The Family That Reads Three Rocks: Domaine Christinat
On the steep sun-struck slopes between Aigle and Ollon, the Christinat family farms six hectares the hard way — by hand, on schist, gypsum moraine, and flysch — and is quietly reinventing Swiss Chasselas. Founded by Olivier in 1989, the estate is now a trio: Noé, the Changins-trained son in the cellar; Nathalie at the tasting room door; and a range that runs from schist-grown La Barmaz to the no-sulfur orange Bèïnna.
Origin — The Eight-Year-Old Who Planted His Future
Every estate has an origin story; Domaine Christinat's is planted. Olivier Christinat was eight years old when he helped his farmer grandfather plant a parcel of Chasselas on the steep hillsides of Antagnes, east of Ollon. That parcel — still in production today — gave him the taste for the vine. In 1989 he made his first purchases of vineyard land, completing the small plots inherited from the grandfather, and the domaine began.
The family frame held. From the 2017 harvest, Noé — Olivier's eldest son, fresh from oenology studies at Changins — took charge of winemaking, bringing the technical formation and the generational nerve the estate needed. In the summer of 2019, Nathalie joined her husband and son, taking over the tasting cellar in the heart of Ollon village — the face of the house, with the Dents du Midi for a backdrop.
That same summer of 2019 quietly changed everything. The family rented a hangar and began vinifying on their own, free of a village colleague's tanks — and produced their first cuvées without oenological inputs or added sulfur. The experiment worked. From 2022, no industrially selected yeasts and no modern oenological products have entered the cellar at all. What remains is sulfites in minimal doses, only when a wine truly requires them — and a golden rule: everything added is declared on the label.
The Place — Three Rocks, One Slope, Heroic Work
The estate's six hectares sprawl across the appellations of Aigle, Ollon, and Bex in the Chablais Vaudois, almost all of it on slopes steep enough to forbid machinery — what the French call viticulture héroïque. The reward for the punishing manual labor is a palette of terroirs rare in such concentration: schist, gypsum moraine, and flysch within a few kilometers of one another.
Schist at Aigle — La Barmaz
On the Aigle slopes the soil is stony schist, shattered into shards that heat by day and release warmth by night. The Chasselas of La Barmaz takes its mineral, aromatic character directly from the rock — lean, stony, with a fullness that fills the mouth. The estate's most precise white.
Gypsum Moraine at Ollon — Combaz-Gelin
Near Ollon, the Combaz-Gelin terroir hides a gypsum subsoil beneath limestone moraine left by the ancient Rhône glacier — heavier, clayier ground that pushes Chasselas, Sauvignon, and Gamay toward intense, ripe fruit. Lower on the same vertiginous slope, the estate's Syrah has found its footing on dry, stony flysch.
Gypsum Outcrops at Antagnes — Arzillier
West of the village, the Arzillier terroir is where gypsum breaks the surface. Chasselas shares the plot with Cornalin and Cabernet Franc, producing reds of lovely freshness with an almost floral aromatic frame — the estate's most original corner.
Right-Bank Clay-Limestone at Châlex — Merlot
Between Aigle and Ollon, the Châlex parcel is planted mostly to Merlot on clay-limestone soils the family compares to Bordeaux's right bank — proof that the Chablais can ripen Bordeaux's great red where exposure and stone align. In spring 2025, the estate began planting disease-resistant hybrid varieties and folding the vineyard into a broader polyculture.
Winemaking — Spontaneous, Minimal, Declared
The Christinat cellar is a study in subtraction. Since 2022, nothing industrially selected enters the cellar: no cultured yeasts, no modern oenological products, no enzymes, no corrections. Fermentations are spontaneous, led by the indigenous flora of organically farmed grapes. The only exogenous tool left to the oenologist is sulfites — in minimal quantity, only for wines that genuinely need them, and always printed on the label.
The vineyard supplies the same philosophy's raw material. The vines are 100% grassed, the soil worked on benches between the rows, and copper treatments are supported by plant preparations made on the estate itself. The organic conversion began on a single hectare in 2016, extended to the whole domain from the 2021 vintage, and earned the Bio Suisse Bourgeon label for 2023 — certification of a culture without synthetic products.
The first natural cuvée — a Chasselas from the 2019 vintage — set the direction, and the range has followed it gradually, cuvée by cuvée. The style that emerges is vivid and terroir-true: chiseled whites from schist, fruit-dense whites from gypsum moraine, reds of freshness and floral lift. Nothing showy; everything legible.
The Wines — Chasselas, Read Three Ways
A range built around the estate's signature argument: the same grape, three rocks. Chasselas on schist, on gypsum moraine, and macerated into orange — flanked by reds from Syrah to Cornalin to Merlot.
Chasselas La Barmaz
The schist cuvée — mineral, aromatic, completeGrown on the shattered schist of the Aigle slopes, La Barmaz is the estate's most classical wine — mineral aromatics, a full richness on the palate, the clearest possible expression of rock through Chasselas. Serve with lake fish and alpine cheeses; the stone does the seasoning.
Bèïnna
The orange — long maceration, zero additionsA long-maceration Chasselas: rich in texture yet digestible, with candied citrus, black tea, and orange zest over a soft tannic frame and a long mineral line. Mature, solar, sincere — the estate's natural-wine manifesto in a bottle, and the cuvée that announces where the whole range is headed.
Syrah & Merlot
The Bordeaux-Rhône axis — flysch Syrah, right-bank MerlotThe estate's Syrah ripens on dry, stony flysch with a vertiginous exposure; the Merlot of Châlex grows on clay-limestone compared to Bordeaux's right bank. Two unlikely success stories on one slope — northern Rhône perfume meeting right-bank structure, both spontaneous, both declared.
Cornalin & Cabernet Franc — Arzillier
The gypsum reds — fresh, floral, originalOn the Antagnes hillside where gypsum outcrops, Cornalin and Cabernet Franc make reds of lovely freshness with an almost floral aromatic frame — the estate's most original terroir and its quiet argument for keeping the Chablais's odd corners planted. Lè Courti, from gypsum-rich shallow soils, decants an hour and rewards the patient.
Legacy — The Slope Keeps Its Meaning
Domaine Christinat's legacy is continuity with a conscience. The estate began with an eight-year-old planting Chasselas beside his grandfather, and it is now a third-generation house — Olivier founding, Noé fermenting, Nathalie welcoming — on slopes that machines cannot farm. Every vintage kept on these hillsides is a terrace, and its walls, that do not go back to scrub.
The second legacy is epistemological: a demonstration that terroir can be taught through a single grape. By vinifying Chasselas on schist, gypsum moraine, and flysch — and daring to macerate it orange without a single addition — the family turns Switzerland's most ordinary variety into a three-lesson course in geology. Drinkers leave the caveau knowing what flysch tastes like. That is education disguised as hospitality.
And the legacy looks forward: the 2025 plantings of disease-resistant hybrids and the integration of the vineyard into a broader polyculture show a family already solving the next generation's problems — fungal pressure, climate, diversification — while keeping the label honest and the cellar spontaneous. The slope keeps its meaning because the family keeps re-reading it.