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Saint-Saphorin
- Type
- Wine-growing village
- Address
- Saint-Saphorin, Lavaux
A small wine-growing village clustered around its church, in the heart of the UNESCO World Heritage Lavaux terraces, about twenty minutes from Montreux by train. It is also the adopted village of Pierre Keller, buried in the hillside cemetery beneath a headstone by the Bouroullec brothers, and whose name has been carried by the small square on Chemin Neuf since 2021.
The wine Freddie had shipped to London
Twenty cases of Saint-Saphorin
Freddie Mercury discovered Saint-Saphorin during his stays in Switzerland. He always kept a large stock of it in his cellar.
Swiss wines are said not to travel well. He did the opposite: he ordered twenty cases of his favourite white wine and had them shipped to London. He enjoyed wine with his meals.
Pierre Keller’s exhibition grave
Two years after his death, the commune unveiled a grave conceived as a work of art: beside the marble tomb, designed by French designers Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, a bench and a lantern made to hold artworks. The cemetery sits on a south-facing slope with an open view over the lake and the Alps, visitors are invited to sit down and enjoy a glass of chasselas.
24 September 2021 also saw the naming of Place Pierre-Keller, two hundred metres away, and its old wine press “kellerised” by ECAL students after the poster with which Pierre Keller had won the Brno Biennial in 1970. A former director of ECAL and the man behind the Montreux Jazz Festival’s posters, he had made this wine-growing village his home.
Related artists :PrinceFreddie MercuryPierre KellerJean Villard-Gilles