Hidden Valley: Wines of Valais Alan Tardi
Everyone is familiar with Swiss cheese, Swiss chocolate, Swiss watches, Swiss banks, even the Swiss Guard. But few people outside Switzerland—including those in the wine industry—know this Alpine country makes wine, and even fewer have actually tasted any of it. So when a Swiss visitor to my village in Piedmont mentioned some obscure indigenous grape varieties, my curiosity was piqued; and when I subsequently found out the area where the grapes come from has some of the most diverse and unusual terroir in the world, I was ready to see for myself.
I headed north through the hilly Canavese region and up into the increasingly serious mountains of Val d’Aosta. A long, covered highway brought me to the Grand Saint-Bernard tunnel, in the middle of which I was waved out of Italy and into Switzerland by the border guards. After 10 more minutes in this subterranean tube, I emerged into bright sunlight and sailed down a twisting road through snow-covered peaks to the valley below, where the wine area officially begins.
Of Switzerland’s six wine regions, the canton of Valais, at the hub of Italy, France, Germany, and Austria, is the most important in terms of both quantity and quality. With about 12,350 acres under vine along the northeast-southwest-oriented valley of the upper Rhône River, this area is responsible for 40% of the country’s entire wine production.
A MOSAIC OF GRAPES
Although not a particularly large wine region, Valais is extremely complicated. Close to 50 different grape varieties are grown here under the Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée (AOC) Valais designation, including a number of local varieties found nowhere else. And the nomenclature is often misleading: Humagne Rouge is unrelated to Humagne Blanc, Ermitage is actually the local name for Marsanne, Sylvaner is known here as Johannisberg, and Malvoisie is really Pinot Gris. Some grapes even have more than one name, such as Chasselas/Fendant or Heida/Païen (otherwise known as Savagnin Blanc, which is actually a kind of Traminer).
Although there are a handful of large commercial wineries, many of Valais’s nearly 700 producers are small artisanal operations, with an average 12 acres of vineyard land and annual production of fewer than 50,000 bottles. Nevertheless, most vintners produce an amazing assortment of different wines (15-20 is not uncommon) from more than a dozen different varieties. The smallest vineyard holdings are made up of many even tinier parcels; when asked how many plots they actually worked, most producers I spoke with had difficulty coming up with a response.
Such diversity would seem to wreak havoc in the winery, but it does have some advantages. "I do everything myself," says Didier Joris, who, besides being a consulting enologist for many Valais wineries, makes about 11,000 bottles of wine annually from his 7 acres, comprising 14 parcels planted to 12 different varieties. "If all the grapes ripened at once, I wouldn’t be able to harvest them without hiring additional people, nor would I have room in my winery." Generally speaking, the grapes fall into three categories: early-ripening (Gamay, Pinot Noir, Chasselas), late-ripening (Petite Arvine, Cornalin, Syrah), and late-harvest. By spreading out their harvest schedule, producers are able to avoid bottlenecks in the vineyard and winery.
But an even better explanation for the fragmentation of the vineyards goes back to a complex series of geological events. Hundreds of thousands of years ago, the violent collision of two tectonic plates created the Alps. The Rhône glacier formed, then melted and slid down the slopes, carving out the Rhône River valley. The melting glacier carried with it debris (moraine), while the river and its tributaries created alluvial deposits with an abundance of sand, gravel, and pebbles. In other areas, sedimentary granite with veins of limestone or schist were covered by a shallow layer of stony soil. The end result was a radical differentiation of soil types and microclimates.
The flat valley of Valais is bordered on both sides by tall, craggy peaks and closed off at the southern end by mountains, making a sort of elongated amphitheater with the Rhône River running down the middle. Valais gets a tremendous amount of sun—more than 2,000 hours per year—because the rock walls keep much of the harsher weather outside. Rainfall is minimal, and the breezes known as the Föhn keep the grapes well ventilated, abetting the ripening process and helping to prevent rot. The valley can get quite hot during the summer growing season, but cools off dramatically at night, enhancing the development of aromatic components in the grapes.
Most vineyards are planted on the south-facing right bank of the Rhône, although there are some on the cooler left bank. The river was prone to frequent flooding, creating a non-arable, disease-ridden swamp, until its banks were reinforced in the 1850s. Today, the valley is filled with orchards, vegetable farms, housing, and industry as well as vineyards. Originally, however, the farmers of this area had no choice but to utilize the hillsides, building dry-stone walls up the steep rock faces, which were filled with poor soil scrapped from the mountains. Not only are these terraces incredible feats of engineering, but they create artificial microclimates of their own. The depth of soil can range anywhere from 12 inches to 3 feet or more, depending on the contour of the bedrock underneath, and the rock walls retain and radiate heat. Sharp outcroppings are common, and there are extreme shifts in elevation. Needless to say, most of the work here (not to mention maintenance of the stone walls themselves) must be done by hand and is incredibly costly. Some of the steeper vineyards now have monorail or funicular systems, and some producers even remove harvested grapes by helicopter, but in many areas, the bins must still be hand-carried up or down to a point where they can be collected for transportation to the winery.
Pinot Noir, Gamay, and Chasselas are by far the most widely planted grapes, though indigenous varieties are steadily gaining ground. The bulk of the wine-producing activity takes place between Martigny and Sierre. While the full spectrum of varietals is planted throughout the valley, certain towns have become associated with particular grapes: Fully is known for its Petite Arvine, Vétroz for Amigne, Leytron for Humagne Rouge, and Chamoson for Johannisberg. Just 10 minutes north of Sierre, the spoken language suddenly changes from French to German at the town of Salgesch (or Salquenen), which is considered an excellent zone for Pinot Noir due to the high chalk content of its soil. The area of Visperterminen, also German-speaking, has some of the highest vineyards in Europe (2,625-4,000 feet) and is recognized for its Heida wines.
A REACH FOR QUALITY
Wine has been produced in this Alpine enclave since at least the time of the ancient Romans, though many believe the inhabitants were already making wine for their own use when the Romans arrived. Around the middle of the 19th century, wine became more of a commodity; large cooperatives were formed, and private wineries bought grapes from numerous small farmers to help satisfy the demand. Because Switzerland consumes three times more wine than it can possibly produce (current per-capita consumption is a healthy 40 liters per year), there has always been a ready market for Valais wine in Switzerland itself. Severe restrictions on imports further encouraged Swiss winemakers to produce as much as they possibly could of mediocre, simple wines from high-yielding vineyards. But when trade barriers came down in the 1980s, the country was flooded with less-expensive, better-quality wines from other areas of Europe and the New World. Unable to significantly lower the price of the wine or increase production—since all available vineyard land was already planted—vintners had no choice but to focus on improving quality. For many, this was a difficult adjustment.
In 1980, Madeleine Gay, just out of enology school and dismayed at the poor quality of Swiss wine, wrote a letter of complaint to the powerhouse Cooperative Provins, which, with its 5,000 members, accounts for 25% of the region’s total production. The co-op responded by giving her a job. Not content merely to improve quality, Gay made it her mission to highlight the indigenous grapes that had been largely overlooked in favor of the standard, easy-to-grow varieties. While continuing to produce popular quaffing wines like Dôle (a blend of primarily Gamay and Pinot Noir) and Fendant, the company launched a new line featuring regional specialties such as Petite Arvine, Cornalin, and Humagne Blanc.
Gay was not alone. In 1990, the newly created consortium Interprofession de la Vigne et du Vin du Valais introduced the AOC system in an attempt to establish some controls and raise the overall level of quality. Besides the extremely broad AOC appellation, there are also grand cru designations for some communes (Fully, Vétroz, Conthey, St. Léonard, and Salgesch), which, though more stringent, are regulated by the individual towns rather than the consortium.
Today, while virtually all wineries continue to make a wide assortment of labels—including international varieties, proprietary blends, and regional favorites like Chasselas and Dôle—the new focus is unquestionably on indigenous varieties. The consortium is currently pushing Cornalin and Petite Arvine as the region’s standard bearers, and many producers are realizing the need to limit the breadth of their portfolio, reduce yields in favor of quality, and focus on fewer varieties, though few have yet taken the steps to do so.
French winemaking traditions have clearly had a strong influence. Many of the artisanal producers are true garagistes , with small wineries in their basements, but the larger vintners are well equipped. Most everyone uses temperature-controlled fermenters and commercial yeasts. Some regularly employ submerged-cap fermentation for reds, and one producer did admit to using micro-oxygenation. The barrique is dominant; I could not find a single producer who still used the traditional large wooden casks for aging, though some do use 450-liter tonneux .
Most of the major innovations, however, have taken place in the vineyards. Many growers are shifting away from the high-yield, traditional pruning systems like Fuseau and a local variation of Gobelet trellising in favor of Guyot. Nearly all grape growers in Valais have adopted a natural system of fighting insects with pheromones, which have practically eliminated the need to use chemical insecticides.
A DIFFERENCE OF OPINION
Valais wines, with their crisp acidity and flinty minerality, provide a perfect counterpart to the area’s substantial cheese- and meat-based cuisine. In fact, these wines are extremely versatile in their food-pairing ability. A Fendant could be an excellent accompaniment to spicy Asian food, a grand cru Amigne would pair well with full-flavored cheeses, a Heida might complement the most sophisticated fish preparation, and the restrained, elegant Pinot Noirs are just the type of understated reds many people are looking for nowadays.
Unfortunately, these wines remain practically unknown outside Switzerland, and that situation is not likely to change any time soon. The region’s producers have no trouble selling virtually all of their wine within Switzerland, including a large percentage directly to people who come to the wineries for their personal supplies. Many simply don’t have enough wine to export, and few would be willing to incur the extra expense and hassle even if they did. "We really don’t care about marketing Valais wines in America," says a representative of Les Vins du Valais; "we need to get Swiss people to drink more of our wine instead of importing it from other countries."
Luckily for Americans, not everyone feels the same way. "The wines of the Valais—especially the whites—can stand alongside the great wines of the world," says Domenique Fornage, whose restaurant-wine bar, Château de Villa, is a citadel of the region’s wine and food; "they deserve to be better known." Neal Rosenthal, the New York-based importer who began working with four Valais producers two years ago, agrees: "These are interesting, well-made wines that express unusual grape varieties and a unique terroir. Despite being a bit expensive and completely unknown, they’re just the kind of thing many of our customers are looking for. It’s bound to be a bit difficult at first, but the more people get to know them, the more they’ll appreciate them." Asked about the difficulty of finding Valais wineries that are willing to export, Rosenthal replies, "It’s not easy—none of them really have to sell to the U.S.—but our producers are delighted to have their wines exposed to an international audience."