Fine wines made in Valais
Vin d'oeuvre

Isabella and Stéphane Kellenberger produce 18 wines from indigenous and international varieties in Leuk-Stadt, a small village in upper Valais, the Southern part of Switzerland.

Welcome to our wine-world - enter, and
discover what we mean by diversity.


Harvest 2023

Looking back on the wineyear

2023 was indeed a good vintage, while it was still rainy in spring and the pressure for downy mildew increased, the summer was very dry. It got really hot at the end of August, the heat blocked the ripening process of some grape varieties, which meant that we had to be patient with the start of the harvest in order to finally cellar healthy, perfectly ripe grapes.
While the harvest always follows a very similar pattern - not all grape varieties are ripe at the same time, a distinction is made between early-ripening and late-ripening varieties - the heat blockade caused a different sequence, which required a very flexible way of thinking and even more adaptability from us. Normally, Pinot Noir is one of the first grape varieties to be harvested, but it had almost completely stopped growing, so that it hardly produced any sugar for 2-3 weeks. We harvested later-ripening varieties such as Viognier and Completer almost at the same time or even earlier. 2023 remains a great year, both in terms of quality and quantity.


G = Gamay = Gold

However, the last trimester of our anniversary year was not only crowned by a beautiful and healthy harvest. Our Gamay to die for 2022 was voted among the 6 best in its category (Gamay) at this year's Grand Prix du Vin Suisse and was one of the 91 best wines in this year's wine competition, in which over 2700 samples were submitted. We are delighted, as this is only the second time that we have submitted the Gamay to the Grand Prix du Vin Suisse and it has been nominated again (in 2014, the same wine achieved the highest score in the competition).

Presenting our newest wine : Completer

At the end of October - on a golden autumn day - we inaugurated our latest offspring, the Completer back to the roots, in the steep slopes of the vineyards in Raron with a small group of invited guests. José Vouillamoz, who is known for his DNA analyses of vines, suspects that the Completer, which is known today from the Grisons, had disappeared from the Valais altogether. However, Completer and Humagne Blanc are both parents to Lafnetscha, a typical local Valais grape, so we believe that Completer was cultivated in Valais centuries ago. We brought the Completer back to Upper Valais when we decided to plant it in Raron. This wonderful afternoon-event was recorded by Elsbeth Hobmeier as an online article in GaultMillau, read it here in German.

Photos: Florence Zufferey

Photos: Gérard-Philippe Mabillard

Furthermore, we were able to show the Combe of Raron for the first time to a public and also give an insight into the work of our winemaking colleagues, Cornelia and Andreas Bolliger, Romain Cipolla and Rainer Zimmermann who served their wines, which they also grow here.

... and we're moving on...

We would like to thank everyone who has visited and supported us during this extraordinary 10th anniversary! We are starting an exciting 2024 full of energy - we hope you will be part of it too!

 

 

upcoming winetastings :


March 20, France

April 6, Geneva

April 11, Berne

April 19, Zurich

Mai 5 : Leuker KulTour & Wein

 

NEW :
Completer

 

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