A morning with Giuseppe Vaira
Not long ago, I spent a delightful early morning at a Zoom session with Giuseppe Vaira of G.D. Vajra of Langhe. This took in 6 of their wines including Barolos, a Barbera d’Alba and a fresher Nebbiolo.
I didn’t taste along at the time. It was 8 am and just too early for me to do a proper tasting, but listening to the story and the roots of this winery and their passions from Giuseppe, I was immediately longing to visit and learn more.
G.D. Vajra & Aldo
The winery dates back to 1971, when Aldo Vajra, (Giuseppe’s father) adopted organic farming practices. He was one of the few in the region to do so and found it necessary to learn the techniques in secret, as they were so unpopular in the Barolo wine community.
But Aldo was no stranger to following what he believed was right. In fact, it is a family tradition.
This was a family of farmers, but Giuseppe’s grandfather was orphaned from his mother at a young age and sent to boarding school.
At this border school during WWII, his grandfather and some of his friends stood against Mussolini and were thrown in jail at 15 and 16. After the war, he landed a job with the Ministry of Defense. He proposed and moved to Torino with his new bride. He was the first in the family to move away from the farm.
Living in Torino, they raised a family, and Aldo (Giuseppe’s father) was born and raised in this urban environment.
In 1968, Aldo decided to march in a protest against the army.* His father spotted him and sent him to the farm in the country to work with the sharecroppers as punishment. It was here that Aldo discovered his love for farming.
*This was the Sessantoto movement, which began with student protests that expanded to industrial workers. This was discontent with capitalism and patriarchy.
About the Winery
The winery name? Vajra is the ancient way of writing the family name, which in modernity is now typically spelled with an “i” as Vaira. The G.D. stands for Aldo’s father Giuseppe Domenico, who gave him his first vineyards.
The winery is located on the western edge of the Barolo region in Piemonte. The original vineyard in Bricco delle Viole was, for many years, the highest in the region.
“This location… is a fragile, but beautiful place. It is fragile, because when the storm comes, we see it from far away. But it is beautiful, because it is a place where light wins over heat.” Giuseppe tells us.
They have good ventilation and a high diurnal shift, which is the difference between daytime and nighttime temperatures that causes the fruit to ripen slowly, thereby maintaining acidity and freshness.
“The ripening for the fruit is induced by quality of light rather than temperature. This is a blessing in this time of crazy weather and overall trend of heating.”
Organic farming at G.D. Vajra
I mentioned earlier that they were a pioneer of organic farming in Piemonte. There is a story here.
His father was allowed to farm, but his family insisted that he pursue a college degree. This was a blessing, as he was able to teach viticulture locally in high schools, earning extra money to invest back into the farm early in his career.
Professor Francesco Garafolo was the only professor at the university who was interested in what might be translated today as “sustainable agriculture.”
His father, Aldo, and perhaps 3 or 4 of his friends would meet with Professor Garafolo, but it had to be behind closed doors.
Organic farming was not the flavor of the day at the University of Torino in the 1970s. It was not this type of farming that paid the research bills. They were the outliers; this was not discussed in public.
Even as a child in the 1990s, Giuseppe realized they were the only vineyard with grass, or what we now think of as cover crops. He came home one day at around 9 years old and asked, “Dad, why do we have grass in our vineyards?”
This legacy has not always been easy, but it is worth it.
GD Vajra Claré J.C. 2024
The time since this tasting has been full with life leaving little time for designing proper pairings. I managed to sneak one in for a forgotten style of Nebbiolo, the grape of Barolo.
Barolo is typically regarded as the quintessential, big, bold, and rich red wine of Piemonte. Old school wine lovers highly revere it in the way of Cabernet.
The Claré J. C. Langhe Nebbiolo by G.D. Vajra unlike a typical Nebbiolo, is bright and fresh.
Its origins are both traditional and modern, stemming from the family’s love of reading and research. They have a 3,000-book library on viticulture, geology, and winemaking, available to their staff, and Giuseppe is an avid reader and book collector.
Giuseppe found a book written by Gian Battista Croce, written in 1606, while searching for books in an old warehouse. Croce was a jeweler of the House of Savoy who considered himself a good winemaker and wrote about a method of making Chiaretto di Nebbiolo. Giuseppe was intrigued and wanted to recreate a wine based on those methods.
In other research, Giuseppe found references to Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson had tasted sparkling Nebbiolo during his visit to Piemonte in 1787. He had described that wine as “about as sweet as the silky Madeira, as astringent on the palate as Bordeaux, and as brisk as Champagne. It is a pleasing wine.” **
Later in 1806, he described a shipment of sparkling Nebbiolo that he received as “superlatively fine.” So obviously, he loved it so much that he ordered it! I suppose he was part of an early wine club.***
So the name came from “Claré”, for a bright red wine, the “J.” for Jefferson, and the “C.” for Croce, whose writings inspired the creation of this wine.
This is a Chiaretto-style wine that has less structure than a typical Barolo and a slight fizz. Originally, this would have been created by hammering the cap into the barrel to seal in the bubbles (the CO2). Today, we might consider this a partial Carbonic maceration. The Claré JC has approximately 1/5 of the grapes undergoing whole-cluster fermentation. In this process, the grapes are not crushed, but instead ferment within their skins, inside each berry. This method is similar to the one used to produce Beaujolais Nouveau.
The result is a fresh fruit-forward wine with a touch of sweetness and perhaps a sensation of spritziness on the palate. It is joyful and chillable! Perfect for the heat of summer, where enjoying a Nebbiolo typically requires cranking up the AC.
100% Nebbiolo from younger vineyards, this wine is a partially carbonic macerated wine. It is briefly macerated and then racked off the skins to preserve freshness. It does a short aging in stainless steel before bottling.
2024 was their 10th vintage of this wine.
Notes: bright cherry, orange peel, raspberries, white pepper, baking spices, soft note of smoke, and a bit of fennel.
The tannins are light on the palate, with light bitter notes of cranberry on the finish. It has a sense of effervescence.
13% abv – $26.97 (at Wine.com)
** Jefferson, Notes of a Tour into the Southern Parts of France, &c., March 3–June 10, 1787, in PTJ, 11:435. Transcription available at Founders Online.
*** You can read more on the wine notes of our 3rd President at https://www.monticello.org/research-education/thomas-jefferson-encyclopedia/wine/#fn-5
Pairing with Pumpkin Ragu
So…what to pair with this bright wine? I wanted to stick to the region, but wanted the flavors to be brighter. A friend suggested a sugo, but I wanted something a bit thicker and chunkier, so I suppose what I created was more of a meatless ragu. With the brightness of the wine, I wanted to steer away from the umami notes that tomatoes would bring. Beaujolais Nouveau is often suggested to pair with Thanksgiving dishes. Pumpkin, nutmeg, and lighter meats all work well with carbonic macerated wines.
So, I opted to make a pumpkin ragu, substituting pumpkin puree for the tomatoes and featuring nutmeg as my primary spice. I went with thyme rather than sage or rosemary to lighten the flavors.
Michael volunteered to make the pasta, so we had fresh linguini to toss with the sugo.
Thoughts for the future…
I might add pecans to the sugo and perhaps sweat down some fennel with the onions. This sugo would also be great on toast or crostini, with a bit of fresh fennel shaved on top.
Michael had tasted the sugo along the way as I was cooking it and suggested adding tomato. We opted to pull part of the sugo and brown some tomato paste to mix in and add the umami note. While this did make a great sugo, in the end, we found that the pumpkin sugo without tomato worked better with the wine.
The wine brought out amazing fruit notes from the pumpkin and was lively with the notes of nutmeg.
Pumpkin Ragu with Linguini
A lighter version of a ragu, perfect to pair with a Chiaretto di Nebbiolo.
This ragu forgoes the tomatoes. We use a bit of pork sausage and cook our soffritto in a bit of duck fat to add richness. Pumpkin takes the place of the tomato which pairs beautifully with this fruit forward wine. For spice, we use nutmeg and our herb is thyme. This is a lighter brighter version of a sauce that we tossed with freshly made linguini!
Ingredients
- 1 Italian sausage, uncased
- 1 tbsp duck fat
- 1 red onion, diced
- 3 cloves of garlic, grated
- 1 large carrot, grated
- 1 stalk of celery, finely diced
- 1 can (15 oz) pumpkin
- ½ cup red wine
- 1 tbsp fresh thyme
- ½ tsp freshly grated nutmeg
- Salt & pepper to taste
Notes
Our nutrition information below, does not add in the pasta!
Nutrition Information
Yield
6Serving Size
1Amount Per Serving Calories 95Total Fat 6gSaturated Fat 2gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 4gCholesterol 9mgSodium 156mgCarbohydrates 5gFiber 1gSugar 1gProtein 3g
Nutrition information isn’t always accurate.
Robin Renken is a wine writer and Certified Specialist of Wine and WSET 3 Certified. She and her husband Michael travel to wine regions interviewing vineyard owners and winemakers and learning the stories behind the glass.
When not traveling they indulge in cooking and pairing wines with food at home in Las Vegas.
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