The Valle d’Aosta is Italy’s smallest region, but its wines are among the country’s most distinctive. Nestled in a dramatic Alpine corridor between France and Switzerland, the vineyards here are extreme: planted on dizzying slopes, worked by hand, and shaped by long hours of sun followed by very cold nights. It’s the kind of terroir where local grapes thrive — and where the Grosjean family has been doing things their own way for generations.

We introduced Grosjean to many of you last year, and we’re thrilled to have three new bottlings just in time for summer drinking. These are wines for Alpine picnics, for cool nights in the redwoods, or for anyone seeking something vivid, crunchy and alive.

2022 Torrette is a regional classic: a field blend dominated by Petit Rouge (a grape that’s native to the region), with a handful of other local varieties. It smells of Alpine herbs and tart red fruit and delivers all the energy and drinkability you could want from a mountain red.

2023 Premetta (also known as Prié Rouge) is one of the rarest grapes in Italy, nearly extinct before Grosjean helped revive it. The 2023 is gorgeously pale and bright — a wine that tastes like rose hips, pink peppercorns and forest strawberries. It’s the kind of wine you want cold, in a tumbler, next to a grill or a stream.

2021 Fumin “Vigne Merletta” shows the darker, wilder side of the region. A grape once used for blending, Fumin in Grosjean’s hands is complex and powerful: all smoke, spice, and black cherry. The high-altitude site of “Merletta” gives it a long, focused finish with the kind of freshness that makes this one of the few mountain reds that can truly age.

This is wine adventuring at its best. You’re in the Alps, and you’re trying wines made from grapes that grow there and nowhere else. 

Grosjean Freres Vallee d'Aoste Torrette 2022 - $24.99

Grosjean Freres Vallee d'Aoste Premetta 2023 - $33.99

Grosjean Freres Vallee d'Aoste Fumin Vigne Merletta 2021 - $38.99