The Barbaresco de Gaja 2005 is a must-have in the Italian wine-growing landscape. Angelo Gaja is the flagship of the Piedmontese vineyards, known in particular for this Barbaresco, DOCG from the province of Cuneo.
Vines have been cultivated in Piedmont since the earliest times, even before the Roman period. But it was the fathers of Italian unity who gave birth to the large bottles that are the glory of this region. It was the Comte de Cavour himself who brought in the famous oenologist Louis Oudart from France. He was immediately convinced of the potential of the local grape, nebbiolo, and of the terroir with harsh winters and dry summers. His first wine, neive, won a medal in London in 1862. Thirty years later, in 1892, he produced the first barbaresco in his castle of Castelborgo.
The Gaja family has been living in the Langhe hills since 1859, even before the first barbaresco. The sixth generation saw the genius of Angelo Gaja impose new methods and raise his estate to the top of Italian viticulture. He himself, now famous, is arguably the most prestigious ambassador of Italian viticulture. The wine is aged in stainless steel tanks and left to macerate on the skins for a period of three weeks, at controlled temperature. Subsequently, the wine is aged in French oak barrels for a year, then will spend an additional year in oak casks, always French since Angelo Gaja made it replace the Yugoslav oak previously used.