2001 Barbaresco Sorì San Lorenzo

Since its debut in 1967, Gaja’s Sorì San Lorenzo has established itself as one of the truly iconic wines in Piedmont and Italy. This recent vertical tasting provided a great opportunity to check in on a number of vintages, including most of the reference points.

Angelo Gaja isn't the talkative type too often these days. Most of the time I am greeted, left alone in a room to taste, and then greeted again before I leave. On this day, though, Gaja started talking about vintages, and in particular the misconception that wines from hot years don't age. Gaja cited 1961, a warm year in Piedmont, and one of the most legendary at the time. The wines aged just fine, added Gaja. What struck me most, though, was how clear Gaja's recollection was of events that transpired fifty years ago. I know only one other person in Piedmont who has a similarly sharp memory that goes that far back. What does that have to do with these 2001s? Not much, except that it seemed like an interesting anecdote to share.

In the challenging 2003 vintage Gaja proves once again that he is at the very top of his game and shows just how far ahead he is from the pack. “It is a strange vintage. At first the wines showed very little color, but then the barriques helped stabilize the color. You know how we producers can be, sometimes we overestimate a vintage, sometimes we underestimate it,” says Gaja. “In the end our biggest advantage in 2003 was being able to rely on the experience of winemaker Guido Rivella who has been with us since 1970 and is one the very few people who knows how to handle such difficult conditions.” Clearly the vintage plays into Gaja's strength, especially with his single-vineyard wines from Barbaresco which contain a small percentage of Barbera, a varietal that flourishes in hot weather. It is often the case that in hot vintages the differences between vineyards are less evident, but these 2003s are quite representative of their sites and readers will find that Gaja captured the hallmark expression of each wine despite the super-ripe style of the vintage. That said, this year, as in 2001, it is the Barbaresco that enjoys an especially strong showing. While it is impossible to refer to any of these wines as a “value” the qualitative difference between the Barbaresco and the single-vineyard wines is not as evident as prices might suggest. Winemaking here is rooted in both traditional and contemporary styles. Fermentation and maceration typically last about 15-20 days. The wines are aged for one year in barriques to set color, and then are moved to large casks where they complete their wood aging. Today the Nebbiolos contain a small amount of Barbera (between 5%-8%) which helps give the wines their distinctive personalities. Although the Gaja wines can be quite appealing when they are young, they have also proved to improve dramatically with a few years of bottle age and especially in structured vintages such as 2001 the wines will require quite a bit of patience.

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."