2025 Les Crêtes Mon Rouge | Valle d’Aosta, Italy | Rare Alpine Red Blend

🏔️ Five Alpine Grapes | One of Italy's Most Fascinating Mountain Reds

Cornalin + Fumin + Vuillermin + Gamay + Petit Rouge

From Les Crêtes – Cult Alpine Producer of Valle d'Aosta

High-Altitude Vineyards | Hand Harvested | Only Around 10,000 Bottles

Valle d'Aosta, Italy

Cornalin | Fumin | Vuillermin | Gamay | Petit Rouge

500–800 Metres Altitude

RRP $45

If you think you know Italian red wine, here's something completely different.

Forget Sangiovese.

Forget Nebbiolo.

Forget Nero d'Avola.

Instead, how about a red made from:

CORNALIN + FUMIN + VUILLERMIN + GAMAY + PETIT ROUGE

Welcome to:

2025 LES CRÊTES MON ROUGE

from the spectacular mountain vineyards of:

VALLE D'AOSTA.

This is exactly the sort of wine that makes us excited about Italy.

Rare grape varieties.

Tiny vineyards.

Extreme altitude.

Ancient Alpine viticulture.

A benchmark producer.

And a delicious, incredibly drinkable red that tastes completely different from mainstream Italian wine.

RRP $45.

Tasting Notes

This is all about perfume, freshness and drinkability rather than enormous extraction.

Expect:

• Wild strawberry

• Red cherry

• Raspberry

• Blackberry

• Red plum

• Violets

• Alpine flowers

• Wild herbs

• Forest floor

• Subtle pepper

• Mountain spice

• Crushed stone

The colour is bright ruby.

The nose immediately delivers red berries and flowers, with blackberry and subtle undergrowth adding another dimension.

Then the palate comes alive.

Fresh.

Juicy.

Floral.

Light on its feet.

Beautifully savoury.

The acidity is bright.

The tannins are fine and subtle.

And there's none of the heaviness you might associate with warmer-climate Italian reds.

This is mountain red wine.

Pure and simple.

Five Grapes You've Probably Never Seen Together

This is what makes Mon Rouge so fascinating.

It's a blend of:

CORNALIN

An ancient Alpine red capable of producing deeply coloured, aromatic wines with fruit, flowers, spice and beautifully distinctive personality.

FUMIN

One of Valle d'Aosta's great indigenous varieties.

Dark.

Spicy.

Savoury.

Structured.

Fumin nearly disappeared during the 1970s before local growers helped rescue it.

Les Crêtes played an important role in its revival and was among the pioneers of bottling it as a varietal wine.

VUILLERMIN

Now we're getting seriously obscure.

A rare native Valle d'Aosta variety that even many experienced Italian wine drinkers will never have tasted.

And that's exactly what makes wines like this so exciting.

GAMAY

The one name you probably recognise.

Famous in Beaujolais, here it contributes beautiful perfume, red fruit and freshness to the Alpine blend.

And finally:

PETIT ROUGE

One of the signature native grapes of Valle d'Aosta.

Bright.

Fragrant.

Fresh.

Beautifully suited to the region's extreme mountain vineyards.

Put them together and you've got something completely unique.

MON ROUGE.

Valle d'Aosta

There really isn't anywhere else in Italy quite like this.

VALLE D'AOSTA

is Italy's smallest wine region.

Tucked into the Alps in the far northwest of the country, it borders:

France

and:

Switzerland.

This is serious mountain country.

Some of Europe's highest peaks surround the valley.

Vineyards cling to slopes and terraces.

Parcels can be tiny.

Mechanisation is difficult.

And growers work at elevations where viticulture can become genuinely extreme.

It's one of the most visually spectacular wine regions in Europe.

And the wines taste like nowhere else.

500–800 Metres Above Sea Level

The vineyards contributing to Mon Rouge are spread across:

Aymavilles

St. Pierre

Gressan

and:

St. Christophe.

And they sit between approximately:

500–800 METRES ABOVE SEA LEVEL.

That's serious altitude.

The climate is Alpine.

Summers are short, cool and breezy.

Winters are long and cold.

And the difference between daytime and nighttime temperatures can be substantial.

That helps the grapes retain the quality we want in this style of red:

FRESHNESS.

The Soils

The vineyards sit on:

MORAINIC SOILS.

These are soils created through the movement and deposits of ancient glaciers.

They're loose.

Sandy.

Rocky.

Free draining.

And the vineyard parcels vary enormously in slope and exposure.

Again, that's Valle d'Aosta.

Nothing is simple here.

It's fragmented mountain viticulture shaped by geology, altitude and exposure.

And that's exactly what makes it so interesting.

Only Around 10,000 Bottles

This isn't mass-produced Italian red.

Annual production is approximately:

10,000 BOTTLES.

That's tiny.

The vineyard area behind the wine is only around:

1.5 HECTARES.

The vines are densely planted at approximately:

7,500 vines per hectare.

And the fruit is:

HAND HARVESTED

around the middle of October.

Again, think about what you're getting for:

$45.

Rare Alpine varieties.

Tiny production.

High-altitude vineyards.

Hand-picked fruit.

From one of the benchmark producers of Valle d'Aosta.

No Oak – And That's Important

I love the winemaking here.

Because Les Crêtes doesn't try to turn Mon Rouge into something it isn't.

The fruit is destemmed after chilling.

Fermentation takes place for approximately:

7 DAYS

in temperature-controlled stainless steel, with regular pump-overs.

Then the wine spends:

6 MONTHS IN STAINLESS STEEL.

No attempt to smother these beautiful Alpine grapes under layers of new oak.

No need.

The goal is to preserve:

Fruit.

Flowers.

Freshness.

Acidity.

Varietal character.

Exactly as it should be.

Les Crêtes

Les Crêtes is one of the great names of Valle d'Aosta.

Founded by Costantino Charrère in 1989, the estate has become internationally recognised for showcasing the extraordinary grapes and vineyards of this tiny Alpine region.

And that's why I think of Les Crêtes as a:

CULT ALPINE PRODUCER.

These aren't wines made for everyone.

They're wines that sommeliers, collectors and adventurous drinkers discover because they're looking for something beyond the obvious.

Les Crêtes has helped preserve and promote varieties including:

Fumin

Petit Rouge

Cornalin

and other rare local grapes.

That's enormously important.

Without producers committed to these varieties, some of them could easily disappear.

The Perfect Alternative to Pinot Noir

Here's another reason I think people are going to love this.

If you drink:

Pinot Noir

Gamay

Schiava

Frappato

Etna Rosso

and love reds that emphasise perfume and freshness rather than sheer weight—

BUY THIS.

Mon Rouge sits beautifully in that world.

It's aromatic.

It's juicy.

It's savoury.

It has fine tannins.

And you can easily drink it slightly chilled.

In fact, I would.

Chill It Down

Don't serve this at Australian summer room temperature.

Les Crêtes recommends:

15–17°C.

Perfect.

Put the bottle in the fridge for:

20–30 MINUTES

before opening it.

The cooler temperature will make the red fruit, florals and Alpine freshness absolutely sing.

This is exactly the sort of red wine you can drink through spring and summer.

Food Pairings

Mon Rouge is incredibly versatile.

Try it with:

• Prosciutto

• Salumi

• Charcuterie

• Antipasti

• Pasta with ragù

• Mushroom pasta

• Pizza

• Roast chicken

• Pork

• Veal

• Grilled lamb

• Alpine cheeses

• Medium-aged cheeses

Or do what they do in the mountains:

Charcuterie.

Cheese.

Fresh bread.

Bottle of Mon Rouge.

Done.

Cellaring

Here's something surprising.

Les Crêtes gives Mon Rouge potential longevity of up to:

15 YEARS.

That's impressive for a wine deliberately built around freshness and drinkability.

Personally, I'd enjoy the 2025 for its youthful fruit and perfume over the next several years.

Drink now through 2033+.

But putting a couple away would be fascinating.

Those red fruits should gradually develop toward:

Dried cherry

Forest floor

Dried flowers

Earth

Herbs

and:

Alpine spice.

Why We Love It

Because this is exactly what Liquid Vibe should be about.

Not simply selling another Cabernet or Shiraz you've seen a hundred times before.

It's about finding wines that make you say:

WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?

And then:

WHY HAVEN'T I DRUNK THIS BEFORE?

Look at what you've got:

Cornalin

Fumin

Vuillermin

Gamay

Petit Rouge

From:

500–800 METRES

in the Italian Alps.

Tiny vineyard area.

Around:

10,000 BOTTLES

produced.

Hand harvested.

No oak.

Pure Alpine fruit.

From one of the benchmark producers of Valle d'Aosta.

And all for:

RRP $45.

That's one hell of an introduction to Alpine Italian wine.

2025 LES CRÊTES MON ROUGE

Valle d'Aosta, Italy

RRP $45

Five grapes. Tiny mountain vineyards. One seriously delicious Alpine red.

CORNALIN + FUMIN + VUILLERMIN + GAMAY + PETIT ROUGE

Fresh. Perfumed. Savoury. Rare. Completely different.

👉 If you're bored with drinking the same grape varieties over and over again, buy this. Les Crêtes Mon Rouge is exactly why exploring the lesser-known corners of Italy can be so much fun.