Gaja DaGromis Barolo 2007 (Barolo, Italy)
14.5%, Cork, $150

There are few more overrated producers in the world of wine than Gaja.

That may seem blasphemous to some, but I’ve never been able to equate the price difference of Angelo Gaja’s wines with any sort of quality advantage. Sure the single vineyard wines are good, but the $500 price tag is rather unreasonable given the Barolo quality around (which is why the Gaja wines just sit on shelves) and the more basic wines are never impressive enough.

This wine, a basic, multi-vineyard Barolo, is a perfect case in point, a multi-vineyard release, is a perfect case in point – roughly hewn, the fruit flattened by extrovert oak and the style already quite forward and hot, with none of the class you’d expect to see at the pricepoint.

In fact close your eyes and this doesn’t taste like Barolo from a famous set of crus at all – it could be from an aspirational new world producer with a love of oak, still trying to work out how to make Nebbiolo like they do in Barolo.

Admittedly it wasn’t a great vintage (07 was hot and uneven), but this should be a much better wine.

Source: Tasting:
Tasted: Feb 2014
Drink: 2014-2017
Score: 16.5/20, 88/100
Would I buy it? Not a chance.