Gaja winery
Gaja is an Italian wine producer from the Piemonte region in the district of Langhe, chiefly producing a number of Barbaresco and Barolo wines, and later diversified into Brunello and 'Super-Tuscan' production. Its current owner and president Angelo Gaja is credited with developing techniques that have revolutionized winemaking in Italy, and terms such as 'the undisputed king of Barbaresco', and 'the man who dragged Piedmont into the modern world' have been applied to him, and whose Barbaresco wine is considered a status symbol on a par with Ch teau Lafite-Rothschild or Krug. In 1978 the Darmagi vineyard in Barbaresco, a prime Nebbiolo site, was planted with Cabernet Sauvignon. Gaja stated this was done not because of his love for Cabernet Sauvignon, but from the belief that only by making a great Cabernet, aged in barriques, could he persuade the world that Italian wines were capable of greatness. This was followed in 1979 when The Gaia & Rey vineyard in Treiso was planted with Chardonnay. Later in 1983, Sauvignon Blanc was planted in the Alteni di Brassica vineyard in Barbaresco. Gaja is judicious in the use of new oak. Gaja ferments his wines for up to 30 days, a traditional method instead of the modernist five-day fermentations. Gaja produces in all 18 different wines from vineyards in Piedmont 100 hectares (250 acres), within the Barbaresco zone Barbaresco and Treiso and the Barolo zone Serralunga d'Alba and La Morra, in Montalcino 27 hectares (67 acres) and Bolgheri 110 hectares (270 acres), with a total annual production of 350,000 bottles.