Domaine de Chèrouche grows on Alpine slopes so steep that nearly everything is done by hand. The name means "under the rock," a nod to the district above Sion where Marc Balzan and Andrea Grossmann found their first parcel in 2010.
Backstory
Neither founder came from wine. Andrea was a teacher near Zurich and Marc managed a hotel in the Geneva area. They met during a 2007 harvest and decided to buy their own vines. Marc then spent two years working at Mythopia, a Valais pioneer of natural winemaking, before the couple set out on their own in Ayent in 2010.
The Region
The domaine sits in Ayent, in the heights above Sion in the Valais, with vines planted between 550 and 850 meters of altitude. Slopes here reach inclinations of up to 38 percent, which rules out machinery and demands constant manual labor.
Vineyards and Farming
Farming is organic, with biodynamic practice and a strong reliance on hand work. Irrigation and synthetic fertilizers are prohibited. The couple treat the vines with herbal preparations made from wormwood, nettle, yarrow, dandelion and horsetail, along with goat whey, to keep the plants healthy on these exposed sites.
Winemaking
Fermentations run on indigenous yeasts. The wines are raised in stainless steel without any wood, and bottled without fining, filtration or added sulfur. The result is a transparent, mineral style that has found its way onto top tables in France, the United States and Canada.
