For all winemakers, Cabernet Sauvignon figures at first go among the legendary wine sorts: descendant of Biturica, planted in Medoc in gallo-roman times, it unites a number of particular characteristics. In two words, as in a hundred, everything distinguishes it from other wines.

A legendary wine

Already at the vineyard, it surprises by its gnarled and tormented wooden sprouts and its frazzled leaves; the grape, too is singular, cone-shaped with tiny black berries having typically a savour of violets and rowanberries. The wine, then, displays an unmatched colour, which, with the years, evolves from black ruby to carmine red, with very dark nuances of Sienna clay. The bouquet and the taste of Cabernet Sauvignon are of incomparable complexity: in the best vintages you will find subtle perfumes of oriental spices, associated with aromas of ripe fruit, superposing infinitely. When raised at a low yield, Cabernet reaches unmatched concentrations, with tannic flavours, balsamic notes and fragrances of leather and grilled bread.

In these short-lived times, Cabernet has the particular magic of seemingly lasting forever. As a matter of fact, it should not be drunk too soon, because it really only discloses all its promises and riches after 3-10 years of ageing (depending on the vintage). The master winemaker may disappear, but his wine will outlive him for at least a decade. The amateur who wishes to keep some bottles of his or her date of birth, of love-making or any other special moment of life, will find a living trace of this moment of life with every bottle, decades later ...

The Acclimatation of Cabernet at Balisiers

We had dreamed of it for a while, and then we decided to go for it and undertake all the necessary steps to give this dream a chance to come true. And this was an equation in a great number of unknowns ...

First, the climate. Cabernet is a tardy sort: we would have to make sure that it matures early enough at the Rhône bank in Peney. We analysed the meteorological history of comparable regions (Gironde and Loire, septentrional limit of cabernet plantations) and noted with satisfaction that these were favourable. A prerequisite would be the training of the plant on the lyra-shaped trellis system, which favours maturation.

Then, the terroir. The soils between the mountain Salève and the rock masses of the Jura are of a chalky nature and have sufficient analogy with the original terroirs of cabernet and, at the same time, some interesting local characteristics, which bear a promise of individuality.

Despite sceptical feedbacks from the federal research institute and endless stumbling blocks by a conservative and unimaginative Geneva wine administration, we begin with a small essay, which should help us to find the most suitable clones and graft carriers. After three years of undivided attention and fond nurturing we can taste the results of the first micro-vinifications ...

Thus was born, over a decade of research and hard work, Balisiers’ Cabernet Sauvignon, on four hectares of specifically prepared soil: we completed the vineyard of les Baillets with 20 000 cubic meters of moraine gravel, in Peissy we had to implant the trellis and plant sticks with the compressor into the tough molasse coating and many kilometres of drainage assured the proper irrigation

A certain Emotion

We have named our Cabernet “Comte de Peney”, for one, because it is in Peney that the first vines were planted – and as homage to the brave vassal by this name and the determined resistance he kept up against the Geneva establishment four centuries ago.

Dear wine lovers, so today you can place some bottles of Comte de Peney in your wine cellar. These are bottles, which we confide to you not without a certain emotion, as they are both the fruit of centuries of knowledge of Geneva wine makers and the result of the most innovative research work about the microclimate of the vine. We would like to take this opportunity to thank our ancestors and also Prof. Alain Carbonneau of the Bordeaux Research Institute INRA. Without them, you and we would not be drinking the first Cabernet sauvignon of Switzerland.