HIGH ALTITUDE
Between the granite ramparts of Mont Blanc, the walls of the Cervino-Matterhorn and the glaciers of Monte Rosa, an alpine amphitheatre opens up where the vine must surrender and the heroic apple tree takes the baton.
THE KINGDOM OF THE
GREAT PEAKS
The Monte Bianco massif towers over 4 800 m and imposes a severe microclimate: cold nights, clear air, extreme temperature ranges. The cathabatic currents dry the skin of the apples, concentrate sugars and aromas, sculpt fine tannins and saline minerality. Each fruit is the result of a constant struggle between frost and sun.
WHEN THE VINE GIVES WAY TO THE APPLE TREE
Heroic winegrowing in the Alps goes, with difficulty, up to an altitude of 1 000 m; beyond that, the vine no longer ripens. Our monumental apple trees, some planted more than a century ago, thrive instead among pastures and larch forests. With their deep roots they traverse glacial moraines, absorbing traces of quartz and gneiss that re-emerge in the calyx in the form of sharp freshness.
MONUMENTAL APPLE TREES,
UNOBTAINABLE VARIETIES
We know each of our apple trees, behind which there is a history of women, men and seasons.
Our eight varieties of apples (Raventze, Barbelune, Rodzetta, Flamboyante, Calville, Pomma verte, Croison de Boussy, Groin de Veau) and two of pears (Critchen d'hiveur, Maude) come from over 100-year-old trees, often more than 12 metres tall. At high altitudes, the apple tree accumulates slow sugars, vibrant acidity and a subtle tannic set-up that no lowland orchard can replicate.
The Duchy of Savoy, a feud of the Holy Roman Empire between the 15th and 18th centuries, united the territories of the House since the 11th century. Savoy and the Aosta Valley were for centuries the beating heart of the Alps, a living land of free and proud men, guardians of a timeless peasant culture.
