Donnas 2011 Vallee d'Aoste

This is a highly unusual wine from the Valle d'Aosta DOC (or Val d'Aoste DOC, in French) located in the northwest of Italy. Surrounded by the Alps, the Valle d'Aosta is home to the highest elevated vineyards in all of Europe. The principal winemaking region of the Valle d'Aosta is found along the eastern banks of the Dora Baltea(fr, Doire baltée) river with the city of Aosta serving as the central winemaking location.

Donnas is a local co-operation who has created this silky and well balanced Alpine Rosso. A blend of 85% Picotendro (the local name for Nebbiolo) and the rest split up between local varieties Freisa and Neyret.

This wine complements its demanding tannins from the Nebbiolo grape with pure red fruit, provided by the other two components. Grown in rocky soils on steep slopes, this Rosso is considered to be the Barolo or Barbaresco of Vallee d’Aosta.

Aged for at least two years in 25 HL oak casks, the wine gives a beautiful nose full of violets and dried cherries followed with forest smoke, and as it opens in the glass, coffee mixes with minerality, showing the terroir of a wine deriving from vineyards carved out of the rocky Alps. Bright, elegant and surprisingly full-bodied.

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