1000-1500: A vineyard organised on the scale of the 19th century
1000-1500: vineyards at the service of nobility, clerics
As of AD 1000 documents show vineyards spread over a large area and viticulture that was truly organized. The vines were no longer in parcels that lacked organization: they were planted in units that were structured and carefully watched. Some were surrounded by walls and had wine presses. By 1300, vineyards in the upper Rhone valley already had the dimension that we see for them in the second half of the 19th century. The bubonic plague that swept through and caused heavy damage in Valais in 1350 does not appear to have had a major impact on the vineyards.
Vineyards to serve the lords
The real owners of the land were nobles and religious institutions, but they rarely worked the soil themselves. In return for the payment of an annual stipend, farming families were allowed to hold and cultivate the wines of these “seigneurs”.
Viticulture thus became part of a subsistence mixed farming system, with wine considered to be staple food. Production mainly provided for the annual needs of a family, a household or a congregation. Commercial trading was almost non-existent.
1313 : First mention of grape varieties in Valais
Before this date there is no written trace of the names of grape varieties in Valais. Documents from the Middle Ages simply mention red wine or white wine, without any precise information about the particular plant. A register of official acts in Latin, the “Anniviers Register”, mentions for the first time in 1313 a payment in kind with Humagne and Rèze grapes. But the question remains: why did the Anniviers Register scribe mention the names of grape varieties when these were not named in any sales or purchase documents written up before the 16th century?
1341 : Terraces in Saillon
It seems that they have been there forever. But it’s impossible to date precisely the start of the terraces, these walls on several levels that are such a typical feature of the Valais landscape. The oldest in Switzerland date back to the Bronze Age and are found in the Graubünden Alps. Supporting walls have been found in Upper Valais, with traces from earlier times that date to the Iron Age. But there is nothing to prove that they were linked to grapevine cultivation.
The oldest mention of vineyard walls is in the accounts of the Saillon Chatellenie. These show the presence of charmuri, or dry stone walls, in the vineyard of the Comte de Savoie, just below the Saillon Tower, in 1341.
Valais today has 3,000 km of dry-stone walls. These require regular maintenance. Documents from 1700 show that Italian masons were hired to repair them. Later, when vines moved up from the plains to the hillsides, major construction sites were set up. The impressive Cotzette terraces above Sion, where some of the walls are 18 metres high, took 45 years to build, from 1863 to 1908.