Languedoc Region (St Chinian) - Round, rich white wine - 750ml bottle - table wine

An original varietal for the area: La Petite Arvine

Another winegrower talks about it in his blog:

http://lisson.over-blog.com/article-20027088.html

For a long time, the origins of La Petite Arvine perplexed the best specialists. Since the meeting of the Société Internationale Ampélographique in 1878 at Geneve, this varietal has been known to exist nowhere but in Valais, where there are 115 hectares planted. Nowhere else? This is most assuredly a Surprising Wine! Hildegard Horat, swiss winegrower of Assignan, Herault, couldn’t resist his roots and grafted Petite Arvine onto old clairettes.

Chapoutier received authorization to plant this varietal experimentally in Tain l’Hermitage. La Petite Arvine favours exposed hills weak in organic material, but is vulnerable to drought and strong winds. Assignan proves to have conditions favourable to growing Arvine. Even if Assignan is situated in the AOC zone of St Chinian, we find not shale but clay-limestone soils on sandstone handling the winter rains more easily to restore the plants in the summer. Additionally, the 250-300m elevation attenuates the summer heat well.

Fermented dry, Petite Arvine is a defined, virile wine. Its nose is a floral wisteria, with a hint of honey. We can distinguish also hints of citrus, pineapple and rhubarb. It has somewhat high acidity, with a slight salinity. Harvested at maturity, Petit Arvine shows a strong alcohol presence that gives it an aptitude for aging. The Hildegard Horat vintage differs somewhat from this description with a rounder, more yellow stone fruit smell. 2003 marked the vintage with a certain smoothness in the mouth without ending up too soft, with a nice saline finish.

Petite Arvine is found only in Valais and the Val d’Aoste. Rumours run of certain renowned owners, primarily in France and Italy, who show serious interest in Arvine and are performing tests of the variant… in Valais, the planted acreage has more than doubled in the last 10 years. Between 1997 and 2000, more than 10 hectares of Arvine were planted (raising the total from 54.6 to 64.9 hectares).  The variant benefits also from repurposing of more established varietals; in 2002 the variant was already up to 81 hectares. The next year over 100 hectares were dedicated to Petit Arvine and by 2004 that number was up to 115 hectares.

The names Arvine and Petite Arvine are used interchangably these days. La Grande Arvine, a large-fruited variety from a Rèze crossed with an unknown varietal giving cruder wines, has practically disappeared. There is thus not a large chance of confusion through use of the Arvine name to refer specifically to Petite Arvine.

Dry, Arvine meshes well with cheese, fish, and shellfish. Matured, it accompanies foie gras well (the salinity and acidity complement it wonderfully) but also blue cheese where it tastes almost syrupy.

Text from www.fullygrandcru.ch