Mountain high: the altitude and soil of the Alps yields wine that is distinctive and elegant. Photograph: AlamyThe steep slopes of the Alps are home to some of the world’s more expensive vineyards, but that doesn’t mean you have to pay a fortune to try the wines. David Williams selects two Swiss and one French Alpine wine for you to sample.Domaine des Muses Fendant Classique, Valais, Switzerland 2013 (£18, Alpine Wines; £19.50, The Wine Society) Swiss wines are a rarity in the UK (or anywhere beyond the 26 cantons), the simple explanation being their price. The precipitous vineyards would be expensive to work no matter where they were, but when you factor in the higher cost of labour and equipment in Switzerland, the expense is all-but prohibitive. Still, if the starting price point for Swiss wines is high, that doesn’t mean they’re necessarily bad value. They’re certainly distinctive, in an elegant, understated way, both of which qualities apply in the case of Domaine des Muses’s take on the most widely planted grape variety in Switzerland, chasselas: a typically graceful, racy dry white that is gently insistent and mineral rather than noisily fruity.
Cave de Vin Blanc de Morgex et de la Salle Rayon, Valle d’Aosta, Italy 2013 (£15.99, Smiling Grape) Switzerland has many other grape varieties deserving of greater renown. Alongside the chasselas, The Wine Society has just added two more from Domaine des Muses: the white Petite Arvine Tradition (£30; also £24 at Alpine Wines) has a gorgeous viognier-like touch of juicy stone fruit richness to go with its free-flowing acidity; the red Humagne Rouge Tradition (£33; £34.20 at Alpine Wines) is crunchy, vivid, with a black forest gateau fruit character. And if the prices are a bit too, well, steep, in Switzerland, it is possible to find a similar spring-like vivacity and charm in Alpine Italy in the high-altitude Valle d’Aosta where the local co-operative’s gentle but incisive dry white mixes blossom, pear and camomile.
Domaine Bruno Lupin Rousette de Savoie Frangy 2013 (from £12.55, Joseph Barnes; Corks of Cotham; Highbury Vintners) France, too, has its relatively unheralded Alpine wine region producing white wines with a clarity, freshness and delicacy that makes comparisons with mountain streams, rushing with spring melt, impossible to resist – and which seem to sit with the season’s mood and food so well. As with Switzerland, the wines of Savoie are not all that easy to come by in the UK, but they do tend to be a little cheaper. Among the names to look out for is Roussette, which is both the name of an appellation and the local name for the altesse variety that forms the base of the blend in Bruno Lupin’s delightful off-dry example with its subtly nutty, spicy and savoury notes and its joyously juicy apple and pear.
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