,000-bottle production limit means it is worth ordering when you find it.

Anecdote

Valerio Raviolo spent his working years cutting stone, processing rock slabs from the same Cuneese hills that now hold his vines. Around 2000, he and his family made the decision to shift the estate's purpose: wine production would come first, with Luigina, Simona, and Daniele working alongside him. The soils he turned his attention to were red schist, the same geological material he had worked in a different form for most of his adult life. When the time came to name the wines, Valerio reached back further than his own biography. The name Lissart traces to Eyssart, a place documented in a medieval record from 1203, and by putting that name on the labels rather than his own surname or the appellation, he connected two bottles of certified organic Piedmontese wine to a landscape that had been identified, named, and farmed for more than eight hundred years before any of the grapes he grows were planted there.

Final Word

Le Marie makes two wines from a corner of Piedmont that most buyers walk past on the way to Barolo. The schist soils, the altitude, and the all-steel cellar produce a dry aromatic white and a five-variety indigenous red that are both specific in ways that require a moment of attention to appreciate. Valerio Raviolo did not inherit this estate from a long line of winemakers. He came from stone, and the wines taste like they came from the ground he used to cut.

Sources

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