Few have done as much as the great Angelo Gaja, with regard to creating and promoting the concept of ‘quality’ Italian wine. Angelo’s wines from Barbaresco and Barolo have thrilled wine lovers for over four decades, inspiring what was once a younger generation of producers to lower yields and clean up their cellars. “We are all children of Gaja,” Elio Altare, the esteemed Piemontese winemaker, once said. Gaja’s myriad of vinous offspring have transformed the rugged Langhe hills from a becalmed backwater to one of the world's most exciting wine regions in the space of three decades.
Today, the Gaja winery comprises 103 hectares of vineyard in the Langhe and is run by Angelo, his wife Lucia and their children Gaia, Rossana and Giovanni. The wines have never been better. Since the move back to DOP status for his Cru wines (‘Sorì San Lorenzo’, ‘Costa Russi’ and ‘Sorì Tildìn’ in Barbaresco and ‘Sperss’ in Barolo), from the 2013 vintage, the wines have displayed an ineffable elegance and remain among the very best of the region.
The exceptional ‘Sperss’ Barolo is sourced from a vineyard in Serralunga, which neighbours Massolino’s ‘Margheria’ and ‘Vigna Rionda’. It is rivalled only by the ‘Sorì Tildìn’ and ‘Sorì San Lorenzo’ Barbaresco’s, which consistently impress from vintage to vintage. In addition to Gaja’s Nebbiolo-based wines, they also make a very fine Sauvignon Blanc ‘Alteni di Brassica’ and the outstanding ‘Rossj Bass’ and ‘Gaia & Rey’ Chardonnays.
