Your cellar, your trips, and the wines you've been tracking are right where you left them.
New here?
Free, always. Education first, we'll never sell you anything you didn't ask to see.
Already have an account?
Enter the email you signed up with and we'll send a link to choose a new password.
Grosjean is a family estate at Ollignan, a hamlet on the border of Quart and Saint-Christophe, just east of Aosta. Three generations work about 21 football pitches of steep mountain vines between 500 and 900 metres. Native grapes lead the planting: Petite Arvine, Cornalin, Fumin, Vuillermin and Petit Rouge, joined by Pinot Noir, Gamay and Chardonnay. In 2011 it became the first winery in Valle d'Aosta to be certified organic. It remains one of the region's reference names for serious mountain wine.
Aosta Valley
The Grosjean name appears in Valle d'Aosta records as far back as the seventeenth century. Families from Burgundy and Savoie had been invited to repopulate the valley after the plague of 1630. The modern winery dates to 1969, when Dauphin Grosjean bottled his first wines for the Exposition des Vins du Val d'Aoste, the valley's wine fair. His five sons, Vincent, Giorgio, Marco, Fernando and Eraldo, turned a small family farm into a working estate. Today the third generation leads the day-to-day winemaking: Herve, Didier, Simon and Marco.
The cellar sits at Ollignan, on the right bank of the Dora Baltea river. The vineyards climb the slopes around it. Tzeriat, Rovettaz, Creton and Touren lie in Quart; Tzante de Bagnere, Merletta and Castello di Pleod in Saint-Christophe. Plots sit between 500 and 900 metres, on slopes that approach 80 percent. Everything is worked by hand, from pruning to harvest. The vines yield roughly 140,000 bottles a year, modest for Italy but substantial for a winery in Valle d'Aosta.
Clean farming came long before the paperwork. Insecticides and herbicides went in 1975. Organic certification followed in 2011, the first granted to a winery in Valle d'Aosta, and the only one in the region for the next decade. The same thinking runs through the work: wild yeasts, low sulphur additions, and traditional Guyot training in the vines.
The range reads like a tour of the valley's native grapes. Petite Arvine, a white the valley shares with the Swiss Valais, comes in two versions. The Vigne Rovettaz is partly aged in oak; a fresher version comes from the higher Chatel Argent vineyard. Cornalin Vigne Rovettaz and Fumin Vigne Rovettaz show two of the region's most age-worthy native reds. Torrette Superieur, a blend led by Petit Rouge, is the everyday red of the central valley and anchors the range.
The line stretches beyond the native palette too. There is a Pinot Noir from the Tzeriat vineyard, the Montmary Metodo Classico Extra Brut Rose, and a Donnas made from Picotendro, the lower valley's form of Nebbiolo.
At the table, Torrette is a natural match for the region's mountain charcuterie: jambon de Bosses DOP, motzetta, lard d'Arnad DOP. It also suits Fontina dishes like polenta concia or seupa a la valpellinentse. The whites sit well beside lake fish and alpine cheeses, while Cornalin and Fumin reach toward braised game and beef carbonade. Drinking Grosjean is the most direct way to taste how Valle d'Aosta thinks about wine.
Plate I · AOSTA VALLEY
Wine area
The valley's broadest sub-zone, where Petit Rouge dominates the blend and the Enfer amphitheatre concentrates summer heat.
Winery
Quart, Aosta · Central Valley: Torrette and Enfer d'Arvier
3 tastings, checked by our editors. From €28.
Tasting
Guided winery visit followed by a tasting of 5 selected wines that express the unique alpine terroir of the Aosta Valley.
via Winedering
Tasting & Tour
A complete wine experience including a guided vineyard walk, winery visit and tasting of 5 alpine wines.
via Winedering
Tasting
A guided winery visit followed by a tasting of 3 selected wines that express the authentic Alpine character of the Aosta Valley.
via Winedering
Tasting
Tasting and direct sales at the family cellar in Frazione Ollignan, by appointment. Visitors taste through the native-variety range: Petite Arvine, Cornalin, Fumin, Torrette Superieur, and the rotating limited cuvees. Bookings are arranged directly with the estate by phone or email; no online booking system is offered.
Not bookable online yet
Not seeing the estate you want? Estates without an online listing are reachable directly, and their phone and email are in Plan your visit.
Some booking links earn italianwines.co.uk a commission. This never affects price or what we recommend.
Grosjean's current bottle selection is easiest to understand through Chardonnay and Pinot Nero.
Tell us what you need and we'll help you reach Grosjean and arrange a visit or tour. We reply within two working days.
Est. 1969 
3 wines 
Tastings
Tours
Booking required 
