Winemaker Notes
The entry and mid-palate are rich, and concentrated, with notes of blackberry, blueberry, licorice, flint and blood orange. The aromas and primary flavors carry though to a long, savory finish, with fine-grained tannins leaving you with no doubt about this wine’s strong personality.
Pair this wine alongside grilled and roasted meats, pizza, pasta, casseroles/stews, mature strong cheeses
Blend: 80% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Cabernet Franc.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The flagship under this label is the Camarcanda and the 2015 is 80% Cabernet Sauvignon and 20% Cabernet Franc that spent 18 months in barrel. It offers a more serious, inward style in its darker currants, tobacco leaf, graphite, menthol, and licorice aromas and flavors. It too is incredibly refined and elegant, with medium body, moderate yet silky tannins, and just beautiful all-around balance and harmony. It’s going to benefit from short-term cellaring and drink beautifully for 10-15 years.
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Wine Spectator
A tightly wound version, with black cherry, blueberry, tobacco and iron flavors etched into a sleek, tensile texture. Balanced on the tannic side and in need of a grilled steak or lamb. Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc. Best from 2021 through 2033.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Compared to the awkward 2016 vintage, the 2015 Bolgheri Rosso Camarcanda is drinking beautifully right now, although it is less complex overall. The wine is exuberant and rich, owing that extra intensity to a vintage that was sunny, luminous and warm throughout the season. The fruit ripened perfectly on schedule. Interestingly, this wine is 50% Merlot with 40% Cabernet Sauvignon and 10% Cabernet Franc. When the Gaja family first came to Bolgheri, they were heavily committed to the Merlot grape, with half the vineyards planted to that variety. Today, Merlot has been reduced to 17% of the vineyard holdings. This wine is soft and velvety in texture.
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James Suckling
A very fresh nose with notes of lavender, herbs, licorice and nutmeg. Medium to full body, a really driven line of acidity and a long, very taut finish. Wood shows at the end. Needs two or three years to soften. Better in 2020.
Perched atop a steep hill in the Langhe sits the small village of Barbaresco, home of the GAJA winery. The story of the GAJA Winery can be traced to a singular, founding purpose: to produce original wines with a sense of place which reflect the tradition and culture of those who made it. This philosophy has inspired five generations of impeccable winemaking. It started over 150 years ago when Giovanni Gaja opened a small restaurant in Barbaresco, making wine to complement the food he served. In 1859, he founded the Gaja Winery, producing some of the first wine from Piedmont to be bottled and sold outside the region. Since that time, the winery has been shaped by each generation’s hand, notably that of Clotilde Rey, Angelo Gaja’s grandmother. Her passion for uncompromising quality influenced and informed Angelo Gaja. Through Angelo, these values have become the cornerstone of the GAJA philosophy and are engrained in every aspect of wine production
In 1961, Angelo Gaja began his mission of bringing this great winery to an even higher level. He was the first to use barriques, 225-liter French oak barrels. Under his direction, GAJA pioneered the production of single-vineyard designated wines and was the first to plant Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc varietals in Piedmont. He was also instrumental in elevating the native Nebbiolo grape to world-class esteem.
Angelo Gaja is joined by the fifth generation of the GAJA family – his daughters Gaia and Rossana and his son Giovanni. Together they continue to advance the winery’s legacy. To fully realize their vision, all GAJA wines are produced exclusively from grapes grown in estate-owned vineyards, including 250 acres in Piedmont’s Barbaresco and Barolo districts as well as estates in Pieve Santa Restituta (Montalcino) and Ca’Marcanda (Bolgheri). It is from these storied vineyards, and their terroir – the combination of soil, weather and vines that grow upon them, that GAJA wines reveal their true heart and soul.
One of the world’s most classic and popular styles of red wine, Bordeaux-inspired blends have spread from their homeland in France to nearly every corner of the New World. Typically based on either Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot and supported by Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot, the best of these are densely hued, fragrant, full of fruit and boast a structure that begs for cellar time. Somm Secret—Blends from Bordeaux are generally earthier compared to those from the New World, which tend to be fruit-dominant.
An outstanding wine region made famous by Marchese Mario Incisa della Rocchetta, who planted Cabernet Sauvignon vines for his own consumption in 1940s on his San Guido estate, and called the resulting wine, Sassicaia. Today the region’s Tuscan reds are based on Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, which can be made as single varietal wines or blends. The local Sangiovese can make up no more than 50% of the blends. Today Sassicaia has its own DOC designation within the Bogheri DOC appellation.