It is certainly not the first time that we have written about a producer in Langa and it is not the first time that we have told about a dream that has come true, but the story of the birth of the Vajra company has something more unique than rare.
The magic of the story was largely entrusted to the young Francesca, daughter of the producers Aldo and Milena Vaira, whom we sincerely thank for taking the time.
The meeting takes place on a cold December afternoon, outside the splendid production cellar, just over 3 km from the village of Barolo.
There is a great desire to talk about oneself, unfortunately there have been few opportunities in recent months due to the pandemic.
With a prevailing calm and depth, Francesca takes us into her world and summarizes in just over 15 minutes the story of her father Aldo, who, removed from home in May 1968, discovers the love for the land and the search for balance and freedom in nature.
The fear was great, the land did not pay in those years and Aldo’s parents would have wanted in the first instance a different course of study for their son. The passion in the eyes of the young man who was still a minor made everyone change their minds in a few months.
Enthusiasm and self-denial are two terms that often recur in Aldo’s life, sacrifice and love for what you do in life always pays off.
Already in 1971, the very young Aldo joined Suolo e Salute realizing the importance of organically raising his land.
In 1972 his debut in production saw him struggling with an inclement year in which the grapes did not reach the hoped-for ripeness and that few producers have vinified in the production of Barolo.
While the world witnessed the depopulation of the countryside, in search of fortune in the cities, the young Aldo stubbornly experimented and believed in the arrival of better vintages.
Milena, Aldo’s life partner, in the 70s, simplifies and adds security to the one-way path undertaken in an obstinate and opposite direction.
In the late ’70s and early’ 80s the choices are all innovative and certainly against the trend. The massal selection in the vineyard, the Freisa cultivated at Bricco delle Viole, the first Rhine Riesling planted in Piedmont and the choice to give up small wood, in great demand at the end of the 1980s, temper the character of the company that overcomes difficult times and never loses the imaginary line drawn in the search for elegance and refinement.
It was in these years and following these choices that Aldo Vaira earned the title of “most modern of traditionalists and most traditional of modernists”.
The wines produced by Vajra are wines that do not speak aloud and do not have to flex their muscles, the territory is told in the best way and is always the main actor during the tasting.
The important altitudes (among the highest in the municipality of Barolo), the exposures and the proximity to Monviso guarantee freshness in the aromas and elegance in the matrices.
Among the wines produced the prestige of the Crus of Ravera, Cerretta, Bricco delle Viole, Baudana, Coste di Rose ed il bellissimo blend di tre MGA in Albe finds a common thread in the precision of execution and in the production of clear, straightforward and direct Barolos, which reach the reader and excite in the fragrance of the fruit.
