A stunning wine from the highest vineyard site in Europe on the summit of Mont Blanc. Because these vineyards are so isolated, Pavese has been able to work with the original, pre-phylloxera root stock since that malady never infiltrated this area when it came sweeping through Europe many years ago. An austere, racy, mineral white wine with vivacity and length.
Prié is the oldest documented cultivar in the Val d’Aoste, and is among the oldest in all of Italy. Genetic parent to, among others, Prëmetta and Mayolet, it gives crystalline wines of vivacity and precision when tended by a conscientious grower like Pavese. Pavese’s vines, trained in the traditional Pergola Bassa system, are so isolated at the end of this valley that they are still planted on their original rootstocks, not threatened by the Phylloxera louse that devastated nearly all of Europe’s vineyards at the end of the 19th century. Producing still, sparkling, skin-macerated and sweet wines, this domaine shows the majesty that wines of the alps can achieve. Illuminating in their youth, recent tastings with some of the Pavese’s oldest vintages illustrates the profundity and complexity that his wines take on after significant bottle age.
