The story begins with Aldo Vajra, who left Turin as a teenager to become a farmer and one of Piemonte’s early advocates for organic viticulture. Together with his wife Milena, he built an estate rooted in respect for the land and its many native grape varieties. Today, their three children, Giuseppe, Francesca and Isidoro, run the winery as the next generation of custodians.
The Vajra philosophy is simple: precision in the vineyard, transparency in the cellar and patience in the bottle. For the family, winemaking requires equal parts of ‘an astronomer’s skills and the poetry of a child staring at the sky’. Every parcel is farmed and harvested by hand, often treated as its own micro-garden. The family protects biodiversity and gives equal attention to celebrated and overlooked grapes alike, from Nebbiolo to Dolcetto and Freisa.
Their curiosity has led to several firsts in Piemonte: the region’s first Riesling planting (Pétracine, 1984–85), a revival of a 1606 Nebbiolo method with Claré JC, and experimental co-fermentations of Barbera and Freisa in the Langhe. They also maintain one of the most complex massal selections of Dolcetto and farm the last Freisa vineyard within a Barolo MGA. Each initiative is guided by detail rather than novelty.
For the Vajra family, winemaking is both craft and continuity – an effort to express site and season without excess. Their wines show balance and clarity, approachable in youth yet structured to age gracefully.
