MADELEINE, ANNE-CATHERINE & DENIS MERCIER
Who would be a winemaker, with all the hard work and heartache involved in getting the grapes from the vineyard to the bottle? I’ve often asked myself this question; never more so than on my first visit to the Mercier winery, which is perched on a craggy outcrop surrounded by a sea of vines on the edge of the town of Sierre. It was a crisp and sunny April day with the kind of piercing blue skies for which the Valais is famous.
From the imposing, turreted Château Mercier where I was staying high above town – once the Mercier family’s summer residence – it was a mere 20-minute walk to the winery. Relishing the chance to take in the majestic scenery and shake a leg, I set off along the main road and took the track that winds its way up into the vineyards. As I walked, a scene of utter desolation greeted me to right and left. The vines, whose leaves had until two days before been fresh, green and bursting with promise for the vintage ahead, hung disconsolately off their wires, blackened by the savage overnight frost, one of the worst in living memory.
Maya Angelou once commented that you can tell a lot about people by the way they handle three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights. She might have added a fourth: a disastrously compromised grape crop. I soon learnt that the Merciers are made of stern stuff. To take their minds off the wreckage outside they were busying themselves in the cellar, completing the bottling of some of their top crus and sticking on labels – “So we don’t have to face the vines”, commented Madeleine with a wry smile, adding: “It just serves to remind us that nature is in charge, and we have to work with it. We will do our best to save what we can from this vintage, as always without making any concessions as far as quality is concerned”.
This single-minded focus on quality has been a guiding principle for Denis and Anne-Catherine whatever horrors the year may throw at them, ever since they created the domaine in 1982 with just 3.5 hectares. At the time it was planted predominantly with Chasselas (known in the Valais as Fendant) and Pinot Noir. Over the years they have increased their vineyard holdings to the present seven hectares, reduced the proportion of Chasselas and greatly widened their range of speciality grapes – today thirteen different varieties put their roots deep down into the Mercier soils, where well-drained limestone predominates.
Madeleine is increasingly taking the reins on the winemaking front. After completing her studies at the Swiss viticulture and oenology school in Changins, plus precious work experience in the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland (Merlot country) as well as Oregon and California, she returned to the family fold in 2012. She’s a good example of the younger generation of Swiss winegrowers who learn the nuts and bolts of winemaking and go off to gain experience in other winemaking regions and other countries, finally to rejoin the family business and build on what their parents (or in some cases, many generations) have created, as well as bringing their own ideas to the mix.
The lively, fleshy Mercier Pinot Blanc makes a great opener to a tasting here, closer in style to a ripe, full-bodied Weissburgunder from Baden than the leaner, often nondescript Pinot Blancs from Alsace. And if you’re new to Petite Arvine, this is another good place to start. Sleek and appetising with gorgeous grapefruit aromas and a seasoning salty lick at the end, it’s one of the jewels in the crown of indigenous Valais varieties.
Amongst the Mercier reds, I love that they still believe in and devote time and attention to Dôle. This typically Valaisan Pinot Noir-Gamay blend has too often been used as a kind of dustbin for unpromising batches of Pinot and Gamay, doing neither grape any favours and discrediting Dôle along the way. “It’s a tough sell these days”, says Madeleine, who admits to hiding the label from tasters sometimes and having them guess what it is. The Merciers add a little Ancellotta and Galotta to the blend, resulting in a light, bright and delicious red, which takes well to a little chilling. And in a region that’s frequently criticised for producing Pinot Noir that’s too ripe, thick and jammy, theirs are delicately perfumed, fine-grained and fresh.
The two flagship wines of the domaine are an elegantly spicy Syrah and – my favourite – a super-cool Cornalin, whose correct name is Rouge du Pays or country red. Though not strictly indigenous (it wandered into the Valais from neighbouring Val d’Aosta in Italy), this variety has a long history here and is now counted as a local speciality, giving characterful, cherry-ripe, firmly structured wines. Denis Mercier describes it as “un cépage rustique mais avec un certain charme” (rustic, with a certain charm). It’s a notoriously tough grape to work with, being susceptible to frost – as demonstrated so graphically that April day – greedy for sun and with low, irregular yields. Luckily for us, the Mercier family perseveres with it to produce a wine that speaks memorably of the Valais. It’s the wine that represents them in the illustrious Mémoire des Vins Suisses.
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ADDRESS: Crêt-Goubing 42 3960 Sierre CONTACT: Tel. 027 455 47 10 |
WINES TO LOOK OUT FOR: Pinot Blanc Petite Arvine Dôle Pinot Noir Syrah Cornalin |
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info@mercier-vins.ch |
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Price range 16 to 48 SFr. |
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HIGHLIGHTS: Visits with tasting welcomed by appointment at the cellar on weekdays and Saturday mornings. Sentier viticole vineyard trail between Sierre and Salgesch |
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