The Les Crêtes 2019 Valle d'Aosta Petite Arvine is balanced and bright with loads of pretty peach, nectarine and yellow pear. This grape has an extra layer of richness or glycerin that tastes like it comes directly from the thick skins of the grapes hardened by the cooling mountain temperatures before harvest. That soft, creamy texture gives the wine more importance and length on the finish. This was a production of about 35,000 bottles.

The 2016 Valle d'Aosta Petite Arvine (packed with a screwcap closure) offers hint of matchstick when you make your first approach, but this aroma blows off quickly. I gave my sample an extra five minutes or so to open in the glass and it did so very nicely. When the wine is warmed and ready to go, it offers a subtle and elegant bouquet with floral notes followed by subtle fruity tones of nectarine and white peach. However, the wine's most distinctive feature is that crushed slate or shale that comes through with such focused intensity. Some 33,000 bottles were made. The Petite Arvine grape has roots in Switzerland but was brought over to Italy's Valle d'Aosta in the 1970s.

The 2013 Valle d'Aosta Petite Arvine by Les Crêtes is a gorgeous wine with a great sense of balance and intensity. It also has the potential for five years of cellar aging thanks to the wine's bright acidity and the thickness of the mouthfeel. Dried fruit, candied lemon peel and crushed mineral all play supporting roles on the bouquet. This is a medium bodied white with a plush and rich finish.