🍷 Les Crêtes

Les Crêtes is a family winery at Aymavilles in the Aosta Valley, north-western Italy; Wikidata also places it in Aymavilles. According to the family, the Charrères moved there from the Grenoble area in 1750 and later built a family house with cellars and a water mill, now listed as a protected historic building. Antoine Charrère turned to quality wine after 1955; his son Costantino made his first wine, La Sabla, in 1970 and in 1989 turned the business into Les Crêtes. Today it is run by his daughters Elena and Eleonora with Giulio Corti.

According to the family, Costantino Charrère worked to save rare local varieties such as Premetta (Prié Rouge) and Fumin. The range includes reds from these grapes and whites such as Chardonnay, Chardonnay Cuvée Bois, Chambave Moscato and the sweet Neige d'Or; the family says it has made wine for six generations.

According to the family, the estate farms 35 hectares in 180 small vineyards spread over 11 communes of the valley, with 16 grape varieties, on terraces and mountain slopes, and makes about 250,000 bottles a year in one cellar at Aymavilles. Neige d'Or is made from 60% Petite Arvine and 40% Pinot Gris, and Chambave Moscato from Moscato Bianco. The Valle d'Aosta production specification names wines by grape, such as Chardonnay, Petite Arvine, Pinot Gris, Fumin and Nebbiolo, and by sub-zone, and delimits the vineyard zones by commune and by altitude ceilings, for example 600, 700 or 800 metres above sea level.

Valle d'Aosta (Vallée d'Aoste) is a protected designation of origin (PDO) listed in the EU register eAmbrosia, with sub-zones such as Chambave. Under EU law a PDO wine must be made entirely from grapes grown in the defined area and be produced there.

Why it matters to you. In the Aosta Valley the label often names both the PDO and a grape or sub-zone; together they tell you what the wine is. The WHO reminds: there is no safe level of alcohol.