Hailing from the enchanting borderlands region that is the Valle d’Aosta, Danilo Thomain’s ‘Enfer d’Arvier’ is one of the most jubilant, tension-laden red wines we have on the walls year in and year out. Produced entirely from the indigenous Petit Rouge, it’s a homemade wine in every sense of the word: here in the in the shadow of Mont Blanc, these brutally steep terraces must be worked entirely manually; grapes are hand-harvested, carried just down the road to Danilo’s house, and the wine is made right there — fermented spontaneously, and aged in non-temperature-stabilized steel tanks in his basement two stories below the earth’s surface.
Hypnotically aromatic, the nose on this wine is exuberant, brimming with black cherries, sun-drenched stones, tiny mountain flowers, and a touch of the sauvage. The huge diurnal shifts between Enfer d’Arvier’s scorching days — “Enfer d’Arvier,” after all, means “The Hell of Arvier”— and chilly nights expresses itself in a palate tug-of-war between rapier-like acidity and thick, luscious fruit that vibrates with energy. Danilo’s rendition has a compelling, almost ethereal rusticity with a wild berry impression and lively vibrancy on the palate; it’s deeply pitched while simultaneously crunchy, spicy, and animated. An essay in extremes, Danilo’s Enfer d’Arvier is both bracing in its freshness and intense in its concentration. In short, a wine we wish more people knew about!
Home of the second-highest wine-growing zone in the valley, the Enfer d’Arvier is a magnificent amphitheater of steeply terraced vines overlooking the Dora Baltea river below. The shape of this “bowl” of vineyards effectively concentrates the heat of the sun, thus giving birth to the “Hell of Arvier” moniker. Covering a scant 5 hectares, the majority of the appellation’s output is via the local co-op, and with his single hectare in production, Danilo Thomain stands as the zone’s only independent bottler of wine. Amazingly, Danilo is currently clearing another hectare’s worth of hillside above his current holdings in order to expand production, thereby reclaiming some of the long-unused but prime terrain whose viticultural records date back to the 13th century. Current production at the Thomain estate is approximately 2500 bottles per year, a good chunk of which thankfully makes its way to the US market.