Caves De Donnas. Valle d'Aoste Donnas

Valle De Aoste DOC
Grape: Nebbiolo

2018 
A vintage that showed another side to Donnas; the 2018 Nebbiolo is rounder and more opulent; the freshening wet stone and violet is joined by ripe bramble, fig, and red berry, some spice.  The tannins are so supple, a puppy of a vintage, perfect for an elegant feast. 13.5%

“Wild mountain wine! Vigour and freshness with fine tannins and surging definition. Watch out for the savoury uptick and grab a slice of cured peppery meat.”
Olly Smith, Three Wine Men

Link to Producer page for Caves de Donnas

The vineyards of Donnas are amongst the most extreme on earth, the Cave is not the most commercial of concerns, more a community of growers who make wine together, their numbers naturally dwindling from 61 to the current 50. 

This is the only wine we import from Caves de Donnas, we do however also import from ‘Pianta Grossa’, the only other producer of Donnas wine.

The vineyards are above 350 metres and trained using a system known locally as Valdaostan Pergola, it is extremely labour-intensive, the average density is 4000 vines per hectare. The soils are gossamer-thin over schist and quartz rock. The work in the vineyard is exclusively by hand, the grapes are transported from the vines to the cantina using a small dedicated monorail.

The grapes are fermented in temperature-controlled steel tanks using selected yeasts. The wine is aged for 12 months in 25hl botti grandi (large oak barrels that hold 2500 litres) before being bottled.