Each Friday, David Brenner of Villasfor2 in Abruzzo selects a delicious, top-value 'Everyday Italian Wine' for you to enjoy at home - or on your Abruzzo vacation !

Vallee d'Aoste Petit Rouge. Cave des Onze Communes. 2006
What's this ? A bottle with a label written in a mixture of Italian and French ? A wine from grapes grown within sight of Mt Blanc and just a few miles from the top Alpine ski resort of Courmayeur ? Surely a novelty at best ? Well…actually…no.

That said, Val d'Aosta - or Vallee d'Aoste - has to be one of Italy's unlikelier wine-producing areas. Yes - Italy. The tiny region of Val d'Aoste - Italy's smallest - lies jammed-up against France in Italy's Alpine far north-west. French is the 'official' second language. Hence the hybrid label with its Denominazione di Origine Controllata designation, that's Mis en bouteille par la Cave des Onze Communes.

At first sight, this is unpromising vine-growing terrain. But harsh Alpine winters are tempered by hot, dry summers and vines flourish at altitudes of up to 1200m - 3900ft - the highest you'll find in Europe. And as a result of these unique conditions, there are grape varieties in use here that you won't find anywhere else. The Petit Rouge is one of them.

Here, Petit Rouge from the Cave des Onze Communes - blended with 10% Vien de Nus and Premetta, (two other local Val d'Aoste grape varieties I have to admit I've never heard of before), produces a soft, amiable, eminently-drinkable red.

For a wine that spends some six months in steel tanks between harvest and bottling and never gets within touching distance of a barrel, this has a distinct and unexpected scent of vanilla on opening the bottle. Very nice too, especially when that vanilla mingles with some quite classy hints of tobacco and leather in the glass. No tannins to speak of and not an especially long finish either. Just those interesting little scents laid over a base of good, pure fruit. It's well-made. Not cheap - but definitely worth trying.

On the evidence of a couple of glasses, I'd have to say this isn't what you'd call a 'typical Italian wine'. A broad generalisation I know, but this is softer and rounder than you'd normally expect. I think those qualities would be swamped if you drank this wine with any hearty pasta or meat dishes. But it'd be a good accompaniment to lighter, Milanese-style salami and would go especially well with a simple roast chicken. And…(I'd better whisper this)…possibly one or two French dishes too ?

At A Glance…

• This week's featured wine: Vallee d'Aoste Petit Rouge
• Vintage: 2006
• Producer: Cave des Onze Communes
• Designation: DOC
• Grape: 90% Petit Rouge; 10% Vien de Nus and Premetta
• Strength: 13%
• Closure: Cork
• This bottle cost: €6.95

Click on picures in text for larger images - and if you like Italian wine, why not check out last week's 'Everyday Italian Wine' - a fun, fizzy and rather fine bottle of Asti Spumante - and bookmark this site for the regular Friday posts.

Next Week: We're back in Abruzzo paying tribute to one of the region's greatest wine makers and tasting a bottle of Trebbiano white that you'll really enjoy trying at home - and on your Villasfor2 Abruzzo vacation.

Abruzzo vacation, Everyday Italian Wine, Petit Rouge, Villasfor2

This entry was posted on Friday, October 24th, 2008 at 3:22 am and is filed under David's 'Everyday Italian Wine', Eating and Drinking, Vineyards. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.