Corvée: A High Altitude White Wine Bonanza
I love hearing your travel stories, just as much as I enjoy sharing mine with you in these emails. Many of you have stopped by over the past few weeks and shared your summer adventures with me. It’s always fun to hear about new places, so I can brainstorm my next trip. I also love catching up with you about a favorite place I’ve been to, and comparing notes.
Last week, I found myself chatting with one of you about a recent trip to the Dolomites, and I was immediately transported back to Trentino Alto-Adige, surrounded by high mountain peaks, the verdant Adige valley, the unreal vistas, and clean mountain air. We compared notes about what we saw and how much we can’t wait to get back.
It’s a special place, with a unique status within modern Italy, a confluence of cultures, food, and languages. This mountainous region is crisscrossed with a network of hiking trails, mountain lodges, high-elevation pastures, and precipitous terraced vineyards. This wild natural beauty is integrated gracefully with modern cities and refined creature comforts. You may spend all day hiking above 4000 feet, but you will replenish yourself at the end of the day with a hearty meal, and wash it all down with a bottle of the most elegant Alpine wines to be found -- probably from a vineyard you spotted from your hike!
This is a place shaped by a long history of human habitation and symbiosis with the landscape. Cliff-faces display this transformation in their terraces, and precarious cultivation of vines by the dauntless inhabitants. It’s their dedication and fearlessness that preserve a tradition going back centuries.
One such place that we’ve become rather fond of is Corvée. Tucked up in a little side valley, a 20-minute drive from Trento, the winery is perched on the edge of a cliff, nestled among vineyard terraces more suited to mountaineers than farmers. It’s a breathtaking place, and it hooked us pretty quickly…but it's the remarkable quality of wines that has us coming back again and again. Elegant, pristine, and refreshing wines that could only come from the cool evening air of the mountains and the long summer days of high-altitude sunshine.
For those of you who have enjoyed the spectacular landscape of these eastern Alps, these wines are a reminder of that crisp mountain air on your face and the reward of your daily effort on the hiking trail. For those who have not yet been, take these wines as inspiration - open up a bottle and have a glass as you plan your next trip.
For us, there is no more consistent purveyor of quality and value, accompanied by sheer delight, than Corvée. Time and again, popping the cork on their wines, a smile spreads across my face, and I am transported. This corner of the world remains mostly undiscovered, so you won't find these wines anywhere else. As for the price, undiscovered means undervalued. It blows my mind that wine made in a place more suited to mountaineering than farming can still be had for around $20, but these wines remain stubbornly affordable.
We've got three of their standouts for you today, all priced at $21 per bottle. Put together a combination of any six of these for $115 - that's just over $19 a bottle! Corvée has the trifecta: Compelling wines, superb quality, and affordability!
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• 'Cór' Pinot Bianco 2022 •
Cór means heart, and the name of one of the most beautiful vineyards of the Cembra Valley on the sunny side of Mount Pincaldo (1268 meters). A Pinot Blanc with a light and bright straw yellow color, and a bouquet perfumed with white pulp fruit, apple, pear, peach, with hints of rose, viburnum, jasmine, and fresh green almonds.
• 'Quaràs' Chardonnay 2022 •
Named after the French captain who led the Napoleonic troops in the assault on the nearby Segonzano castle. The temperature variations and the deep, fertile, clay-rich soils define this limpid and fresh Chardonnay. Aromas of yellow fruit, pineapple, and orange peel blend harmoniously with the sweet aroma of caramel, toffy, and hazelnut. The Alpine origin is revealed in the fresh acidity.
• 'Corvàia' Pinot Grigio 2022 •
Pinot Grigio is the most well-known grape of northern Italy, and we've looked for years to find the right one. Finally, here it is! It shows a light and bright yellow color, and a perfumed bouquet of pear, peach, and incense. On the palate, the taste is rich and with a pleasant acidity and persistence, which represent the distinctive features of this rare "small scale" Pinot Grigio of great freshness and drinkability.