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Angelo Gaja's return to Barolo: Sperss, from the Marenca-Rivette amphitheatre in Serralunga d'Alba. Tar, dried rose and truffle over an austere, full frame. The 1988 debut ships as a gift-boxed double magnum; the 2019 is a 98-point keeper.
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Sour black cherry, truffle, rhubarb and liquorice over a full, austere frame, with leather, tar and dried rose out front. The 1988 debut is fully tertiary now; the 2019 still holds its dark fruit.
Tar and dried rose lead, as they did on the debut 1988, with truffle and forest floor behind: the earthy side is the Sperss calling card. Sour black cherry and a rhubarb edge keep the fruit taut, just as Gaja's own sheet has it.
Rose petal
Black cherry
Prune
Tobacco
Tar
Forest Floor
Leather
LiquoriceFull-bodied and dense, the compact clay-limestone marls of Marenca-Rivette showing as an austere, mineral spine. Ripe, spicy tannin arrives in layers with liquorice and black cherry through the middle, leather and tobacco building as the wine ages. The 2019 carries its 14% with silky tannins and bright acidity.
Long and savoury, closing on liquorice, prune and the saline mineral echo of Serralunga. On the mature 1988 the grip has resolved; expect dried cherry and balsamic length rather than tannic bite.
Drinkers stand firmly behind the critics on this wine, year after year, and on the 1988 most of all. Open the 1988 double magnum now, upright and gently decanted, for a birth-year table; cellar the 2019 towards 2045. Within Gaja's range this is the Barolo statement: Serralunga muscle where the Barbaresco single vineyards play finesse.
Two live routes into Sperss. The 1988 first release comes in three-litre double magnum, gift-boxed by Vintage Wine Gifts at £999.97 with a personalised card; the 2019 is £403.69 from Vinatis. Large formats of a debut vintage rarely resurface once sold.
75cl · 2008: £300.00, 1 UK retailer
75cl · 2013: £320.00, 1 UK retailer
75cl · 2019: £368.85 - £490.00, 3 UK retailers
75cl · 2021: £555.40, 1 UK retailer
Magnum 150cl · 2008: £655.00, 1 UK retailer
Magnum 150cl · 2019: £995.00, 1 UK retailer
Double magnum 300cl · 1988: £999.97, 1 UK retailer
The dimensions below weigh Sperss as it drinks today: a birth-year and anniversary bottle above all, food-ready beside slow-cooked beef, never an everyday pour at £400-plus. Parker's line on the 1988, 'even the price is palatable', still frames its value inside Gaja's range.
A 1988 birth-year double magnum in Gaja's original wooden box with a personalised card is a definitive milestone gift; the 2019 anchors anniversary dinners to come.
Serralunga tannin, full body and high acidity handle brasato, truffle pasta and aged cheese; Steiman's mature bottle sang beside agnolotti del plin.
The 1988 is at full maturity with a window to 2030; the 2019 is the keeper, running to 2045 with 98 points from Wine Advocate.
The debut 1988 in double magnum costs £999.97, roughly £250 per 75cl equivalent, and Parker wrote of the 1988 that 'even the price is palatable'. The 98-point 2019 at £403.69 is still icon-priced.
A tannic, austere 14% Nebbiolo whose old vintages are fully tertiary and bottle-variable; rewarding if you already know mature Barolo, daunting as a first one.
At £400 to £1,000 a bottle, wanting decanting, big glasses and an occasion, Sperss is nobody's Tuesday wine.
Scoring is rule-based and deterministic. The model and weightings are documented in our Wine Fit Score methodology.
A compact view of what the Barolo denomination actually requires, and how this bottle sits inside it. Pulled from the official Italian disciplinare.
Robert Parker scored the 1988 debut 92, 'backward, unevolved, potentially exceptional', and its window still runs to 2043. The 2019 arrived to two 98-point scores and drinks to 2045.
Drink-now / hold guidance reflects general style cues for this wine, not a forecast for a specific bottle. Where vintage-level editorial notes exist, they appear above.
Sperss sits inside Barolo DOCG: Nebbiolo in purezza, yields capped at 8 tonnes per hectare, a minimum 38 months' ageing with 18 in wood, and a ministry tasting before release. Gaja holds it 30 months in oak, 12 in small oak barrels and the rest in large casks.
Italian wine law sorts bottles into a pyramid. DOCG sits at the top: tightly drawn boundaries, prescribed grapes, mandatory ageing, government tasting before release. DOC is the same idea with looser thresholds. IGT (Indicazione Geografica Tipica) is broader still, requiring only that 85% of the grapes come from the named territory.
Barolo is in the DOCG tier. That is not a quality verdict, it is a description of how much freedom the producer has at vinification and ageing.
Barolo falls within Piedmont, covering Cuneo, Langhe: Barolo, Castiglione Falletto, Serralunga d'Alba, La Morra, Monforte d'Alba, Novello, Verduno, Grinzane Cavour, Diano d'Alba, Cherasco, Roddi. The denomination is further divided into 11 sub-zones.
Wine route
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Open the drive
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Barbaresco
Made at Gaja, Barbaresco. Directions
Wine route in the zone: Langhe Nebbiolo Route.
Sperss comes only from Gaja's Marenca-Rivette holding: compact clayey-calcareous marls, south to south-west rows at around 370 metres, vines averaging 50 years. A dozen hectares caps supply of every vintage.
The 2019 carries two 98-point scores, and Angelo Gaja was Decanter's 1998 Man of the Year. Names with this record price at the very top of Barolo.
The 1988 was the first commercial Sperss ever released. Surviving three-litre double magnums in the original wooden box are collector stock: scarcity, not production cost, sets the £999.97.
Sperss spends 12 months in small oak barrels and the rest of its 30 oak months in large casks. Barolo DOCG cannot ship before 38 months from harvest, at a maximum 8 tonnes per hectare. That is years of capital tied up per release.
Still-wine duty is £2.67 per 75cl, about £10.68 on a 3-litre format. Then 20% VAT embeds roughly £167 in the £999.97 double magnum and £67 in the £403.69 2019.
Against the tiny single-vineyard Barbarescos the 30-acre Sperss vineyard yields more bottles, keeping it below those wines' prices. Vinatis sells Sori Tildin at £603.85 beside Sperss at £403.69.
Serralunga tannin and Nebbiolo acidity want protein and umami: brasato al Barolo, white-truffle tajarin, porcini risotto. Wine Spectator's Steiman drank a mature debut-era Sperss beside agnolotti del plin; serve the 2019 at 16-18C after an hour in a carafe.
Sperss carries the ripe, spicy tannin of Serralunga's compact clay-limestone marls; slow-braised beef collagen and rendered fat soften that grip while the wine's savoury depth meets the roasting juices. Steiman's mature bottle turned creamy against Piedmontese cooking.
Try with: Brasato al Barolo · Ossobuco alla Milanese · Beef stew · More pairings →
Leather, tar and truffle run through Sperss, and Gaja's own sheet names truffle outright. White-truffle tajarin and porcini dishes carry those same compounds, bridging dish and wine aroma rather than fighting them.
Try with: Tajarin al Tartufo · Truffle risotto · Porcini mushroom risotto · More pairings →
Even at 14% the 2019 keeps bright acidity, and mature Sperss holds that spine too. It cuts through butter-mounted saffron risotto and rich egg pasta, resetting the palate between forkfuls.
Try with: Risotto alla Milanese · Agnolotti del Plin · Radicchio risotto · More pairings →
Full-bodied and dense, Sperss matches the weight of roast beef and slow game casseroles. The dried-cherry and tobacco register of the mature wine echoes browned meat and pan juices without needing fresh-fruit sweetness.
Try with: Sunday Roast Beef · Beef wellington · Venison Stew · More pairings →
Barolo's classic partner is mature cheese: tannin binds the milk fat and Nebbiolo acidity scrubs it, and sharp, full-flavoured wheels suit it best. Build the board around aged, crystalline cheeses rather than fresh, milky ones.
Try with: Cheese board · Blue cheese · Gorgonzola, pear, and walnut risotto · More pairings →
Capsaicin amplifies alcohol and tannin: against a 14% Barolo it reads as burn, and it flattens the fragile dried-rose and truffle aromatics a 1988 has spent decades building. Keep chilli-led dishes for a young Barbera d'Asti instead.
Skip with: Szechuan beef · Crispy chilli beef · Mongolian beef · Pairing guide →
Angelo Gaja was 'Mr Barbaresco' until 1988, when he bought a 70-acre Serralunga vineyard that had supplied the family's Barolos before 1961 and named it Sperss, Piedmontese dialect for nostalgia. This double magnum is that story's first chapter, in its original wooden box.
A short splash decant softens the first-pour edge and opens the aromatics.
Aim for the cooler end on a warm day; warmer end opens up more aromatics.
The 1988 is at full maturity with a window to 2030; the 2019 is the keeper, running to 2045 with 98 points from Wine Advocate.
£265.00 for a 75cl bottle of the 2011, at Hedonism Wines, is the best price we track, and we have no signal of further discounting.
Read directly from each retailer’s public product page once a day. Last refresh: 25 Oct 2026, 02:54 BST. We do not hold stock and we do not accept payment for placement.
Confidence · HighDrawn from what drinkers consistently report on Vivino, summarised in our own words. A crowd read across many tasters, not a single critic. Drinkers score it 4.6 out of 5 from 12,816 ratings on Vivino.
Confidence · MediumFrom the official Italian disciplinare for this denomination, cross-checked against the Ministry of Agriculture register.
Confidence · HighOur reading of the price, drawn from the disciplinare, public UK duty rates, and typical landed-cost benchmarks. Not a quote from the producer or a retailer.
Confidence · MediumStyle guidance for this kind of wine at this price point. Treat it as advice, not a forecast for the bottle in your hand.
Confidence · MediumYes. 1988 was a very good, classically structured Barolo year. Parker called the debut Sperss 'backward, unevolved, potentially exceptional', and its drinking window still runs to 2043. Expect a fully tertiary wine now, dried rose, tar, leather and dried cherry rather than fresh fruit, with some bottle variation inevitable at this age. The three-litre double magnum format also matures more slowly than standard bottles.
Sperss was Angelo Gaja's return to Barolo. The family had made Barolo from bought Serralunga grapes until 1961, then went all-estate in Barbaresco. In 1988 Angelo bought a 70-acre Serralunga vineyard that had supplied those pre-1961 Barolos. He named it Sperss, Piedmontese dialect for nostalgia. The 1988 was its first commercial release.
Stand the bottle upright for a day or two, open carefully because old corks can be fragile, and decant gently only to leave sediment behind. Older Barolos want air, but a 38-year-old wine can fade if pushed hard, so taste as you go. Serve at 16-18C in large glasses. The young 2019 is different: give it a full hour in a carafe.
Both vintages listed here are pure Nebbiolo: Barolo DOCG requires it, and the 2019 is 100% Nebbiolo, as was the 1988 debut. For a stretch of vintages from the mid-1990s Gaja sold Sperss as Langhe DOC with a small Barbera component, before returning it to Barolo DOCG. Mid-era labels read differently; neither wine on this page is affected.
At the time of writing the live listings on this page show the 1988 double magnum at £999.97 from Vintage Wine Gifts. It ships in its original wooden box with a free personalised gift card. The 2019 is £403.69 from Vinatis. Sperss sits below Gaja's single-vineyard Barbarescos: Vinatis also sells Sori Tildin at around £604.
For a 1988 birthday, wedding or retirement year it is about as strong as wine gifting gets. It is the debut vintage of a famous producer's return to Barolo, in a rare three-litre double magnum. The retailer ships it in the original wooden box with a personalised card, and couriers require an adult signature on delivery.
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