In my The Wines of Piemonte, I say ‘This stellar winery is the product of five generations of innovation, the pursuit of excellence and painstaking attention to detail.’ Most of the glory goes to the single-vineyard wines but the business card, the brand ambassador if you will, is the classic Barbaresco. It has been made for the last 160 years. Today is typically a blend of the fruit of 14 vineyards. As such, the classic Barbaresco was an excellent choice for a vertical tasting with Giovanni Gaja in Barbaresco in November 2023. The wines spend three to four weeks on the skins. They are aged for a year in French oak barriques, 20 per cent new (less in the most recent wines) and a second year in botti grandi. They are made very reductively so will take time in the glass to emerge.


Gaja Barbaresco vertical: recent vintages
Giovanni chose the vintages 2021, 2020, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2014, 2012, 2010 and 2004. This was very instructive as it contains some of the most highly regarded years (2016, 2010, 2004), the year in which typically Barbaresco outperformed Barolo (2014) as well as the most recent wines. The 2021 was a pre-release wine as it cannot be put on the market until January 2024. The most obvious thing about the tasting was just how consistently very good the wines were. Yes, there was proper vintage variation but it is clear that no sub-standard fruit is ever used in this wine.
The pair of 2021 and 2020 illustrates perfectly the quandary/potential of recent years: both are excellent. If you choose to buy only one vintage, 2021 is slightly better and is generally regarded as an outstanding vintage in Barbaresco. It just has another level of aromatic intensity and darker berried fruit. In the long term, if you can resist these wines, 2020 may outshine 2021 as the season had more moderate temperatures in the critical second half of the year.
2018 and 2017 are less highly regarded vintages and the wines were very true to type. 2018 is lighter and less intense than 2020 or 2021 but still shines with its complex raspberry-to-strawberry fruit, its rose floral aroma and enticing cinnamon spice. 2017 was showing some development with a leather note and the fruit developing in a savoury/earthy direction, while the tannins remain prickly. Those tannins from that hot, dry year need more time.
Mature vintages
2014 was a rainy and cool year in the Langhe and indeed much of northern and central Italy. Some producers made light-weight wines but, as evidenced elsewhere, Barbaresco suffered much less rain than Barolo. But it was still what the producers like to call a classic year. Today that means more restrained fruit and longer cellaring times being required. Gaja’s wine conforms to this. After almost a decade, it led with leather and savoury highlights. It is genuinely austere on the palate, in a way that will remind some of vintages before this millennium.
2012 was one of those occasions when Gaja decided not to make any single-vineyard wines. The weather was hot and cloudy. But the bonus was that the classic Barbaresco benefitted from all the high-quality fruit that would normally be reserved for the single-vineyard wines. In the glass, the 2012 was really complex with spice, fresh and some dried fruit, liquorice and leather. The tannins were still firm but the whole was lifted by bright acidity. This will be a keeper. The last point is even more true of the brilliant 2010. Thirteen years after the vintage, it was still so tight and with so much yet to be unfurled. Hang on to it for as long as you can! The final wine, 2004, showed the rich potential of a fully mature wine at the peak of its development. The winemaking was a bit different then, with more new oak, resulting in a deeper colour than the later wines. But the nose and palate were exceptional. There was a magical combination of real freshness with dark fruit. Remarkably, the dominant notes were still primary but now this is just so complex with layers of rose, raspberry, dark red plum, a hint of dried fruit, earth and coffee. A suitable climax to a great tasting of this Gaja Barbaresco vertical!
Before I became immersed in the world of wine I was an amateur garden designer. On my way out of Gaja, I noticed what a great job they had done with their internal courtyard garden. It is not just the wines that are classy at Gaja.
