Gaja, An Italian Wine Icon and Some of the Estate’s Recent Piedmont Wines

by Ian D’Agata

Gaja is arguably Italy’s best known wine estate: for sure the bottles with the iconic black and white labels are the easiest in Italian wine to recognize, and that even from a distance. The Gaja family hasn’t just left its mark on Italian wine thanks to its high-quality wines, but it has done so in many other aspects of the Italian world of wine. Marketing, communication, and sales of Italian wines today have all been inspired and modified over time thanks to Gaja’s example and many successes. And that cannot surprise, given the human penchant for copying anything that works (just ask Dario Argento and the spawn of animal-named giallos of the early 1970s; or sticking to wine, the never-ending desire of many talent-challenged people shooting themselves in the foot by trying to make low-sulfur wines that then turn out to stink like dead horses). By contrast, Gaja is one of the very few wine names from anywhere that can be included in any conversation of the world’s best wines, Burgundy, Bordeaux, Napa…you name it.

Gaja, an Italian wine icon
Gaja, an Italian wine icon

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Ian D’Agata
Ian D’Agata

Ian D’Agata is an internationally famous, multi-award winning author who has been speaking and writing about wine for thirty years. His latest books (Native Wine Grapes of Italy, Italy’s Native Wine Grape Terroirs, Italy’s Grapes and Wines: The definitive Compendium Region by Region and the most recent, Barolo Terroir) are considered the bibles of Italian wine and have received numerous prestigious awards such as the Louis Roederer International Wine Awards “Book of the Year” title, the Gourmand World Book Awards “Best European Wine Book” and being named to the “Best Wine Books of the Year” lists of newspapers and magazines such as the NY Times, the Financial Times and Food & Wine. For eight years, Ian has also been the co-author of the Italy section in Hugh Johnson’s Pocket Book of Wine, the world’s best- selling wine guide with 46 editions to date and over 12 Million copies sold all over the world; he has since been also put in charge of the Alsace and Malta sections.
He is the is currently the President of Ian D’Agata Wine Culture, one of China’s wine education platforms, that includes the Ian D’Agata Wine Review and the Ian D’Agata Wine Academy. Ian is a former staff writer at Stephen Tanzer’s International Wine Cellar, Contributing Editor of Decanter, and Senior Editor of Vinous. His writings have always focused on the wines of Italy, France, China and Canada, for which he has won numerous international awards and accolades, including the Comitato Grandi Cru d’Italia “Best Youngest Wine Journalist of Italy” and the “Best Wine Journalist of Italy” awards, as well as Canada’s 2018 VQA award (Out of Ontario section) and 2017 Cuvée Award of Excellence.
Intensely devoted to the research and study of native wine grapes, Ian was officially named in 2015 to Italy’s prestigious Accademia della Vite e del Vino (Italy’s official association of wine academicians, researchers, and university professors) and is currently the Vice President of the Association Internationale des Terroirs.

Contacts: Instagram: @ian_dagata

Email: ian.dagata@iandagatawine.com

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Ian D’Agata Wine Academy

Ian D’Agata has led different wine schools over the years, and has been increasingly asked over the years to set up new ones for different outfits. In the early 2000s, he taught wine courses at the Gambero Rosso’s Citta’ del Gusto, and in 2003 was named co-director of the International Wine...

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