Nadir Cuneaz

Our travels in the Vallee d'Aoste have led us to several small and unexpected gems, the newest of which is the Cantina di Cuneaz Nadir. We were introduced to the young Nadir Cuneaz by Danilo Thomain in Arvier, whose Enfer d'Arvier has been a wonderful addition to our book. The Cuneaz family has a mere 0.5 hectares near the town of Gressan, reflecting a local mix of grape varieties, some of which were planted over 100 years ago. The 'cellar' is one of the rooms in their home, where a few small cuves and two barrels reside, and three wines are produced. We are fortunate to be able to import around 50 cases of the "Badebec", of which less than a hundred cases are produced from two small parcels.

Although the wine qualifies for the Torrette DOC, the locals feel that too many poor examples pass for this appellation, thus they have chosen to retain the Rosso Vallee d'Aoste designation. The wine is also unusual in that the fruit from the earlier ripening parcel is allowed to dry for two weeks after harvest, creating passito grapes, which result in roughly 2g of residual sugar in the final wine. The grapes are combined and vinified together, after which they spend a year in barrel prior to bottling. The name "Badabec" comes from the mythical monster that is said to roam the forests above Gressan and occasionally feast on misbehaving children in the village!