Wines of Valle d'Aosta: A Day with Ermes Pavese
- Ipek Leni Candan
- Aug 23, 2024
- 6 min read
Updated: Aug 27, 2024
This week, we had the pleasure of meeting Ermes Pavese, founder of a renowned family-run winery in the upper Aosta Valley. Established in 1999, the Pavese winery produces wines from the rare and indigenous Prié Blanc grape, which almost exclusively grows in the Morgex et La Salle area. You can read more about Prié Blanc and viticulture in Morgex et La Salle in our previous article.
Pavese’s vineyards span eight hectares across 160 small parcels. The family is actively expanding, purchasing and planting new vineyards with the aim of reaching 10 hectares within the next two years. In addition to their vineyards, they own five hectares of agricultural land, where they cultivate potatoes and corn.
Together with Ermes’ daughter, Ninive, and his son, Nathan, the family produces 13 different labels, totalling 25,000 bottles of dry still wine, 5,000 bottles of sparkling wine, and 3,000 bottles of ice wine. Their wines are characterised by Alpine purity, offering fresh, crisp acidity and minerality. Nathan also produces crisps, providing a delightful addition to tastings in their cosy cellar.
During our visit, Ermes Pavese guided us through their Sette Scalinate vineyard in Morgex, where grapes for their premium single-vineyard Sette Scalinate label are grown. These vineyards reach up to 1,100 metres above sea level, among the highest in Europe (Cave Mont Blanc has vineyards that go up as high as 1,200 metres, also in Morgex). The characteristic low pergola training system in Morgex et La Salle, with a height ranging from 50 to 140 cm, helps limit frost damage by using heat radiating from the ground, counteracts strong gusts of wind, and ensures greater stability in the event of heavy snowfall. Some pergolas in this vineyard are so low—only knee-height—that the pickers have to lie on their backs and crawl underneath to harvest the grapes.
Another unique feature of Morgex et La Salle is that it is one of the few vineyard areas in the world where the vines are mostly ungrafted, meaning they are not grafted onto a rootstock resistant to phylloxera. The altitude, climatic conditions, and soil prevent phylloxera from completing its life cycle. This allows vines to be propagated through layering: in spring, a section of vine shoot is buried while still attached to the plant, and in autumn, once the new plant has taken root, the connection to the mother plant is severed. The vines at Sette Scalinate have been propagated from plants over 100 years old.
The absence of phylloxera also means the ungrafted vines are less vulnerable to winter freezes. While temperatures are not as harsh as they once were, winter nights can still drop to -15°C in the region. The last time this occurred, the grafted vines in the area died, while the ungrafted vines survived, as they lack grafting points which are more vulnerable, and are generally more resistant.
The vineyards here are not irrigated, except for new plantings during dry years. The constant wind helps combat fungal diseases but presents challenges by disrupting flowering and breaking new shoots in spring. The steep terraces require all work to be done by hand without machinery.
After exploring Morgex, we travelled to the nearby village of La Salle, where three hectares of the Pavese vineyards are situated. The vineyards here are set against the stunning backdrop of Monte Bianco’s snowy peaks. Pavese noted that, unlike Morgex, the vineyards in La Salle consist of tiny plots scattered across agricultural land—some as small as five individual plants in a field. This is because these small plots historically belonged to local families who only needed a small number of grapes for personal wine production. Today, managing a large number of very small plots is yet another challenge for producers like Ermes Pavese.
Pavese explained that wines from Morgex and La Salle have distinct profiles. The soils in Morgex are morainic, sandy, and shallow, resulting in better quality wines with more structure. In La Salle, where the vines are irrigated and planted on more topsoil, the conditions are more suitable for sparkling wines.
The Paveses currently produce a variety of wines from the vibrant and aromatic Prié Blanc, including dry still wines, traditional method sparkling wines, an ancestral method sparkling wine, and an ice wine. Half of the production is exported to the US, with some also reaching Europe.
Following our tour of the vineyards and winery, we had the opportunity to taste their entire range of wines over three hours with Pavese, discussing all things wine. We sampled the traditional method sparkling wines, which are fermented in steel and aged on lees for between 24 to 120 months. We were struck by how, while the lees contributed a rounded mouthfeel, the yeasty aromas were subtle until the last two wines: the 2016, with 60 months on lees, and the 2013, with 120 months on lees. Even with these two, the character of the lees was not overpowering—the primary aromas of Prié Blanc remained dominant. Pavese explained that his primary goal is to preserve the unique identity of Prié Blanc, and all winemaking decisions, including yeast selection, are made with this in mind to avoid overwhelming the grape with strong lees notes.
The 2016 Metodo Classico was an outstanding wine. Despite 60 months on its lees, it was full of ripe tropical fruit aromas, thanks to a warm vintage. The 25th-anniversary special release (2013 Metodo Classico with 120 months on lees) was equally impressive, if not more so. It featured pronounced aromas of blossom, mineral, lemon and green apple, complemented by unobtrusive sourdough and toast notes and a very long finish. Thanks to the high acidity of Prié Blanc, this wine could easily age another decade.
Among the still wines, the standout was the 2020 Sette Scalinate, produced exclusively in magnum format. Dedicated to Ermes’ uncle, Carlo Pavese, the grapes for this wine came from the Sette Scalinate vineyards we visited earlier. Described by Pavese himself as their finest wine, it displayed pronounced aromas of mountain flowers, green apple, lemon and wet stone, owing to 48 hours on the skins before fermentation.
We also enjoyed a blind tasting of the 2013 and 2014 vintages of the dry still wine, Blanc de Morgex et La Salle, a true classic of the area. Despite their age, these exceptional wines were still very primary, with tertiary notes only just starting to emerge. With their exceptionally high acidity, we would be eager to taste them after another decade.
Then, we tasted some unusual interpretations of Prié Blanc – the Nathan, which had been matured in French oak, and the Esseme, which had been fermented in Clayver ceramic barrels. Both of these were daring, memorable wines.
Another intriguing wine was the Unopercento (1 percent). In April 2017, a spring frost caused significant grape loss across Valle d’Aosta. Ermes Pavese was one of the worst affected, losing 99% of his crop. He salvaged what remained, fermenting the grapes on their skins for nine months in a steel tank, using natural yeasts and no SO2 during the winemaking process. The result was a unique natural wine, with only 999 bottles produced—his entire output for that year. Very tannic with oxidative notes of cooked apple, nuts and dried peel, this wine is likely to divide opinions, but it is certainly a fascinating expression of the heroic viticulture practised by producers like Pavese under challenging conditions.
We concluded our tasting with their ice wine, Ninive. The grapes for this wine are harvested while frozen, when temperatures drop to between -5°C and -10°C in December. With 30 g/L of residual sugar and 14.5% ABV, it exhibited aromas of ripe apples, orange peel, and dried apricot, balanced by Prié’s naturally high acidity and complemented by its aromatics. This wine, which can only be produced every 2-3 years due to milder winters, is distinct in style from German or Canadian ice wines and is one of Italy’s rare ice wines (nearby Cave Mont Blanc also produces an oxidative ice wine).
Our visit to the Pavese winery deepened our appreciation for the Prié Blanc grape and the remarkable wines it produces. We were already admirers of Prié Blanc, but this tasting experience made us fall in love with it even more. Ermes Pavese’s dedication to preserving the grape’s unique character, along with his innovative approach to winemaking, results in wines of extraordinary purity and complexity. The stories behind each bottle, from the altitude-challenged vineyards to the century-old ungrafted vines, showcase the exceptional commitment required to produce these unique wines. Ermes Pavese is an inspiring producer all wine lovers and aspiring winemakers should visit when in Valle d’Aosta.
