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ngelo Gaja was a driving force in Italian wines, helping
to raise its overall status in the 1960s from cheap and
cheerful to respected powerhouse. He presciently
innovated earlier than his peers in Piemonte, introducing French-
style barriques, tannin management, lower yields, and sheer
marketing chutzpah as he expanded Gaja Wines to its current four
estates around Italy. Although the 79-year-old patriarch did not
accompany his eldest daughter Gaia Gaja on this particular trip to
Singapore, the presence of ‘the King of Nebbiolo’ and the weight of
his five decades of achievements are much felt.

A family raised on wine
In a family where alternating generations named their sons
either Angelo or Giovanni, the Gajas were good at hospitality.
The original Giovanni owned a trattoria in the 1800s, and his son
Angelo founded the winery in 1859 to supply wine alongside the

food. The next Giovanni, Gaia’s grandfather, conceived the striking

red and black GAJA lettering on the bottle in 1937, while current

scion Angelo innovated, expanded to Bolgheri and Tuscany, and

opened new markets globally. All three of Angelo and wife Lucia’s

children are now working together at the winery – Gaia, Rossana

and Giovanni.

There was a time during her teens when Gaia felt constricted

by tiny Barbaresco, a town of 600-odd inhabitants. Today, her father

quips that she lives closer to the winery than he does. She studied

business administration at the University of Pavia, graduating in

2003 before working for one year in San Francisco where she first

tasted dim sum and enjoyed a cosmopolitan lifestyle. But the hills

called her back. “It’s not about the job or work,” she describes in

her perfect English. “Langhe is beautiful, it’s who I am. When you

talk about wine, you talk about the region – its culture, expression,

taste, style and idea. Barbaresco the wine is not the louder one that

Face to face with Gaia

As charismatic and relentless as her father Angelo, fifth-generation Gaia Gaja of Gaja Wines

is taking aim from Langhe to Sicily, placing ‘a volcano on a volcano’. By June Lee

VINE EXPECTATIONS