ITALY

Groundbreaking Gaja

Angelo Gaja is undoubtedly Italy’s most famous and dynamic wine personality. His wines have achieved greater success and received more awards than any other Italian winery. Gaja has played a prominent role in the modernization of Piedmont through the introduction of everything from temperature-controlled stainless steel fermentation tanks, shorter macerations and fermentations, and the smaller French barriques, which were initially met with great skepticism. The major and most important changes took place in the vineyards. Angelo began planting at higher densities, introduced “green harvest,” harvested slightly later, all to produce better and more concentrated fruit. Better fruit also meant more tannins, which in turn required more oxygen during vinification. The choice of barrel size is more about taming the naturally tough tannins of the Nebbiolo grape than flavoring the wine with oak. The wines are aged only in French barrels for the first twelve months, with the proportion of new oak limited to about 20%, then the wine is aged in larger neutral oak casks for at least another twelve months.