This vineyard region, sitting in Canton Vaud in the heart of Lavaux, between Lausanne and the Chillon Castle, is one of the two most prestigious appellations in the canton, an honour shared with Calamin. It hugs the terraces built by hand into abruptly steep slopes, heading downhill to the edges of Lake Geneva. The vines here benefit from the heat of three suns: the sun in the sky, that retained by the walls, and the mirror effects of the lake. Grapes that ripen here are well-structured and rich in sugar.
Surface area | 54 hectares |
Elevation of the vines | From 375 msl (metres above sea level) on the shores of Lake Geneva to 550 msl at Tour de Marsens |
Precipitation | 1,100 mm a year on average |
Temperature | 10.5 C, average for the year |
Grape varieties planted | Chasselas fendant roux (90%) |
In 2012 the Dézaley Grand Cru appellation produced 437,293 litres of wine, of which 398,283 were Chasselas (90%) and 39,010 litres of red wine (10%).
« Bovard out in the vines again … And the Good Lord Himself decided that this would be vines, having fashioned the hillside as it suited him, saying, “I’m going to make a lovely slope just so, facing the sun as it needs to, with exactly the incline it needs, and I’m also going to put down below a body of water so that two suns shine on it, so that the sun which elsewhere comes only from above, comes from above and below, here … ‘The Good Lord began, we came next and then it was finished … The Good Lord made the slope, but we made it so it would serve us, we made sure it held, that it would last: so, is it only now that we know it as it is, dressed in stone? And elsewhere men are content to sow, plant, till. While we first build boxes – see if what I’m saying isn’t the truth – put it into boxes, I’m telling you, put all of it into boxes and then these boxes, we pile them one on top of another … He showed them with his hand, which moved jerkily, higher and higher, to show all these steps, all these squares of wall that were like a staircase. “And it’s no longer natural – it’s built. That’s us, it was built by us, it holds up only thanks to us. This is no longer a slope, it’s something constructed, it’s a tower, it’s the front of a fortress … Since ancient times, for as long as we have existed, since the Romans and since the monks, the olden days and the truly olden days, this has been called the Abbey here – there’s the Abbey’s wine, it’s called the Priory, there are plenty of names from those days everywhere here, it’s still awash in their handiwork; and look at these walls, just look at these walls, as far as the eye can see, so far that it pulls on the eye to look from top to bottom, from right to left – how much is there, of this? Because it had to be, or the land would slide down to the bottom; Therefore, they made a first one, then another and then 10 and 100, then 1,000, starting next to the water, and after that they climbed, kept climbing up to the sky, up on their ladder, and they would have kept climbing as long as they found a place to climb … Since the olden days, since as far back as we go, from year to year: the Romans, the monks, people wearing robes, people in pants, and then others, and then yet others again, and then our great grandfathers and then our grandfathers then our father, then us: to make and next remake, to build and rebuild, and to re-rebuild again, fix, re-cement, every year climbing, carrying the earth on one’s back, climb again, the entire slope to go looking to see where it’s slipped, there where the mountain is pushing out, there where rock has given way, there where it’s split; and to fill up the holes, fill in the cracks, push the mountain back, make sure that in any case it holds, make sure that it will last – for 2,000 years perhaps, that it will last, but it couldn’t last and it wouldn’t last, if we weren’t part of this, if we weren’t rebuilding this all the time…
He stopped, having run out of words. »
Association Appellation Dézaley Grand Cru
Jean-François Chevalley
President
Route du Treytorrens 1
1096 En Dézaley
info@dezaley.ch