Venues & stages
Domaine Vitis Musicalis
- Type
- Wine estate
- Address
- Chemin du Daley 119, 1095 Lutry
At the place called Le Daley, on the World-Heritage terraces of Lavaux, the Chollet family has grown vines since 1921. In 2020, for the estate’s centenary, they renamed it “Vitis Musicalis”: here the wines are not aged in barrels but raised in music. Classical and jazz play day and night over the vats, and in the vineyard they broadcast “proteodies”. The estate’s motto says it all: “Music brings to wine what happiness brings to Man, the signature of an emotion to share.”
Vitis Musicalis: wines raised in music
From Le Daley to the monks of Lavaux
The vine has shaped Lavaux since the twelfth century, when Cistercian monks from Burgundy conquered these steep slopes bristling with scrub and stones known as “dailles”, hence the name of the Daley hamlet. The estate’s creation, linked to the de Diesbach family, is thought to date back to 1565.
In 1921 Auguste Chollet bought the estate at auction. Four generations have followed: Ernest (1930-1970), Alfred (1970-1992), then Alain, today joined by his son-in-law Stéphane Chollet, a former landscaper turned winegrower. Since Alain took over, the estate has fought pests without synthetic products since 2014 and carries the Vitiswiss certification.
Wines raised in music
“We do not make wines aged in barrels, but wines raised in music” sums up Stéphane Chollet. Each year, during vinification from November to late January, Alain Chollet plays the saxophone in the cellar; the rest of the time, around the clock, classical and jazz are played through loudspeakers set on the vats. According to the winegrower, the vibrations cause a micro-oxygenation that brings aromatic complexity and softens the tannins.
In the vineyard, twice a day, “proteodies” rise up: compositions drawn from the amino-acid sequence of a protein. It was this marriage of wine and music that, in 2020, saw the “Domaine Alain Chollet” exchange its name for “Vitis Musicalis” (Gault&Millau).
An estate to experience: fondue barrels and tasting-concerts
The estate is as much to visit as to taste. Alain Chollet developed oenotourism there, he is behind the Lavaux Express, the little train of the terraces, and the “harvest à la carte”. Today it offers two barrels fitted out as fondue huts among the vines, with a view over Lake Geneva, a winter dome for raclette evenings, an apéro-pétanque and an old 1902 manual press, still in use.
The music, too, can be tasted live: the estate holds tasting-concerts, where the wines are sampled to the rhythm of the musicians, making the vineyard a place of cultural as much as gastronomic sharing.