Wines

Ermes’s son Nathan came on board full-time at the family winery several years ago, and he is indulging in a bit of thoughtful experimentation in the cellar, finding new registers of expression for the indigenous Prié Blanc variety. Take, for instance, “Esprit Fou”—a pétillant-naturel (or, in Italian, “col fondo”—both French and Italian are spoken in this border zone) for which Nathan bottles still-fermenting Prié and allows the natural yeasts to finish digesting the remaining sugars, thereby turning them into bubbles. The result, dry but creamy, bursts with Alpine herbs, and its exuberant mousse is still undergirded by a savory stoniness that echoes through all the family’s wines.

A stunning sparkling wine from the highest vineyard site in Europe, with annual production of about 12,000 bottles of this austere, racy, mineral white wine with vivacity and length. Based on the local Prié Blanc, planted on the native rootstock as the phylloxera did not reach this height. The wine sees zero dosage and spends several years on the lees.

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. Annual production is about 12,000 bottles of this austere, racy, mineral white wine with vivacity and length.

In 1993, Ermes Pavese made the bold decision—still uncommon in this corner of the Valle d’Aosta—to begin bottling his own wine rather than selling off the fruit from his tiny then-two-hectare farm to the local co-operative. To commemorate the 20th anniversary of that fortuitous moment, the family held back a portion of their 2013 production to be released later as a library wine, and we are now the lucky recipients of a pristinely aged Prié Blanc from Ermes’s meticulously tended extreme-altitude vineyards. Prié with a bit of bottle age begins to round out, although its rapier-like acidity remains the wine’s predominant structural element, and the fruit undergoes a Riesling-esque transformation into gentle petrol. With this 2013, a gunflint-like smoke—always a terroir marker in Blanc de Morgex—has taken center stage, relegating the savory citrus and stone fruits to a background role, but the wine remains scintillating and exuberantly energetic.

Made from the best vines of Pavese, raised without oak at Neal’s request and bottled only in magnum. It is not richer than the basic Prié Blanc but more mineral, deep and intense with a striking persistence—a fantastic wine! Only 200 magnums are produced.

A tiny cuvée selected for its richness that is exposed to barrel fermentation and barrel ageing.

Nature dealt the high Alpine hamlets of Morgex and La Salle a fatal blow in 2017, with frost destroying all but 1% of the Pavese family’s crop. From their pittance of grapes, they produced a single vessel of a single wine, naming it “Uno Percento.” The wine shows a deep, layered, powerfully stony side of the little-seen Prié grape, bearing the concentration of a naturally severely reduced crop, and with enough structure to lay down. 999 bottles produced.

Raised 24 months in amphora and fermented on its skins, Pavese’s "Esseme" (formerly “Tondo”) cuvée is rich in dry extract and concentration, but does not show the aggressive tannin or dark color of other skin macerated wines. Prié, in fact, per Ermes, was often macerated in generations past, and we at Rosenthal Wine Merchant are excited to experience the magic of Morgex in this alternate register.

From a harvest after the first frosts of winter, frequently occurring in early December; essentially an “ice wine” that achieves a formidable concentration.