Grosjean Freres Torrette

Disappearing Vines... Grosjean Freres is a small estate in the communes of Quart and Saint Christophe in the Vallee d'Aoste, Italy's extreme northwest. The whole region has 520 hectares of vineyards, and only 385 acres of this land is in a DOC zone. This is less than half the acreage cultivated 20 years ago. At the end of the 19th century the Valle d’Aosta had over 3,000 hectares of vines. Many of these terraced vineyards disappeared between the two world wars. Fewer than 2,000,000 bottles are produced in the region annually. There are single estates in Sicily making more wine in a given year.

The Grapes... Since 1975 Grosjean estate has farmed grapes using sustainable, natural methods. 90% of the wine made in their region is red. Petit Rouge is often made into a wine that tastes like a spicy Beaujolais, a perfect refreshing red for a hike around Mont Blanc or the Matterhorn, with traditional regional foods like fontina cheese or mocetta, a local prosciutto made from ibex and chamois. Other native grapes of the region include Premetta, Cornalin, Petite Arvine, Fumin and Mayolet. These grapes grow best in the central Aosta valley, which is at a height of roughly 800 meters above sea level. The soils here are glacial moraine, a rocky, semi-fertile mixture that aids in the creation of quality wine.

The Wineries... There are 27 bottlers of wine in the Valle d’Aosta, a figure that includes the region’s six cooperatives, two of which (Chambave and Morgex) actually make decent wine. As has been the case in mountainous Alto Adige, co-ops in Valle d’Aosta are not necessarily corrosive to wine quality in the way they often were (and are) farther south.