Gaja White Truffle Dinner at Wine Watch

“Nothing makes the future look so rosy as to contemplate it through a glass of Chambertin.” – Napoleon Bonaparte

Burgundy is my second favorite wine...Nebbiolo would be my favorite and we give you more chances to experience the Piedmont's best than anyone.

There is nothing that is quite as decadent as white truffles but if you are going to pair a wine with this unique culinary experience, nebbiolo would be my first, second and third choice.  The Piedmont is one of the world's most unique grape growing region and is the only area where the nebbiolo varietal makes a high quality age worthy wine.  This is also the only part of the world that you can harvest the white truffle, one of the truly unique food products that is very intense as well as incredibly expensive.  This is one of the only times when it comes to food and wine where the food almost always costs more than the wine.  That is when you drink at the upper end of the quality collectible wines.

Join us as we experience one of the rare culinary treats alongside one of the great wine producers of the Piedmont with a selection of every top wine that Angelo Gaja makes in the Piedmont along with one of the greatest older vintage wines from this producer that we have ever tasted the legendary 1964 vintage Barbaresco.  Wine Watch Caterings Toni Lampasone will be making a special tasting menu to accompany the tasting wines.  The fee for this event is $395 + tax, for reservations call 954-523-9463.

Gaja White Truffle Dinner at Wine Watch
Saturday, October 25, 2014
7:00 PM

Tasting Line-up:

1964 Gaja Barbaresco

(95 Points) 1964 Barbaresco—Dinner at a local restaurant provided an opportunity to try this beautiful wine from a perfectly stored bottle. The color is very light, pale red. This 1964 shows a very pretty and delicate nose of crushed flowers, anise, and spices, followed by gorgeous sensations of sweet, perfumed, ethereal fruit that blossom on the palate, finishing with much overall harmony and balance. Wine Advocate, In the Cellar, Oct 2005

1978 Gaja Barbaresco Sori San Lorenzo

(94 points) Angelo Gaja’s 1978 Barbaresco Sori San Lorenzo was awesome. Still youthful and full of life, it flowed from the glass with notable sweetness and richness in an expansive, enveloping style. This very complete and beautiful wine warranted much more time than our tasting allowed. Readers fortunate enough to own this Barbaresco are in for a real treat. It was stunning. Anticipated maturity: 2008-2023.(Antonio Galloni) (9/ 2008) Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

1982 Gaja Barbaresco
93 points Wine Spectator (09/89)

1988 Gaja Barbaresco Sori Tildin

(93 Points) Round, lush and silky in texture, a powerful wine with cascades of black cherry, plum and blackberry flavors interwoven with spicy, cedary, anise-scented notes. A big wine with generosity and elegance, finishing long and rich. Best to drink after 1995. 830 cases made. –

1989 Gaja Barolo Sperss
Price: $450.00    Sale $396
Quantity in Stock: 5

(97 Points) The 1989 Barolo Sperss is wonderfully complete and polished, as layers of seamless, ripe fruit emerge from its powerful frame with tons of class. The wine reveals stunning elegance and purity wrapped around a powerful core of Serralunga fruit that speaks volumes of the greatness of this terroir. The 1989 Sperss can be enjoyed today as the tannins are incredibly finessed, but it also looks to have many years of profound drinking ahead of it. Anticipated maturity: 2010-2025.

1989 Gaja Barbaresco
Price: $450.00    Sale $396

(91 Points) Gaja's 1989 Barbaresco offers sweet, rich, tobacco, black-cherry, spicy fruit touched gently by new oak. It is made in a full-bodied, powerful style, with admirable depth. Approachable now, this wine should only improve over the next 10-12 years; it will last for two decades. Wine Advocate # 92 Apr 1994

1989 Gaja Barbaresco Sori San Lorenzo

(98 Points) Tough in texture, but ripe and toasty, offering lovely black cherry, plum and violet aromas and flavors, remaining generous and flavorful through the firm and elegant finish. Needs time to sort out the tannins, but everything is beautifully integrated and harmonious. Best after 1997. 900 cases made. – Wine Spectator

1989 Gaja Barbaresco Sori Tildin

(96 Points) Ripe and succulent, so plush it is almost sweet, offering bright, lively plum, black cherry and raspberry flavors shaded with toast, sweet vanilla and spice overtones, an absolutely gorgeous wine that remains elegant and supple despite its muscular core. 890 cases made. –  Wine Spectator

1990 Gaja Barbaresco Costa Russi

(97 Points) Big and brilliant. Black-ruby color. The wine shows blueberry, floral, mint and spice aromas that follow through to the palate, with racy, silky tannins and a long, long finish. Enjoyable now, but better with age.--Piedmont retrospective. Best after 2005. 830 cases made. –JS  Wine Spectator

Menu

Egg Custard with fresh shaved white truffle

Risotto with white truffle

Veal Osso Bucco with truffled marrow

Chocolate Covered Bacon with truffle salt

A bit about Gaja Winery:

He has been called a restless genius; others have been less charitable in their characterizations of Angelo Gaja (pronounced GUY-YAH).  Gaja is a fourth generation winegrower from Barbaresco, one of Italy's premier wine districts in Piedmont in northern Italy.  As controversial as Angelo Gaja is, nobody disputes his great talents as a winemaker or his ability to generate interest in his wines.  Gaja in his relatively short career has become the highest profile grower in Piedmont as well as Italy's most famous winemaker.  He has accomplished this through consummate skill at both winemaking and public relations.  He describes himself as "vain"; we translate that to mean that he is not the least bit reluctant to be an unabashed publicist for his own wines.  Gaja has traveled extensively throughout the world hyping the Gaja name while also trying to learn more about how he might apply new technology in order to improve his own wines.  He first visited California for this purpose in 1974, and it is presumed that it was there that he became fascinated with the "barrique" concept - the idea of aging his reds in small oak barrels.  He has broken new ground in many areas, and even his critics begrudgingly admit that the results speak for themselves.  Gaja is now regarded as Piedmont's leading producer of Barbaresco, and his wines command prices that rival those charged anywhere in the world.

The Gaja firm has been bottling wines since the early 1900's; in 1964 a decision was made to contract the size of the Gaja winery and produce only wines from the winery's own vineyards.  The fact that the Gaja winery produces only estate wines is a most salient point in the gospel according to Gaja, for he feels that the consumer is willing to pay more for "authentic Gaja".  Gaja is the largest private owner of vineyards in the Barbaresco zone with 153 acres.  About half the annual Gaja production of 22,000 cases is Barbaresco - the rest is split between Nebbiolo, Dolcetto, Barbera, a nouveau-style Nebbiolo called Vinot, several Chardonnays, a Cabernet, and a Barolo.  The Cabernet and Chardonnay have been very controversial in this part of Italy where tradition and conservative values reign supreme.  To plant foreign grapes in Barbaresco was heresy to some; but Gaja defends against those charges by pointing out that in the 1890's - before phylloxera destroyed the vineyards - there were Cabernet and Chardonnay vines planted in Piedmont.  Even the retired Giovanni Gaja, Angelo Gaja's father (who is now said to like the Cabernet planted in the Gaja vineyards), referred to the Cabernet plantings as "darmagi" - "such a pity."  He felt that it was a pity that Cabernet - not the native Nebbiolo - was being planted in a prime vineyard site by his son.  The name stuck, and Gaja's Cabernet is called Darmagi.  We have tasted the Chardonnay and the Cabernet with Gaja and on several other occasions and have been impressed with their quality; their price, however, is extremely ambitious.

In 1988 Gaja purchased a Barolo vineyard in the Marenca e Rivette area of the village of Serralunga.  The property was well known to Gaja, for his father often purchased fruit from this vineyard in order to produce Barolo in the 1940's and 1950's.  This long standing desire to return to Barolo was reflected in the name Gaja selected for the Barolo.  The name "Sperss" is an expression in Piedmontese dialect that translates to "profound longing or nostalgia" (in this case nostalgia for Barolo.)  The first two releases - the 1988 and 1989 Sperss - have met extraordinary critical reception.  The 1989 was selected as the number two wine in the TOP 100 wines of 1993 and scored a (96) in The Wine Spectator!

Gaja has made his name with Barbaresco.  Both Barbaresco and Barolo are produced from the Nebbiolo grape within a few miles of each other in Piedmont.  Gaja ages his Barbaresco in small new oak barrels, and he manages to produce a wine that takes on a certain subtlety and suppleness without losing the personality of the Nebbiolo grape.  One way Gaja manages to do this is by steam cleaning the inside of his brand new oak barrels in order to remove some of the oak extract they might otherwise impart to the new wine - a rather shocking technique that works!  His Barbarescos have a unique personality for other reasons as well.  He picks his grapes late for more extract and color, but he also strives to produce a harmonious wine with more aroma and flavor and less tannin.  These and many other factors are what make Gaja Barbarescos unique and sought out by connoisseurs all over the world.  In addition to Gaja's regular Barbaresco, he bottles three "crus" - but only in great years.  His single vineyard Barbarescos - "Sorì San Lorenzo", "Sorì Tildìn", and "Costa Russi" - are quite possibly the best produced in Italy and among the world's noblest red wines.  Over the past decade Angelo Gaja has really excelled with his Barbaresco - producing fabulous world-class wines in vintages such as 1982, 1985, 1988, 1990, 1993, 1995, 1996, 1997,  1998, 1999, 2000 and this 2001.  The Piedmont has seen an unprecedented string of outstanding vintage from 1996-2001.  All three of Gaja's single cru Barbarescos rated a (95) or better in The Wine Spectator; in both 1996 & 1997 and in 1998 two of the three rated (95) or better, an incredible track record for the last three releases.  Generally of the three crus produced by Gaja, the Sorì San Lorenzo is the slowest maturing, the longest-lived, and the least approachable in its youth.  The Costa Russi is the most approachable when young, while the Sorì Tildìn falls between the two.

In The Gambero Rosso (the Italian wine Bible) Gaja is the only producer in the Piedmont with a rating of “Two Stars”, indicating the number of times his wines have received the coveted “Three Glass” award.  Gaja’s wines have received twenty-one (a star for every ten “Three Glass” wine).  They call Gaja “Here we are in the presence of what is undoubtedly the best Italian winery, to judge from the quality of its wines; colleagues and wine critics from all over the world admit as much.”

Other Gaja Wines available at Wine Watch

2011 Gaja Chardonnay Gaia and Rey Langhe
Price: $273.00    Your Price: $240.24
Quantity in Stock: 6

The winery's historic Gaia & Rey is a wine that not only reshaped the legacy of the house itself, but also redefined Piedmont as one of the truly great winemaking regions of the world. Named after Lucia and Angelo Gaja's daughter, Gaia Gaja, and Angelo Gaja's grandmother Clotilde Rey (the family's great matriarch and one of its most forward-thinking visionaries), Gaia & Rey was first bottled in 1983 and was first released the following year.

The wine is made originally from 9 acres planted to Chardonnay in the township of Treiso. With this historic bottling, Angelo Gaja showed the world that exceptional white wines could be produced in the Langhe Hills, where red wines had been produced almost exclusively before. He also delivered to the world what is now considered one of the greatest white wines of Europe, a truly remarkable accomplishment in a country where red grapes have historically dominated the realm of fine wine. Today, some of the fruit is also sourced form growing sites in Serralunga. In good vintages, the aging potential for this wine can exceed 10, 15, and even 20 years.

2005 Gaja Costa Russi
Price: $399.00    Your Price: $351.12
Quantity in Stock: 1

(96 Points) The 2005 Costa Russi shimmers on the palate with extraordinary grace. The wine boasts wonderful depth and richness in its dark red fruit in a round, generous style that offers lovely balance to the tannins. Notes of tar, smoke and licorice develop in the glass, adding a touch of complexity and nuance that is sometimes missing in this bottling. The French oak is present, but deftly balanced with the wine's other components. As always, Costa Russi comes across as relatively accessible when young, but it is sure to only improve with age. Recent bottles of the 1985 have been nothing short of glorious. Anticipated maturity: 2015-2030.

I was blown away by Angelo Gaja's 2005 wines from Barbaresco. When all is said and done, Gaja may have well produced not the wine, but rather the wines of the vintage in a year that was excellent but not profound. While Gaja's 2005 don't have the explosive, multi-dimensional personalities of his 2004s, they are vibrant offerings that will thrill readers who love Piedmont wines. As always, Gaja blends in a small percentage of Barbera in his single-vineyard wines, but that is hardly noticeable in this vintage. I also noted less new oak than has generally been the case in the recent past. The wines showcase very pure expressions of Nebbiolo and are made in a style that appears to make fewer concessions to the decidedly international approach of previous vintages. In short, these are the most Piedmontese wines I have tasted from Angelo Gaja in a long time. Could it be that the greatest innovator in Piedmont over the last thirty five-plus years has taken a small step towards a more classic style? Wine Advocate # 179, Oct 2008

2001 Gaja Sori San Lorenzo
Price: $396.00    Your Price: $348.48
Quantity in Stock: 1

(96 Points) A very silky wine with berry, cedar and tobacco character. Full-bodied, with fine tannins and a fresh finish. Lovely. Seductive and racy. Very long indeed. Strength yet finesse. Best after 2007. 970 cases made. “JS Wine Spectator Issue: Oct 31, 2005

2001 Gaja Sori Tildin
Price: $450.00    Your Price: $396.00
Quantity in Stock: 1

(95 Points) Wow. This is pure fruit. Aromas of raspberries, cherries and blackberries jump from the glass. Full-bodied, with ultrafine tannins and a long, long finish. Shows wonderful finesse and class. Best after 2009. 1,050 cases made. “JS Wine Spectator Issue: Oct 31, 2005

2000 Gaja Cabernet Sauvignon Darmagi Piedmont
Price: $210.00    Your Price: $184.80
Quantity in Stock: 1

(90 Points) Aromas and flavors of berries, earth and lightly toasted oak follow through to a full-bodied palate, with fine tannins and a long finish. Needs some bottle age to come together. Pure Cabernet Sauvignon. Best after 2006. 1,000 cases made. “JS Wine Spectator Issue: Feb 28, 2005

1999 Gaja Sori San Lorenzo
Price: $395.00    Your Price: $347.60
Quantity in Stock: 4

(94 points) 1999 Langhe Sori San Lorenzo—Dark ruby. Deep, powerful, and structured, the 1999 Sori San Lorenzo is another great effort from Gaja. It displays a big brooding personality, defined by notes of tar, wet earth, cocoa and sweet dark fruit with notable expansiveness on the palate, although the wine remains quite backward. This shut down quickly in the glass and appears to be most youthful of these 1999s. Patience is clearly warranted. 94/drink after 2011, 03/06 wine advocate In the Cellar May 2006

1999 Gaja Sori Tildin
Price: $395.00    Your Price: $347.60
Quantity in Stock: 2

(95)1999 Langhe Sori Tildin”The 1999 Sori Tildin is a knockout wine. It offers a classic, expressive nose of flowers and spices and somewhat austere profile of sweet red fruit, minerals and menthol on a mid-weight frame. It is the hardest of these wines to read today, but I found myself coming back to it often and discovering new nuances with each taste. It is clearly a wine of much potential and should start to drink well in another few years and last until age 25-30. It will be a fascinating wine to follow. Drink after 2011, 03/06 Italy Report # G7 May 2006

1999 Gaja Costa Russi
Price: $395.00    Your Price: $347.60
Quantity in Stock: 14

(93 Points) 1999 Langhe Costa Russi—Dark ruby. The 1999 Costa Russi is a soft, supple effort for the vintage, with a deeply nuanced nose and a rich core of sweet dark fruit buffered by prominent minerality on the seamless, long palate. Although not especially complex, this Costa Russi exhibits an elegance and finesse in its understated expression, and it is undoubtedly a highly enjoyable wine. True to type, it is also the most accessible of the single-vineyard wines from Barbaresco. It should age gracefully until at least age 20. 93/drink after 2009, 03/06

1998 Gaja Sori San Lorenzo
 Price: $395.00    Your Price: $347.60
Quantity in Stock: 1

(96 Points) The multi-faceted 1998 Sori San Lorenzo offers up notes of lead pencil, smoke, tobacco, tar, rose petals, black fruits, and espresso. Already incredibly expressive, soft, sexy, and voluptuous, jammy fruits infused with toasty oak cascade over the palate. This easily understood, seamless, pure, classic 1998 should drink well for 20-25 years. Wine Advocate #137 (Oct 2001)

1997 Gaja Sperss
Price: $565.00    Your Price: $497.20
Quantity in Stock: 2

(99 points) A virtually perfect effort is the 1997 Sperss (30,000 bottles), which represents the essence of truffles, earth, and black cherries in its striking aromatics and multidimensional, opulent, full-bodied palate. The acidity seems low because of the huge glycerin levels and prodigious concentration of fruit, but I suspect it is normal in the scheme of oenological measurement. This profound wine requires 3-4 years of cellaring, and should age well for 30-35 years. Wine Advocate #135 Jun 2001

1995 Gaja Costa Russi Piedmont
Price: $450.00    Your Price: $396.00
Quantity in Stock: 3

(90 Points) 1995 tends to be a good rather than great vintage in Piedmont, but Gaja's sensational 1995s are among the stars of the vintage. This wine possesses extremely saturated dark ruby/purple colors, almost atypical for Nebbiolo. The 1995 Barbaresco Costa Russi is a full-bodied, fruit-driven, and powerful wine, it possesses copious quantities of black raspberry and cherry fruit, as well as toasty new oak. There is even an element of sur-maturite in this large-scaled, expansively flavored effort. I would not be surprised to see it age for 20-25 years. Anticipated maturity: 2004-2020+. Wine Advocate #124 (Aug 1999)

1995 Gaja Sori Tildin Piedmont Magnum
Price: $950.00    Your Price: $836.00
Quantity in Stock: 1

(91 points) 1995 tends to be a good rather than great vintage in Piedmont, but Gaja's sensational 1995s are among the stars of the vintage. This wine possesses extremely saturated dark ruby/purple colors, almost atypical for Nebbiolo. The 1995 Barbaresco Sori Tilden reveals a liqueur-like viscosity to its richness. It offers spicy, black raspberry fruit in addition to melted asphalt, smoke, truffle, and toast. This complex, expansive Barbaresco is deeply colored for the vintage, with superb richness, full body, and beautifully integrated acidity, tannin, and alcohol. Wine Advocate # 124 Aug 1999

1993 Pieve di Santa Restituta Brunello di Montalcino Sugarille
Price: $168.00   Your Price: $147.84
Quantity in Stock: 6

We showed this wine at our recent 1997 Tuscan tasting and it showed like a mature Brunello drinking at or near its peak right now and stood up to the superior 1997 vintage wines with an array of dark spices, black truffle and a sweet cherry liqueur fruit almost on the nose hints of smoke and licorice spice lovely complexity on the nose opening up quickly. Smooth and silky on the tongue with nice freshness and still a good amount of fruit here, this wine could last another decade or more if you like older wines. If you prefer younger wines check out this 2006, it is a little monster. This vineyard has continued to gain praise since Angelo Gaja Bought it and today the current release of this wine sells for almost 20% more than this mature 1993 vintage!!! Finish 45 Most Excellent

1993 Pieve Di Santa Restituta Brunello di Montalcino Rennina
Price: $150.00    Your Price: $132.00
Quantity in Stock: 4

1990 Gaja Barolo Sperss (375ml)
Price: $195.00    Your Price: $171.60
Quantity in Stock: 1

(95 points) Gaja's 1990 Barolo Sperss is a sweet, seamless beauty endowed with gorgeous fruit. The wine possesses superb inner perfume and purity even if it doesn't quite reach the level of Gaja's most successful wines in this vintage. Still, this is pure 1990 and pure Serralunga. Anticipated maturity: 2010-2030.
 Angelo Gaja's 1989s and 1990s are simply glorious. Gaja is frequently criticized, especially in Italy, a country that has an uneasy relationship with success of any kind. To be sure, Gaja likes to mix things up with views that are at times perhaps unnecessarily provocative. Prices have always been a point of contention among the estate's detractors, as even Gaja's father Giovanni sold his own wines at prices considered to be astronomical more than 50 years ago. At the end of the day, though, the only thing that counts is what is in the glass, and the simple truth is that these wines are utterly mind-blowing. Angelo Gaja had at least one big advantage vis-a-vis his neighbors. Gaja began working full-time at his family's winery in 1969, and was followed a year later in 1970 by oenologist Guido Rivella. By the time 1989 came around Gaja and Rivella had been working together for nearly 20 years, and were perfectly positioned to make the most of these two historic harvests, which they certainly did. Gaja was so far ahead of his time that there are plenty of producers in Piedmont (and Italy) that still haven't caught up to the groundbreaking wines he made 20 years ago. I have had many of Gaja's 1989s and 1990s recently in less formal settings and have never been anything less than deeply impressed. Readers fortunate to own these bottles should be thrilled. For his 1989s and 1990s, Gaja carried out the malolactic fermentations in stainless steel and aged the wines for a year in French oak followed by a year in cask, an approach he employs today. Although Gaja's wines are often flashy upon release, these bottles attest rather eloquently to the glacial aging that is the hallmark of the house style. One of the very few critiques I can make is that Sori San Lorenzo and Sperss were far less consistently profound twenty years ago than they are today. If there is one truism with Gaja, it is that one only needs to taste the Barbaresco to understand the quality of the vintage. When the Barbaresco is truly great (as it is in 1997, 2001, 2004 and 2007) all of the other wines will almost certainly be profound.   Wine Advocate # 187 Feb 2010

2008 Gaja Ca' Marcanda Ca Marcanda
Price: $139.00    Your Price: $122.32
Quantity in Stock: 3

This wine derives its name from Ca’Marcanda, the winery. Ca'Marcanda is the Piedmontese term for "house of endless negotiations" and it refers to the many hours that Angelo Gaja spent convincing the property's previous owners to sell the estate vineyard that produces this wine to him. This vineyard is from one of the stoniest sites of the Ca'Marcanda estate in Castegneto Carducci (Bolgheri). Its 100% terre bianche (white soils) are ideal for producing long-lived wines.