 Hello! Welcome back to Exotic Wine Travel. I am your host, Matthew Horkey. Do you like mountain wines? Let me explain. First of all, especially in Italy, there are two regions that actually are known as being mountainous wine regions. First, we have Alto Adige in the north. That's right on the border of Austria. And another awesome wine region I was just in, Valle d'Osta. It's on the border of Italy, France, and Switzerland. This is Italy's smallest region by wine production, by population, and by size of area. It's a mountainous region. There's only about 120,000 people living in the entire region, 50,000 of those of which are living in the village of the town of Iosta. There's only about 450 hectares of vineyards there. So wine production is small. A lot of these wines are going to be drank locally, but you know what? The quality is extremely high. The reason I was there, actually, I was a judge at the Mondial de Vins extremes. And I have to say that it was a phenomenal competition, phenomenal trip. I want to thank them, first of all, for having me. It's a wine competition dedicated to winemakers that are growing vines in heroic conditions. Basically, to submit your wines to the competition, vineyards either have to be grown at high elevation, above 500 meters, above sea level, on slopes over 30 degrees, on small islands, or on terraces. So really some unique wines. There were not industrial wines at the event. A lot of small producers. The quality was extremely high. I think in total, we gave away lots of grand gold medals, gold medals. Fantastic competition. I will be supportive of it, even if I'm not a judge next year, although I hope I'm invited back next year. Needless to say, there were a lot of wines from Valedos to in the competition. You got to understand that the region has made kind of a three valleys. These vineyards are extremely steep slopes. There's vineyards on the north and the south sides of the valley, and you're going to find tons of unique grapes. You're going to find international grapes, and you're going to find local and regional grapes as well. I mean, you're going to find Pinot Noir. One of the first actually valios wines we ever had was a Alton Pinot Noir. I thought it was very impressive. We have this one from La Grande. You have yet to taste yet. You have Pinot Grigio, which does extremely well. Chardonnay, Muller Thurgau from this cooperative, also very good. Now, on for the local and regional grapes, that's where I think things get really interesting. They have a Swiss grape nearby Switzerland that's grown called Petit Arvine. This is the only place in Italy you'll find it. This is actually the winemaking school in Valedosta. It's called the Institut Agrico regionale. This is their 2018 Petit Arvine. This is very clean, delicious, well made. If you're in Valedosta, you almost will never go wrong with a Petit Arvine. You're going to get lots of floral notes, honey, ripe pineapple fruits. It has almost the perfume, the aromatics of a cooler weather grape combined with the fruit of a warmer weather wine region, brightest city, minerals. Petit Arvine, Cherine loves, I love, fantastic grape. Another historical kind of region you're going to find subregional Valedosta is called Torrette. This is a co-op, Torrette Sapirir. I also have a small producer here, Lassours. This is his Torrette Sapirir. These wines are mostly going to be made of a grape called Petit Rouge. These wines are really juicy. Kind of remind me a little bit of a mix, imaginary blend between maybe a San Giovese, Barbera. They're going to have a lot of red fruit, some sour cherry, juiciness. Sometimes you can get some tobacco and mineral-y notes. These are fantastic everyday, Torrette's can be fantastic everyday food wines and they can move up into the superior level. Torrette Sapirir can be more serious, structured, age-worthy wines. You're going to find some other unique red grapes there. Malellette makes light red wines. Cornelin as well, which can also be found in Switzerland. Two grapes that I find most exciting are Foumen. This is the La Grotta de Vigneron. This is a co-op. This is the Foumen Espirit Foulet 2017. This is a very unique grape. Not everyone's going to like it. It has weird, not weird, it has kind of more animal and gaminess type flavors. Some people could confuse that with a Brent with a bacteria. It's not. It's actually just unique, well-made. These are structured wines that can go long in the bottle. And then there's a grape that not many producers have, Volumen. This is one from the Institute Agricultural School as well. This is a fantastic red wine. It's peppery, it's got light red fruits. Reminds me a little bit of a Sera. The tans are a little bit softer. These are grapes that you should seek out. So where do you actually get some of these wines? It's not the easiest thing. Valle de Osta is, most of the wines are sold locally and there's a lot of tourism there because a lot of people go there for winter sports, for skiing, for hiking. You're going to have to scoop them up there. If you find them, you'll sometimes find them abroad. But the cool thing about these wines, the quality is really high for, the quality price ratio is extremely high. So it's something worth checking out. I can't wait to get back to the Valle de Osta. You have to check out my link in the description box. I will put an article up of tasting notes of some of these wines and check them out. Remember, drink adventurously, expand your pal, expand your mind. Guys, if you like this video, please subscribe to our YouTube channel, Exotic Wine Travel. I will see you in the next episode.