2021 Gaja Barolo 'Sperss' Piedmont

Winemaker Notes: Red garnet color, earthy and savory with pure notes of coal, tobacco, juniper, and sap. On the palate the wine is tense, loaded with energy that will need serious ageing to fully develop. Impressive fruit concentration, with sweet red berries, raspberries, wild strawberry, red currant, plum, blood orange, bark, liquorice. Acidity and tannins lift this wine to its freshest expression.

Sperss is a term affectionately used to denote nostalgia for precious things lost with time – a homage to the origins of the winery and the generations who built it. When the Gaja family decided to stop acquiring fruit from outside growers and bottle only estate-grown grapes, in 1961, it was a bold and difficult move. It would help to ensure a high standard of quality, but it also meant that for the first time in the winery’s history, they would not be able to produce a Barolo. In 1988, nearly three decades after that fateful decision was made, the GAJA winery purchased a 30-acre farm in Serralunga d’Alba and rechristened it Sperss.

CRITICAL ACCLAIM


Jeb Dunnuck - "The 2021 Barolo Sperss is a jeweled ruby color and has a beguiling matched balance of power and finesse. Seamless from start to finish, it offers notes of black raspberries, sweet flowers, fresh herbs, and apricot. It’s saturating with a medium-bodied richness that expands through the palate, with refined, polished tannins, even acidity, and a profound length on the finish. It’s a harmonious and resonating wine with a lot to enjoy over the next several decades"


Kerin O’Keefe - "From the Marenca and Rivette sites in Serralunga, the gorgeous 2021 Sperss has great structure, precision and finesse, delivering aromas and flavors of succulent raspberry, star anise, camphor and forest floor. A backbone of firm but refined tannins shows its Serralunga roots while fresh acidity keeps it vibrant and bestows great energy and longevity. Drink 2031–2046. Abv: 14.5%"


Robert Parker's Wine Advocate - "With fruit from Serralunga d'Alba, the Gaja 2021 Barolo Sperss is marked by a distinctive ferrous note of rusty nail or soft earth that frames a core of dark fruit. The wine is exceptionally balanced and beautiful with depth and a high level of fruit purity. Unlike the Conteisa, which ends with a sweeter floral note, this wine is decidedly salty and stony on the finish, giving it a harder edge in terms of structure. 98+"


James Suckling - "An austere, restrained wine with aromas of graphite, red currants, strawberries, red cherries and blood oranges. Full-bodied, it shows youthful character, citrus and toast flavors, crisp acidity and firm, dusty yet fine-grained tannins. Austere finish, but in a positive way. Best after 2026"