Angelo Gaja

The Gaja family has been cultivating wine in Barbaresco since as early as 1859. The current owner, Angelo Gaja, took over the estate from his father in 1961. He immediately began putting his ideas into practice and planted the south-facing site below the family home entirely with Cabernet Sauvignon.

At the time, his father commented on this with "Darmagi", which means something like "What a pity", because he had the entire hill, which was dedicated to Barbaresco, replanted for this purpose. Time, however, proved Angelo right and, in reminiscence of this event, he named the resulting red wine Darmagi.

Angelo Gaja Estate – Tradition-breaking wines

At Gaja, naming wines after events or localities is a tradition; for example, there is the Sperrs range, Piedmontese for "longing". These wines come from a 12-hectare site in Serralunga, which fulfilled the family's longing for their own Barolo vineyard.

Barbaresco forever

Barbaresco is still the flagship of the Gajas, and the family owns 14 vineyards that provide grapes exclusively for this wine. The high consistency and quality of these wines show that the family had a good nose here and thus laid the foundation for their success today. In 1964, the first single vineyards for Barolo were established:

• Sorì San Lorenzo – named after the patron saint of the cathedral of San Lorenzo
• Sorì Tildìn – named after the grandmother, whose nickname was Tildìn
• Costa Russi – the name honors the former owner, Russi

Furthermore, the names allow one to infer the characteristics of the vineyard. Sorì stands for a southern exposure, while Costa refers to a steep slope. While he was already able to bottle the first San Lorenzo in 1967, it took until 1970 for the first Tildìn to follow, and 8 years (1970–78) for the Costa Russi.

Time for something new at Angelo Gaja

If you think this is where the Gajas' story ends, you are mistaken. In 1983, Angelo once again broke with conventions and became the first winemaker in Barbaresco and Serralunga to plant Sauvignon Blanc. Its existence as a wallflower among the many powerful red wines from Piedmont, which covers 54,800 hectares of vineyards, is also reflected in its name. The Alteni di Brassica Sauvignon Blanc takes its name from alteni – the old stone walls around the vineyards – and brassica, a small yellow flower from the cabbage family.

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