2025 Grosjean, Petite Arvine, Vigne Rovettaz Valle d’Aoste, Italy.
Tasted with a couple of diverse winemakers, this Grosjean Petite Arvine, we all agreed was surprisingly vinous and concentrated depth on the palate, but all enjoyed the unique, alpine quality it displayed and overall pleasure and balance seen here in this rare varietal, mostly found in high elevation vineyards in Switzerland. The aromas are perfumed, floral and expressive, but there’s a sense of mineral too and this golden/straw hued white delivers an expansive, ripe and opulent mouth of lemon, mandarin orange, peach, fleshy melon and golden fig fruits, along with leesy almond, mountain herbs, verbena and wet stone. Grosjean’s single cru Vigne Rovettaz is made from 100% Petite Arvine grapes, planted on the steep slopes at between 550 and 700 meters of altitude, enjoying a full southern facing exposure, hence the deep profile here. The Petite Arvine sees a long cool temperature, spontaneous fermentation and gets time on the lees with repeated “batonage” for the first month in stainless-steel tanks, then about 30% of the juice is racked into small barriques, with 50% new wood. Everything was quite seriously thought out here and the results are impressive and distinctive, making for a wine that easily lives in the quality realm of Premier Cru Burgundy and equally delicious and is a wine I would highly recommend. The Grosjean family name in the Valle d’Aosta dates to the 16th century, when many French families moved to the region that was terribly impacted by a horrible plague and needed new workers, from this they turned to the vines.
I’ve been following, Grosjean, imported by Rosenthal Wine Merchant in the States, for more than 15 years now and have almost always enjoyed these Valle d’Aoste offerings, which include other obscure varietals like Petit Rouge, Fumin and Cornalin grown on vines in the south-facing, at the mentioned steeply sloped Rovettaz vineyard in the village of Quart, with sandy glacial moraines soils. One of Italy’s most remote northern wine regions and very lightly populated, the Aosta Valley, officially an autonomous region of the country, is a mountainous area of northwestern Italy and is bordered by (the) Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, of France, to the west, by Valais, Switzerland, to the north and by Piedmont, to the south and east. The regional capital is Aosta and enjoys many picturesque views and dramatic landscapes. Though both Italian and French are the official languages here, a high percentage of the population speak Italian first, as well as in their own dialect, known as Valdôtain, which is similar to a Provence language “patois” that marries elements of French and Italian, plus a few ancient tongues. The Valle d’Aoste, or Aosta, wine region here has gotten a boost in recent times by the thirst of curiosity in the modern wine world and while tiny and with difficult to farm vineyards, some absolutely fascinating wines come from this place, with Les Crêtes and Grosjean being excellent producers here. Grosjean’s Petite Arvine is one of the best examples I’ve had in many years, it is definitely one to look for and enjoy with a full meal, with poultry dishes and or smoked trout being fabulous choices for this wine..
($40 Est.) 94 Points, grapelive