The Sheep Farm in the Sky: Ilona Hunkeler & Ô Fâya Farm
In Aven, a remote hamlet on the heights of Conthey in the central Valais, Ilona Hunkeler has built one of Switzerland's most singular wine farms: five hectares of steep south-facing terraces, apricot trees, a flock of sheep and a cellar in ancient stone vaults. Certified Bio Suisse, farmed as a living polyculture, and bottled as spontaneous, unfiltered Alpine wines named in the local patois.
Ô Fâya's story is, in the farm's own words, a thrilling tale full of twists and turns. It began when Ilona decided to go into business for herself and launch her own farm and winery — a dream of independence she chose to realize not in a ready-made domaine but on a small, secluded patch of mountain. Her first trials, in 2019, were made from grapes gleaned from friends.
Then came La Combe Arrangée: a small, secluded house on the heights of Saxon, a magical place amidst apricot trees, where she decided to realize her dream of independence. With some sheep, two donkeys, chickens, apricot trees and a few vineyards, the adventure began. The name was quickly found — "Ô faye" means "the sheep" in the local dialect; completed with a touch of English, Ô Fâya Farm would blend tradition and modernity, respect for the past with a look towards the future.
The Place — Aven, Stone Vaults & Steep Terraces
The vineyards sit in the heights of Fully and Saxon, on steep south-facing terraces stitched into terroirs like Combe d'Enfer and the Tassonières — rocky, well-drained slopes charged with the mineral intensity of the Swiss Alps. The cellar, by contrast, is underground and ancient: stone vaults in Aven, restored with the help of a "Yes We Farm" crowdfunding campaign, where the wines now ferment and rest.
Combe d'Enfer & the Tassonières
Precious, precipitous terroirs above the Rhône plain — full southern exposure by day, cold Alpine air by night, and thin rocky soils that drain fast and ripen slow. It is terrain made for indigenous varieties: Petite Arvine, Heïda (Savagnin) and Fendant on the white side, Gamay and Pinot Noir for the reds.
The Flock
Sheep graze the terraces and enrich the soil; donkeys keep them company in the high pastures; chickens run free-range pest patrol; cows have since joined the herd. The animals are not decoration — they are the farm's fertility and weed management, and the reason for the name on every label.
Bio Suisse Since 2021
The whole farm — vines, orchard and pasture — is certified Bio Suisse, guaranteeing production without synthetic pesticides. For Ilona, certification is the floor, not the ceiling: the real work is biodiversity, low yields, and grapes healthy enough to ferment themselves.
The Apricot Chapter
Four hectares of apricot trees once supplied Valais apricots — guaranteed without synthetic pesticides — as far away as Zurich. The catastrophic frost of 2021 hit the orchard hardest, and apricot growing was gradually set aside: the wound that pushed the farm toward its next form.
Winemaking — Free, Frank & Fresh
The method is subtraction. All wines ferment spontaneously on native yeasts; whites are whole-cluster pressed; nothing is fined, nothing is filtered, and sulfur — when it appears at all — stops at 0–5 mg/L. No selected yeasts, no corrections, no makeup. The wines are elaborated without inputs: free, frank and fresh.
Aging happens in the ancient stone vaults of Aven, where the temperature moves with the mountain rather than the machine. Grapes come from both owned and leased parcels in Fully and Saxon, farmed to the same biodynamic standard; yields are kept low so that concentration comes from the terrace, not the cellar.
What makes the range unmistakable is its language — literally. Every cuvée bears a name in regional dialect, and the labels are designed by Ilona's daughter Emma, as colorful and distinctive as the wines themselves. A bottle of Ô Fâya is a small act of cultural preservation: Alpine grapes, patois names, family hands.
The Wines — Alpine Grapes, Patois Names
A short range of indigenous Valais grapes, vinified with nothing added and nothing taken away. Vivid, alive, often surprising in texture and energy — the taste of steep terraces and cold nights, under labels painted by the winemaker's daughter.
Seuf dê Fendant
The everyday Alpine white — Chasselas from the heightsFendant — Chasselas — as the Valais rarely tastes it: unfiltered, spontaneously fermented, alpine-fresh and mineral. The humble national grape treated with grand-cuvée care, and the purest introduction to the farm's style.
Mirage d'Arvine
The signature — Petite Arvine in citrus and flowersPetite Arvine, the Valais' noblest white, from steep south-facing terraces. Citrus and floral elegance with the grape's trademark saline finish — a mirage only in name; the energy in the glass is entirely real.
Jutz d'Heïda
The rare one — Heïda, Savagnin of the AlpsHeïda — the Valais name for Savagnin — picked late for orchard fruit and depth. A mountain cousin of Jura's great grape, raised in stone vaults: textured, quietly wild, and one of the farm's most distinctive bottles.
Tinpéta dê Gamay
The playful red — Gamay, juicy and lightGamay done the Ô Fâya way: aromatic, juicy, featherweight and gluggable — proof that a zero-input Alpine red can be pure pleasure. Serve it cool; share it fast.
Ô Pinot Noir & Fyasco Blanc
The small lots — a Swiss Pinot and a vibrant white blendÔ Pinot Noir is the farm's serious red — Swiss Pinot with mountain nerve; Fyasco Blanc is its free-spirited white blend. Tiny volumes, quick sellouts: the bottles natural-wine shops from Berlin to Zurich wait on each vintage.
Legacy — Out of Adversity, Opportunity
The Ô Fâya story is proof that a farm can be a second act. With no estate handed down and no inheritance of vines, Ilona Hunkeler talked her way into borrowed grapes, found a secluded house among the apricot trees above Saxon, and built a certified estate on terraces most growers would not touch. In a region where wine is usually a patrimony passed down, she started from zero — and made the starting-from-zero part of the wines' identity.
The second legacy is resilience as method. The frost of 2021 — remembered across the canton as the worst year in the history of agriculture — could have ended the project; instead it clarified it. Apricots gave ground, Denis and his animals joined, the farm moved to Aven, and the model sharpened into a true polyculture: sheep, donkeys, cows and chickens working the same landscape as the vines, with a cellar in ancient stone vaults rebuilt by a crowdfunding community that believed in the idea.
And the legacy is a template for what Alpine farming can become. Ô Fâya keeps indigenous grapes, patois names, hand-worked terraces and farm animals in one living system — while its wines travel to natural-wine bars and shops far beyond the valley. Tradition and transition, again, in the same bottle rack — this time with a flock of sheep in the middle of it.