Domaine des Landions

The Meier family has been cultivating vines in the canton of Neuchâtel for four generations, a story that began in 1924 when Paul Meier acquired one hectare of vineyard out of love for good wine. Eric, Paul's son, continued developing the estate by planting two hectares in the 1980s, and in 1990, his son Denis, an agronomic engineer, took over and planted four hectares at Plan Jacot. In 2012, Denis began planting new Pinot Noir vines in Cortaillod, and in 2015, father and son set up a small winery in a farm there to vinify the five hectares of very fine Pinot Noir planted over the previous decade. The vines were planted between 2002 and 2011.

The vineyards sit on remarkably unique terroir, with vines at Cortaillod on exceptionally draining and dry soil in the Areuse plain, where the stony ground extends down to eight meters deep. The soil is limestone-based and influenced by the Areuse river, which over the years deposited large stones, creating a rocky soil more than six meters deep down to the water table. Additional vines are located at Vaumarcus for their Clos du Château cuvée. The estate uses mainly Burgundian clones, along with some German clones, selected for their quality potential and tendency to produce small yields.

In 2015, Morgan Meier, who holds an economics degree from HEC Lausanne and studied oenology in Dijon, joined the family business. During his training in Burgundy, he completed internships with renowned winemakers like David Duband and Armand Rousseau. The vines are worked with environmental concern and cultivated according to biodynamic principles, though Denis notes they haven't yet pursued certification. In the cellar, intervention is kept to a minimum. Production from the vines is particularly low, between a quarter and a third of authorized quotas, yielding between 250 and 300 grams per square meter for single-vineyard wines and 400 grams for Les Cailloutis.

The estate has been producing around 15,000 bottles per year on average since 2015. Pinot Noir is the sole grape variety of the domain. The range includes three main cuvées: Les Landions, which showcases the Cortaillod terroir, Les Cailloutis, an assemblage from vineyards in both Cortaillod and Vaumarcus, and the flagship Clos du Château from Vaumarcus. The estate earned a gold medal with Les Cailloutis 2015 at the Mondial des Pinots 2017 and another gold with Les Landions 2015 at the Grand Prix du Vin Suisse 2017. The 2018 vintage of Clos du Château was crowned Best Swiss Pinot Noir and took first place at the Grand Prix du Vin Suisse.