Swiss

There is a cliché in the UK wine trade that if you want to taste the very best Swiss wines, you must travel to Switzerland to find them. Outside of drinking copious amounts of Bordeaux, Burgundy and Italian wines, the local Swiss consumers are known to be very protective of their very best producers and sourcing the more interesting boutique wineries outside of Switzerland can be a massive challenge. So when the opportunity came up for me to join one of my French importers on an exploratory visit recently, I grabbed it with both hands.

Our main port of call was to meet and taste the impressive wines of Alexandre Delétraz. The winemaker and owner- founder of Cave des Amandiers in 2007. In his 40’s, Alexandre is definitely one of the more exciting producers with not only an incredible passion for the old vineyards of the Valais AOC but he also follows a wine philosophy to create some incredibly pure, precise, but characterful wines that show their true sense of place.

In the winery, I noticed a sign “LEARN THE RULES LIKE A PROFESSIONAL, SO YOU CAN BREAK THEM LIKE AN ARTIST ~ PABLO PICASSO.” When you get to know Alexandre a little better and you taste his wines, this statement becomes even more pertinent. It is undoubtedly his desire to create great wines in exceptional terroirs, and to try his best to reveal the qualities of the native Valais grape varieties in an authentic environment, giving the wines time to grow in the cool darkness and calm of his own cellar.

His winery was created in 2008, and after vinifying the first vintage in a mazot, then in a tractor garage in Fully, he found a more suitable location in the town of Saillon. He moved into this new cellar in 2011 and although the winemaking facilities are modern, his working techniques remain essentially artisanal. The Cave des Amandiers vines are maintained manually due to the very complicated topography of the steep hillsides and Alexandre’s 8.2 hectares are made up of many small terraces which range from 450m to 900m in altitude. The climate is extraordinarily favorable for the vines, but in order to always guarantee impeccable quality and optimal maturity of the berries, Alexandre carries out drastic sorting of every harvest. The yields are naturally low and adapted to the vigor of each of the parcels, to ensure a good concentration of aromas, fruit and grape polyphenols.

Vines in Valais are essentially mountain viticulture. Among their Italian neighbours, Alexandre readily speaks of “viticoltura eroica” for vineyards located in this type of exceptionally rugged topography. This “heroic viticulture” is perfectly illustrated by the different entities that the Cave des Amandiers has: dizzying slopes where the vines sometimes cling painfully to the hillsides, numerous small terraces supported by ancient dry-stone walls, with almost non-existent mechanization. It is this slope, these dry-stone walls, in this challenging environment of extraordinary diversity as well as a particular climate in Valais which makes it possible to obtain impeccable balance, freshness and optimal maturity in the grapes. Indeed, during the growing season (from April to October), this climate is typically Mediterranean, and certainly viticulturally far superior to the rest of French-speaking Switzerland.

There are also other more local climatic factors, and in fact one cannot ignore the role played by the ‘Foehn’, a hot wind which dries the grapes during the harvest period, but also at a microclimatic level; the heat generated by the heating of the walls during the day continues to be released beneficially at night. Altitude and exposure also play a very big role, and Alexandre notices the very great heterogeneities from one plot to another, making it possible to cultivate numerous grape varieties with very different characteristics.

Since 2008, the Cave des Amandiers has certainly been a very unique project in the AOC Valais for the creation and rehabilitation of many estate mountain vineyards made up of vertiginous and sometimes abandoned terraces. To bring together different parcels of vines into a single 8-hectare estate, it was necessary to acquire around 200 plots from 70 different owners! Many of these vines have been replanted with massale selections of endemic and traditional grape varieties, drawn from the rich ampelography of the Valais region. Most of these vines are located on the gneisses – granitic soils – in the commune of Fully, a geological exception and a veritable wine gem of Valais.

Wines

There are several native grape variety in the Valais, some that are unique in the wine world. Extreme fragility to winds which often threatens to tear its leaves to shreds and break its branches. But a wine of great class and potential that is still barely touched is the Petite Arvine, produced from terraced vines located in and around Fully. It expresses the freshest and spring-like side of this grape variety and Alexandre works hard to control and channel its vigor, energy and acidity through aging the young wines on their fine lees. There are aromas of lime, wisteria and rhubarb, elderflower and honey, and the palates portray a fresh, lemony vitality and energy with a surprisingly iodized and mineral finish. As it ages, it becomes nuttier and more complex on the nose and palate.

After a day of visiting many of Alexandre’s unique terraced vineyard plots, we returned to the winery to taste his fascinating selection of wines.

White Wines Tasted:

Caves des Amandiers Fendant 2022, AOC Valois (Chasselas)

One of the cellars top selling wines, a bright, crisp, crystalline Chasselas that was unfortunately sold out already at the time of my visit. From all accounts, not a wine to miss!

Caves des Amandiers Heida 2020, AOC Valois

Also known as the Savagnin cultivar, this white is a little richer while retaining wonderful freshness and just a delicate hint of struck flint reduction on the nose.

Caves des Amandiers Heida 2021, AOC Valais

Still fresher and nervier, this 2021 is wonderfully aromatic and vibrant with a lovely linearity and precision.

Caves des Amandiers Les Villages Heida de Fully 2022, AOC Valais

This Village wine is richer and fuller with oak spice, lovely palate depth and a complex, delicately savoury character with a rounder, softer texture and concentration. Beautiful.

Caves des Amandiers Les Villages Ermitage de Saillon 2022, AOC Valais

Made from Marsanne, this beauty offers pear and yellow orchard fruits over a soft textured palate that reveals a pithy minerality and a wonderful saline, yellow citrus finish with lemony acids.

Caves des Amandiers Les Villages Ermitage de Fully 2022, AOC Valais

From a small 1200 metre square plot, this wine boasts a more Rhoney French styling with more intense notes of pear puree, green banana, and a pithy minerality over a stony, taut, broody complex palate.

Caves des Amandiers Les Villages Petite Arvine de Fully 2022, AOC Valais

This delicious 2022 shows pure, bright aromatics of green pear, Poire William spirit, and a hint of struck flint reduction. The palate is fresh, zippy and bright with real character and a seductively mouthwatering finish. Superb.

Caves des Amandiers Les Villages Petite Arvine de Leytron 2022, AOC Valais

This expression shows more perfume, hints of peach and white flowers. The palate is rich and textural with notes of guava before deliciously zippy fresh acids on the long finish. Very good.

Caves des Amandiers Les Parcellaires Petite Arvine En Anzé Saillon 2022, AOC Valais

This delightful 2022 shows green apple and pithy spice before a pear puree concentration, a fine palate tension, hints of bon bons, finishing with a delicately stony, reductive persistence. Very smart indeed.

Caves des Amandiers Les Parcellaires Petite Arvine Les Seyes Fully 2022, AOC Valais

Grown on Gneiss, this expression is more spicy and rich with tangy notes of apples and pears before a taut mineral complexity on the classically dry, stony finish. Lovely complexity on display.

Red Wines Tasted:

Caves des Amandiers Syrah 2019, AOC Valais

This classic Syrah is sourced from Fully and Leytron and shows delightful aromatics of plum and black berry compote, cured meats, black peppercorns, and an earthy olive hint. The palate is soft and fleshy from this warmer vintage without obscuring its stony tannins and spicy, pithy, black berry fruited finish.

Caves des Amandiers Gamay de Fully 2022, AOC Valais, 13.8% Abv.

Also grown on Gneiss, this wine shows a rich vein of stony raspberry fruits using 50% whole bunches in the ferment. This lends extra grip and minerality and the tannins are stony and mineral before giving way to layers of framboise and strawberry pips. A very serious Gamay.

Caves des Amandiers Les Villages Humagne Rouge de Laytron 2019 Red Blend, AOC Valais, 14% Abv.

Another serious offering packed full of stony strawberry and red currant. The wine is beautifully refined and ‘pretty’ with a sleek creamy, elegant texture and a seriously stony, mineral finish. Lovely weightless concentration and structure lend good age ability to the wine. Very impressive.

Caves des Amandiers Les Parcellaires Cornalin Combe d’Enfer 2022, AOC Valais

This attractive red picked at 15hl/ha shows lashings of cherry and chocolate, cocoa, and Dolcetto-like fruit spice over spicy black berries. Super plush with creamy silky tannins, this is a wonderfully fine-grained red with a plum compote length on the finish. Very fine indeed.

Caves des Amandiers Les Parcellaires Gamay d’Euloz Fully 2020, AOC Valais, 13% Abv.

This was apparently a fresh vintage in the Valais, and this semi-maceration carbonique Gamay displays layers of red currant, strawberry as well as deeper, darker foresty black berry fruits. Aged in 50% oak and 50% glass and amphorae, the palate is beautifully cool and creamy with delicately plush spicy nuances and a complex, stony mineral tannin finish. Lovely vibrancy and freshness.

If you are looking for high quality whites and reds made with modern techniques but with a firm nod towards artisanal tradition, the wines from the Caves des Amandiers represent a real ‘must-try’ range. I certainly look forward to returning in 2024 to hopefully taste the new vintages with Alexandre and explore some more of his unique vineyard parcels in the Valais region.

For more information, contact: