Le Tourmentin AOC VS

Description (detail)

The idea of Tourmentin was born in January 1983 from the desire to age a Pinot Noir in barriques. (Tourmentin, a blend of Pinot Noir, Cornalin, Humagne Rouge and Syrah, was not launched until 1988). At that time, no one in Switzerland used French oak barrels, as it was felt that Swiss wines did not deserve this type of ageing. The Rouvinez brothers were of a different opinion. Although they had beautiful grapes, they lacked the knowledge and so Dominique graduated from the wine faculty at Bordeaux University. After his training, Dominique and his wife Anita bought ten barriques in Burgundy and brought them to Valais. The Pinot Noir grapes for the Tourmentin came from plots in the Sierre region and were transferred to oak barrels after fermentation. During the twelve months of maturation, the brothers looked for a name for their wine. A competition resulted in the name "Tourmentin", suggested by Jean-Michel Borel. During a visit to Géronde, he had taken an interest in the "tourments" or torments that a tank of red wine had to endure, which was under heavy fermentation at the time. Today, more than thirty years later, you don't just enjoy a good wine, you enjoy a Tourmentin!
Find out more about Tourmentin...

Red wine

Pinot Noir

Prozent

12.5

Option 1: Beschrieb

75cl

Option 1: Jahrgang

2022

Option 1: Preis

CHF 69

Option 2: Beschrieb

150cl

Option 2: Jahrgang

2021

Option 2: Preis

CHF 138

Matching mood

lusty & romantic

Characteristics

Aromen (Nase)

Spicy notes of candied cherries and fully ripe plums, cloves and blackcurrants.

Aromen (Mund)

Rich on the palate with a discreet woody note. A concentrated and powerful wine of rare aromatic richness.

Complex & elegant

Dry

Oak barrel

Lamb

Stewed dishes

4-10 years

Vinalies: Gold (2021)

Words from the winemaker

What the Rouvinez family says about this wine

A further speciality of the winery

The perfect answer to the great thirst...

The Rouvinez winery not only produces wine, but also makes beer...

Masterful, unfiltered beer made from hops with a citrus fruit profile. The addition of wheat gives it freshness and lightness. L'Echappée is a pure, uncompromising beer that contains neither flavourings nor added sugar. It owes its unique flavour to a double fermentation with yeasts whose secret is known only to its creators. L'Echappée is characterised by a fine head and aromatic notes.

L'Echappée is the perfect answer to the great thirst. However, it is also generally suitable as an accompaniment for all dishes that are rather difficult to pair with a wine, such as artichokes and rhubarb, or for all even more conflicting dishes such as onion confectionery, chutneys, dried fruit or caramelised and roasted flavours.

Rouvinez family

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.

Discover the winery Details

Red assemblages and cuvées

«Married wine»

It is up to the cellar master to compose a complex, finesse-rich but balanced taste experience from wines of different characters. Often, colourful, full-bodied and tannic wines are blended with lighter, fruit-intensive wines to achieve a more complex, intense harmony of aromas. The aim is not to conceal the weaknesses of a wine, but to combine strengths; the cuvée should be of higher quality and taste better than the single-varietal wine. In order for a cuvée to present itself as a harmonious composition, characteristics such as fruitiness, acidity, tannin content, alcohol content and residual sweetness have to be very precisely sensory assessed during preliminary tastings. It is an art that requires a great deal of knowledge, skill, sensitivity and experience to finely match complementary varieties to create a particularly round and harmonious wine.

The terms assemblage and cuvée sometimes cause more confusion than clarity. This is because they are used differently in French than in German. In German-speaking countries, the term cuvée and the synonym assemblage are used for a blend of different grape varieties, vintages or sites. Not so in France. Cuvée comes from the French Cuve (vat or wine container) and actually refers to a certain amount of wine in a vessel. Accordingly, in French, each separately bottled wine is called a cuvée - in the sense of bottling. The composition of the cuvée is called assemblage in France. If simple wines are blended, the French speak of a coupage.