The vineyard

The vineyard is made up of 8 plots, mostly facing south-east, all located in Ayent on 1.3 hectares, between 600 and 850 meters above sea level. The soils are composed of schist, clay and quartz. Our grape varieties include: Chasselas, Arvine, Chardonnay, Amigne, Savagnin, Pinot Noir, Diolinoir, Syrah and Gamay.

Our viticulture is organic. Fertilizers and irrigation are prohibited. All the work in the vineyards are done manually (topography obliges). Slopes can reach 38 degrees!

Sulfur and copper dioxide and various herbal teas (wormwood, nettle, yarrow, dandelion, horsetail and also goat whey) are used when necessary. The movements of the moon are observed precisely at these times.

The climate in Valais is highly sunny with little rainfall which makes it possible to drastically limit the amount of copper used against mildew (> 1kg/ha per year).

Winemaking

White wines:
As soon as the grapes enter the cellar, they pass through the manual destemmer (the photo on our homepage illustrates this step), then they are put directly into our horizontal screw press over a period of up to twelve hours.

A week before that, we prepare a yeast starter made up of ten kilos of crushed grapes, which is nothing other than a culture of indigenous yeast in order to launch the fermentation which must start as quickly as possible.

The sugars are gradually consumed by the yeasts which transform into alcohol: At the end of this action, the young wine will begin its aging phase. Two rackings are carried out, the first in January, the second in April in order to eliminate the sediments.  Finally, the bottling will take place the following August.

Sometimes we may macerate with white grapes: The famous orange wines. In this case, the so-called carbonic maceration method is followed: The white grapes are vatted whole, without crushing and ferment in a closed vat for two weeks after which the pressing is carried out. Only about half of the sugars are consumed during this half month and the young wine is produced in clear juice.

These macerations can be the subject either of a cuvée or be assembled with a direct pressing in order to reinforce the character of the wine as is the case for our amigne which generally contains twenty percent.

Red wines:
The photo on our homepage illustrates the manual destemming of red grapes in order to obtain whole berries. The red yeast starter is added at this time to the fermentation tank. During the maceration, which lasts ten to thirty days, depending on the cuvée, regular punching down is carried out, always manually in order to best preserve the berries intact. The extraction, very reduced and at low temperature, is finally closer to an “infusion” which gives the future wine, suppleness and finesse.

In addition to a few key cuvées that are essential for each vintage, new ones may emerge depending on the specificity of the harvest.

The couple

Marc Balzan
After training in classic catering, Marc cut his teeth in various gourmet restaurants in France and Navarre. Back in his native Savoy, he joined the canton of Geneva in 1989 to take up the position of butler. Under the influence of his fellow sommeliers, he began to take an interest in wine by participating in numerous tastings of the sommeliers club, then rubbed shoulders with them and finished as a finalist in the Ruinart competition for the best sommelier in Switzerland.

Still in Geneva, follows a period as a wine merchant and host of tasting courses and other excursions to various vineyards and wine fairs. This is how in 2007 he decided to learn viticulture and oenology by taking a job as a wine worker in Villeneuve (VD) and participated in all the work in the vineyard and cellar.

Andrea Grossmann
Andrea, meanwhile, grew up in the Zurich region where she trained as a teacher. In her final years of studis, she landed her first job with a winemaker. It was the vineyards of Lavaux that motivated her to settle in Lausanne for a decade. During this period, she carried out various jobs in the vineyard and in the cellar, as well as German and painting lessons.

Over time, her watercolors made way for large-scale canvases, and the projects for her own vineyard and wine grow in the same way. When Andrea and Marc met during the 2007 harvest, they quickly made the decision to find and work their own vines together. Marc worked for two years as a vine grower at the Mythopia domain in Valais, a pioneer of natural winemaking in Switzerland. From 2010, the couple found their first plots of vines: the Chèrouche domain was born. Andrea drew the”clé à guillon”, the key of the cellar master, with which opens the tasting tap, as the company logo.

In addition to the support of family and friends available during the harvest, from pruning the vines to bottling, all the work is done by the two of them.

Find our wines

Directly with us! A list of available wines can be provided to you by email and by appointment. We are happy to welcome you for a drink. Orders must be paid in cash, thank you for your understanding.

For home delivery, you can contact our retailers:

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