My name is Keith Beavers, and I would like to apologize to the apples on my counter that I picked from an orchard early in the fall that I still haven't gotten around to eating or using in anything.What's going on, wine lovers?
From the Vine Parent Podcast Network, this is the Wine 101 Podcast. My name is Keith Beavers, and I'm the Tastings Director of Vinebear.You know, I was like, we're done talking about Nebbiolo, but I'm like, wait a second, wait a second.
We have to talk about that place that's really far north.The farthest north in Italy, it does have Nebbiolo, but it has other things too.It's called Valle d'Aosta, and we have to talk about it.It's important, guys.
And when I say important, what I mean is the past couple episodes, you know, I'm talking about why in regions you may not have heard of, or maybe have heard of, but haven't been able to explore or kind of been your, they've kind of been your peripherals, but not in your, whatever is the opposite of peripheral.
Anyway, I feel like this region we're about to talk about is very important.Not because,
Well, for a lot of things, there's amazing wine being made in this region, but just like the last two episodes, exploration, getting excited about wines that you may not know a lot about.
I mean, this season I've talked a lot about famous stuff, right?We've done history deep dives into the most famous wines in the world. And through this five seasons or so, we've talked about, you know, a lot of kind of well-known stuff.
I've dipped a little bit in here and out of the more quote unquote obscure stuff, but there's something awesome about searching like Indiana Jones hat, like searching awesome wines.And Valle de Aosta is one of those wine regions that is so cool.
And the wine is so unique. And there's not a lot of it out, there's not a lot of it out there, but there is wines from this region on the American market.And we're going to talk all about it.
But also, I don't know about you guys, but like, after I finished researching this episode and I was ready to hit record, my first thought was, man, I want to go to this place.I want to be in this region.I want to be in these mountains.
I want to experience this culture and I want to drink this wine there. I know we all can't get to Italy, but if, man, if you get a chance to go to Valle d'Aosta, I haven't gone.I want to go.
I've been as far north as the Dolomites and somewhere in the Alps, but I need to go to this place because I just, I love it so much.And I remember selling these wines when I was doing my thing.
Anyway, my gosh, I got to step off this soapbox and get into this. In the Western Alps, there is a mountain range called the Graian Alps.I'm probably butchering that, G-R-A-I-A-N, mountain range.And it's pretty famous for two specific mountains.
One's called Matterhorn and one is called Mont Blanc.Mont Blanc is the source of the river Dora Baltea. It runs south, then it curves east, going east to west through a mountain range, creating a valley known now as the Aosta Valley.
It then turns south and heads down towards Piedmont.And there, I believe, it drains into the Po River.And the valley is so prominent here that the region is called Valle d'Aosta, or the Valley of Aosta, or Aosta Valley.
It's western border is a region of southeastern France called Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes.Valais and Switzerland are to the north and Piedmont, as I expressed before, is the border to the southeast.And the capital of this Valdosta is a town called Aosta.
Two very unique things here.This is the least densely populated area in all of Italy and it is the highest region in Italy.And because of its proximity to France,
The local language is Italian and French and often sometimes, well not often, but sometimes you'll see wine labels with Italian and sometimes you'll see wine labels with French.But also there is a very well preserved dialect here called Valdotain.
I think it's Valdotain.It's V-A-L-D-O-T-A-I-N.And what's really The cool about this is the breakdown in language in this small place is 77% Italian, 18% Valentine, and only 1.25% French.And 50% of all the populace can speak all three.
That's pretty cool. The word Vala d'Aosta means the Valley of Aosta or Aosta Valley, and that comes from when the Romans came up here to conquer the local tribes.
The Celts were here back in the day, then a tribe called the Ligures, and then a tribe called the Salaci.The Romans came in around 25 BC, conquered the Salaci, created what's called
Augusta Praetoria Salisorum or the country or the land of Augustus, the Roman emperor, but giving credit to the tribe that was there.
They built a city there that was the name of the city and they went about the business of creating roads and bridges and helping people to navigate this because they secured and conquered this area because this mountain pass was very important to get from the Northern part of Europe to the Southern part of Europe.
And that's why today it's called Valle d'Aosta or the Valley of Augustus.
And so what happens here is you have this river that cuts through this mountain range and it courses through what is the extreme Northwest of Italy in which the river itself connects it to France and Switzerland and Northern Europe.
And of course, if you have a river cutting through a mountain range, you have very rugged landscapes and you have a lot of hills, which means terraced vineyards.
But what's really cool is that the mountains that jut up from this valley are so extreme that it protects the valley from whatever's happening on the other side of the Alps.
Meaning there's a rain shelter and also it captures a lot of radiation from the Sun so this valley does get kind of warm even though it's all the way up in the northwestern part of Italy.
One reason you may not have heard of wine from Valle d'Aosta is because a lot of it is consumed locally.
But a reason why you may have heard about the wines from Valle d'Aosta is because three quarters of the wine produced there is by co-op wineries with about 450 current members.
And with co-op wines, you get a lower price point, easier to get wines over to the United States.And so we're seeing some wines from this very small wine region.They're out there.
But according to the Oxford Wine Companion, less than a quarter of the region's annual production qualifies for DOC status and is sold locally.That's why I want to visit this place.And also with. A couple of things is just wild about this place.
It's, it has seven sub zones, which I'm going to get into.And it's a region that has very, very specific indigenous varieties while also using what the Oxford wine companion calls introduced grapes, which I like. more than international as a term.
I like introduced grapes.That makes sense.Cause some of the grapes are introduced from France.Some of the grapes introduced from other regions of Italy.I don't know.It's pretty cool.
And because of this list of introduced grapes, they have an association of, of some of these growers that are attached to the cooperative that have an initiative to preserve ancient winemaking with indigenous varieties in the region, which is,
Awesome.So what you have is a small region that makes red and white wine from seven subzones that cling to the hills of the river Dora Baltea that runs through the valley.For introduced varieties, They have Nebbiolo.Here, they call it Pico Tendro.
They have Gamay.They have Dolcetto.And those are the reds.For white, they have Chardonnay and Pinot Grigio.But here, they call Pinot Grigio Nous de Malvoisie.Not to be confused with Malvasia.
It's completely different, but that's just the name it got because, you know, history. Now, the indigenous varieties are some you may not have heard before because these varieties do not really make it outside of Valle de Aosta.
For reds, you have Petit Rouge, extremely, extremely important red wine grape in this area, Fumin, F-U-M-I-N, and a grape called Vienne du Neus.
They also have a native Swiss variety here, I actually forgot to tell you, is an introduced grape called Arvin.And for white wine grapes, they have one very famous one called Prie Blanc, P-R-I-E Blanc, and Moscato Blanc.Is it indigenous?Is it not?
I don't know.Moscato has been everywhere all for so long.It could be indigenous.It could be introduced.Who knows?And with the white wines in this area, they do sweet and dry.Okay.
So the viticultural area of the Val d'Aosta or the valley is a 45 mile stretch of the river beginning in the north with a town called Morgé and then running all the way down to an area called Donaz.
And these are also sub regions of this larger region. The overarching D.O.C.is called D.O.C.Valdeosta, and it was awarded in the 80s.I think it was like 1986 or something like that.
And what's unique here is that that's just the D.O.C., but then you have subzones within the D.O.C.that are not D.O.C.'s themselves.So this is a very, almost like a village, but not really because
They have specific rules in each of the subzones of the DOC.It's definitely unique.So let's run through these. There are seven of them and I'm going to go from west to east.So the northernmost sub-region is called Morgé et de la Salle.
And all that really means is that at this certain junction of the river, the south-facing slopes run the contour in, There's a contour of the river that meets two municipalities or two villages.
One is called Morgé and one is called La Salle, so that's how that works out.These are some of the highest elevated vineyards in all of Europe, and they are all planted to the white wine grape Priet Blanc. and they are ungrafted.
Phylloxera cannot survive here.This place did not ever experience the Phylloxera laos. This is a great white wine to represent what this place is because of that shelter of the mountains and how warm the valley can get.
This is a very high acid white wine that still gives nice savory depth on the palate.It's a very, very cool wine and they can either be sweet or dry.There are dry versions on the U.S.market.Seek them out.Morgex, M-O-R-G-E-X.
As we head west we come upon the town of Orvieille and the subzone Onferre d'Orvieille.You'll notice a lot of this is French and what's really cool is Onferre means hell in French.Back In a couple episodes ago, I think we talked about Valtellina.
Inferno was one of their sub-regions, which means hell, and here we are, but with French, Infer, which means hell.
And what that means is, it's literally what we've been talking about, is how the mountains here, and apparently in this particular sub-zone, the mountains jut up very high, and they protect it from whatever's happening on the other side of the Alps, and this is one of the warmest parts of the valley, hence the name.
This is something you're not going to see in the American market.I don't know.I have not seen them in the American market.Another reason why I want to visit this place, there are only 12 acres under vine in this area.
And here is where Petit Rouge rules the day.I have had Petit Rouge before.It's beautiful, spicy, high acid with good fruit.These are really awesome, savory wines.
They have to have 85% of Petit Rouge in the wines here for reds with a little bit of Dolcetto, Fumine, and Nebbiolo if you're nasty.There are no white wines here.
And as we keep heading west, we're kind of hitting the sort of the center of the valley.And here we have the largest sub zone in the Valle d'Aosta called Tourette. Here, red wines are made mostly from Petit Rouge and they are very floral medium.
I have had Petit Rouge from this region.They are so floral and aromatic and beautiful with great fruit, like good fruit core.Oh, they're so delicious and they're spicy, but these are red wine.
This is a red wine subzone only and it has to be 70% of the Petit Rouge.And then you can put some Pinot Noir in there, some Gamay in there, some Fumine, some Dolcetto, but it has to be 70% of Petit Rouge.
And just so you know, I'm giving you these rules here, but in this area, they often will just do single variety wines, but they have these other varieties they can work with just in case.Then we keep going west.
We hit the subzone of Neuse, N-U-S, where they have a, they're very proud of their local variety, Vigne de Neuse, which means the vine of Neuse.They have their own local variety.They blend this with Petit Rouge.
They also do white wine from Pinot Grigio, but here they call it Nus Malvasia.I was mentioning that earlier in the episode.And they do these sweet and dry.So it's not Malvasia.
It's a, you know, because history and names and nomenclatures change, it stuck with Malvasia.Maybe it was known as Malvasia here once and it kind of stuck. As we keep heading west and just before the river starts to head south, we come upon Chambave.
C-H-A-M-B-A-V-E.Here, red wines are mostly Petit Rouge, having to be 70% of the blend with other varieties we've been talking about that are allowed to be put in it.But again, like I said, Petit Rouge is tending to be kind of a single variety.
But also here they have white wines, Moscato Bianco, which can be dry or sweet.And they have their own Muscat, their own sort of member of the Muscat family called Shambhav Muscat.Now I have not had any wines from this particular zone.
And the reason is it's a ski town, which has a huge tourism thing.So most of the wines are consumed locally.Another reason why I want to visit, I've never skied in my life.I probably wouldn't ski, I would just hang out at the wine bar.
So as the river starts heading south, we hit the subzone of Arnaud-Montjauvet.And all that means, again, is these two towns meet with this wine region in one.So it's the town of Arnaud and the town of Montjauvet, Montjauvet, M-O-N-T-J-A-U-V-E-T.
And it's really named that way because the wine zone or the vineyards are actually in a very steep area between the two towns, so they kind of share it.But this is where Nebbiolo becomes the primary focus of wine.
Actually, they call it Pico Tendro, as they call it here.It is a red wine subzone.70% of the wines need to be Pico Tendro, otherwise known as Nebbiolo.You can have Petit Rouge in there.You can have Fumine in there.You can have Gamay in there.
I have had wines from this area.They are beautiful.They're somewhat delicate.They have like a bright ruby color to them.
They're very like aromatic and like herby spicy, especially when Gamay comes into the mix and kind of even adds more to the spiciness of the way the Neb Yolo acts or, or shows itself up here.These wines are awesome.
And then last but not least, all the way at the end of the 45-mile stretch of viticultural area in the Valle de Aosta is a little place called Donaz, D-O-N-N-A, or D-O-N-N-A-Z.
It is just north of Querema, which we talked about, I think, the last episode or the episode before that. So it kind of makes sense that Janas does Pico Tendro or Nebbiolo.
The blends have to be 85% and then they can actually blend Fumine, Petit Rouge, or a grape called Freysia and a grape called Neyret.
These are local varieties of Piedmont that not a lot of people really know about, but are really great blending varieties for aromatics.I find this very interesting that Karema is just south of this.
So you can kind of see how the varieties change as we get further and further north.You see that Donaz can have, it can have the Nebbiolo, but it can also have the Fraisia and the Narette.
That's kind of like very close to what other places in Piedmont can do.And then you go to the Arnade Mont Jovi and you do see Nebbiolo here.It's spicy, it's aromatic, but they can be blended.
But then after that, you don't really see Nebbiolo popping up all the way as we get further Northwest into this particular wine region.I don't know.I love that.I mean, queue up the Indiana Jones theme.Am I right?These wines are so cool.
And if you can find them, they're so satisfying and delicious.If you're, if you're around, if you listen to this around holiday season for Thanksgiving, forget about it.
Everything, the whites, the red that are available or the reds that are available in the American market are amazing with food. All right, everybody.I'll let you guys get online and try to find these wines.
If you find one, you like it, tag me at vinepearkeith on Instagram.I want to see it.And let's talk next week.Vinepearkeith is my Insta.Rate and review this podcast wherever you get your podcasts from.It really helps get the word out there.
And now for some totally awesome credits.Wine 101 was produced, recorded, and edited by yours truly, Keith Beavers at the Vinepear headquarters in New York City.
I want to give a big old shout out to co-founders Adam Teeter and Josh Mallon for creating Vinepair.And I mean, big shout out to Danielle Grinberg, the art director of Vinepair, for creating the most awesome logo for this podcast.
Also Darby Seaside for the theme song.Listen to this.And I want to thank the entire Vinepair staff for helping me learn something new every day.See you next week.
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