I can’t remember Gaja or Voerzio being less than $300 per bottle.
Although I can remember Giacosa being $99.99. That’s Vin de Table pricing compared to nowadays.
I once had a chance to watch the 1997 Sperss over three days.
Day 1 it was impenetrable.
Day 2 it opened up ever so slightly and showed some delicated violet/viola notes.
Day 3, though, it did the physically impossible, and its oxidation curve inverted, and it shut back down as hard as nails, and might have been even tighter than on Day 1.
I wouldn’t open the 1997 Sperss a day earlier than Langhe Harvest Day, 2047.
The regular Gaja Barbaresco is quite widely avaliable between $150 and $200. Lots of places on Wine Searcher.
It’s still terrible value, but it’s not $300.
I used to buy Gaja, back the last time the $$ was king and you could import from Europe and the UK at great pricing. Funny it seems that Gaja prices have held constant in recent years (my imagination?) while so many others have gone to the moon. Is it possible that Gaja again can be purchased on a relative value basis without crying?
My only experience with Gaja was with a 2003 Sperss that was honestly stunning. Not a great vintage but this wine gave me a truly profound experience. I would buy Sperss every vintage, but as good as the experience was, I just can’t justify(afford) those prices. I have been searching for that experience ever since from more reasonable producers!
I was pleasantly surprised by a shared bottle of 2000 Sperss a couple of years ago. Unlike many modern barolo, this non-100%er was very identifiable as nebbiolo. (If Michael had been there, he might have noticed barbera aromatics. 
) Prompted me to buy some 2006 Sperss to lay down. At $150 per bottle (~2 years after release?), very expensive (for me), but certainly not in Red Label or Monfortino territory (then or now). Can’t say whether I’ll be around when the wine is mature, but I fully expect someone to enjoy it.
Regards,
Peter
Nowhere in this thread has the question been asked or answered why it is Gaja chooses to add Barbara to Nebbiolo in the first place. What is it that he thinks it adds? Would it be color? Or could it be aromatics? Whatever it might be, how does it improve the wine over it not being added. Yes I’m a purist. I don’t want Syrah add to my Bordeaux blends and I sure don’t want it added to Pinot Noir. To my way of thinking, the only reason to do so would to be to compensate for the primary grapes being inferior.
I used to, quite a bit in high school and college.
Edit (I just saw above this is a recycled joke. Never mind, late to the show…)
Michael, your question implies that one day/year Angelo woke up and explicitly decided he was going to start blending barbera grapes with nebbiolo - Bill would be more informed than I, but that is not my understanding of what happened.
As I had posted earlier, I believe in a number of areas throughout Piemonte producers had produced wines historically from “field blends” that included whatever might have been in certain sectors of that particular vineyard. Always primarily Nebbiolo, of course, but there could have been other rows of vines that contained Barbera, Ruche’, etc. that were also traditionally included in the Barolo wine being released.
At some point in time, there was some clamor about this practice, a lot of posturing about varietal purity, etc., and the Italian regulator responsible for DOCG decided to “crack down” on the practice. Whereupon Gaja simply said “We’ve always made our wines this way, we’re not going to change because some politician wants me to” and opted for the IGT labeling.
So if my understanding is correct, it’s not like there is a demarcation/vintage with Gaja where, for example, every vintage post 2002 contains Barbera and every vintage pre-2002 did not. The wines always contained Barbera, but the Italian labeling/DOCG requirements changed.
Bill, Ken or anyone else who is closer to the situation than I am, feel free to chime in here to correct me if I’ve got that wrong.
I don’t believe that’s accurate, at least not as Gaja tells it. I recall seeing numerous reports quoting Angelo and Gaia describing the barbera being added to help balance the acidity of the nebbiolo. I also recall reading about a desire to preserve the Barbaresco’s image as something more than an entry level offering. Right or wrong, (some of) the wines did change. Sperss, for example, was 100% nebbiolo in 1995, with barbera being added from 1996 forward.
Bob, I neglected to mention that there is a long-standing Piemontese tradition, in winemaking for home drinking, of blending Barbera with Nebbiolo, as well as bottling each wine separately. The blend is called, not surprisingly, “Barbiolo”. The blend is particularly common in the Roero, where a lot of good non-Barolo and Barbaresco-zone Nebbiolo is made and its acidity has often needed to be tamed in the past. It provided a more drinkable Nebbiolo-based wine while its producers waited for the pure Nebbiolo bottlings to age.
Kevin is right…the Barbera is added to Gaja’s wines only to correct excessive Nebbiolo acidity. It is also important to note that Gaja changed to designations of his wines only to RESERVE the right to add Barbera. I am not sure that we know that all post-1995 vintages actually contain Barbera. And since one flatters oneself to believe that that he or she can actually taste 6% or less Barbera in a Nebbiolo wine, I am not sure that this discussion has ever been worth having to begin with. Even though Gaja is masterful in his use of new oak, controlling every aspect of the wood’s “elevage” as he does for grapes and wines, and even though any detectable oak dissipates with time in his wines, one would probably be better served obsessing about the wood rather than the Barbera. A final point: folks do realize that a number of other Piemonte producers make blended wines with Barbera, and even Cabernet Sauvignon and other grapes as well, yes? Those are true blends with higher proportions of Barbera, but good indications that Gaja was not really breaking new ground.
By the way, I had a long wine lunch yesterday with some importer friends who were in town for a big Scavino anniversary party, and…Mauro Mascarello! And no, I did not risk spoiling the occasion by mentioning the name “Antonio Galloni”, although Galloni is in town for the party. I kept watching the door, however, expecting Galloni to pop through, but the importers assured me that he was being fed by the producers. There was plenty of 2010 Monprivato available for sale, however.
A rollicking good time was had by all. I damn near lost track of what we were drinking, as the wine was moving from table to table in a 4-table vinoteca, but there was a 2005 Luigi Pira Marenca (surprisingly closed for a 2005 and a touch bitter), 2009 Capellano Rupestris (surely one of the most age-worthy 2009s, but utterly delicious young Barolo right now, especially when paired with hand-carved local prosciutto, vitello tonnato, carne cruda and tajarin with veal ragu…run, do not walk, to find more if you can), 2008 Massolino Vigna Rionda Riserva (also drinking surprisingly well, and I could not get enough of it…WOTL…along with other recent 2008 experiences, I am on the cusp of deciding that 2008 is not a classic vintage, at least not one to be grouped with 2004 and 2006; I have a sneaking suspicion that 2008 and 2010 may be linked in the future, but perhaps not with 2004 and 2006; if there are reports of 2010s drinking well two years from now,mremember that you heard it here first), 1974 Luigi Pira Barolo (from the winery’s library…extended air time was not possible, but this drop-dead, flat-out gorgeous, epic, iconic wine jumped from the glass anyway, informed by the aroma of old Nebbiolo; it impresses for its bright fruit, and this wine was all about freshness and purity! 
), and a 2008 Luigi Oddero Vigna Rionda and 2011 Luigi Oddero Barolo, both courtesy of Luigi Oddero, who was sitting at the next table. I did not previously know either Oddero wine, but both were delicious, if simple and straightforward. (The 2008 Rionda was no match for Massolino’s, but Massolino’s was showing flashes of brilliance perhaps not seen since Giacosa stopped making a Rionda.) The 2011 was completely open for business. If it can be found at a great price in the U.S., it may be a wine to seek out for near-term drinking, in lieu of Nebbiolo bottlings. Why, I drank so many approachable young Baroli that I thought that I might have entered into the Monie-Galloni New Paradigm time-space warp. On the other hand, it might have just been the solar eclipse or early-drinking vintages. Maybe the lunch was a little excessibe, but there was no balling…
but utterly delicious young Barolo right now, especially when paired with hand-carved local prosciutto, vitello tonnato, carne cruda and tajarin with veal ragu…<<<<<
Jeezus, I think I just drooled on my keyboard 
.
I was drooling while typing it. The ham was extraordinary, even by Italian standards. Panna cotta for dessert, of course. I had not been out for a meal of Piemontese classics in a while, and I have to tell you, it never gets old. I may crave a little Thai, Indian or Mexican now and again, but if you were banished to a desert island and had to eat only one cuisine, I think that only this and Thai would be on my short list, and Piemonte would win. (Maybe I could take some spices and turn fish and coconuts into Thai on the island!) In other ham news, a new artisanal prosciutto maker located in Cuneo has developed prosciutto di Cuneo, intended to compete with the world-famous prosciutti di Parma and San Daniele. It does. And even sells for bigger bucks. Hard to find, but worth the search. Sadly, I do not see it making it to America any time soon. I would have to stop buying it in order to create enough supply to export!
With adjectives like that, you may have entered the Galloni New Paradigm time-space warp for sure. Great notes on the wines though. Where was the lunch?
Working up a real hunger here. You don’t have to drive to Cuneo to buy it, do you?
Nope. There is a little cheese shop called Casa del Formaggio just before the Poste Italiane on Corso Langhe in Alba that sells it…
Nope. There is a little cheese shop called Casa del Formaggio just before the Poste Italiane on Corso Langhe in Alba that sells it…[/quote]
Grazie! Hopefully there will be some left in September when we get there.
Grazie! Hopefully there will be some left in September when we get there.[/quote]
The stock is constantly replenished…
lol!
re Gaja the few that I’ve had didn’t impress me very much so I never pursued a closer acquaintance esp. given the prices. But it was only 2-3 examples so I have no idea how representative they were.
You must be Jersey Jay, rather than Dr. Big Jay, right? I am guessing this because there was a discussion of great ham here and you did not weigh in! (Well, that, and the fact that I saw the Jersey City in your avatar. The board lost something the day that people stopped confusing the two of you…)