Domaine La Colombe

Domaine La Colombe sits in the village of Féchy, where the hills of La Côte gently slope down toward Lake Geneva. The story begins in 1917 when Jules Paccot, son of a French seasonal worker from Savoy, bought his first vineyards here. His son Roger created the winery in 1961 and named it La Colombe, after the family's coat of arms featuring a dove, granted in 1356 by Count Amédée VI of Savoy as a symbol of peace. The vineyards stretch across the La Côte region between Lausanne and Geneva, where clay, limestone, and moraine soils create a mosaic of terroirs. Most holdings are in Féchy, with the prized Petit Clos parcel in neighboring Mont-sur-Rolle. The estate has grown from eight to 19 hectares over the generations.

The Paccot Family and Biodynamic Vision

In 1978, Raymond Paccot returned home after teaching and traveling in Africa, realizing he missed the vines. He studied at Changins Technical School and did internships in California and Spain before taking over the family estate. Raymond became one of Switzerland's biodynamic pioneers, starting to explore these methods in 1999 when organic wine still had a bad reputation in the country. Today the estate is Demeter certified. His daughter Laura, representing the fourth generation, took over in 2018 after studying at the same school and working apprenticeships in South Africa and Burgundy at Domaine Dujac. She focuses on the vineyards while Raymond works in the cellar. The family refuses to compromise quality at any stage. They maintain their soils manually, avoid chemical fertilizers and insecticides, and hand-sort grapes carefully. Their philosophy is simple: you cannot change wines or people, just help them reveal their true selves.

Chasselas and Beyond

Chasselas is the heart of La Colombe, expressing the truth of each terroir with quiet elegance. The estate cultivates several parcels with distinct personalities: Bayel with its clay and siliceous moraine soils, Brez with deep calcic and pebbly earth, and the exceptional Petit Clos. Each is vinified separately and raised on lees before blending. The traditional La Colombe cuvée comes from carefully selected Féchy vineyards. The Bayel Grand Cru was the first wine from La Côte to win the Swiss Chasselas Cup. Beyond Chasselas, the estate grows pinot gris, chardonnay, pinot noir, gamay, gamaret, merlot, and other varieties. The Curzilles cuvée is a field blend from limestone soils. Pinot noir and gamay come from nearly 40-year-old vines on clay and limestone, typically with 60% whole cluster fermentation and neutral barrel aging. They also produce a pét-nat sparkling wine using the ancestral method. The wines are made with natural fermentation using indigenous yeasts, and sulfur is added only when necessary at bottling.