Weekly Tasting Report (Aug 3-9, 2021): Gaja Wines vs Climate Change, Napa 2018 Strikes Again, and the Rheingau Renaissance Continues

This report covers a range of exciting wines from Tuscany to Napa Valley to the Rheingau, but it was a Zoom conversation last week with Giovanni Gaja, of the Gaja wine family, that still sticks in my mind, particularly in view of the today’s report on climate change and global warming from the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Like so many winemakers I speak with, Gaja says it’s more and more challenging to manage their vineyards and make wines with the current variance in climate and conditions – from wildfires to floods to droughts.

“It’s really scary because we are seeing the effects of climate change,” said Gaja, the son of Angelo Gaja, who now runs the family wine estates in Italy with his two sisters. “It’s the vineyard management that has been a complete revolution in five years. It’s been so unpredictable,” he said. “It’s difficult to forecast.”

People usually only think about the high temperatures with climate change, but “it’s all the rest,” he said, pointing to the extremes seen on both sides of the weather spectrum. “It stretches all the excesses. Either it doesn’t rain, or if it rains it rains with all the intensity, so we have water erosion. Or pests are becoming much more aggressive compared to the past.

“Before we had one or two generations of pests but now we have three, four or five generations,” he added. “Adaptation is all about survival – you have to adapt and change and don’t be afraid to change.”

For example, the increase in hail in Piedmont in recent years has been significant, and there has also been frost, according to Gaja. For example, one of their top Barbaresco vineyards – Sorì San Lorenzo – was badly hit in 2018 by hail, so nothing was bottled separately. In fact, the 2018 Gaja classic Barbaresco is a blend of seven vineyards, including the Costa Russi and Sori Tilden. No single vineyards were bottled from Barbaresco in 2018.

GIOVANNI GAJA: The effects of global warming, and tasting Gaja's recent vintages.

Not everything is bad, though, Gaja admitted, pointing to nebbiolo as one grape variety that doesn’t have a problem with climate change, and in fact may be benefitting from it. “It is positively affecting the nebbiolo as far as taste because today it is easier for nebbiolo to reach maturation,” Gaja said. “It’s easier to reach ripeness. Tannins are also riper. Nebbiolo is becoming more flexible. You can start to approach [drink it] when it is young and you can still age it.”

The 2017 Gaja single-vineyard Barolos certainly show this, but it’s amazing how fresh and linear they are, with energy and wonderful form. These are very impressive indeed.

This theme of drinking great wines when they are young comes through clearly around the world, and one of the regions I am really excited about for this is Napa Valley, particularly with the 2018 vintage. One of the super-collectible reds of the vintage I recently tasted is the 2018 Opus, which should be coming out internationally in September. Its subtlety and complexity are terrific, with so much aromatic complexity as well as depth and length. The center palate shows such poise. It’s a near perfect example of the ultimate in intensity and balance of vintage.

TUSCAN COLLECTIBLES: In this video from 2011, James tastes Petrolo Galatrona 2008 and '09.

TUSCAN SENSATION

I had the same feeling when I tasted Tuscany’s pure merlot sensation, Galatrona 2019, last week. The 2019 vintage looks to be an outstanding year for Tuscany and may be along the same lines as the wonderful 2015. It has more ripeness than the 2018 and more generosity and complexity.

The cult merlot of Tuscany, Masseto 2018, proved my point. It was one of the best reds of the 2018 vintage but was a little shy in the end. I think that the 2019 could be the perfect wine, and I can’t wait to taste and rate it. Tua Rita Toscana Redigaffi 2019 is the same level of quality as the 2018 Masseto. I am sure the generosity of the 2019 vintage overall helped.

Meanwhile, Senior Editor Stuart Pigott continues to find fantastic wines from Germany and some late releases from the extraordinary 2019 vintage that Stuart calls “the vintage of his career.” I was happy to see names like Leitz and Georg Breuer, which are key names in the Rheingau. They highlight the renaissance of the region in recent years. Stuart and I began tasting and rating German wines in the 1980s and Rheingau ruled then. The overall quality faded in the 1990s and early 2000s, but Rheingau is clearly back now.

Stuart is now in Italy tasting a few hundred wines from Sicily with Tasting Editor Jo Cooke, and they are happy with the quality, particularly Etna. But they are hoping for slightly higher quality than what they have found so far. Stay tuned for their findings next week, with more to come from Sicily, Europe and the rest of the world. And here’s a heads-up on the approximately 1,500 wines from Spain that we are starting to review: 2018 looks to be a vintage producing wines of elegance, length and character.

– James Suckling, Chairman/Editor

The list of wines below is comprised of bottles tasted and rated during the previous week by James and other tasters at JamesSuckling.com. They include many latest releases not yet available on the market, but which will be available soon. Some will be included in upcoming tasting reports. 

Note: You can sort the wines below by country, vintage, score and alphabetically by winery name. You can also search for specific wines in the search bar.