Gaja, Promis, 2021

This is an incredible wine.

Svelte, smooth, rich and mouth-coating style that is so delicious and wonderful so long as it is balanced by flavour depth, complexity and body. Which it is. A touch of vanilla spice with blackberry, plum, red-berry compote and -that Celtic Tiger menu staple- coulis. It is one of the wines that we genuinely believe will put a smile on anyone's face. 

This wine is a stunning piece of work from one of the best winemakers in the world, Angelo Gaja, who is often considered to be the best winemaker that Italy has ever produced. It is a blend of Merlot, Syrah and Sangiovese that sees a little oak, not that you'd notice it, and the wine just feels like a wonderful Tuscan feast waiting to happen. Savour this, or at least give it to someone who will.

Gaja is famed for his wines made in the Piemonte communes of Barbaresco and Barolo, which is where he lives, but this wine is from Tuscany and is grown on the estate that Gaja bought in the 1990s. It's located not in Chianti, but in the Maremma coast land beside the town of Bolgheri. The neighbours of the estate, called Ca' Marcanda, are Sassicaia and Ornellaia. Kind of proves that the estate agents were earning their keep.

The vineyards here are clayey limestone with a rich and dark topsoil, called 'terre brune' in Italian. Planted with 55% Merlot, for a bit of St Emilion reference, 35% Syrah, for something from the Rhone valley, and 10% Sangiovese because they're in Tuscany after all, it looks like an unusual blend but it works because what Gaja searches for is not just the style of a finished article, but the best quality that he can get from each plot of land. This way the blend is not as important as the place. That's what makes him so special. Or it's because he farms special places, but that's not the point. the point is that Gaja represents amazing soils and an ability to farm and vinify them impeccably. That's what you get!

The name Promis does mean 'promise' and it was the promise that Gaja made to his family that this new venture in Tuscany would maintain the high quality that they were used to seeing in Piemonte. Good to know!