Ermes Pavese, Blanc de Morgex et de la Salle

High in the far north of Italy, at the base of Mont Blanc, lies one of the country’s most incredible white wines—and quietly, one of the most singular wines in all of Europe. I’ve been singing this wine’s praises for well over a decade now, and I had the chance to visit a few years ago—still one of my favorite wine experiences of my life. Snow-capped peaks. The invigorating smell of mountain air. Terraced vineyards crawling impossibly up the hillsides. Food that feels born of altitude and necessity. Even the bottle itself is utterly unique—short, broad-shouldered, and unlike anything else on the shelf, a quiet signal that what’s inside plays by its own rules.

So I wasn’t surprised to see this wine appear recently in the New York Times, where wine critic Eric Asimov listed Ermes Pavese first in his article “The Most Memorable Wines of 2025.” He wrote: “This wine is made from a little-known grape, prié blanc, in a practically unknown region, Vallée d’Aoste, high up in the Alpine foothills where Italy kisses the borders of France and Switzerland. It was one of my favorite whites in 2025. As fresh as a mountain meadow, I drank it through the year, whatever the weather, whatever the food. The Pavese family farms a small plot, almost 4,000 feet in elevation near Mont Blanc, which is among the highest vineyards in Europe.”

This is probably the most unique white wine in all of Europe—utterly impossible to imitate. Concentrated yet weightless, textured yet crystalline, aromatically complex and deeply refreshing. Do not pass this up.

The Aosta Valley—Aosta Valley, known locally as Vallée d’Aoste—is Italy at its most dramatic and least compromised. A narrow alpine corridor bordered by France’s Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes to the west, Switzerland’s Valais to the north, and Piedmont to the south and east, this is a land carved by glaciers and time. Roman ruins, medieval castles, and stone villages cling to steep mountainsides, while the cuisine remains unapologetically alpine: Fontina melted into everything, cured meats, rye bread, and soups built for cold nights and hard labor. The grape that defines this place—Prie Blanc—is just as singular. Ancient, fragile, and fiercely local, it thrives only here at altitude, where sunlight is intense, nights are cold, and the growing season is stretched thin.

I arrived one unforgettable day on a drive from Martigny in Switzerland, winding through the Alps, passing Chamonix, before disappearing into the nearly ten-mile Mont Blanc Tunnel—essentially driving beneath the peak of Mont Blanc itself. The privilege of burrowing under the highest mountain in Western Europe comes at a price, about $75 to pass through, but the payoff is immediate. When you emerge on the Italian side, the view stops you cold. A short descent brings you to the small village of Morgex, where the wines of Ermes Pavese are produced in a modest, unassuming building that blends seamlessly into the town. No grand façade. No theater. Just serious mountain wine.

It is in this dramatic landscape beneath Mont Blanc that Ermes Pavese channels the ancient Prie Blanc grape to express the full character of his alpine terroir. Based in the hamlet of La Ruine, between the villages of Morgex and La Salle—where the appellation Blanc de Morgex et de la Salle quite literally takes its name (“white from Morgex and La Salle”)—the estate has been bottling wine since 1999, when Pavese began marketing his family’s production under the guidance of Marziano Vevey. What began as just two hectares has grown to roughly six, assembled from scattered parcels at approximately 1,200 meters above sea level, among the highest vineyards in Europe.

Prie Blanc is the oldest documented grape in the Aosta Valley and one of the oldest in all of Italy, a genetic parent to varieties such as Premetta and Mayolet. Trained in the traditional Pergola Bassa system, Pavese’s vines remain planted on their original, pre-phylloxera rootstocks—so isolated that the louse which devastated nearly all of Europe’s vineyards never reached this valley. The soils are glacial and sandy, yields are painfully small, and the wines are luminous. Still, sparkling, skin-macerated, and sweet expressions all emerge here, but the Blanc de Morgex remains the purest statement: illuminating in youth, and quietly profound with age. Annual production is just about 12,000 bottles.

The 2024 Ermes Pavese Blanc de Morgex et de la Salle pours a straw-yellow hue with flashes of silver and green. The nose is lifted and precise: alpine herbs, white flowers, green pear, white peach, lemon peel, wet glacial rock, and cold mountain air. On the palate, it’s taut yet textured—saline, mineral, and quietly powerful—finishing long, clean, and detailed. This is mountain food wine at its best: Fontina fonduta, trout or char, cured alpine ham, simple roast chicken, raclette, potatoes with herbs, or anything involving cheese and altitude. Serve a bit chilled but not icy, in proper white-wine or Burgundy stems, and let the Alps do what they do best.