Fifteen Plots, Zero Additions: Jimmy Tassan Toffola & Domaine Ostiane
Above Sierre, on the right bank of the Rhône, Jimmy Tassan Toffola farms 1.5 hectares scattered across some fifteen steep plots in six villages — and makes wine from them with nothing at all: no additives, no selected yeasts, no added sulphites. Whole clusters macerate for hours or weeks, age in old barrels in an underground cellar across the river in Chippis, and carry hand-drawn green labels. The first vintage: 2025.
Domaine Ostiane is a deliberately new voice in the Valais — a relatively young estate whose first vintage was produced in 2025, by Jimmy Tassan Toffola. Rather than inherit a domaine, he assembled one plot at a time: a hectare and a half spread across around fifteen small parcels, all on the right bank of the Rhône, all farmed according to organic principles.
The wines state the philosophy before you open them. The estate's tagline is printed on every label: «Raisins fermentés sans sulfites ajoutés» — grapes fermented without added sulphites. No additives, no corrections, no safety net: just old vines on steep ground, whole clusters, and time in old wood. The contact email is a small joke in the same register — adieu@ostiane.ch: adieu, additives.
The Place — Six Villages, One Right Bank
The vineyard covers 1.5 hectares divided into around fifteen plots, all on the right bank of the Rhône, in the villages of Ayent, St-Léonard, Vaas, Flanthey, Venthône and Miège. South-facing and sitting between 500 and 800 meters above sea level, the parcels drink in the Valais sun; the soils are poor and stony — glacial moraines, rocky scree and schist — that force the vines to dig deep and ripen slow.
The Six Villages
Ayent, St-Léonard, Vaas, Flanthey, Venthône, Miège — a patchwork of lieux-dits rather than a single estate: gravelly alluvium at Le Devin in Sierre, calcareous landslide soils at Les Bernunes in Miège, calcschist flysch at Bahian above Flanthey.
Altitude & Exposure
All plots face due south between 500 and 800 meters — long sunshine, cold Alpine nights, and vines between 25 and 40 years old that keep yields naturally modest.
Moraines & Schist
Poor soils from glacial moraines, rocky and schist-based — the classic right-bank architecture of the central Valais, farmed under organic principles from the start.
The Chippis Cellar
Across the river, on the left bank in the village of Chippis, an underground cellar holds the old barrels where every cuvée rests — 225 and 228-litre barriques, all more than a decade old.
Cellar — Whole Clusters, Old Wood, Nothing Else
The cellar discipline is total and simple. Both white and red wines are vinified in whole clusters, macerating for periods that range from a few hours to several weeks — the rosé sees 72 hours, the Muscat fifteen days, the Pinot two. Everything ferments spontaneously, nothing is fined or filtered, and the only vessel is old oak: barriques of ten years or more, seasoned by time rather than toasted by fashion.
There are no additives and no added sulphites at any point — not at harvest, not at bottling. The wines are therefore young, vivid and alive, built for early drinking but honest enough to keep developing in the cellar. The vintage is the only recipe: Diolinoir picked on the 30th of August, Muscat on the 29th, Pinot on the 11th of September — each date, lieu-dit and maceration length printed on the label.
The label itself is part of the method. Every bottle carries the same hand-drawn green plant — a sprig sketched in ink — above the cuvée name and appellation, as quiet and deliberate as the winemaking beneath it.
The Wines — The 2025 Debut Trio
The first vintage is a tight trio, each cuvée named for what it is: a rosé made the old Tavel way, a Muscat macerated for fifteen days, a Pinot from the flysch above Flanthey. Beyond the trio, the estate's range reaches across the indigenous palette — Humagne Blanc, Lafnetscha, Altesse, Charmont, Plantscher, Roussanne and Solaris among the whites, Goron and Petit Verdot among the reds.
Rosé de Dioli 2025
Diolinoir, 11.2% — the rosé, made à l'ancienne25-year-old Diolinoir vines on gravelly alluvium at Le Devin, Sierre; 72 hours of whole-cluster maceration by the ancient method of the great Tavel rosés. Aged in a 225l barrique over ten years old. Vin de pays Suisse.
Thé d'Octobre 2025
Muscat, 11.3% — the skin-contact white40-year-old Muscat on limestone from the great Sierre landslides at Les Bernunes, Miège, 600m; fifteen days of whole-cluster maceration — a tea-like infusion of grape and stone. AOC Valais.
Pinot de Flanthey 2025
Pinot noir, 13.4% — the red of the flysch40-year-old Pinot noir on calcschist flysch at Bahian, 800m; two weeks of whole-cluster maceration, aged in a 2018 Damy barrique (228l). The highest, stoniest parcel of the estate, and its most serious bottle. AOC Valais.
The Wider Range
The indigenous palette to comeHumagne Blanc, Lafnetscha, Altesse, Charmont, Plantscher, Roussanne and Solaris among the whites; Goron and Petit Verdot among the reds — the full map of Valais varieties, waiting in the fifteen plots for their turn in the old barrels.
Legacy — The New Wave of the Right Bank
Ostiane has no old stones to lean on — the estate's entire history fits in a single vintage, 2025 — but it chose its ancestors carefully: old vines between 25 and 40 years old on ground farmed organically, in villages where winegrowing runs back centuries. The domaine begins mid-sentence, inheriting terroir without inheriting habits.
The second legacy is collective. Domaine Ostiane is one of five estates of Vins Vivants Valais — alongside Domaine Lucas Madonia, Cave Chèrouche, Satellites of Love and La Momoterie — a group of Valaisan growers practising organic viticulture and vinifying without any inputs or added sulphites. Together they inaugurated a communal Pinot Noir cuvée at the 2026 Caves Ouvertes Valais, blending 20% of each cave's grapes into one bottle: five cellars, one wine, a manifesto you can drink.
And the legacy is a bet on radical transparency. Every cuvée declares its harvest date, lieu-dit, soil, maceration length and barrel on the label — the whole recipe in the fine print, because the recipe is the truth. From a debut vintage of three cuvées, Ostiane is writing the next chapter of Valais natural wine one whole cluster at a time.