La Kiuva 'Rouge de Vallée' 2018

The Vallée d’Aosta is the fascinating Alpine junction between France, Switzerland, and Italy. In the extreme northwest of Italy, most people typically speak both French and Italian. The region is quite dry, requiring irrigation to keep grapes alive, with soil comprised of blue and green granite. The La Kiuva co-op was formed in 1975 and produced its first wine in 1979, continuously producing a high yield of wine to keep the region on the map. They have not sacrificed quality for quantity, and still use many traditional methods, also employing a consultant who visits the co-op’s vines bi-weekly and offers advice to growers in order to avoid usage of chemical pesticides. Practicing organic farming, they have relied on indigenous yeasts for fermentation since 2009. The "Rouge de Vallée" is a blend of local grapes, with 70% of it consisting of picotendro, a nebbiolo clone partial to the altitude, wind, and sparse terrain of the Aosta. The remainder of the blend is made of gros ven, neyret, fumin, and cornalin. This wine is light on its feet with cherry fruit leather on the nose and crisp, refreshing cranberry and red fruit flavors on the palate with a long, clean, lightly earthy finish.