French wine
Picardy is not an official wine region anymore. Yet it has a rich history related to grapegrowing and winemaking and has recently been demonstrating a revival of its . 40 villages of Picardy (south of the Aisne department) are now part of the area and several small recreational vineyards were established in the last two decades e.g. in Coucy le Château, Gerberoy, Gouvieux, Clairoix, etc.
Joseph Vaudan
Vaudan and IAR are widely credited with the economic renaissance of this region of Italy after the devastation of World War II. The Institute's winery, created by Vaudan, is directly responsible for the birth of commercial wine making in Valle d'Aosta and creating the market for niche wines made of Valle d'Aosta's indigenous species: fumin, petit rouge, cornalin, prie blanc, mayolet, vuillermin. In the 1970s, under Vaudan's directorship, the IAR searched abandoned farms in the region to re-discover grape varietals that had been lost.