From: Switzerland

Varietal: Pinot Noir

The vines at Domaine Beudon are perched on a small swell half way up a sheer mountainside in the Valais region of Switzerland. The only way to access the domaine is a 3 hour walk up an absurdly precarious footpath with fixed ropes or a small, rustic cable car. The vineyard sites are very steep, up to 50 degrees in spots and they top out at 900 meters above sea level. This is extreme grape growing at its apex.

Jacques (Jacky) Granges often repeats that people think he is crazy. He was crazy to move up here as a single young man in the early 70’s. Crazy to convert the estate to Biodynamics long before it was hip – he was the first in Switzerland. Crazy to grow the grapes he grows and to make the wines he makes. But after tasting the wines of Domaine Beudon, it is clear that Jacky Granges is simply one more great man whose genius has been dubbed crazy by those who do not understand him.

There is no wood used on any of the wines. Vinification and aging take place in stainless steel and via indigenous yeasts. The whites are pressed up on the mountain and the juice is brought down to the valley floor for fermentation. The reds are put in tanks and the entire tanks are brought down on cables for fermentation.