“Féchy, what future?
Féchy is a pretty village located between Lausanne and Geneva, at the foot of the Jura mountains on the shores of Lake Geneva. It gives its name to a terroir wine that is very well known in Switzerland and has the right to the appellation d’origine contrôlée. It is in this appellation that I have the pleasure of running a family estate and producing personalized wines typical of the region. As Switzerland was in the process of liberalizing the white wine market, the future of this appellation was particularly close to my heart. To give you a better understanding of the current situation, I’d like to give you a brief introduction to Le Vin, its long and recent history, and some thoughts on its future.
THE WINE
Féchy is an appellation d’origine contrôlée wine made from the Chasselas grape variety. Its floral, lime-blossom aromas, its finesse, lightness and supple character with a very low acidity, make it a wine much loved by the Swiss, who are accustomed to drinking white wine outside of meals. In French-speaking Switzerland, wines made from the Chasselas grape, like Féchy, accompany rites of passage such as Baptism, Confirmation, conscription and marriage, and are therefore a fundamental part of the region’s culture and social life.
LE CEPAGE
Chasselas, which seems to have originated in the Lake Geneva basin, is used as a wine grape in French-speaking Switzerland (its native land), southern Germany (Baden region), Alsace and the Loire Valley (Pouilly-sur-Loire region). In southern France, it is grown as a table grape. In terms of cultivation, it requires considerable care and yields can be high but irregular (very sensitive to coulure). It ripens here towards the end of September and is harvested with a sugar content corresponding to a potential alcohol content of 10 to 11 degrees. It is used as a reference variety by ampelographers to define the ripening period.
HISTORY
Féchy’s vineyards and wine have a history stretching back more than a thousand years. The same goes for the grape variety grown here, Chasselas. As in other historic vineyards, the Romans taught the inhabitants of my region the first techniques of vine cultivation and the art of wine production. In the Middle Ages, monks, particularly those from the Grand St-Bernard hospices, shaped the vineyards of Lake Geneva as we know them today, apart from a few forays into the fertile plain. Since the dawn of time, wine has been produced for local consumption and, alas, had no place at the court of the great European powers. As a result, it was not fortunate enough to have glorious ambassadors to help it gain recognition abroad.
Nevertheless, it was much loved (and still is) by the German-speaking Swiss who occupied the region for almost three centuries, from 1536 to 1798. Thanks to the development of communication routes and an increasingly f1oracious economy, the consumption of wine made from the Chasselas grape variety, and Féchy in particular, has risen sharply in German-speaking Switzerland since the beginning of this century, and particularly since the 1950s, The market for Swiss white wines, most of which come from the Chasselas grape variety, was strictly protected from foreign competition, with the agreement of the country’s consumers who, in 1951, voted for an agricultural law guaranteeing winegrowers a price that covered production costs. What’s more, this indigenous white wine, with its subtly floral aroma, matched and still matches the taste and drinking habits of the Swiss, who are accustomed to enjoying white wine outside of mealtimes, during the day: at eleven o’clock in the morning or in the early evening, to celebrate the signing of a contract or mark the conclusion of some other agreement. These rituals are part of our culture and therefore an important part of our identity.
CONSEQUENCES OF THE PROTECTIONIST PERIOD
Without competition, Swiss winegrowers enjoyed a long period of economic well-being, which is a very good thing in itself. Unfortunately, this period also had its drawbacks, the extent of which we can only now appreciate. For a long time, it favored unbridled productivism. Pampered by a sure-fire market, some winegrowers took the easy way out, without really confronting the competition or questioning themselves in terms of quality or the type of wine they produced. Similarly, this flourishing market on the one hand encouraged an explosion in the price of vineyard land, which reached a level comparable to that paid for classified growths in Bordeaux, and on the other, cemented existing structures.
CHANGING CONSUMER HABITS AND OPEN MARKETS
Just when winegrowers thought they were in the clear, the Swiss consumer became increasingly demanding and resistant to protectionist wine policy, starting in the early 1980s. This phenomenon was particularly pronounced in the major cities of German-speaking Switzerland, such as Zurich and Basel. Driven by an increasingly hectic pace of life and guided by the “consumerist” trade press that was just beginning to appear at the time, this “new consumer” wanted to drink less but better, and was looking for stronger, more complex taste sensations in white wine. At the same time, a number of top chefs, backed by certain journalists, became increasingly reluctant to promote Chasselas, which they considered too low in acidity, as an accompaniment to any of the dishes on the menus they were concocting. All this slowly but inexorably led to a decline in the image and consumption of Chasselas, as well as to a radical change in Swiss wine policy, which has been much more liberal with regard to white wine imports and more focused on quality since the late 1980s. Ill-prepared for these changes, winegrowers now find themselves obliged to adapt quickly to these new circumstances if they are to ensure the long-term future of their businesses.
THE FUTURE OF FECHY
Even though Féchy wine is still in great demand, its producers cannot afford to avoid a serious rethink, which is currently underway. The quality of our wines has already risen significantly, thanks to lower yields and the use of cultivation techniques that enhance the expression and sustainability of the terroir (“reasoned” or “integrated” viticulture, “organic” viticulture). Despite these efforts, more needs to be done to explore the full potential of the terroir. For the Féchy appellation, several options remain open:
- To further limit production through appropriate cultivation methods, and to seek out, among the Old Chasselas selections abandoned during the period of productivism, those with the greatest qualitative potential (small berries, more prominent acidity, more pronounced aromas, low production). This is a long-term project, already underway, in collaboration with the Changins Federal Research Station.
- Further research into enhancing the Féchy terroir with grape varieties other than Chasselas (Alsace-type research). This research could eventually lead not to a varietal wine, which would run the risk of becoming an imitation wine, but to a terroir wine made from a blend yet to be found.
- Search for one or more grape varieties complementary to Chasselas: if we start from the idea that Féchy is a terroir wine and not a grape variety wine, we could imagine blending with Chasselas the wine of other plants, perfectly complementary to the first, in order to give it greater aromatic complexity, acidity and longevity, without taking away its originality. I’m thinking in particular of Doral and Charmont (two new grape varieties created by the Station Fédérale de Recherches Viticoles de Changins, resulting from a cross between Chasselas and Chardonnay), Chardonnay, Pinot Gris and Pinot Auxerrois.
I agree that this idea might seem blasphemous, particularly in the eyes of the Vaud wine industry, but it’s worth considering if we want to put the brakes on the race to produce varietal wines that is currently underway in my region. In my opinion, these wines are of little interest, because they are imitations of existing models. Féchy is not alone in this quest. Didn’t Chianti Classico recently considerably modify the regulations governing the grape varieties permitted in the blend? Far from wishing to denature Féchy, I want everything to be done so that it can occupy a special place in the consumer’s heart as a personalized terroir wine and an expression of the culture of my region.