Gaja - Ca'Marcanda

It took so long (18 trips in all) to complete negotiations for the 1996 purchase of this historic 250-acre Bolgheri estate that the Gaja family began to call it “ca’ marcanda,” the house of endless negotiations, from the Piedmontese dialect ca’ (meaning casa or house) and marcandè (meaning mercanteggiare or to haggle). It took another six years before Italian architect Giovanni Bo would complete the design and construction of a state-of-the-art winemaking facility. Today, eight years since its completion, Ca’ Marcanda stands alone as a unique contribution to the history of winemaking. The winery is itself a work of art: not only is Ca’ Marcanda one of Italy’s leading producers of wine, it is an “art object,” an art collection, and a study in ergonomics, where aesthetic ideal, humanist proportion, nature, and functionality come together to create an ideal working environment.