“ The wine is one of most big achievement of the man who has transformed perisherable fruit in something permanent “
( Jean Arlot )
I have met Piero Brunet for the first time at the exhibition Fiera vini estremi in Forte di Bard in 2017. It was also my first meeting with the variety Priè Blanc. The love from the first side, in this case from the first tasting .
I have to mention that some estates from the exhibition I have kept in my memory from my first travel to Aosta Valley and they made the skeleton for my more serious knowledge of wines from the Aosta Valley. From this time I come at least once in the year for a tasting of new vintages and to deepen my experience of about the zone and to meet producers.
And so, I visited Piero Brunet. Every meeting with him seems to be a holiday for me. Piero Brunet is not only the producer of the excellent wine, but also a very interesting person, with a big baggage of memories. I could speak with him many hours.
The wine company Brunet Piero was born in 1985.
Priè is the oldest one variety in Aosta Valley, the first notice is dated in 1961, is one of the progenitors of others autochthonous varieties from Aosta Valley, like Mayolet, Bianco Commune and Prëmeta. Priè Blanc is the rare autochthonous variety , ungrafted, resistant to cold, and thanks to climate conditions is not attacked by phyloxera .
This is the way how the style of work in a vineyard is changed , there are not used grafting on the rootstocks, the reproduction is made with grafted vines produced directly at the place using a burial of the shoots.
We should remember the climate conditions in zone of Morgex, very hard during the winter, the height and the slope,the late germination , late bloomer and the early ripening .
The obtained wines are fresh, fragrant, acidulous in a pleasant way, mineral, crispy.
Nothing strange that for me was love from the first sip.
At first Piero use to work in the small family vineyard. But later, how often happens, life brought him the particular opportunity.
A priest Piero Bouget, the first person who marketed Blanc di Morgex in the sixties, not only marketed , but did also the promotion of territory and the autochthonous variety. Piero Bouguet was also friend of Luigi Veronelli. The private vineyards of priest Piero Bouget were held by him together with his sister, who some time decided to produce the wine, but later she decided to sell those vineyards. The mother of Piero Brunet , Maria knew the sister of pastor, so that Piero has started to take care of the priest vineyard, and finally pastor’s sister has offered to sale vineyards to him.
The first wine made by Piero Brunet was dated in 1986.
If you look at the etiquette of the wine of Piero Brunet you can see the text “Curé Bouget” which is derived from the name of the old owner, but also the picture is that historic ones. The first wine etiquettes were hand printed using the old lead table inherited from the priest.
The vineyards in property of Piero Brunet are some of grand cru terroir of variety Priè Blanc in Morgex.
Not everything in his life was so nice, there were also some hard periods of life, especially in period of establishing the production of wines. Piero has told me the story from this period of his life, when he was thinking to stop working in vineyard because of financial difficulties. When he was speaking with family what it was possible to do, the small daughter was listening him , and after she had taken from her money-box one coin one thousand liras was saying “Dad I give you a bit of help”.
I am very happy that Piero Brunet has resolved the difficult situation, because today we have the opportunity to taste his beautiful wines, the still wine Blanc de La Morgex et de La Salle, but also Spumante Method Traditionale .
If you just for case you will be in Morgex I recommend you to try a genuine wines from Piero Brunet , but also to walk between so particular vineyards, grapevines are cultivated on small low pergolas, with a traditional structure in wood and stones, for collecting the grapes it’s necessary to be seating under, sometimes also laying . The vineyards are arranged in steep pendings, the vineyards are terraced. The vineyards are surrounded by the stone walls .Everything for protection of grapes, for supporting the weight of snow in the winter, for accumulating of heat of sun and the soils during the day, and for a giving back the accumulated heat during the night. In such a way grapes reach the ripening in September.
The experience is seriously unique. There are some places, like this one, where you understand imediately what does it mean the extreme wines.
