Switzerland

Since inheriting a garden-sized plot of Pinot Noir in the mid-1980s, "Queen of the Valais" Marie-Thérèse Chappaz has built her domaine from scratch. Here she demonstrates the unsung power of Swiss wine with her diverse line-up of beautifully crafted cuvées.A biodynamic champion who fully converted her estate in 2003, Marie-Thérèse now farms 11ha of vines situated around a natural granite amphitheatre above the villages of Fully, Saillon, Chamoson and Charrat. Many of these sites can be reached only by foot or cable car and require laborious and costly vineyard work to maintain.From 25 grape varieties, Marie-Thérèse makes more than 20 different cuvées, which are vinified as naturally as possible at her winery. For whites, these include genre-defining Fendants (Chasselas), gourmand takes on Ermitage (Marsanne) and an array of Arvines, including the unctuously sweet 'Grain Noble', which is often compared with top Sauternes. She also crafts fragrant and spicy Pinot Noirs and tangy Gamays, as well as alpine-fresh Syrahs.As the domaine's annual production is typically purchased before bottling by a thirsty domestic market, few outsiders ever see, let alone drink, Chappaz's wines. And with Marie-Thérèse recently becoming the first Swiss winemaker to achieve a 100-point score, these bottles will only become rarer.

Marie-Thérèse Chappaz

Wines

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