The 2017 growing season saw a couple of violent hail events in the Barbaresco appellation, and this celebrated vineyard suffered some damage during a storm that hit on July 19th. Yields were reduced, but the wine holds its own thanks to the careful fruit selection process put in place by the Gaja family. Their 2017 Barbaresco Sorì San Lorenzo is a shade richer in terms of flavor concentration, as is always the case with fruit from this slightly warmer growing site. However, like the other two single-vineyard Barbaresco expressions, this wine reveals a thin, sharp and nervous personality that is driven in large part by tannic firmness and acidity. Sorì San Lorenzo adds lots of dark mineral definition to cassis, wild cherry, rose and Provence herbs. Like the other wines, it needs extra cellar aging time.

This is generally the most austere of the three Gaja single-vineyard wines, and it has also been described as 'wilder'. In this vintage the nose does seem to have more weight than Sori Tildin, with rich raspberry and cherry aromas. It's sumptuous, full-bodied and concentrated, with considerable density and weight. Despite its youthful chewiness, it's still polished and balanced, with a very long finish.

Also light ruby hued (all of the 2017s are on the lighter hued side), the 2017 Barbaresco Sori San Lorenzo comes from a warmer terroir and was brought up in barrel. It has beautiful red fruits as well as complex notes of spring flowers, spice, and menthol. Playing in the elegant, seamless end of the spectrum, with impressive tannins, it has slightly more concentration compared to the Sori Tilden (which is normal for this cuvée) yet it still shows the more streamlined, elegant style shared by all the 2017s from Gaja. This beautiful, nuanced, complex Barbaresco needs 5-6 years of bottle age and will keep for 20+ years.

Barbaresco. From the Secondine cru. Tasted blind. Mid ruby with orange tinges. Full, ripe yet fine nose with plenty of depth. Succulent and elegant palate with generous, sweet-sour cherry fruit and truly animating, crunchy tannins. Lots of everything but contained and poised at the same time. (WS)