The Valle d'Aosta DOC (or Vallée d'Aoste DOC, in French) is an

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

denominazione di origine controllata The following four classification of wine, classifications of wine constitute the Italy, Italian system of labelling and legally protecting Italian wine: * ''Denominazione di origine'' (DO, rarely used; ; 'designation of origin'); * ''Indicazione ...

'' located in the

Aosta Valley The Aosta Valley ( ; ; ; or ), officially the Autonomous Region of Aosta Valley, is a mountainous Regions of Italy#Autonomous regions with special statute, autonomous region in northwestern Italy. It is bordered by Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Fr ...

of north-west

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

. Surrounded by the

Alps The Alps () are some of the highest and most extensive mountain ranges in Europe, stretching approximately across eight Alpine countries (from west to east): Monaco, France, Switzerland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Germany, Austria and Slovenia. ...

, the Valle d'Aosta is home to the highest

elevated An elevated railway or elevated train (also known as an el train or el for short) is a railway with the Track (rail transport), tracks above street level on a viaduct or other elevated structure (usually constructed from steel, cast iron, concre ...

vineyards in all of

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

. The principal

winemaking Winemaking, wine-making, or vinification is the production of wine, starting with the selection of the fruit, its Ethanol fermentation, fermentation into alcohol, and the bottling of the finished liquid. The history of wine-making stretches over ...

region of the Valle d'Aosta is found along the eastern banks of the

Dora Baltea The Dora Baltea () or Doire Baltée () is a river in the Aosta Valley and in Piedmont, in northwestern Italy. It is a left-hand tributary of the Po and is about long. Name The river's Latin name was ''Duria maior'', ''Duria Baltica'' or ''Duri ...

( fr., ''Doire baltée'') river with the city of

Aosta Aosta ( , , ; ; , or ; or ) is the principal city of the Aosta Valley, a bilingual Regions of Italy, region in the Italy, Italian Alps, north-northwest of Turin. It is situated near the Italian entrance of the Mont Blanc Tunnel and the G ...

serving as the central winemaking location. The region is divided into three main vineyard areas; the upper valley, Valdigne, the central valley (locally ''Valle centrale'' in Italian, ''Vallée centrale'' in French) and the lower valley, (locally ''Bassa valle'' in Italian, ''Basse vallée'' in French). To the south is the winemaking region of

Piedmont Piedmont ( ; ; ) is one of the 20 regions of Italy, located in the northwest Italy, Northwest of the country. It borders the Liguria region to the south, the Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna regions to the east, and the Aosta Valley region to the ...

. The Valle d'Aosta is Italy's smallest winemaking region both in terms of size and production with only about 330,000 cases produced annually in the region and only 36,000 cases produced under the DOC label. Seventy five percent of the area's production is red

wine Wine is an alcoholic drink made from Fermentation in winemaking, fermented fruit. Yeast in winemaking, Yeast consumes the sugar in the fruit and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Wine is most often made f ...

made mostly from the

Pinot noir Pinot noir (), also known as Pinot nero, is a red-wine grape variety of the species ''Vitis vinifera''. The name also refers to wines created predominantly from Pinot noir grapes. The name is derived from the French language, French words fo ...

Gamay Gamay () is a purple-colored grape variety used to make red wines, most notably grown in Beaujolais and in the Loire_Valley_(wine), Loire Valley around Tours. Its full name is Gamay Noir à Jus Blanc. It is a very old cultivar, mentioned as lon ...

and Petit Rouge varieties. A white wine is made from the

indigenous Indigenous may refer to: *Indigenous peoples *Indigenous (ecology) In biogeography, a native species is indigenous to a given region or ecosystem if its presence in that region is the result of only local natural evolution (though often populari ...

Prié blanc Prié blanc is a white Italian wine grape variety that is grown almost exclusively in the Valle d'Aosta DOC of northwest Italy. The Valle d'Aosta varietal wine Blanc de Morgex et de La Salle is made from Prié blanc grapes. Ampelographers c ...

grape by the cooperative of Blanc de Morgex et de La Salle. M. Ewing-Mulligan & E. McCarthy ''Italian Wines for Dummies'' pg 77-82 Hungry Minds 2001

Climate and geography

The area of the Aosta valley has

continental climate Continental climates often have a significant annual variation in temperature (warm to hot summers and cold winters). They tend to occur in central and eastern parts of the three northern-tier continents (North America, Europe, and Asia), typi ...

and despite its location in the Alps region the weather is typically very hot and dry in the summer time which tends to put

harvest Harvesting is the process of collecting plants, animals, or fish (as well as fungi) as food, especially the process of gathering mature crops, and "the harvest" also refers to the collected crops. Reaping is the cutting of grain or pulses fo ...

time in early September. The geography of the wine regions is marked by high, steep slopes leading to the river valley which makes the use of mechanical vineyard equipment nearly impossible. The

vineyard soils The soil composition of vineyards is one of the most important viticulture, viticultural considerations when planting grape vines. The soil supports the root structure of the vine and influences the drainage levels and amount of minerals and nutrie ...

are composed primarily of

sand Sand is a granular material composed of finely divided mineral particles. Sand has various compositions but is usually defined by its grain size. Sand grains are smaller than gravel and coarser than silt. Sand can also refer to a textural ...

at the higher elevation with more

alluvial Alluvium (, ) is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings. Alluvium is also sometimes called alluvial deposit. Alluvium is ...

sediments of

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolinite, ). Most pure clay minerals are white or light-coloured, but natural clays show a variety of colours from impuriti ...

and

gravel Gravel () is a loose aggregation of rock fragments. Gravel occurs naturally on Earth as a result of sedimentation, sedimentary and erosion, erosive geological processes; it is also produced in large quantities commercially as crushed stone. Gr ...

further down into the valley.

Vineyards

The wine-making region of the Valle d'Aosta is generally divided into three areas. In the northwest, the Valdigne area south of the commune of

Courmayeur Courmayeur (; ; Valdôtain: ) is a town and ''comune'' in northern Italy, in the autonomous region of Aosta Valley. History The toponym ''Courmayeur'' has been mentioned as ''Curia majori'' (1233–1381), ''Corte Maggiore'' (1620), ''Cormoyeu'' (1 ...

is home to the highest elevated vineyards in Europe at above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an mean, average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal Body of water, bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical ...

. The white grape Prié Blanc (also known as Blanc de Morgex) accounts for almost all of the vineyard area and is used to produce ''Blanc de Morgex et de la Salle'' in both a still and

sparkling wine Sparkling wine is a wine with significant levels of carbon dioxide in it, making it fizzy. While it is common to refer to this as champagne, European Union countries legally reserve that word for products exclusively produced in the Champagne ( ...

style.

Roussin de Morgex Roussin de Morgex is an Italian grape variety, native to the western part of the Aosta Valley in the municipality of Morgex. It is a pink-skinned teinturier grape that produced a light pink juice. Although it may by used as one of the autochthonou ...

, a rare

teinturier Teinturier grapes () are grapes whose flesh and juice are red in colour due to anthocyanin pigments accumulating within the pulp of the grape berry itself. In non-teinturier red grapes, anthocyanin pigments are confined to the outer skin tissue ...

variety endemic to only a small area around the town of

Morgex Morgex ( Valdôtain: ) is a town and ''comune'' in the Aosta Valley region of north-western Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italia ...

, has been rescued from extinction to make an unusual pink sparkling wine. Due to its high elevations, the area has never been affected by

phylloxera Grape phylloxera is an insect pest of grapevines worldwide, originally native to eastern North America. Grape phylloxera (''Daktulosphaira vitifoliae'' (Fitch 1855) belongs to the family Phylloxeridae, within the order Hemiptera, bugs); orig ...

louse, which has allowed the vineyards of this area to remain with ungrafted

rootstock A rootstock is part of a plant, often an underground part, from which new above-ground growth can be produced. It could also be described as a stem with a well developed root system, to which a bud from another plant is grafted. It can refer to ...

. The Central Valley is the region's most productive area and is further sub-divided into four areas-''Enfer d'Arvier, Torrette, Nus'' and ''Chambave''. The Enfer d'Arvier is a red wine-producing area around the village of Arvier. The wines from this area are blends made primarily from the Petit Rouge grape with lesser amounts of

Dolcetto Dolcetto ( , , ) is a black Italian wine grape variety widely grown in the Piedmont region of northwest Italy. The Italian word ''dolcetto'' means "little sweet one", but it is not certain that the name originally carried any reference to th ...

, Gamay, Neyret, Pinot noir, and/or Vien de Nus. Previously Enfer d'Arvier had its own DOC designation but was subsequently incorporated into the Valle d'Aosta DOC. T. Stevenson ''"The Sotheby's Wine Encyclopedia"'' pg 274 Dorling Kindersley 2005 The area of the Torrette sub-zone is located east of Arvier and produces a drier wine made with at least 70% Petit Rouge and smaller quantities of Dolcetto, Fumin, Gamay, Neyret, Pinot noir and/or Vien de Nus. The village of Nus, located east of Aosta, produces a wine made with at least 50% Vien de Nus and at least 40% Petit Rouge. White wines are made in this area from a

Pinot gris Pinot gris, pinot grigio (, ), or ''Grauburgunder'' is a white wine grape variety of the species ''Vitis vinifera''. Thought to be a mutant clone of the pinot noir variety, it normally has a pinkish-gray hue, accounting for its name, but th ...

clone known as ''Malvoisie'' including a sweet

passito Straw wine, or raisin wine, is a wine made from grapes that have been dried off the vine to concentrate their juice. Under the classic method, after a careful hand harvest, selected bunches of ripe grapes will be laid out on mats in full sun. ( ...

straw wine. East of Nus is the sub-zone of Chambave which includes the communities of Chambave, Châtillon and Saint-Vincent. The red wines made here are composed of at least 60% Petit Rouge with some Dolcetto, Gamay and/or Pinot noir. The white wines made here are from the Moscato Bianco grape. The Lower Valley is known primarily for two styles of wine. The Arnad- Montjovet area produces a medium-bodied dry red wine made from at least 70%

Nebbiolo Nebbiolo (, ; ) is an Italian red wine grape variety predominantly associated with its native Piedmont region, where it makes the ''Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita'' (DOCG) wines of Barolo, Barbaresco, Gattinara, Ghemme, a ...

with some Dolcetto, Freisa, Neyret, Pinot noir, and/or Vien de Nus. The area near the commune of Donnaz (or Donnas) produces wine made from at least 85% Nebbiolo with some Freisa, Neyret, Pinot noir and Vien de Nus. Like Enfer d'Arvier, Donnas at one point had its own DOC designation. Here Nebbiolo is paler and less potent due to the high altitude.

Other wines

Other DOC wines in the Valle d'Aosta can be

varietal A varietal wine is a wine made primarily from a single named grape variety, and which typically displays the name of that variety on the wine label.The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition, 2000.winepros.com.au. ...

ly labeled as long as it contains at least 90% from one of the following grapes-

Chardonnay Chardonnay (, ; ) is a green-skinned grape variety used in the production of white wine. The variety originated in the Burgundy wine region of eastern France, but is now grown wherever wine is produced, from England to New Zealand. For new a ...

, Fumin, Gamay,

Müller-Thurgau Müller-Thurgau () is a white grape variety (sp. ''Vitis vinifera'') which was created by Hermann Müller from the Swiss Canton of Thurgau in 1882 at the Geisenheim Grape Breeding Institute in Germany. It is a crossing of Riesling with Made ...

, Petite Arvine, Pinot gris, Pinot noir, Petit Rouge and Premetta. A generic ''Valle d'Aosta Bianco/Blanc'', ''Valle d'Aosta Rosso/Rouge'' and ''Valle d'Aosta Rosato/

Rosé A rosé () is a type of wine that incorporates some of the wine color, color from the grape skins, but not enough to qualify it as a red wine. It may be the oldest known type of wine, as it is the most straightforward to make with the Macerati ...

'' can be produced from any local grape (such as Bonda and Vuillermin) as long as the wine is made in the appropriate color for the style. The region has no ''

Indicazione Geografica Tipica ''Indicazione geografica tipica'' () is the third of four classification of wine, classifications of wine recognized by the government of Italy. Created to recognize the unusually high quality of the class of wines known as Italian wine#Super Tus ...

'' (IGT) designations so that any wine that doesn't fit into one of the 22 DOC styles is sold under the '' vini da tavola'' designation.

DOC regulations

For the majority of wines, DOC regulations require harvest yields below 12

tonnes The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1,000 kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton in the United States to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the s ...

per ha with a minimum

alcohol levels Alcohol by volume (abbreviated as alc/vol or ABV) is a common measure of the amount of alcohol contained in a given alcoholic beverage. It is defined as the volume the ethanol in the liquid would take if separated from the rest of the solution, ...

of at least 9%. Wines typically must age for at least 6 months prior to public release. For some individual wine styles there are notable exceptions and stricter requirements such as the Pinot gris from Nus which is required to have a maximum yield of 8 tonnes/ha and a minimum alcohol content of 16.5% which is very high for a typical white wine. The

reserve wine Reserve wine is wine of a higher quality than usual, a wine that has been aged before sale, or both. Traditionally, winemakers would reserve some of their best wine rather than sell it immediately, coining the term. In some countries the use of t ...

s labeled ''Superiore'' from the Arnad-Montjovet region must have a minimum alcohol level of 12% and be aged for two years. The Superiore wines from Torrette need a similar 12% alcohol level but only require eight months of aging which is specifically required to be done in

oak (wine) Oak is used in winemaking to vary the color, flavor, tannins (wine), tannin profile and texture of wine. It can be introduced in the form of a barrel during the fermentation (wine), fermentation or aging barrel, aging periods, or as free-floating ...

casks. The Moscatos from Chambave also require oak aging but only for three months.P. Saunders ''Wine Label Language'' pg 211-212 Firefly Books 2004

References

{{reflist Geography of Aosta Valley Italian DOC Wine regions of Italy