Winemaker Notes
A lively and fragrant sensation with a beautiful expression of fruit coming from this cru. The nose shows a range of beautiful sensations from violets, plums, savory, herbal notes, wild roses, black pepper, and black cherry. Balanced and fruity, with notes of orange and blackberry. The palate is creamy and complex. Sweet, full, integrated tannins, clean and expressive. The wines are characterized by precise and complex fruit expressions and clean, elegant aromas.
Blend: 100% Nebbiolo
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Such wonderful clarity and perfume to this with strawberry and candied citrus, yet it’s always so subtle and vivid. Full-bodied and very powerful with lots of well integrated tannins. Makes you stand to attention and notice it.
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Vinous
The 2020 Barbaresco Sori Tildin is a powerful, deep wine. Dark fruit, leather, spice, tobacco and incense saturate the palate. A Barbaresco of stature and brooding intensity, Sori Tildin will need a number of years to be at its very best. The 2020 is an unusually sober, dark Sori Tildin.
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Wine Enthusiast
First produced in 1970, the 50th vintage of Sori Tildin shows the grace and magic of this vineyard alongside the dedication of the Gaja family to sheer excellence. Savory aromas and dark-skinned fruits define the nose of the wine with hints of warmed spices, dried orange peel and iron as the wine develops in the glass. A wine that is exact and focused with vibrant plum flavors at the center with notes of forest floor, anise and dried rose. Fine elegant tannins provide a foundation that will carry this wine well into the future.
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Jeb Dunnuck
This rich Barbaresco shows graceful power, with a fleshy texture embracing its cherry, strawberry, mint, iron, tobacco and spice aromas and flavors. The dense matrix of refined tannins is beautifully integrated, while vibrant acidity drives the persistent, savory finish.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The Gaja 2020 Barbaresco Sorì Tildìn appears more mineral-driven and timid on first nose. It shows bright, underripe fruit, which is great for it future evolution; however, the mouthfeel proves immediately expressive and generous. There is plenty of fruit to push it forward in time with more bottle age. The whole package is very elegant and fine. Rating:96+
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Wine Spectator
This rich Barbaresco shows graceful power, with a fleshy texture embracing its cherry, strawberry, mint, iron, tobacco and spice aromas and flavors. The dense matrix of refined tannins is beautifully integrated, while vibrant acidity drives the persistent, savory finish.
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.
Responsible for some of the most elegant and age-worthy wines in the world, Nebbiolo, named for the ubiquitous autumnal fog (called nebbia in Italian), is the star variety of northern Italy’s Piedmont region. Grown throughout the area, as well as in the neighboring Valle d’Aosta and Valtellina, it reaches its highest potential in the Piedmontese villages of Barolo, Barbaresco and Roero. Outside of Italy, growers are still very much in the experimentation stage but some success has been achieved in parts of California. Somm Secret—If you’re new to Nebbiolo, start with a charming, wallet-friendly, early-drinking Langhe Nebbiolo or Nebbiolo d'Alba.
A wine that most perfectly conveys the spirit and essence of its place, Barbaresco is true reflection of terroir. Its star grape, like that in the neighboring Barolo region, is Nebbiolo. Four townships within the Barbaresco zone can produce Barbaresco: the actual village of Barbaresco, as well as Neive, Treiso and San Rocco Seno d'Elvio.
Broadly speaking there are more similarities in the soils of Barbaresco and Barolo than there are differences. Barbaresco’s soils are approximately of the same two major soil types as Barolo: blue-grey marl of the Tortonion epoch, producing more fragile and aromatic characteristics, and Helvetian white yellow marl, which produces wines with more structure and tannins.
Nebbiolo ripens earlier in Barbaresco than in Barolo, primarily due to the vineyards’ proximity to the Tanaro River and lower elevations. While the wines here are still powerful, Barbaresco expresses a more feminine side of Nebbiolo, often with softer tannins, delicate fruit and an elegant perfume. Typical in a well-made Barbaresco are expressions of rose petal, cherry, strawberry, violets, smoke and spice. These wines need a few years before they reach their peak, the best of which need over a decade or longer. Bottle aging adds more savory characteristics, such as earth, iron and dried fruit.