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Viinin Kuvailu
The Story
In 1995, GAJA decided to purchase a second farm in the Barolo appellation, this time in the township of La Morra. Nearly all of the property's vineyards lie in the famed Cerequio cru, widely recognized as one of the best growing sites on the west side of the Barolo-Albra road. The location of the cru along with the border between the townships of La Morra and Barolo (to the south) and its prized fruit made it one of the most coveted and "contended" in the appellation, with both townships vying for greater surface area under their control. For this reason, GAJA decided to call the wine Conteisa, Piedmontese dialect for the Italian contesa, meaning the contended vineyard and in 1996 bottled the first vintage.
Vuosikerta 1996
Italy Vintage Report by Tb: 1996 was an excellent continuation of the preceding year. Temperatures exceeding 30°C at the beginning of June accelerated and balanced the start of the blooming period. The summer growing season enjoyed ideal conditions, in which the grapes were allowed to ripen slowly and evenly. The autumn rains did not present any mould problems due to the cool temperatures. Nebbiolo grapes were thick-skinned, very concentrated and ripe. The 1996 Barolos and Barbarescos are abundantly fruity, supple and robust wines, whose quality is on a par with the 1990 vintage. In Tuscany Chianti and Montalcino enjoyed extraordinary success. Montepulciano did not do quite as well, but producers in Tuscany considered 1996 to be nearly every bit as good as it was in 1995. Starting with this vintage Angelo Gaja classified his legendary single-vineyard Barbarescos and Barolos as IGTs. Gaja said that the reason for doing this was his desire to differentiate his previous modern single-vintage wines from his family’s pride, the traditional Barbaresco, whose importance he wanted to emphasise as his only DOCG wine. The venerable Chianti producer, Castello di Ama decided that from 1996 on it would focus on the production of Chianti Classico, placing less emphasis on its single-vineyard wines, the Bellavista and La Casuccia.
The wines are still maturing very nicely, even if the Chiantis should, in my opinion, be enjoyed soon due to their sheer deliciousness.