Dézaley Grand Cru 2024 Steve Bettschen

The Dézaley Grand Cru 2024 from Steve Bettschen is one of the most precious and confidential bottles Les Clos Vivants has ever selected, reserved as priority allocation for Compagnon members of the Confrérie des Clos Vivants. From a vineyard that ranks among the greatest in Switzerland and the world, though still little known beyond Swiss borders, this bottle bears the signature of a vigneron trained by Marie-Thérèse Chappaz, the tutelary figure and icon of Swiss wine whose philosophy of absolute purity and terroir expression transformed the Valais vineyard. Steve Bettschen brings the same conviction and respect for place to Dézaley, letting the chailles, the lake, and the slope speak without artifice or excess.

Terroir and vines

Dézaley is a Grand Cru appellation of just 54 hectares, classified in 2013 as one of only two Grand Cru AOCs in Switzerland, and inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2007 alongside the entire Lavaux vineyard. This viticultural terroir, situated between Lausanne and Vevey on the slopes of Puidoux, represents the highest and most noble expression that Chasselas can achieve anywhere in the world. Vines cling to spectacular terraces carved by Cistercian monks from the twelfth century onwards, on slopes reaching up to 90 percent incline, making mechanisation impossible and demanding entirely manual work from pruning through harvest. The soils are geologically complex, layered with clay-limestone sediments, marls, pudding stones, gravels and glacial moraines of incomparable mineral richness. The chailles, those dry stone walls built since the Middle Ages across an area equal to the vineyard itself, accumulate heat from the lake and sun during the day and gently release it at night, creating a microclimate of absolute precision and generosity. Chasselas ripens ten days later than the regional norm here, a deliberate lateness that concentrates aromas and naturally structures acidity. Steve Bettschen's winemaking remains faithful to Marie-Thérèse Chappaz's teaching, using indigenous yeasts, precise ageing on fine lees, sparing use of sulphur, and nothing that might stand between terroir and glass.

Tasting profile

The robe is pale straw yellow with green and golden reflections, bright and limpid, with a clarity and luminosity that recalls Lake Léman's light on the chailles. The nose displays absolute finesse and precision, in the pure and direct spirit immediately recognisable in vignerons trained in the Chappaz school. Characteristic smoky and roasted notes of Dézaley's terroir emerge first, accompanied by aromas of fresh almond, acacia honey, white flowers and a stony, iodine minerality of remarkable depth. With aeration, notes of gentle caramel, fresh butter and candied citrus enrich this bouquet with growing complexity and generosity. On the palate, the texture is ample, generous and marked by natural tension. The aromatic richness of mature Chasselas from these pudding stone terraces expresses itself with a depth and length few dry white wines can claim. Natural acidity brings momentum and freshness to fleshy, well-built matter, in an equilibrium of remarkable precision and harmony. The finish is long, saline and smoky, with a persistence and minerality that extends in absolute purity. A great white wine for ageing, to discover now after decanting or to keep for ten to fifteen years.

The vigneron

Steve Bettschen is a young Swiss vigneron whose training under Marie-Thérèse Chappaz, one of the most admired and respected figures in Swiss viticulture, speaks entirely to his convictions and philosophy. From Chappaz he inherited a taste for purity, absolute respect for terroir, the conviction that wine is made in the vineyard not the cellar, and the patience to wait until grapes reach perfect maturity before picking. Established on one of Switzerland's most noble and confidential terroirs, he produces wines of a sincerity and precision already admired by the country's most discerning amateurs. This wine is reserved as priority allocation for Compagnon members of the Confrérie des Clos Vivants.

Food pairings

This Dézaley Grand Cru pairs beautifully with lake perch in beurre blanc, pan-fried féra with almonds, crayfish à la nage, quality half-and-half fondue, poultry in light cream sauce, steamed scallops or a plateau of alpine cheeses such as aged Gruyère or Beaufort d'alpage. Served between 10 and 12 °C with a 20-minute decant recommended in its youth, it will reveal all the smoky depth, limestone minerality and pure generosity of one of the world's greatest white terroirs, interpreted by a vigneron trained in the school of rigour and sincerity.