Piero Brunet, with the help of his wife and two daughters, makes only this one wine, 100% Prié Blanc from 40-year old organic vineyards at the base of Mont Blanc, very, very high in the Italian Alps. In this steep and rugged environment, these grapes can only be hand-harvested. They are then gently pressed, fermented naturally from wild yeasts, and aged for 6 months in stainless steel; at bottling the wine is lightly filtered with minimal sulfur added. Highly mineral, crushed rocks-meet-mountain-herbs notes complement green apple, white flowers, and white peach, with a lively lemon verbena undertone. Bright and juicy in the mouth, with a steely quality to the orchard fruit and minty floral flavors, this is without doubt one of the the most lean and laser-focused wines of its ilk out there today, absolutely pristine, like Muscadet meets Chablis in the mountains of Italy, and with just over 300 cases produced a year. With a lovely low ABV, yet packing in a ton of flavor, Blanc de Morgex et La Salle is one of the ultimate apéritif wines, as well as a delight for tired taste buds, perfect for revving up (or reviving!) your palate.
Morgex and La Salle are neighboring villages at the foot of Mont Blanc in the Alta Valle, or High Valley, of the Vallèe d’Aoste. Officially the region is the steep slopes above the valley that the Dora Baltea River flows, on south-facing slopes from the river’s edge to 1300m between the two municipalities. The vineyards are cobbled on narrow plots, surrounded by stone walls, on low height pergolas and between the stone walls and the gravel soil, heat is captured and slowly released throughout the day. Here, the local grape variety, Prié Blanc, was brought to fame by Alexandre Bougeat, who, besides serving as parish priest of Morgex, began bottling wine in 1964. In 1985, Piero Brunet took over his family’s vineyards and purchased a part of the original vineyards of “Curé Bougeat”. Piero, his wife, and their two daughters now farm just under a hectare of high-altitude (1000-1200 meters), steeply-terraced, pergola-trained, own-rooted vines and make just a few hundred cases of their single and singular wine. Lovers of heroic viticulture and Alpine wines, take note!