Some of the most interesting wine in the Alps comes out of a school. The Institut Agricole Regional in Aosta is a working agricultural college, founded in 1951 by the Canons of the Great St. Bernard to train the valley's farmers, and its Joseph Vaudan cellar turns out serious bottles alongside the coursework. This is Gamay grown in Italy's smallest and highest wine region, which is a very different assignment than growing it in Beaujolais. The mountain version comes out leaner and stonier, light on its feet, with the fruit pulled taut rather than plump. It's a 2018, so a few years of bottle age have already smoothed the edges. Sustainably farmed, genuinely obscure, and worth the detour.