Gaja – Mature vintages from the Piedmont Giant
Angelo Gaja is one-of-a-kind. He’s the type of winemaker who emerges once in a generation armed with the tenacity and know-how to catapult an entire region to fame. Despite his wines’ low-supply and perpetually rising prices, we feel grateful every time we get to open a Gaja—they’re quite simply some of the world’s best wines.
The family winery was founded in the 1850s, making Gaja is one of Piedmont’s oldest estates, yet its headline-making history didn’t begin until the late 1960s. With the passion of a young zealot, Angelo steadily elevated Barolo and Barbaresco, and is now largely credited as the mastermind of Italy’s modern wine Renaissance.
At heart, Angelo merely pointed a spotlight on Piedmont’s existing specialty: Its cool Alpine terroir and calcareous marl soils, two crucial components for cultivating delicate yet powerful Nebbiolo. Gaja’s laser-like precision in the vineyard and meticulous focus in the cellar leads to wines that defy vintage reports and delivering excellence year after year.
Below we have amassed a hit-list of the best mature vintages available on the market today. Sure, you can purchase current-vintage Gaja and lay down good will for your descendants, but these are wines for drinking! Gaja’s Nebbiolos live near-infinite lives in the cellar, drinking well into their 50s, 60s and beyond in the best vintages. Take advantage of the power of OPF (other people’s foresight) and pick up some ready-to-drink Barolo and Barbaresco!
NOTE: Between 1996 and 2011, nearly all of the single-vineyard wines were declassified to “Langhe DOC” to allow for the addition of small percentages of Barbera for acidity balancing (a traditional approach that was excluded from DOCG regulation changes in 1996). After 2011, Gaia Gaja chose to stop this tradition and move to 100% Nebbiolo, and back to the Barolo and Barbaresco DOCG labels. The village Barbaresco remained labelled as such (and thus Barbera-free) through the declassification period.
Some highlights below:
Gaja, Barbaresco 2006 – 6/750ml – $994.17/btl
Gaja, Barbaresco, Sori San Lorenzo – 1/1500ml – $1725.24/btl
Gaja, Barolo, Sperss 1989 – 6/750ml – $1368.50/btl
Gaja, Barolo, Conteisa 2014 – 6/750ml – $554.50/btl
