2023 G.D. Vajra Barbera D’Alba

Product Description

The Vaira family is based in the small village of Vergne, which sits above the town of Barolo on the westernmost edge of the denomination. While Aldo’s grandparents bought the land in the 1920s, his father was educated in Turin, after which he became a lawyer. But it all started for Aldo in 1968 when he was part of a group of protesting students who marched past his father’s office. Shocked at Aldo’s involvement with the marchers, his parents despatched him to the farm in Barolo for the summer, far from the ferment of revolutionary ideas that were in the air in 1968. When he returned to Turin in September, his parents were even more shocked when he told them he wanted to become a farmer and bring the family farm back to life. After much discussion, his parents agreed to him studying Agriculture at university.

During the next four years, Aldo travelled frequently to Vergne to start planting and running a small vineyard, putting into practice what he learned at university. One of the first precepts he implemented was organic viticulture, something that was revolutionary at the time, but which has been core to the Vajra philosophy ever since. In 1972, he was ready for his first vintage, which turned out to be the worst of the 20th century. Despite the fact that not a bottle of Barolo was produced from the 1972 vintage, he remained calm and committed, teaching viticulture to earn a living while the wines he made in subsequent vintages matured in the cellar. At the same time, he slowly acquired more land where he could.

Their Barbera d’Alba is a joyous wine, graced by the complexity that arises from blending different terroirs. The long and gentle maceration is followed by a delicate aging so as to express the varietal fragrance and perfumes