February Cellar Special: Gaja Costa Russi 2001

I have a precious few Gaja Barbarescos put away, and I have been very curious about how they are developing. I don’t drink Gaja wines often: That is just too expensive a proposition, but I chose one, Costa Russi 2001, for my second monthly cellar special for 2021.

Anyone who loves Italian wines has heard of Angelo Gaja. He has been one of the most prominent figures in the Italian wine world. At one point a few decades back he seemed to be everywhere. Europe, Asia, North America: wherever there was an opportunity to promote his wines, the wines of Piedmont, or the wines of Italy, you could count on seeing Angelo Gaja, tirelessly recounting their virtues. He was, and is, the most successful public relations firm Italian wine has ever had.

Back to his own wines. Angelo Gaja brought an unusual perspective to the winery he inherited from his father and grandfather. I believe that as an undergraduate he was what we call in the US a double major: oenology, which was hardly unusual in Alba, and economics. He brought an uncommon understanding of the business of prestige wine to the management of his vineyards. From the beginning he had his eye on the French, as both a business and a vinous model. At a time when most Italian wine regions and makers were pursuing quantity, he wanted his wines on the same tables as Chateau Lafite. So, from the start, he walked a different road.

He reduced yields. He acquired barriques – which, by the way, he still uses, as he did 40 years ago. Just one year in barriques for his best wines, then the rest of their aging in the traditional large Piedmontese botti. Then came temperature-controlled fermentation and stainless-steel tanks. At the same time, he was visiting markets around the world to present his wines and represent the passion and expertise that justified the prices he asked for them. Gaja understood pricing as a marketing tool for quality, and he used it to build a prestige brand ultimately resting on the character and quality of the wines.

Which is exactly why I wanted to taste this 20-year-old specimen from one of his Barbaresco crus, Costa Russi. You’ll notice that the label doesn’t say Barbaresco, simply Langhe. That’s because for several years, Gaja experimented by reverting to an old Piedmontese tradition of mixing a little Barbera with his Nebbiolo. Before the DOC and DOCG, Barbaresco and Barolo had mostly been a field mix. A small part of each Nebbiolo vineyard was reserved for Barbera, and the two varieties were harvested and fermented together. In theory, the Barbera intensified Nebbiolo’s color, and its big fruit and acid gave young Nebbiolo an often-needed lift and vitality.

By reverting to that practice, for a few years Gaja essentially declassified his three crus. They weren’t officially Barbaresco but just Costa Russi, Sori Tilden, and Sori San Lorenzo from the Langhe zone. I was very curious to see how this “just Costa Russi” was developing after 20 years.

As I said before, I don’t drink Gaja wines every day, so I made this special bottle my birthday wine. (My age will be revealed only on a need-to-know basis.)  Diane made a special dinner for it, a timbale filled with Finanziera, a dish that – as I had learned long ago in Piedmont – loves Barbaresco. La Finanziera is a braise featuring parts of calves and chickens that in the US are usually used in pet food – e.g., cockscombs, livers, gizzards, marrow. People of America, you have no idea how well your pets are dining!

My 20-year-old Costa Russi played its role flawlessly. Its aroma was huge, all brambles, cherries, blackberries and undergrowth, lovely and enticing. The palate followed with all those flavors, big and round. It was, I thought, almost Bordeaux-like in style, in its harmony. The wine was still slightly tannic, whether from the vintage – 2001 was a big vintage all through the Piedmont – or from those barriques, I couldn’t tell. It finished very long, with dark fruits and leather. A masterpiece of winemaking, with no sense of age or fading.

For me, this was a wonderful wine not completely Piedmontese in character: In its particular polish and elegance, its model was to my palate clearly French – and it is in that respect an amazing wine, to have achieved so successfully, with two native Piedmont varieties, the kind of complex and intricate harmony Bordeaux at its best teases out of three or four very different ones. Perhaps it is the idiosyncracy of my palate, or my hyper-awareness of how important the model of French winemaking was to Angelo Gaja, but I swear I can taste the French influence in this wine. And even though I almost always deplore the use of French grape varieties in Italian wines, I love this amalgamation of French style to Italian winemaking. Bravo, Angelo – and thank you for a birthday treat.