Food and wine
Wine
Caves Cooperatives de Donnas
Tradition and quality of wines matured in a Mediterranean climate
Donnas, a village at the bottom of the valley situated a few kilometers from the Piedmont border, enjoys a mild climate, which allows Mediterranean plants to be grown (olives, lemons, palms, mimosa)and favours the centuries-oldcultivation of vines. To preserve this noble wine-growing tradition, a group of wine-growers, after obtaining Controlled Denomination of Origin (DOC) for the Donnas wine (the first in the Aosta Valley) formed a cooperative, with the specific aim of protecting it and guaranteeing its quality and authenticity: and so, in 1971, the Caves Cooperatives de Donnas were founded, cultivating the local variety of Nebbiolo grapes known as "picotendro", which are the main, ingredient of the 180 thousand bottles produced each year divided between Donnas Supérieur “Vieilles vignes”(late Nebbiolo harvest), with a minimum of 30 months of aging, Donnas “Napoléon” aged in casks and the traditional Donnas, aged in large barrels. The variety of these DOC wines, which were also appreciated by the Napoleonic soldiers who had the occasion to sample them in 1800, is completed by Larmes du ParadisRosé and Pinot Gris, which is available in a dry version and a late harvested sweet version with mature scents. At the restaurant in the Caves de Donnas building, the traditional dishes of the lower Aosta Valley cuisine can be enjoyed with the wines of the Cooperative.
