Sun, Skiing and Nebbiolo in Courmayeur

This trip wasn’t sponsored or gifted, just a very good few days away. 

Where to stay?

We stayed at Hotel Bouton d’Or and it was magnificent. We arrived late on Wednesday night to be greeted like family friends. The bar was still open, so we had a quick local wine and an expertly made Negroni before a comfortable night’s sleep.

The breakfast is sensational, with extraordinarily crafted pastries, my favourites being anything custard-filled. It’s a very central location, with a shuttle service to the gondola which runs until 5pm. Life couldn’t have been made easier and I would go back in a heartbeat. There’s also a wellness ‘corner’ for a post-ski sauna or steam.

The slopes

We were blessed with three gorgeous days of sunshine, which gives you perfect skiing up until lunchtime and then afternoons navigating slightly looser conditions. Courmayeur itself has a good range of slopes for all levels, but it is on the smaller side of resorts, so you can cover most of it fairly comfortably in a day, which I quite like.

We hardly had to queue for a single lift, except the Youla up to the very top. When you see how stunning the wide, swooping red run is back down from there, it’s easy to understand why.

Courmayeur is so well positioned that, if you hire a car, it’s a 30 minute drive to areas around Chamonix which you can explore for the day. The only issue being that it’s quite expensive travelling back and forth through the Mont Blanc Tunnel. We visited Argentière, which was a pretty area just the other side of Chamonix, very busy on a Saturday though! 

Food

We ate so well. Starting with lunch at Chiecco in Courmayeur, perfectly positioned on a quiet slope in the sunshine. The food options were vast, with many optional upgrades such as 'truffle of the day,' but all with clear provenance and a focus on the best ingredients. 10/10, no notes.

An acceptable pizza to soak up the day’s wine and Aperols was had at Ristorante Pizzeria du Tunnel in the centre of Courmayeur. 

Day two we lunched at Capitan des Alpes, near some lovely slopes to Val Veny. An incredibly spacious spot, with people regularly being dropped off by helicopter from adventures around 200m away, which made for exciting viewing. Great service, very generous Aperols, and a tasty Bolognese all made for a very enjoyable lunch.

Fantastic steak that evening at Ristorante Lo Sciatore. Again, a huge focus on where the meat came from, which I respect, and very tasty it was too. Not much room for improvement here either! I would definitely go back. 

Then for our final evening, we went to a restaurant just around the corner from our lovely hotel called La Terrazza. Just as well we got there early, as it was quite the hotspot for locals. What a fantastic final dinner. We had fondue bourguignonne, James’ favourite, and the meat was so spectacular it really only needed a second or two in the hot oil.

Wine

What every restaurant had in common was an abundance of wonderful wines from the Aosta Valley on the wine list, the most local region to Courmayeur itself. I make no secret of loving alpine wines, and the Aosta Valley, or Valle d’Aosta, is no exception. The barrel-fermented Chardonnays have that purity of fruit that I just obsess over. It really is a representation of where the grapes are grown, and there’s this natural cool, pine-needle, icy quality that I just adore.

If you’re drinking outside of the region, it makes sense to stick with Italy. I particularly loved the range of half bottles available at La Terrazza, it makes sometimes unaffordable wines more attainable. It also gives you the opportunity to try a few between two people instead of chewing your way through one bottle. Variety is the spice of life and all that!

James and I shared a Nebbiolo by Pio Cesare (2022 vintage), then tried its big brother, the Barolo, from 2021. I would argue that the slightly more grippy tannins of the Nebbiolo suited the fattiness of the fondue bourguignonne more than the refined and smoother Barolo.

It’s also worth mentioning, it ain’t where you go, it’s who you spend it with. So thank you to Flavia, Toby, James, Thomas, Ross, Simon, Tilly, Dave, Pete, Rose, Lewis and Ed for being such wonderful company in the mountains.