Best Chasselas of the year 2024 by Falstaff Wine Travel Schweiz Spezial 2024
Blaise Duboux gave its top-of-the-range Dézaley Haut de Pierre, from the difficult 2021 vintage, a special ageing treatment – and it paid off!
04.11.2024
The year 2021 was a decisive one for Swiss winegrowers – frost, heavy rain and hail caused major crop losses, not only in the vineyards but also in Lavaux. On top of all this, organic winegrower Blaise Duboux had to contend with mildew and the collapse of a stone wall in Dézaley. Not a good outlook! His top-of-the-range Chasselas Dézaley Grand Cru Haut de Pierre 2021 is a miracle.
Despite very low harvest quantities, Blaise Duboux realized shortly after the harvest that it was worth paying particular attention to his top-of-the-range Chasselas of the year. The winemaker decided to age Dézaley Grand Cru Haut de Pierre 2021 twice as long as in normal years. The white wine was not bottled until spring 2023, around a year and a half after the harvest.
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Blaise Duboux is one of Lavaux’s organic pioneers. His Haut de Pierre chasselas, from the difficult 2021 vintage, is exceptional, and so is the result : a complex wine with notes of honey, dried apricot, fresh apple and roasted nuts. On the palate, it’s straightforward, with an impressive vein of acidity, lean citrus fruit and the spicy, mineral notes that make this Dézaley so irresistible. A filigree, yet powerful wine – great, in fact, and exactly what Chasselas knows best: how to vinify a particular terroir and an even more particular year. Nature has ensured that Dézaley Grand Cru Haut de Pierre 2021 is a true rarity – only 600 bottles were bottled instead of the usual 4,000.
© Falstaff Wine Travel Schweiz Spezial 2024