In Switzerland’s canton Valais, farmers from the mountainous Anniviers area (altitude 1600 meters or 5,250 feet, and up, on the left side of the Rhône Valley as it flows down towards Lake Geneva) used to spend time every year away from their high-altitude villages to cultivate crops in the valley. These included grapes grown on the sloping vineyards around the town of Sierre at 533 meters (1,749 feet) altitude.
Once fermented, some of the wine made from very specific grape varieties was carted up-mountain in the spring to Anniviers home villages like Grimentz which is particularly associated with Vin du Glacier. And there, in naturally cool cellars, a solera-type method of transferring newer wine into casks of older wine took place. The casks were made of larchwood.
Vin Du Glacier Is A White Blend Aged in Larchwood
And that is still what happens to this day. Traditionally, the wine brought up from the valley was made from a white grape variety called Rèze blended with some Ermitage (Marsanne) and perhaps a bit of Petite Arvine. According to who you talk to, other white varieties are now used since Rèze these days is grown in very limited quantities in Valais, but purists insist that this and only this remains the proper blend.
Up-mountain, after the transfers from one barrel to another, the wine ages quietly until the next transfers occur - which doesn't mean that family and friends don't draw down the supply in the cask containing the most aged wine, because they do. However, as explained later, drawing down should not take place too quickly.
Vin du Glacier wine shares a rich color and similar texture and taste with such wines as vin jaune produced in France’s Jura area, also sherries, ports and Madeiras (although these are fortified while vin jaune and Vin du Glacier are not). Barrels may end up containing wine that has been aging for as long as 125 years. The casks are handed down from generation to generation, and some are as old as 250 years.
Drinking Vin Du Glacier Straight From The Barrel
It is said that the only way to drink Vin du Glacier is straight from the barrel, but barring an invitation to a private home (some 50 in the old village of Grimentz, and around 75 all told in the immediate area, have Vin du Glacier aging in the cellar) most people will not have that opportunity. One way to do it anyway if visiting Grimentz is as follows: ahead of the visit, contact the tourism office and announce that you wish to try some of the wine.
For a fee that varies with whether or not you are one individual, a few people or a larger group, and what language you speak, the tourism office will arrange a tasting for you with or without a preliminary tour of the village. Come the day, you will be turned over to village guide Jean Vouardoux (and a translator if you don’t speak French) who takes visitors to the cellar beneath Grimentz’s 16th century Maison de la Bourgeoisie to taste Vin du Glacier.
Tasting Vin Du Glacier In Grimentz
‘’Depending on the time of year, the temperature of the wine will be between 5 and 15 ° C (41 to 59 ° F),‘' says Vouardoux. He recommends a summer visit ‘’because snow conditions can get pretty intense in the wintertime.’’ Vouardoux pours the wine directly from a tap on the cask into small un-stemmed wine glasses of the type that are used in canton Vaud for white wine. ‘’However,’’ he says, ‘’before that I will first serve you some cool white wine, probably Fendant [as Chasselas is known in Valais] from a pewter pitcher called a channe, to aviner le palais [prepare the palate]. Only after your palate is prepared will I serve you a glass of Vin du Glacier.’’
He adds that he will fill the glass as high as you want, and seconds are in the offing if requested. ‘’Vin du Glacier is best drunk unaccompanied by food,’’ adds Vouardoux. Some say a bit of fine aged cheese hits the spot with this wine, however.
Sticking To Vin Du Glacier Traditions
‘’This is not a wine you can sell [bottled or directly from the barrel in a restaurant wine cellar],’’ Vouardoux says. ‘’If you don’t want to have to fill your casks up again too quickly, which would get in the way of proper aging, you can’t remove more than 10% before the next top-up’’ – e.g., for a 200 liter (53 gallon) cask, 20 liters (5.3 gallons).
Vouardoux adds that, in the interests of preserving its traditional characteristics, a Vin du Glacier charter for Anniviers producers is in the process of being finalized which would preclude selling the wine, indeed bottling it or labeling it.
There is a Valais winemaker named Michel Savioz of Château Ravire in Veyras near Sierre whose family has been bottling Vin du Glacier for about 100 years. The Ravire blend of Rèze, Ermitage and Malvoisie (Pinot Gris) is aged in the Anniviers area, topped up every three months or so – and on request it is bottled. ‘’It’s a very good wine,’’ says Vouardoux, ’’ but not what purists accept as real Vin du Glacier.’’
Readers interested in Valais wines and Swiss wines in general may wish to read about Grain Noble ConfidenCiel Sweet Wines, The Many Faces Of Chasselas, and Switzerland's Wines.
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