2000 Barolo Sperss

Angelo Gaja's 2000s are a bit of a mystery. The wines were absolutely beautiful upon release and equally impressive when I tasted them a few years later for the 7th edition of Parker's Wine Buyers Guide. The 2000s were far less convincing when I tasted them in November 2010. All of the wines were initially very reticent and closed. After an hour or two in the glass they opened for about 30 minutes before closing back down again. Gaja thinks the wines are passing through a stage of inaccessibility. If anyone deserves the benefit of the doubt it is Gaja. I can't remember the last older wine from this cellar that was a disappointment or that hadn't aged well, and I have been privileged to taste the vast majority of wines that have been made here under Angelo Gaja's tenure. Time will ultimately tell where these wines are headed, but this was not an especially flattering showing for Gaja's 2000s. That said, most producers would be thrilled to have wines like these in their cellars. In some ways, Gaja is a victim of his own success. He sets such a high bar with his finest vintages; it is only natural to expect greatness all the time. The 2000s fall a bit short of that mark but are quite strong in the context of the year.

Gaja describes his 1999 nebbiolo wines as outstanding, dense and extremely long, but notes that they are still a bit severe. Interestingly, he considers his '99s to be both less powerful and less approachable than the '00s, which he says are almost overripe but high in dry extract (two years ago, Gaja told me that rain in September of '99 increased the quantity of juice in that vintage by 20%). "Two thousand one has all the ingredients. It's elegant and structured, with no exaggeration. You know, elegance is always on a knife's edge. If it's not supported by body, the wine can seem simple. If there's too much body, the wine becomes a blockbuster and elegance disappears. "Yes, Gaja uses a lot of new barriques for his nebbiolo wines, but his vinification can hardly be compared to that of modernists who do quick fermentations in rotofermenters. Gaja essentially does five to seven days of fermentation at 28oC to 30oC, doing a lot of pumpovers "for the first 50% of the sugars," then brings the temperature down to 22oC for the second week and stops pumping over. There is then a third week of post-fermentation maceration. This perfectionist producer sold off almost all of his 2002 vintage in bulk, and told me he won't offer the 2003 crus either. "The summer was too hot, and the grapes burned," he explained. As I have noted previously, Gaja's top nebbiolo crus are now bottled with only their proprietary names rather than being identified as Barbaresco or Barolo. Among the reasons Gaja has dropped the Barbaresco and Barolo designations is that he wants to be free to include small percentages of barbera in his wines (typically just 5% or 6%), "as a correction for acidity. "

Gaja is the only Piedmont producer who attempted to articulate something I've felt in recent years about today's Barolos and Barbarescos. "We've been blessed by seven unusual vintages - unusual in the sense that they were consecutive. But there are also new tastes in our wines that we've never seen, a new complexity, maybe more texture. Perhaps it's partly due to the different angle of the sun during the growing season, which over the recent period has been starting a good 20 days earlier." The 2000 harvest was the earliest since 1997, Gaja went on. "In 2000 we are in a position to repeat the success of 1997; the wines are nearly as opulent and have slightly lower acidity. In '99, we did a severe green harvest, but rain in September expanded the grapes and increased the quantity of juice by 20%. These will be beautifully drinkable wines, perfect in restaurants but also with freshness and sound acidity for aging."Gaja's top nebbiolo crus are now bottled with only their proprietary names rather than being identified as Barbaresco or Barolo. The Conteisa features about 8% barbera, while his other crus generally include 5% or 6%. "The addition of some barbera is just a correction for acidity," noted Gaja. It brings no other obvious character. The wines are still very nebbiolo."