Because Pinot Noir is arguably the world’s most beloved red grape, people are compelled to grow it in places it doesn’t belong. The wines from such places are easy enough to recognize: they’ve got the soft cherry fruit, sure, but not much aromatic complexity and no nerve.
Pinot Noir needs a cool climate and poor soils, and I’m the first to admit that most of the Pinot Noir grown in Italy doesn’t work. However, there are a few expressions that belong among the world’s greats—those from the Valle d’Aosta (or Vallée d’Aoste, in the more commonly spoken French) among them. If the Mount Rushmore of Pinot Noir is Burgundy, Oregon, California, and New Zealand, I’d carve a few satellite spots for cool climates like the Jura, Germany, and yes, the Valle d’Aosta. Situated in the northwestern-most corner of Italy in the shadow of Mont Blanc (Chamonix is to the west, the Swiss Valais to the north), the Valle d’Aosta is nominally ‘Italian’ but, like most of Alpine Italy, is much more. They speak mostly French here. They eat fondue. And they grow Pinot Noir at high altitudes, in vineyards walled in by mountains. Probably the closest analog to today’s 2016 from the minuscule Ottin winery would be something from France’s Jura, although Ottin’s displays even more mineral, Alpine edge: It combines ethereal, cool-climate delicacy with structure and energy. It’s not just “Pinot Noir”—it’s Pinot Noir with a genuine sense of place—and anyone who loves Burgundy (or Jura) should try it. Only about 40 cases made it to the western US, so this is likely one of your only shots at it!
The Aosta valley/valle/vallée is a steep, narrow stretch of the Dora Baltea River, centered on the city of Aosta. It’s the smallest and most sparsely populated of Italy’s wine regions, with vineyards that climb to some serious altitudes: Elio Ottin and his son, Nicolas, farm about four hectares of vines at about 600 meters’ elevation in the villages of Quart and Saint-Christophe, overlooking Aosta. Elio created his wine estate in 1989 after graduating from Valle d’Aosta’s Institut Agricole Régionale (the regional agriculture school, which is known for producing and marketing its own wine), but originally sold his grapes to a nearby cooperative. Theirs was (and still is) a multi-purpose farm, with apple orchards and grazing land for cattle complementing the small stand of vineyards. Elio’s first commercial vintage of wine under the Ottin label didn’t come until 2007; since then he and Nicolas have added a few more hectares of vineyards producing not just Pinot Noir but other local varieties such as Petite Arvine, Petite Rouge, and Fumin.
Today’s 2016 Pinot Noir comes from a Burgundian clone grown in sandy, mineral-rich soils and aged for about 10 months in large, used oak casks of 20- and 30-hectoliter capacity. And it is readily identifiable as a “mountain” wine: It has the mineral backbone and bright, floral perfume found in the best reds of the nearby Savoie and Jura. In the glass, it’s a pale garnet red moving to pink at the rim, with highly perfumed aromas of raspberry, red cherry, rose petal, underbrush, leather, crushed stones, and wildflowers. It is a medium-bodied, lifted style with extremely fine-grained tannins that remind me of the dust crunching underfoot while hiking a mountain trail. It benefits from a rough decant (about 30 minutes before service); a cooler temperature (60 degrees); and some rustic
Valdostana food that can make use of its refreshing “cut”: Yes,
fonduta would be great, as would some Valle d’Aosta-style veal cutlets as in the attached recipe. Drink now and over the next five years, and be sure to have more than one bottle on hand—this gets drained quickly and easily. Enjoy!
