Your cellar, your trips, and the wines you've been tracking are right where you left them.
New here?
Free, always. Education first, we'll never sell you anything you didn't ask to see.
Already have an account?
Enter the email you signed up with and we'll send a link to choose a new password.
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.
Gaja's importer sheet lists sour black cherry, truffle, rhubarb and liquorice over a full, austere frame, and 12,816 Vivino ratings averaging 4.6 lean the same way: 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, the pair Parker found on the debut 1988, with truffle and forest floor behind: earthy notes drew 676 mentions across Vivino's 2,103 written reviews of Sperss. Gaja's sheet adds sour black cherry and a rhubarb edge that keeps the fruit taut.
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 the bright acidity Vinatis's card notes.
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.
A 4.6 from 12,816 Vivino ratings, 4.7 on the 1988 itself, puts drinkers firmly behind the critics on this wine. 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 crus play finesse.
Two live routes into Sperss: the 1988 first release in three-litre double magnum, gift-boxed by Vintage Wine Gifts at £999.97 with a personalised card, and the 2019 at £403.69 from Vinatis. Large formats of a debut vintage rarely resurface once sold.
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 on Vinatis's card with 98 points from Wine Advocate.
£999.97 buys the debut 1988 in double magnum, 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.
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.
Compare tracked offers from verified retailers at a glance. Stock is shown only where the retailer exposes it. Logos, sale pricing, and the strongest offer are surfaced first.
Robert Parker scored the 1988 debut 92, 'backward, unevolved, potentially exceptional', and the retailer still lists its window to 2043. The 2019 arrived to 98 from Wine Advocate and 98 from Vinous, with Vinatis's card running it to 2045.
The debut vintage of Sperss, from Gaja's Marenca-Rivette holding in Serralunga, in a very good, classically structured Barolo year. Fully mature, savoury and truffled, with a few graceful years still ahead.
The debut vintage of Sperss, from Gaja's Marenca-Rivette holding in Serralunga, in a very good, classically structured Barolo year. Fully mature, savoury and truffled, with a few graceful years still ahead.
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 barrique 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.
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 98 from Wine Advocate and 98 from Vinous on the Vinatis card, 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 barrique and the rest of its 30 oak months in large casks, and Barolo DOCG cannot ship before 38 months from harvest at a maximum 8 tonnes per hectare: years of capital tied up per release.
Still-wine duty is £2.67 per 75cl, about £10.68 on a 3-litre format, and 20% VAT embeds roughly £167 in the £999.97 double magnum and £67 in the £403.69 2019.
Against the tiny single-cru Barbarescos the 30-acre Sperss vineyard yields more bottles, keeping it below those wines' prices: Vinatis lists Sori Tildin at £603.85 beside Sperss at £403.69.
Dishes that complement this wine
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; Vinatis serves 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 →
Vivino drinkers log 676 earthy mentions of leather, tar and truffle in Sperss, and Gaja's importer sheet lists 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 the bright acidity Vinatis's card highlights, 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 on the importer sheet, 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, the pairing Tannico's Barolo guide points to with sharp, full-flavoured wheels. 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.
The 1988 is at full maturity with a window to 2030; the 2019 is the keeper, running to 2045 on Vinatis's card with 98 points from Wine Advocate.
£400.00 is the lowest tracked offer for the current vintage and we have no signal of further discounting.
Read directly from each retailer’s public product page once a day. Last refresh: 29 Jul 2026, 01:49 BST. We do not hold stock and we do not accept payment for placement.
Confidence · HighDrawn from what drinkers consistently report on Vivino and Wine-Searcher, summarised in our own words. A crowd read across many tasters, not a single critic.
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, and Parker called the debut Sperss 'backward, unevolved, potentially exceptional' with a window the retailer still lists as running 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 and 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: Vinatis recommends a full hour in a carafe.
Both vintages listed here are pure Nebbiolo: Barolo DOCG requires it, and Vinatis's technical card lists the 2019 as 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, so 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, shipped in its original wooden box with a free personalised gift card, and the 2019 at £403.69 from Vinatis. Sperss sits below Gaja's single-cru Barbarescos: the same retailer lists Sori Tildin at around £604.
For a 1988 birthday, wedding or retirement year it is about as strong as wine gifting gets: 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.
Affiliate disclosure. Some links above are affiliate links. If you buy through them we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Editorial coverage, ratings and tasting notes are written independently and a retailer cannot pay to be listed or to be ranked higher.
How retailer prices are sourced.
Prices and stock are read from each retailer’s public product page once a day. Outbound buy links carry rel="nofollow sponsored noopener". The list is sorted by price; we do not accept payment for placement.
What we will never do. Imply we tasted a bottle when we didn’t. Imply stock when a retailer is out. Imply independence on links that are paid affiliate links.
Verified retailers
Price comparison
Updated daily
