Les Cretes 2016 Valle D'Aosta Petite Arvine 750ml

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.

Score: 91+ points -- Monica Larner, The Wine Advocate, 2018