The story of GAJA

Good wine is about more than just what's in the bottle. Good wine is about spending time with good friends, good wine is about enjoyment and above all; good wine is about good stories.

As a recurring feature on this blog, we will tell the story of a number of famous wine houses, the driving force behind them and what makes them so exciting. The first producer we will tackle is GAJA ; probably the most famous Italian wine producer of all, one of the few in the world that makes red wines that can compete with the big top names from Bordeaux and Burgundy in terms of both price and quality.

GAJA's first vineyard was established in 1859 by Giovanni Gaja and consisted of just 2 hectares of vineyards. Throughout the years, family ties have been strong at Gaja. Today, the winery is led by Gaia Gaja , the 5th generation of the Gaja family and daughter of Angelo Gaja , the man who has led GAJA to the status it has today.

Angelo's father, also named Giovanni after his grandfather who established the winery, began in the 1960s to buy up some of Barberesco's best vineyards. Among them the 3 "Cru" vineyards that are the origin of GAJA's most famous wines; Costa Russi , Sorí Tildín and San Lorenzo . It was also Giovanni who started to put GAJA, with bold fonts on the wine labels, thus creating the brand it is today.

Although Giovanni Gaja had ambitions and pushed GAJA in the right direction, it was his son Angelo who sent GAJA on the ascension that would make the house one of the most famous in modern wine production.

Graduated from Alba's school of oenology in 1961, he spent much of his youth travelling, especially in France, before taking over the management of the GAJA vineyards in 1970. Angelo Gaja's leadership brought about major changes to wine production, many of them almost revolutionary at the time in the early 1970s; lower yields from the fields, temperature-controlled vinification, experiments with shorter maceration (1st fermentation), longer corking and perhaps most importantly; ageing in small French oak barrels.

Angelo created the first single-vineyard Barberescos; Sorí San Lorenzo in 1967, Sorí Tildín in 1970 and Costa Russi in 1978 - all legendary red wines. The revolution did not happen without swords, however - Angelo and his father Giovanni were far from agreeing on the changes, especially the new wooden barrels for aging and Angelo's use of French Cabernet vines. The best example of the battle between father and son is probably the Darmagi wine, which literally means "what a shame!" named after old Giovanni's indignant outburst when he found out that his son had planted Cabernet Sauvignon on a good, old Nebbiolo field.

Over time, GAJA has expanded and today the winery owns 245 hectares of vineyards, in Piedmont, Montalcino and Bolgheri, a huge leap from the humble 2 hectares in 1859. Unlike many other famous wine producers, GAJA has never moved into the "new world" and made overseas wines in, for example, California or South America. In the late 1980s, a collaboration with another legend, Robert Mondavi from California, was discussed, but never materialized. There was simply no common ground, or to put it with Angelo's usual sense of humor: "It was like sex between a mosquito and an elephant; very dangerous and not very fun".

Today, Angelo Gaja has stepped back a bit to hand over the reins to his daughters, with Gaia Gaja at the helm. As climate change also begins to affect wine production, GAJA is making more of its organic profile, planting more trees around the fields, working to protect wildlife in the wine areas and experimenting with organic methods in wine production.

This was our first review of a famous wine producer, more will come - we would like to be inspired and especially write about the wines that interest you, so please write in the comments below if there is a winery you would like to hear more about.

At this point, GAJA's red wine has never been better, with consistently great reviews all over the world. We would like to highlight Sperss and Sorí San Lorenzo, but you can see the full range here . And then we will close by giving the floor to Angelo Gaja and his own description of GAJA's amazing wines:

"We don't sell Barbaresco, Bolgheri, Brunello or Barolo - we sell GAJA".