Aldo Vaira
2018 G.D. Vajra, Barolo `Albe`
Aldo Vaira was 15 years old in May 1968 when he joined a group of young protesters, who flooded the streets of Turin. When discovered by his father, Giuseppe Domenico Vaira, he was immediately sent to Barolo to spend the summer in his grandparents' farm, far away from trouble.
The teenager spent time between vines and fields and, to his amazement, he enjoyed it. These few weeks amidst the beauty of nature and freedom would shape the rest of his life.
The young Aldo Vaira’s decision to stay in Barolo came as shock to his family, especially while these where the years of the economic boom as people fled villages.
The vineyards situated in the village of Vergne, three kilometres from the centre of Barolo at an altitude up to 400 meters, had been in the family since the 1920s, but only became economically viable to farm once the Italian DOC system was used in the 1960s.
G.D. Vajra stands for Giuseppe Domenico, Aldo Vaira's father, who signed the founding documents of the winery in 1972, when Aldo himself was still a minor.
In the very early days of his adventure, Aldo joined Suolo e Salute (the Italian Body for organic certification). He became a pioneer of organic farming in Piedmont. Although 1972 was a harsh year, the young man didn’t give up, and produced his first bottles.
When Aldo met Milena in the early 1980s, they shared the same inspiration. The couple says, ‘The seeds blossomed into beautiful flowers’.
