Angelo Gaja

The Gaja family has been growing wine in Barbaresco since 1859. The current owner Angelo Gaja took over the estate from his father in 1961. He immediately began to put his ideas into practice and planted the south-facing slope below the home entirely with Cabernet Sauvignon.

His father commented on this at the time with "Darmagi", which means "What a pity", as he had the entire mountain dedicated to Barbaresco replanted for this. However, time proved Angelo right and in reminiscence of this event he named the resulting red wine Darmagi.

Angelo Gaja Winery - Wines that break with tradition

The naming of wines after events or localities is a tradition at Gaja, so there is the Sperrs series, Piedmontese for "longing". These wines come from a 12-hectare site in Serralunga that fulfilled the family's longing for its own Barolo site.

Barbaresco forever

Barbaresco is still the flagship of the Gajas, so the family owns 14 vineyards that provide the grape material exclusively for this wine. The high consistency and quality of these wines show that the family has shown the right nose here, laying the foundation for its current success. in 1964 the first single vineyards for Barolo were planted:

• Sorì San Lorenzo - named after the dompatron of San Lorenzo
• Sorì Tildìn - named after the grandmother whose nickname was Tildìn
• Costa Russi - the name honors the former owner Russi

Furthermore, from the names we can deduce the characteristics of the vineyard. Sorì stands for a southern exposure, while Costa denotes a steep slope. While he was able to bottle the first San Lorenzo as early as 1967, it took until 1970 when the first Tildìn followed, as well as 8 years (1970-78) for the Costa Russi.

Time for something new at Angelo Gaja

If you think this is where the Gaja story ends , you are wrong. In 1983 Angelo broke with convention once again and became the first winemaker to plant Sauvignon Blanc in Barbaresco and Serralunga. The existence as a wallflower among the many massive red wines from Piedmont, which covers 54800 hectares of vineyards, so it is reflected here in the name. Alteni di Brassica Sauvignon Blanc gets its name from alteni - the old stone walls surrounding the vineyards, as well as brassica, a small, yellow flower from the cabbage family.

After all the innovations, in 2010, at the age of 70, he put the day-to-day management in the hands of his daughters Gaia and Rossana, who now run the winery. Even though he is no longer managing director, he makes a point of stating that he is not retired. His daughters already created their own Sauvignon Blanc called Gaia & Rey Rossj-Blanc, which is the "little brother" of Alteni di Brassica .