As you approach Marie-Thérèse Chappaz’s winery at the lower end of the valley in Fully, raise your eyes to the mountain that rears up behind her property and marvel that anyone could ever consider planting and working vines here. The vines are planted on truly heroic slopes at altitudes between 550 and 660 metres, mainly south-facing, principally granite-based, with occasional patches of loess – that powder-fine soil that blew in a few million years ago. Little wonder that her friend and fellow biodynamicist from Alsace, Jean-Michel Deiss, says that her vineyard operation smacks more of mountaineering than winegrowing.
Marie-Thérèse Chappaz must be one of Switzerland’s most decorated winemakers. Amongst her multiple awards, she has been the Swiss GaultMillau Guide Winemaker of the Year, has taken the Prix d’Excellence Lalique-Villa d’Este “Lady of Wine” and is one of Switzerland’s handful of iconic winegrowers named by the GaultMillau Guide. All bear testimony to her wholehearted dedication to the cause of quality Swiss wines.
Given how famous she has become, it’s hard to believe that this hugely respected winegrower never set out to make wine. She trained originally to be a midwife until discovering she had embarked on quite the wrong (for her) career and decided instead to devote her life to nursing vines, grapes and wines into being. She works organically and biodynamically on eleven hectares high above the village.
The wines, measured out by the drop to faithful followers, sell out at a dismaying pace. The best way to be sure of snagging a few bottles is to attend one of the tastings scheduled throughout April and May and place your order here. At these informal and joyous gatherings, Marie-Thérèse moves between wild flower-decked trestle tables describing in lyrical language her range of whites and reds, both single varietals and blends.
At the last count she made 25 different wines, including at least four Fendants (Chasselas). Usually regarded as an easy-drinking, après-ski wine fit for a fondue, Fendant can – when grown in a great terroir – age up to 20 years, during which time it gains in richness and complexity. Grain Cinq, on the other hand, is a blend of five distinctive white grapes (Savagnin, Pinot Blanc, Sylvaner, Petite Arvine and Marsanne). The vines are not co-planted (meaning they’re not growing side by side in the same vineyard), but all the grapes are vinified together. Half of the quantity goes into concrete egg fermenters, the other half into barrels, and they come together into a harmoniously blended whole. I love its featherlight, peachy, herbal nature and the way all five of these distinctive varieties show admirable team spirit, not one of them elbowing its way to the front.
One of the most enriching aspects of a tasting with Marie-Thérèse comes from the remarks she sprinkles liberally throughout the conversation, which shed light on herself, her character and her way of working. She has a uniquely engaging way of describing her wines. A beautifully aromatic Petite Arvine de Fully with grapefruit tones and a refreshing saline finish is “a joyful wine, like a young girl in a flowery dress”. It reminds me of the film that appears on her website, showing the winemaker wandering through the vines, Elvira Madigan-like, in a pink gingham-check dress.
Marie-Thérèse is another ardent defender of Dôle, the devalued red blend of Pinot Noir and Gamay. In the old days, she explains, white wine was the everyday choice for families in the region, not red. It was only when people wanted to impress – maybe when guests came over for Sunday lunch – that they brought out a red, and that red would always be Dôle. Nowadays, she says, this would be unthinkable, so far has this blend fallen from its pedestal. Attentions have shifted to Syrah, Cornalin, Humagne Rouge or maybe Pinot Noir. I love her Dôle La Liaudisaz, a cheerful wine with a smile on its face, made principally from Pinot with some Gamay.
Echoing Josef-Marie Chanton at the other end of the valley, Marie-Thérèse confirms that Pinot Noir is often a poor choice for Valais vineyards, where the climate is too hot. Her Pinot Noirs demonstrate her winemaking skills and her ability to work with this demanding grape in less than ideal conditions.
Syrah is a more obvious choice for the Valais, and one with enormous potential here. This is, remember, the Upper Rhone Valley (though some French winemakers downstream in “their” Rhone Valley are busy contesting this undeniable geographical fact), so it’s hardly any wonder that it should find its place here. The Chappaz Syrah, grown in the same granite terroirs as her Fendant and Grain Cinq, is a serious, structured wine with sinews and spice.
The icing on this particular vinous cake – and the wines that Marie-Thérèse loves best of all and which have in large part forged her reputation – are the naturally sweet ones. “I never eat dessert”, she smiles, “but I do love my sweet wines”. She stresses the extraordinary, untapped potential for these natural beauties in the Valais, a region which has all the necessary ingredients – steady warmth, low rainfall and a dusting of botrytis or noble rot, the highly desirable form of an otherwise unwelcome fungus that causes the grapes to shrivel to shadows of their former selves, raising their sugar levels and intensifying their flavours along the way.
The summit of her endeavours is Petite Arvine Grain par Grain. In even the worst years, when she and her team have been known to go through the vines seven successive times selecting only botrytized grapes grain par grain – grape by grape (hence the wine’s name) – it comes up trumps, producing a fabulous, figgy wine, vivacious, concentrated and long.
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ADDRESS: Chemin de Liaudise 39 1926 Fully CONTACT: Tel. 027 746 3537 |
WINES TO LOOK OUT FOR: Fendant Grain Cinq Petite Arvine de Fully Dôle La Liaudisaz Pinot Noir Syrah Petite Arvine Grain par Grain |
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admin@chappaz.ch |
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Price range 13 to 140 SFr. |
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HIGHLIGHTS: Tastings scheduled on several days during April and May (check the website, where wines may also be ordered). Chemin du Vignoble vineyard trail, Stage 1, Saillon to Martigny |
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