A wine appreciated and awarded all over the world. A wine born where vines should almost not exist at all. We are in Cumiod di Villeneuve, in the Aosta Valley. Here, rows of Petite Arvine climb between 880 and 925 metres above sea level. The soil is harsh and poor: sand and stone, slate, granite and quartz. There is very little fine earth. The roots dig deep in search of nourishment. Slopes exceed 50%, making every vineyard task genuine physical labour. Harvest begins in mid-October, when the air starts to turn sharply cold and the grapes are brought down the mountain by a small tracked vehicle. The Rosset family founded the winery in 2001 with their first three hectares in Saint-Christophe. The turning point came in 2017, when they decided to push beyond 900 metres in Villeneuve by planting Petite Arvine. The vineyard had originally been planted in the late 1990s by a Swiss entrepreneur as a wager on the alpine character of the grape variety. Rosset took up that challenge — and won. Today, Sopraquota is the symbolic wine of the estate, as well as one of the most recognisable white wines of the Aosta Valley. In the cellar, the grapes are divided into four batches and handled differently: part in amphora, part in clay jars, part in barrique and the remainder in stainless steel. In amphora and clay jars, skin maceration takes place. In oak, malolactic fermentation is also carried out. Before all of this, a cold skin maceration slows the process and helps extract aromas without sacrificing freshness. The batches are reunited after around one year. The result? In the glass, the wine is straw yellow in colour. The nose opens with white flowers, grapefruit and lime zest. Then comes something deeper: ripe tropical fruit and a mineral note reminiscent of wet stone. On the palate it is dry and taut. Savouriness is the first thing that stands out. Then comes the minerality, clean and persistent. The finish is long and citrus-driven. At the table it pairs beautifully with freshwater fish, shellfish or salmon trout. It is also excellent with semi-hard alpine cheeses such as Fontina DOP from the Aosta Valley.