{"id":10271,"date":"2023-08-07T16:57:01","date_gmt":"2023-08-07T11:27:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.indianwineacademy.com\/articles\/?p=10271"},"modified":"2023-08-08T14:52:06","modified_gmt":"2023-08-08T09:22:06","slug":"item_2_936","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.indianwineacademy.com\/articles\/item_2_936\/","title":{"rendered":"The Story of Gaja in Montalcino and Oriano"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"10271\" class=\"elementor elementor-10271\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-4720b6a elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"4720b6a\" data-element_type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-33 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-53f09f7\" data-id=\"53f09f7\" data-element_type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-70aab53 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"70aab53\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t<style>\/*! elementor - v3.15.0 - 20-08-2023 *\/\n.elementor-widget-text-editor.elementor-drop-cap-view-stacked .elementor-drop-cap{background-color:#69727d;color:#fff}.elementor-widget-text-editor.elementor-drop-cap-view-framed .elementor-drop-cap{color:#69727d;border:3px solid;background-color:transparent}.elementor-widget-text-editor:not(.elementor-drop-cap-view-default) .elementor-drop-cap{margin-top:8px}.elementor-widget-text-editor:not(.elementor-drop-cap-view-default) .elementor-drop-cap-letter{width:1em;height:1em}.elementor-widget-text-editor .elementor-drop-cap{float:left;text-align:center;line-height:1;font-size:50px}.elementor-widget-text-editor .elementor-drop-cap-letter{display:inline-block}<\/style>\t\t\t\t<p>Posted: Monday, 07 August 2023 05:30<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-33 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-ad9e937\" data-id=\"ad9e937\" data-element_type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-33 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-cccb2a7\" data-id=\"cccb2a7\" data-element_type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-1b4aea3 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"1b4aea3\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<u>If you Like this article, please click\n<iframe style=\"border: none; overflow: hidden; width: 120px; height: 21px;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/like.php?app_id=173955395995712&amp;href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fwineguyindia&amp;send=false&amp;layout=button_count&amp;width=120&amp;show_faces=false&amp;action=like&amp;colorscheme=light&amp;font=arial&amp;height=21\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/u>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-9669605 elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"9669605\" data-element_type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-b62f3ec\" data-id=\"b62f3ec\" data-element_type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-c0e78f1 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"c0e78f1\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"col-sm-12\">\n<h1 class=\"articlepagetitle_heading\">The Story of Gaja in Montalcino<\/h1>\n<div class=\"articlepageintroline\">August 07: Angelo Gaja of Piedmont is known for iconic Barbaresco, Barolo and their single vineyard wines like Sori San Lorenzo, but within a relatively short time after he bought in 1994 and refurbished Santa Restituta di Pieve in Montalcino, his well-respected single vineyard Rennina and Sugarille labels are already making waves, with the generic Brunello di Montalcino being a great buy especially in the years when the single vineyard wines are declassified and used to make Brunello di Montalcino. Angelo Gaja shares his passion and beauty of hilly Montalcino<\/div>\n<div class=\"articledata\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.indianwineacademy.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/1-scaled-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-10273\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 1px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 1px;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.indianwineacademy.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/1-scaled-1-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"The Story of Gaja in Montalcino and Oriano\" width=\"400\" height=\"266\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.indianwineacademy.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/1-scaled-1-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.indianwineacademy.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/1-scaled-1-1024x682.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.indianwineacademy.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/1-scaled-1-768x511.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.indianwineacademy.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/1-scaled-1.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a>The hills of Montalcino are carpeted with forests of Tuscan and Holm oak. They are a bird\u2019s paradise, home to sparrows, jays, robins, magpies, cuckoos, owls and buzzards. In the attic of the small ancient church on our estate live a pair of white barn owls that reproduce and lay their eggs every year. Wild boar, foxes, pheasants and roe deer live in the forest full of porcini mushrooms. A landscape that\u2019s been around for hundreds of years. It has never changed and will not change because the forest is a protected zone.<\/p>\n<p>In the Langhe hills in Piedmont, eighty percent of the land is vineyards. But in and around Montalcino, seventy percent is woodlands, the rest is vineyards, olive trees and cultivated fields. In winter, on the days with clearest visibility, you can even see the Island and Sea of Elba. On summer evenings, sea breezes arrive, bringing a gift for the vines. Vineyards immersed in the woods of Montalcino.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Also Read : <a href=\"https:\/\/www.indianwineacademy.com\/item_5_868.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"color: #990000;\">From Archives (2011) : Welcome Brunello 2011: Impressive but Young 2006<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Everything here has ancient roots. Pieve di Santa Restituta -The Romanesque church where our Montalcino winery is located, takes its name from a martyr in 304 AD during the persecutions of North African Christians by the Roman emperor Diocletian. In the following centuries, surviving communities took refuge in Italy, reaching as far as Tuscany. The church is mentioned in a document dating back almost 1400 years.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Agronomist Oriano Scheggi &nbsp;&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.indianwineacademy.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/2-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-10277 size-medium\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0px; margin-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 1px;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.indianwineacademy.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/2-1-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"The Story of Gaja in Montalcino and Oriano\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.indianwineacademy.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/2-1-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.indianwineacademy.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/2-1-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.indianwineacademy.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/2-1-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.indianwineacademy.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/2-1.jpg 1100w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>Our agronomist<strong> Oriano Scheggi <\/strong>was born and raised among the Sangiovese vineyards where Brunello di Montalcino has been produced since 1971, and has been working with us for fifty years. His father leased the land from the local diocese and when the Church decided to sell, he stayed to cultivate the land.<\/p>\n<p>Oriano remembers making olive oil and wine here when he was growing up. Grape vines used to be planted between each row of olive trees. But in January 1985, the temperature plummeted to 12 degrees below zero, producing a terrible frost that killed almost every olive tree. This one-night misfortune was a catalyst for a radical change in the Montalcino belt: nature had accelerated the transformation from olive oil to wine.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Also Read : <a href=\"https:\/\/www.indianwineacademy.com\/item_1_800.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"color: #990000;\">Gaia Gaja: Dynamics of a Family Business in an Iconic Italian Winemaker<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Arrival in Montalcino in 1994<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>We arrived in Montalcino in 1994. There were ten wineries for sale. An experienced importer told me that there was one winery truly worth buying and I should not let it slip away. He was convinced by the quality of their wines, the beauty of the area and the charm of its ancient history. So. Of course we bought it-with 16 hA of vineyards which has since grown to 30 hA. Our pledge was to strictly respect the land, panorama and tradition and leave the existing village as it was.<\/p>\n<p>We enlarged the cellar, making sure everything was underground. Under the existing church there is original construction dating back to 647 AD and containing millenary burials, its own authentic catacombs, and ancient wall frescoes partly covered and partly ruined, which we have been patiently restoring.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Also Read : <a href=\"https:\/\/www.indianwineacademy.com\/item_5_467.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"color: #990000;\">Wine Club Dinner: Top Wines from Gaja Impress<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Just Brunello<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Our choice was clear from the beginning- to make only Brunello and no \u201cRiserva\u201d or \u201cRosso di Montalcino\u201d. Currently, we are producing three labels: Brunello di Montalcino Pieve di Santa Restituta, made with grapes from all the vineyards we own. <em>Rennina<\/em> Brunello di Montalcino, is produced from only three vineyards and named after the toponym of the area: in Roman times, the legionaries who, after 25 years of battle campaigns, earned the right to a piece of land. A soldier named Remnius had obtained a farm in the area we are now located.<\/p>\n<p><em>Sugarille<\/em> Brunello di Montalcino is made from a single vineyard, an uncommon choice in this part of Tuscany where cru wines are rare. We decided to produce a single vineyard wine because of its unique and well-defined identity; 5 hAs of distinct soil of generous galestro (a dark, crumbly stone providing good drainage), and clay which are capable of guaranteeing softer and silkier tannins. The previous owner, <strong>Roberto Bellini<\/strong>, while studying the historical archives, had discovered that back in the sixteenth century, the vineyard was already called Sugarille. The identity of a vineyard half a millennium old deserves to be respected.<\/p>\n<p>All of the vineyards were planted by Oriano. \u201cIn the past, I chose to have them all face south and never be higher than 300 meters above sea level in order to maintain an alcohol level at about 13 percent. In the early eighties we always harvested in the first week of October. The climate began to change the following decade and by 2001, harvests started at the end of August. It was then that I began planting vineyards facing north and as high as possible. Today the harvest, which once took less than two weeks, lasts a full month. It\u2019s necessary now to harvest each row twice- first on the sunny side and later on the shady side.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Climate Change and new vineyards<\/strong><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_lft\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-lft\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.indianwineacademy.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/WhatsApp-Image-2023-08-07-at-17.47.49.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-10279 size-medium\" style=\"margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 1px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 1px;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.indianwineacademy.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/WhatsApp-Image-2023-08-07-at-17.47.49-300x225.jpeg\" alt=\"Arora with Gaia (l) and Angelo GAJA (r) at a restaurant near the Barbaresco Winery\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.indianwineacademy.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/WhatsApp-Image-2023-08-07-at-17.47.49-300x225.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/www.indianwineacademy.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/WhatsApp-Image-2023-08-07-at-17.47.49-1024x768.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/www.indianwineacademy.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/WhatsApp-Image-2023-08-07-at-17.47.49-768x576.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.indianwineacademy.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/WhatsApp-Image-2023-08-07-at-17.47.49-1536x1153.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/www.indianwineacademy.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/WhatsApp-Image-2023-08-07-at-17.47.49.jpeg 1599w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-lft\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Arora with Gaia (l) and Angelo GAJA (r) at a restaurant near the Barbaresco Winery<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>For the last many years I have been thinking of the future of wine because of global warming and climate change. We purchased two new higher altitude vineyards because of their cooler temperatures. The latest vineyard will be ready for production in three years and is situated at 620 meters and is the highest in the entire Montalcino denomination. Located at the Passo del <em>Lume Spento<\/em>, you can enjoy a wonderful view here of the area\u2019s woodlands.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Also Read : <a href=\"https:\/\/www.indianwineacademy.com\/item_3_252.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"color: #990000;\">Gaja Supports Two-Tier System for Brunello<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Oriano, meanwhile, works the land to prevent the vineyard from suffering from the heat, especially during the summer when he constantly tills the surface soil to avoid the deeper soil from drying out. &nbsp;As this land is full of fossils from ten million years ago, it can offer unimaginable surprises: Oriano recently discovered two great white shark teeth, most likely belonging to a creature over ten meters long.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Subhash Arora <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Gaja has not disclosed how they are going to label the cooler weather Brunello but it will certainly be as special and iconic as Rennina and Sugarille, or more. Brunello di Montalcino labels are now imported by Kadambari (Kay) Kapur of Gusto Imports, Mumbai and are available in Mumbai and Gurgaon (Delhi-NCR) at rupees 18000 each.<\/em><\/p>\n<p align=\"justify\">\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"articledata\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Posted: Monday, 07 August 2023 05:30 If you Like this article, please click The Story of Gaja in<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10273,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[82,61],"tags":[359,361,360],"class_list":["post-10271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-other-headlines","category-wonderful-world-of-wine","tag-montalcino","tag-oriano","tag-the-story-of-gaja"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.indianwineacademy.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/1-scaled-1.jpg",1200,799,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.indianwineacademy.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/1-scaled-1-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.indianwineacademy.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/1-scaled-1-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.indianwineacademy.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/1-scaled-1-768x511.jpg",640,426,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.indianwineacademy.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/1-scaled-1-1024x682.jpg",640,426,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.indianwineacademy.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/1-scaled-1.jpg",1200,799,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.indianwineacademy.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/1-scaled-1.jpg",1200,799,false],"slider-bg":["https:\/\/www.indianwineacademy.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/1-scaled-1-1200x600.jpg",1200,600,true],"card-grid":["https:\/\/www.indianwineacademy.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/1-scaled-1-600x799.jpg",600,799,true],"card-list":["https:\/\/www.indianwineacademy.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/1-scaled-1-600x700.jpg",600,700,true],"morenews-featured":["https:\/\/www.indianwineacademy.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/1-scaled-1-1024x682.jpg",1024,682,true],"morenews-large":["https:\/\/www.indianwineacademy.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/1-scaled-1-825x575.jpg",825,575,true],"morenews-medium":["https:\/\/www.indianwineacademy.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/1-scaled-1-590x410.jpg",590,410,true]},"author_info":{"display_name":"admin","author_link":"https:\/\/www.indianwineacademy.com\/articles\/author\/admin\/"},"category_info":"<a href=\"https:\/\/www.indianwineacademy.com\/articles\/category\/other-headlines\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Other Headlines<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.indianwineacademy.com\/articles\/category\/wonderful-world-of-wine\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Wonderful world of wine<\/a>","tag_info":"Wonderful world of wine","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indianwineacademy.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indianwineacademy.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indianwineacademy.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indianwineacademy.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indianwineacademy.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10271"}],"version-history":[{"count":40,"href":"https:\/\/www.indianwineacademy.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10271\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10339,"href":"https:\/\/www.indianwineacademy.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10271\/revisions\/10339"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indianwineacademy.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.indianwineacademy.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indianwineacademy.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.indianwineacademy.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}