Gaja
Ca'Marcanda "Carmarcanda"
Bolgheri
2015

The producer

One of the great entrepreneurs of modern Italian wine, Angelo Gaja’s story begins in Barbaresco where he almost single-handedly raised the Barbaresco name to world fame. In the 1990s, he turned his gaze on Tuscany, acquiring the Bolgheri property Ca’Marcanda in 1996 (following the acquisition of Brunello di Montalcino estate Pieve Santa Restituta in 1994). “The house of endless negotiations” or “Ca’ Marcanda” in Piemontese dialect was the name given to the estate since it took so long to finalise the purchase.

Situated just to the south of Ornellaia, a state-of-the-art winery was built and the 80 ha of vineyards were planted Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc, along with some Sangiovese and white varieties Vermentino, Viognier and Fiano. Today the estate is run by Gaja 5^th generation, Gaia, Rossana and Giovanni.

The wine

The flagship wine “Camarcanda” is today produced from mainly Cabernet Sauvignon (often up to 80%) with some Cabernet Franc and Merlot in the blend and spends around 12 months ageing in French oak barrels, with a further 6 months in concrete vats. A wine of abundant black fruit concentration and complex savoury and spice notes, Camarcanda is powerful and focused yet with the softest texture and length.

We choose our wines based on a range of criteria (see how we choose our wines) of which critic scores is just one. Rather than simply highlight the best score to promote a wine, our average critic score is calculated from the scores provided by several respected wine critics, who we follow for specific regions. They do not represent all critic scores and, wherever possible, we try and give more weight to more recent reviews. Where appropriate we consider market-based scores like Global Wine Score or Wine Searcher Average scores.

As a rule, we look to offer wines that achieve a 92/100 average critic score or better and frankly a lot of very good wines simply don’t make the cut. As a high-end provider we want to reflect that positioning in the quality of wines we offer. Such wines are only a tiny fraction of those generally on offer in the market. We believe that an average score is a more conservative and representative approach, but it is still subjective and only offered as a guide to our customers, who will (and should) do their own research. We will add individual critic scores to our website in the future.