The term Grand Cru comes from the French and means something like “great growth”. While the various wine-growing regions in France and Germany interpret this term differently, in the canton of Valais, a Grand Cru is understood to be a wine of particularly high quality, the cultivation and production of which are subject to strict requirements.
The winegrowers of the wine village of Salgesch were the first to create a Grand Cru in Switzerland. Once again, the preceding historical development was decisive. After a staggering 80 million liters of wine had been cellared in Valais alone in 1982, the price collapse followed almost immediately and numerous winegrowers in Switzerland’s largest winegrowing canton were on the verge of going out of business.
And so the Salgesch winegrowers decided without further ado to take the plunge and launched the Grand Cru Salgesch for their best stallion in the stable, the Pinot Noir grape. From this point onwards, the focus was consistently on quality, coupled with strict regulations. To this day, the grapes for this wine may only come from certain parcels of integrated production (IP). It is also stipulated that the yield may not exceed 0.8 kg of grapes (with at least 96 degrees Öchsle) per square meter of vineyard. In addition, sugaring is prohibited, the use of sulphurous acid is severely restricted and ageing in barrique barrels is prohibited. Before the wine can be bottled with the Grand Cru label after maturing for at least 12 months, it must pass the critical palate of a tasting panel with at least 18 out of 20 points.
And although the requirements for this Grand Cru are already considered to be extremely strict, the best Swiss winemaker of the decade, Diego Mathier, has set even stricter guidelines for the Pinot Noir de Salquenen Réserve de la famille. The quantity of grapes harvested for his Grand Crus is even smaller and the number of points required at the tasting should be even higher than for the Grand Cru de Salquenen.
