TRAVEL: VALAIS

My perfect day in the Valais

Morning Gourmand, the brasserie side of Didier After breakfast at Castel de Daval*, de Courten’s upmarket restaurant* schedule a visit to star producer (near the train station). Robert Taramarcaz at Domaine des Muses. Afterwards, leave the car at Afternoon Sierre station, hop on the train (a Take the road up towards Crans- three-minute journey) to Salgesch Montana to Cave la Romaine, Maps:Maggie Nelson. Photograph: swiss-image.ch/Christof Schuerpf and walk back to Sierre along the a new domaine with an impressive Above: winemaking is a challenge in this Alpine region, vineyard trail (about two hours), cellar, ambitious wines and superb where steep vineyards are buttressed by stone walls which finishes up at Oenothèque* tasting room with panoramic The Decanter travel guide to (wine bar and shop) at Château de views to the upper valley. Below: enjoy spectacular panoramic views up the valley Villa where you can taste the best from the vineyards at Cave la Romaine of the Valais. Evening/overnight From here it’s about 25 minutes’ Lunch drive to Savièse/Chandolin, a Valais, Switzerland Either grab a bite at Oenothèque, or go dramatically sited south-facing village for the famous raclette tasting menu at with views of vineyards and snow- Château de Villa’s cosy, wood-panelled capped peaks high above Sion on the From impossibly picturesque and les vignerons du samedi, grape-growing is just a in town and walk the vineyard trail designed by restaurant next door*: the raclette road up to the Col du Sanetsch. Settle Saturday hobby. But the past 20 years have seen daughter (and winemaker) Sarah, which follows the meister juggles with five grills and five down for dinner and overnight at La FACT FILE steep vineyards, the wines from huge changes, a consolidation of tiny, fragmented Besse vineyards along steeply stacked terraces wheels of alp cheese, each from a Grande Maison*, once the home of Planted area 4,976 this Alpine canton are booming in holdings and a steady ramping up of quality. buttressed by an impressive array of dry stone different alp, sizzled in turn, scraped a local family, now converted into a hectares If your thrills in the region have been limited walls. By the time you reach the cellar door, you’ll (raclé) onto a plate and served with simple but classy B&B. Grape varieties Pinot Noir, quality, discovers Sue Style. And thus far to black runs down to Verbier or Zermatt, have some idea of the particular challenges of potatoes, pickles and air-dried meats. Chasselas, Gamay, are perfect to enjoy with raclette and the only Valaisan wine to have passed your lips winemaking around here and be ready to taste a Or for more creative/modern fare and For more details on places marked with (Petite) Arvine, Cornalin, is a jug of après-ski Fendant, get ready for a lip-smacking Petite Arvine or a lively Gamay. ➢ a stunning wine list, try L’Atelier a asterisk (*), turn to p107 Humagne Rouge, different kind of white-knuckle ride. Chandra Kurt, Sylvaner, Syrah, THE VALAIS, SWITZERLAND’S southernmost, Zurich-based wine writer and Valais specialist, Chardonnay, Pinot Gris, sunbaked, Alpine canton through which the likens a wine trip here to a treasure hunt: Merlot, Savagnin Blanc fledgling Rhône flows, has always been a bit of a law everywhere you go you will unearth growers who (aka Heida or Païen) unto itself. In Swiss terms it came late to the are polishing up little-known gems like Petite Production in 2012, Confederation, joining only in 1815 (the core Arvine, Cornalin, Humagne and Heida and/or 380,000 hectolitres cantons got started in 1291). And although by now giving new lustre to old-established varieties Main soil types limestone, fairly firmly woven into the richly textured (Chasselas/Fendant is king here) or classic blends granite, schist, loess patchwork that is Switzerland today, it still manages like Dôle, an often undistinguished Pinot Noir- to feel like another world. Gamay blend. Viticulture has deep roots down here. Wine is a At the lower end of the valley in Martigny, Gérald way of life, and almost everyone owns and tends a Besse (www.besse.ch) works 18ha of vines from 14 parcel or two of vines. For many of them, known as different grape varieties. A good approach is to park

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Valais WHERE TO STAY, SHOP, EAT AND RELAX Castel de Daval, Sierre SHOPPING Delicious, turreted, red-shuttered B&B in the Oenothèque, Sierre vineyards above Sierre owned by wine Some 600 wines from 102 different local growers Monique and Bertrand Caloz- domaines are offered for sampling and Evequoz. A glass of house wine is offered on purchase, with wines from four producers arrival and you can taste the domaine’s full showcased each week and available by the range next door. www.collinededaval.ch glass – a crash course in the Valais’ finest. www.chateaudevilla.ch RESTAURANTS Les Alpes, Orsières The wow factor is guaranteed at this outstanding table close to Verbier. Good- looking, big-flavoured food from chef Samuel Destaing, with spotlight on a different Valais producer every month, whose wines are offered by the glass. HOTELS http://lesalpes.jimdo.com Maya Guesthouse, Nax Unique, warmly welcoming, eight-bedroom Château de Villa, Sierre ecohotel on a sunny plateau above Sion, built Cosy, wood-panelled restaurant inside the Salon Vinea, Sierre from straw bales, wood, glass and stone. 16th-century château serving typical Every year in early September, Vinea, Dine seated on chairs from recycled wine Valaisan specialities (terrific raclette tasting a Swiss-wide association that stages wine barrel staves at the huge communal oak menu and fondue) and a good range of local competitions and publishes an annual guide, refectory table, as the sun sinks behind the wines. www.chateaudevilla.ch hosts the Salon des Vins Suisses. This wine Photographs:ValaisPromotion DenisEmery– photo-genic.ch; DenisEmery photo-genic.ch; - archivesVINEA, www.photogenic.ch; JoséDrVouillamoz; AndréJenny/Alamy; Alps across the valley. fair offers a great opportunity to wander the www.maya-guesthouse.ch streets of the old town browsing the full range of Swiss wines. www.vinea.ch Vertiginous vineyards Today they make around 20 different wines, Clockwise from top left: La Grande Maison, Savièse/ If you thought the Besse vineyards were steep, then ranging from terroir-driven Chasselas to an the Maya Guesthouse Chandolin Marché de la Vieille Ville, step across to Fully, raise your eyes to the mountain outstanding, highly prized Syrah Vieilles Vignes. ecohotel; delicious alp Imposing sunflower-yellow village house Sion that rears up behind Marie-Thérèse Chappaz’s Almost next door in Chamoson is Didier Joris cheeses are everywhere; built in 1812, and transformed five years ago Locavore heaven at Sion’s farmers’ market property (www.chappaz.ch) and marvel that anyone (www.didierjoris.ch) and visits to his tiny domaine the farmers’ market in into a stylish, quirky B&B. Mediterranean- every Friday morning in the old town, come could ever consider planting and working vines are by appointment only. This uniquely Valaisan Sion’s old town; enjoy French-Swiss food is served in the atmospheric rain or come shine: vegetables, fruit, raclette here. The domaine is biodynamic, yields are wine personality is a flying winemaker and as wines made from Gwass barrel-vaulted dining room in winter, and and alp cheeses, air-dried meats, sausages, restricted both by geography and by choice, and the likely to be dispensing wine wisdom in Spain as grapes, among others, at on the terrace(s) in summer. bread baked in portable wood-fired ovens, wines – which are measured out by the drop to tending his own 3ha of vines here in Switzerland. the Vinea wine fair; raclette www.lagrandemaison.ch picnic provisions and take-home treats. faithful followers – sell out at a dismaying pace. To Regard any visit as a fabulously enriching tasting – a Valais specialty; dining Restaurant Didier de be sure of an allocation, try and attend one of the exercise – with trenchantly expressed views on the at La Grande Maison LeCrans Hotel & Spa, Plans Courten, Sierre tastings scheduled throughout April and May, world of wine thrown in. Revel in Joris’ remarkable Mayens/Crans-Montana Star chef Didier de Courten combines a How to get there informal gatherings around wildflower-decked Syrahs and swallow your disappointment if others Understated luxury at this 14-room, gourmet restaurant, the Atelier Gourmand During winter, the Eurostar from London trestle tables, where Chappaz describes in lyrical (notably the country’s top restaurants) have beaten chalet-style hotel. Restaurant with stellar brasserie and L’Ampelos wine bar under one links up with the TGV via Lille to serve language her range of whites and reds, both single you to the draw. wine list, wine bar and a table d’hôte in the roof at the Hotel Terminus, close to the main stations in the Valais like Martigny, Visp and Brig. Or you can fly to Geneva varietals and blends. kitchen where you can dine while watching station. Classy food at every level and then go by car or train along Lake Geneva Heading east up the valley, the cantonal road Dramatic views – and wines chef Pierre Crepaud and his brigade in excellent wine selection, big on the Valais. to the Valais. runs parallel with both the motorway and the In Flanthey, on the way up to Crans-Montana, Cave action. www.lecrans.com www.hotel-terminus.ch silver-greenish-grey ribbon of the Rhône. The La Romaine (www.cavelaromaine.ch) has just opened show-stopping scenery – dramatic mountain peaks a spectacular wine cellar for visitors, a cross to right and left, many of them topping the 4,000m between a church, an amphitheatre, a terraced mark, and wave upon wave of vineyards surfing vineyard (the barriques are arranged on various (www.domainedesmuses.ch) after spells in Burgundy The reputation of this 8ha family winery rests on steeply at their feet – is the same, but the non- levels) and a grand stage. Upstairs in the state-of- and New Zealand. His range of thrillingly original its tireless championing of rarities like Gwass – motorway option is more leisurely and leads you the-art tasting room, you’ll have your work cut out wines (whites from the north-facing left bank of the described by Dr José Vouillamoz, joint author of the through some of the Valais’ most celebrated to give proper attention to the wines (the Cornalin Rhône for maximum freshness, reds from the right award-winning reference work Wine Grapes, as the vineyard villages. and Humagne Rouge grapes are the stars here) on bank for maximum ripeness) are prized alike by ‘Casanova of the vine world’, since, with the help of Schedule a stop in St-Pierre-de-Clages, where account of the spectacularly distracting views up Swiss wine cognoscenti and by global wine critics. Pinot (and other varieties), it has spawned almost Sue Style is a wine, Simon Maye & Fils (www.simonmaye.ch) have quietly the valley. By the time you reach Visp in the upper reaches all the worthwhile wine grapes extant today – as food and travel writer. established themselves over decades as one of the Sierre, at the heart of the Valais, is home to of the valley, it’s easy to see why an 1876 British well as the exotically named Lafnetscha, Her most recent book region’s premier growers. Always ahead of the Robert Taramarcaz, one of the new generation traveller described the region as ‘fearsomely wild’. Himbertscha and Rèze. Take a parting sip of its is Cheese: Slices of curve, they started bottling all their own wine back of young winemakers who has recently returned Here Chanton Weine (www.chanton.ch) practises Heida, a prized golden drop grown 800m up on the Swiss Culture in the mid-1970s, a rarity in the Valais at the time. to the family fold at Domaine des Muses extreme wine growing at its most challenging best. vertiginous slopes of Visperterminen. D (Bergli Books, 2011)

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