Not Modern, Not Traditional
Francesca tells me her father attended the organic farming lectures in secret.
The university was officially sponsored by the chemical and tractor industries. The professor taught only five students, in a room that was not on any schedule. The reading list included Maria Thun, Rudolf Steiner, the early biodynamic literature that the agricultural mainstream hadn't decided to ridicule yet. Three of those five students got certified together — Aldo in vines, his godfather in hazelnuts, a friend in wheat and corn. 1971. The first organic certification in the Barolo region, and possibly in all of Piemonte, earned in a room that officially did not exist.
He kept the double life for years. Farmer, student, teacher. Then in 1986 a hailstorm destroyed the entire harvest. The vines were already two metres tall. The Italian market — customers who had bought his Dolcetto, Barbera, and Nebbiolo — was gone in a season. He had three employees. One full-time. Two women working part-time. He sat with the weight of what the disaster meant for their families, not just his own.
He refused to downsize.
The older farmers in the region came to him afterwards. People whose children had left for Turin, whose land had no one to receive it. They asked what he was going to do. When they saw he intended to keep going, they offered him their parcels. Not transactions — acts of trust. Start farming. We'll fix the price later. Pay over two or three years. The vineyard names Vajra uses today — Fino, Mazino, Gigi, Marello — are the names of those farmers. Still on the labels. Still carried.
That is what the 1986 hailstorm made possible.
G.D. Vajra farms approximately 80 hectares across the Langhe, including 20 hectares of Barolo across Bricco delle Viole, Ravera, Coste di Rose, and Fossati. First organic certified winery in the Barolo region, 1971. Stewards of the Luigi Baudana estate in Serralunga d'Alba since 2009. Founded Vergne, 1972.
