The Val d'Aosta is a small mountainous valley tucked away in the north-west corner of Piedmont, bounded by France and Switzerland.  The wine culture here is quite different from that found in Piedmont, a different landscape entirely; very high altitude vineyards (up to 3,000 or even 4,000 feet above sea level), many indigenous varieties, and steep, terraced vineyards. The wines found around the town of Aymaville are mostly red, which is interesting (high-altitude viticulture is usually concerned with red wine), and there is a very distinctive smoky, plummy, berryish quality that immediately draws you in. These flavors, and the savory brightness that comes from high altitude, make me wish I'd found these wines sooner.

‘We practice 'classic' viticulture, which is to say that we still hoe the soil in our vineyards, allowing us to reduce the use of herbicide to a minimum; we still fertilize with manure. Other treatments are also kept to a minimum, and we observe the rules of 'lutte raisonée,' avoiding the use of dangerous agricultural chemicals and pesticides. We still use the traditional mixture of copper sulfate and sulfur against fungal disease; the particular climate of our hillside vineyards is our best defence against vine diseases.

In the cellar we respect as much as possible the qualities of our raw materials, intervening as little as possible, and then where possible with physical processes such as racking and temperature control, rather than the use of chemicals. The quality of wine is created in the vineyard, not in the cellar!’

DOC Vallée d'Aoste Rouge 'Touvien'

Soils: of glacial origin consisting largely of sand with many stones. The vines are trained with the Guyot method, with around 7,000 vines per hectare; the yield is less than 3 tons per acre.

Climate: alpine, characterised by low winter temperatures and high summer temperatures, with a large diurnal variation during the growing season. Very low rainfall, less than 24 inches/year.

Grapes: blend of 7 black-skinned indigenous varieties: Petit Rouge, Premetta, Fumin, Vien de Nus, Mayolet, Cornalin, Vuillermin

Vinification: harvest is around October 10th. The grapes are de-stemmed and subjected to a slow fermentation (10-15 days) on the skins; primary fermentation and malolactic both occur spontaneously, the MLF traditonally in the spring following the harvest, as the wine warms up. The wine is then aged in stainless steel tanks, racked and cold stablilised. Bottling takes place in September following the harvest.

*Grande Vigne de Veyne, Ch. Feuillet, Montagnina, Torrette, Toule, Conze, Condemine, Boné

Vineyards: the Petit Rouge grapes used to make this wine come from two of our vineyards, Château Feuillet and Boné, located between 2,100 and 2,600 feet above sea level, south-facing and with an average slope of 35%. Training is Guyot, and vine density is about 7,000 plants per hectare. Yield is less than 3 tons per acre.

Soil: of glacial origin consisting largely of sand with many stones. The vines are trained with the Guyot method, with around 7,000 vines per hectare; the yield is less than 3 tons per acre.

Climate: alpine, characterised by low winter temperatures and high summer temperatures, with a large diurnal variation during the growing season. Very low rainfall, less than 24 inches/year.

Vinification: harvest takes place around October 15th. The grapes are de-stemmed and subjected to a slow fermentation (10-15 days) on the skins; primary fermentation and malolactic both occur spontaneously, the MLF traditonally in the spring following the harvest, as the wine warms up. The wine is then aged in stainless steel tanks, racked and cold stablilised. Bottling takes place in August following the harvest.

Vineyard: the grapes used to make this wine come entirely from our vineyard at Ch. Feuillet, which is located at 2,100 feet above sea level, south-facing and with an average slope of 15%.

Soil: of glacial origin consisting largely of sand with many stones. The vines are trained with the Guyot method, with around 7,000 vines per hectare; the yield is less than 3 tons per acre.

Climate: alpine, characterised by low winter temperatures and high summer temperatures, with a large diurnal variation during the growing season. Very low rainfall, less than 24 inches/year.

Vinification: harvest takes place around October 15th. The grapes are de-stemmed and subjected to a slow fermentation (10-15 days) on the skins; primary fermentation and malolactic both occur spontaneously, the MLF traditonally in the spring following the harvest, as the wine warms up. The wine is then aged in stainless steel tanks, racked and cold stablilised. Bottling takes place in August following the harvest.

Soil: of glacial origin consisting largely of sand with many stones. The vines are trained with the Guyot method, with around 7,000 vines per hectare; the yield is less than 3 tons per acre.

Climate: alpine, characterised by low winter temperatures and high summer temperatures, with a large diurnal variation during the growing season. Very low rainfall, less than 24 inches/year.

Vinification: harvest takes place around October 15th. The grapes are de-stemmed and subjected to a slow fermentation (10-15 days) on the skins; primary fermentation and malolactic both occur spontaneously, the MLF traditonally in the spring following the harvest, as the wine warms up. The wine is then aged in stainless steel tanks, racked. Bottling takes place in September following the harvest.

*Grande Vigne de Veyne, Ch. Feuillet, Montagnina, Torrette, Toule, Conze