Our cellars
A new showcase for our wines
Built in 2016, our new cellar is at the cutting edge of technology and innovation, enabling us to follow the various stages of the winemaking process as closely as possible, from the pressing of the grapes to the bottling of the wines. Built on three levels, the gravity-fed transfer of the wines respects the material as much as possible and ensures optimum quality.
Traditional winery
Our cellar is made up of traditional enamelled steel vats. The somewhat retro/vintage look of these vats confirms that the years have gone by! It was back in 1977 that Jean-Louis and Sylvette, the second generation, vinified the estate’s first wine in these vats, which have been lovingly tended for nearly fifty years!
Barrel cellar
Around fifty years BC, Julius Caesar conquered Gaul, an immense region covered in dense forests that the inhabitants transformed into barrels to store their favourite beverages for almost a thousand years. At the beginning of the 20th century, the arrival of inert containers such as enamelled steel dealt a terrible blow to cooperage. The barrel ceased to be a container and became an oenological instrument that could influence the character and potential of the wine. Seduced by this new approach to vinifying our traditional grape varieties, in 1999 we decided to mature one, then several wines, in oak barrels. And the success we’ve enjoyed with our customers and the restaurant trade has seen us go from two to over eighty barrels in twenty years!
Terracotta amphorae
In ancient times, the people of the Mediterranean transported their wines in earthenware containers. Some historians even consider that amphorae, produced in large quantities, were the first goods to be industrially produced by a ‘globalised’ society. In 2012, we travelled to Tuscany to buy three terracotta amphorae, or ‘Dolium’ in Latin, with a view to vinifying our Merlot in them. At the time, only three winegrowers in Switzerland used this type of container. The porosity of terracotta allows very slow micro-oxygenation, giving our Merlot an extraordinary aromatic freshness.
Wine Globes in glass
Since 2023, we have been testing vinification in Wine globes. Our son Guillaume discovered these new glass containers as part of his studies at Changins. Unlike terracotta amphorae, Wine globes protect the wine from any contact with oxygen. There are only three winegrowers in the canton of Vaud who use this atypical type of container, which piqued Guillaume’s curiosity and led him to devote his bachelor’s degree in oenology to it. The results will be revealed in a few years’ time!
Our vines
St-Saphorin
Emblematic by its name, the St-Saphorin appellation’s gravelly terroir, steeped in clay and limestone, produces wines of great finesse and minerality.
Our Grand Cru Le Mur Blanc is made from the king of Lavaux grapes, Chasselas, planted in the middle of the hillside on the cadastral terroir that bears its name. The other wines we produce in this appellation are spread over parcels stretching from the edge of Lake Geneva, where we grow Merlot and Diolinoir, to the top of the hillside, where we find Pinot Noir and other red grape varieties.
Dézaley Grand Cru
Once a steep land of scrub and undergrowth, Dézaley has been built by generations of winegrowers who, century after century, have shaped this steep hillside, set with ancient staircase walls! It’s often said that Dézaley benefits from three suns: the star in the sky, the reflection of the sun on the lake and the warmth that the stone walls radiate after dark. The Chasselas grape feels particularly privileged here, producing wines of magnificent complexity, marked by a mineral salinity on the finish.
Côtes de l’Orbe
Since 1989, a parcel in the Côtes de l’Orbe region has been added to our estate. While the traditional grape varieties are grown in Lavaux, our vineyard in Rances produces specialities such as Jomini Chardonnay, Jomini Sweet and Jomini Rose. The slopes of this small country village, planted with vines to keep the land flat for farming, produce typical, racy wines. The harvest is repatriated to Lavaux and entirely vinified by us in our cellars.
The vineyard
Lavaux, an exceptional vineyard!
Stretching for around 30km along the south-facing slopes of the shores of Lake Leman, from the Château de Chillon, just south of Montreux, to the eastern outskirts of Lausanne in the heart of the canton of Vaud, the narrow terraces, supported by stone walls, cover the bottom of the steep slopes between the villages and the lake. Although there is evidence that vines began to be grown in the area in Roman times, the terraced vineyards of today date back to the 11th century, when Benedictine and Cistercian monasteries controlled the region. The site is an outstanding example of the centuries-old interaction between people and their environment, developed to optimise local resources to produce a highly prized wine that has always been important to the local economy.
UNESCO World Heritage Site
The world-famous Lavaux terraced vineyards, designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2007, cover almost 800 hectares of vines, or 20% of the wine-growing area of the canton of Vaud. This cultural landscape vividly illustrates its evolution and development over nearly a thousand years through a well-preserved landscape and buildings, as well as the continuity and adaptation of ancient cultural traditions specific to its location. The landscape also vividly illustrates the authority, control and protection of this highly prized wine-growing region, which made a major contribution to the development of Lausanne and the surrounding area. It has played an important role in the geocultural history of the region and, in response to its vulnerability to rapidly expanding urban areas, has attracted exceptional popular protection.
Integrated production
“The only serious thing I know about down here is growing vines”.
These are the words of Voltaire, and they are true. The only way to produce a high-quality wine is to look after your vines seriously. So what better way than to cultivate our vines in an environmentally-friendly way! Known as P.I. (Production Intégrée) or culture raisonnée, this system of cultivation respects the ecology as much as possible, the balance between the mineral and organic elements of the soil, the balance of our land, plants, fauna and local biodiversity.
The leaves
Foliage is very important to the plant. It gives it the vigour to develop its branches and roots; through photosynthesis, it produces sugars for the fruit by capturing carbon from the atmosphere, a phenomenon necessary for the survival of the animal kingdom, and therefore of humans. Water also plays a very important role in grape quality. The plant needs to absorb around 600 litres of water from the soil to produce 1 kg of dry matter! This creates evapotranspiration, which is useful for climate stability.
Terroir
The terroir is revealed by the amount of water that the land can retain. This is known as the “water reservoir”. And contrary to what you might think, it’s the plots that hold little water that force the roots to go down deep to get water. They will also absorb more mineral elements and produce much more complex wines.
Protecting flora and fauna
For nearly thirty years, we have chosen the IP growing system, but we recently opted to go even further and now grow all our vines as SVBN (Surfaces Viticoles à Biodiversité Naturelle).
As their name suggests, these vines have a remarkable diversity of natural biodiversity, flora and fauna. The growing restrictions are very strict.
