Tzeriat: grandfather Dauphin’s vineyard

Tzeriat is our oldest vineyard, planted by grandfather Dauphin in the 1960s, and our highest. A natural amphitheatre above Quart, facing south and south-west, with slopes up to 80%. Today it is Pinot Noir: our Pinot Noir Vigne Tzeriat.

Our oldest vineyard
1960s, grandfather Dauphin
1.8 hectares of vines
Our highest
South, south-west
Pinot Noir and Gamay

Grandfather Dauphin planted it in the 1960s, when he decided to make a living from wine. It is here that the Grosjeans were the first in the Aosta Valley to grow Gamay, in the late 1970s; today the vineyard is Pinot Noir.

It is a natural amphitheatre, facing south and south-west. In the 19th century Gatta already mentions it as “Zario”, and the lords of Quart castle are said to have drunk its wine.

In the documents

Dzeriat, Zario, Jario: another wood

For Rudy Sandi, Tzeriat’s name also comes from the woods. In the medieval Latin of French-speaking lands “jarro” is the oak and “jarria” the wood: so Jario would be a synonym of Roveyrettaz, perhaps chosen precisely to tell the two places apart. Gatta Italianised it as Zario; Dzeriat would be the Aosta Valley form. Our Mas du Jario, a traditional-method sparkling wine of Pinot Noir only, takes its name from the old name Jario.

Sandi also notes a second possibility: “jarreta”, land won back from streams, perhaps from alluvial deposits. His source is the reference glossary of medieval French-area Latin, Du Cange’s Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis.

Archival research by Rudy Sandi, Aosta Valley ampelographer