Wine & Spirits - Winter 2020 - 61

Top 100 Wineries

O LD WO RLD

BRICCO DELLE VIOLE

CLOCKWISE:
GIUSEPPE,
FRANCESCA,
ISIDORO, MILENA
& ALDO VAIRA

G.D. Vajra
ITALY | PIEDMONT
Vajra's Barolos combine grace and precision with freshness and purity, even in a warm vintage such as 2015.
ALDO VAIRA BEGAN MAKING WINE FROM his grandmother's
farm when he was still a teenager. His ﬁrst vintage was 1972,
a growing season so difficult that the wine was less than ten
percent alcohol and he sold it off to his friends in demijohns.
For his ﬁrst labels, he used a font that reﬂected an older spelling of the family name, and Vajra remains on the labels to
this day. The family's vineyards were concentrated in the
high-elevation western edge of the Barolo commune and
included the renowned Bricco delle Viole, which the family
has made as a single-cru wine since 1975.
Vaira is now joined in the winery by his eldest son,
Giuseppe, who had been set to take up medical studies when
he asked his father, "What is the social sense of your job?"
Giuseppe remembers his father looking at a painting on the
wall before replying, "You don't need art or music or wine
to live, but these are the things that make life worth living."
Giuseppe joined the family business in 2008, and works
beside his father as winemaker at G.D. Vajra as well as at
Luigi Baudana, a small Serralunga property that the family
bought in 2009 (see W&S Wineries to Watch, p. 8).
Giuseppe says that he has made some changes during his
tenure, but he believes that Vajra wines have always had a
personality, and his goal is to keep improving them without
losing touch with that personality. He points to the fact that
his parents insisted on replanting vineyards rather than keep-

ing vines from inferior clones, and now many of the vines
are reaching the sweet spot of quality. This may be Vajra's
ﬁrst Top 100 appearance, but the family's wines have
been on an upward trajectory for some time now and it is
unlikely to be their last. -S.J.

2015 Barolo Bricco delle Viole ($80, 95 points) Bricco
delle Viole ("Hill of Violets") rises up to 1,575 feet on the Barolo
commune's western edge, with clear views of the Alps. The
Vaira family's vines, some planted in 1949, enjoy the earliest
sunrise and the last sunset, as well as dramatic diurnal temperature changes that preserve freshness and acidity in the
fruit. The 2015 Bricco delle Viole channels some of that Alpine
coolness, its vibrant acidity propelling the wine's spiced cherry
and plum fruit while lush, polished tannins draw it out through
a long ﬁnish.

FOUNDED:

1972
OWNERS:

2015 Barolo Coste di Rose ($70, 93 points) The Vaira family began working a vineyard in Coste di Rose in 2015, and was
ﬁnally able to buy it in 2018. The sandy soil is completely different from the more clay-rich soils of their other Barolo holdings,
and they were surprised by the resilience of the vines in the
dry 2015 vintage, Vajra's ﬁrst release of this wine. It's immediately inviting, with soaring aromas of rose petals, orange tea
and mint and pliant tannins that shape the juicy cherry and
raspberry ﬂavors.

The Vaira family
WINEMAKERS:

Aldo &
Giuseppe Vaira
VITICULTURISTS:

Aldo &
Isidoro Vaira
ACRES OWNED:

159
ANNUAL

2015 Barolo Ravera ($80, 93 points) Aldo and Milena Vaira
ﬁrst bottled a wine from their vines in Ravera as a single cru
in 2010. The 2015 is powerful and meaty, with ﬂavors of thickskinned cherry and plum layered with notes of tar, licorice and
tobacco. Aromas of rose and orange peel add brightness even
as dense, mineral tannins close in around the fruit. This is a
bottle that requires patience.
WINE & SPIRITS

PRODUCTION:

40,000 cases
ESTATE GROWN:

95%
IMPORTER:

Vajra USA,
Manhasset, NY

BUYING GUIDE 2021

Wine & Spirits - Winter 2020

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