This is where it all started for the illustrious name that is Gaja today, and regardless the numerous exciting projects that the family has taken on over its now close to seven decade run, Barbaresco will always remain at the heart of the Gaja family and will stay as its humble flagship expression.

Founded by first-generation Giovanni Gaja in 1859 with just 2 hectares of vineyards in Barbaresco meant to produce wines for the family's tavern, the family from Alba had for almost a century after built a brand founded upon following the strict local traditions of singularly producing Nebbiolo that was always blended across the region, had long macerations, and were aged for many years in large, old oak casks known as botti, creating tannic, high acid wines that were often thought of as aggressive and unapproachable in their youth, demanding patience of its drinker who would have to wait decades for the wines to mature. 

The inimitable Angelo Gaja.

At just around the turn of the century for the Gaja family, everything was about to change when the young Angelo Gaja would join the family's winery in 1961 at the tender age of 21. Unlike his predecessors, the fourth-generation Gaja had the benefit of taking on formal wine training at universities including the Enological Institute in Alba and the University of Montpelier in France, with also a degree in Economics from the University of Turin. This intellectual empowerment was nevertheless met with a stark and disheartening reality, that the world saw little value in the wines produced in Barbaresco and even its more esteemed counterpart Barolo.

‘When I joined the business in 1961, the situation I found was good but also disheartening,... My grandmother Tildìn and my father Giovanni had put together 30ha of vineyards and created a brand. But the lack of recognition for our wines abroad weighed heavily... We had to get a move on and change the perception that foreigners had of our products.’ says Angelo, reflecting on the view at the time that Barbaresco's wines were "cheap and cheerful". Angelo was therefore convinced that not only did he need to find a way to raise the quality of the local Barbaresco wines, but that he also had to meet the international community in its lingua franca. ‘We needed a direct confrontation with the varieties best known abroad,’ says Angelo.

Breaking from a century of tradition.

"Darmagi"

Angelo would go on to make sweeping changes, in many ways equivalent to how pressing he believed his family's wines needed to be re-assessed and properly recognised. Over the next two decades, he would improve the quality of his fruit through green harvesting and lowering yields, and change how wines were made in the cellar with the introduction of malolactic fermentation, the use of small French barriques and also employ temperature controlled fermentation (although he holds on to some traditions such as long macerations, whilst also restricting the use of new oak, with wines finished still in traditional big botti). He would also vinify superior sites separately, introducing single vineyard wines for the first time in Piedmont, which have since become some of the most highly prized wines from the region. Perhaps most shockingly, Gaja would plant Cabernet Sauvignon vines in the family's prized Nebbiolo vineyards, to which Gaja's father Giovanni would exclaim "Darmagi", to mean "shame" in Piedmontese dialect - Gaja would go on to name one of his famed Langhe wines just that, Darmagi. Through it all, Gaja remained resolute in his belief that only this could make the world pay attention to the little winery in Barbaresco. He would even blend just a teaspoon of Barbera into his prized Barbaresco just so that he could make a statement of dropping the wine's DOCG status, making it thoroughly clear that he cared little for appellation rules in the deeply traditional region. Yet not all of Gaja's rise to stardom is built on flash, sometimes its also a willingness to pull back even when going at full speed - unpleased with the 1984 vintage, Angelo would shock the world by refusing to sell all 12,000 cases of his wines, deeming them unfit of his own standards. In another instance, whilst famed American winemaker Robert Mondavi was on a world tour establishing high profile partnership projects everywhere from France to Chile, where every winemaker had dreamed of being chosen, Gaja had instead turned Mondavi down when the American had wanted to make wines together outside of Italy. This underscored Gaja's commitment to quality and the promotion of the Italian identity beyond simply just doing more.

The rolling hills of Barbaresco.

Stunningly, this all worked - not only was Gaja's maverick story compelling and attention grabbing, the wines were also unique, set against a regional context that the world had already deem well and fully understood, yet perhaps most crucial of all, they were also phenomenal. The next three decades would see the Gaja story unfold and expand beyond Piedmont, from the Tuscan Ca' Marcanda and Pieve Santa Restituta estates in Bolgheri and Montalcino respectively, to the the IDDA joint project with Graci sat along Mount Etna in Sicily, to the latest Alta Langa expansion back in Piedmont, Angelo Gaja is inarguably Italy's most prolific modern winemaker. Yet through it all the Gaja Barbaresco remains resolutely the flagship - a tribute to where it all began and continues to emanate from. Today Gaja is helmed by fifth-generation Gaia, Rossana and Giovanni, the daughters and sons of Angelo, with the man himself never too far behind.

With all that said, let's get to tasting Gaja's iconic Barbaresco!

Wine Review: Gaja Barbaresco

Whilst the Gaja Barbaresco has existed since the dawn of the Gaja winery in 1859, Angelo Gaja's barrique aged style was first introduced in the 1978 vintage.

Made with 100% Nebbiolo sourced from several vineyards around Barbaresco (somewhere around 250-330 meters in elevation, and totalling just over 20 hectares in range), the soils here are rich in clay and limestone with the vines 40 years old on average. Upon harvest, each vineyard's fruit is vinified separately (fermentation and maceration in stainless steel tanks for 3 weeks), before being aged in small French oak barriques (~20% new oak) for 12 months, and then subsequently blended and further aged for another 12 months in traditional large oak botti.

This is the 2021 vintage. 

Tasting Notes

Colour: Deep Garnet

Aroma: Opens perfumed yet clean and precise, with vivid details of tart red fruits of cranberry, haw and dark cherry, very closely paired with this saltiness of breakfast ham, and garnished with vibrant florals of lavender, rose petals and patchouli. It's mixed in a herbaceousness of thyme. It has a stony, slate like quality at the top, yet digs deep with this slickness of red clay that stretches to great lengths and with grip. There's then a more earthy sheen of leather and lacquered cigar boxes. Beneath are cooled darker fruits of blackberries, prunes and blackcurrants, spread over cream frosting.

Taste: Medium-bodied, it's plush, rich and with a silky, velvety texture to the body. It's filled in with blackberries, blackcurrants, dark cherries, all in the form of fruit preserves. It's then backed up by a more prominent earthiness of tobacco, old wood and leather with a little bit of a shoe shine industrial note. The acidity is bright and smoothened out, with satiny tannins. A mineral spring water undercurrent that's mixed in with dried Mediterranean herbs.

Finish: More on dark cherries and cranberries, with also that savoury, salty meatiness and dried oregano herbs. Also that earthiness of tobacco, leather and tar carries through. Firm yet gentle, grippy, grainy finish, with lingering oak grains, along with that red currant and meatiness of cranberries over ham.

My Thoughts

So young and yet already showing such power, finesse and complexity! This was decanted in the cellar for a few hours prior, and at which point had pretty opened up whilst impressively holding on to its structure superbly. It shows all the hallmarks of great Barbaresco, rendered with such elegance and a lifted, lighter touch. It's incredibly vivid and detailed, with also such stunning clarity, where the tartness of the red currants, richness of the dark fruits, earthiness, herbaceousness and meaty salinity all comes together so harmoniously, always dancing around one another, at times evening out, whilst in other instances hugging one another. This all conveyed over a most satiny body, with a perfume that's slick and grippy, almost the textural sensation that's akin to wet clay, finalising in a comfortingly firm yet gentle, grippiness of the finish. Absolutely beautiful!

It's perfectly enjoyable yet you can't help but revel in its elegance and complexity, where it tugs at you to noticing and exploring different directions as it traverses across the tasting experience, linear yet fascinating, with a compelling texture that is almost mindbending. It's almost multi-dimensional. And at the same time, it almost demands food, with this obvious gourmet sensibility that would lend to the likes of flat breads, a summer cold pasta, fried zucchini or better yet a breaded pork chop or herb crusted rack of lamb.

Kanpai!

@111hotpot