Chardonnay

Domaines Rouvinez is a family business founded in 1947 by Bernard Rouvinez and continued by his sons Dominique and Jean-Bernard. Today, Véronique Besson-Rouvinez (winemaking), Philippe Rouvinez (commercial) and Frédéric Rouvinez (management) ensure the continuity of the company in the third generation. The House of Rouvinez has revolutionized the winemaking industry through continuous innovation, with a focus on high-quality wines and indigenous Valais grape varieties such as Petite Arvine and Cornalin.

Jean-Bernard and Dominique Rouvinez were pioneers in environmental protection and integrated production, dispensing with soil herbicides, using drip irrigation and promoting biodiversity through targeted flora colonization and the restoration of dry stone walls. The third generation is continuing this tradition, with some of the vineyards being run according to organic guidelines and new pruning methods extending the life of the plants.

Its cradle is possibly in Champagne, where it is also known as "epinette" or "epinette blanche". But Champagne and Burgundy still argue about the origin of this grape. It is the most widely cultivated white grape variety in the world. Around 1920, the grape variety was introduced to Valais and has been increasingly planted in Valais in recent years.

For a long time, Chardonnay was made into an expansive, ripe, slightly sweet wine. As tastes evolved towards drier wines, Chardonnay was harvested earlier and earlier to produce fresher wines with notes of white fruits and flowers. As in Burgundy, these wines like to be aged in oak barrels.

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