Cave de la Côte

Plots chosen for sun, not heat

Rodrigo Banto selects Merlot by exposure and soil before it reaches the cellar. As Rodrigo Banto, Winemaker at Cave de la Côte in Tolochenaz, he works from a vineyard map that favors deep, clayey ground and La Côte sites where the grape can ripen by light rather than weight. He has held the chief oenologist post here since 2003, and since 2018 has carried the oenologist responsible role as well. The length of that tenure matters in a cooperative cellar, where consistency has to pass through many hands before it becomes a house style. Cave de la Côte was established in 1929 and now brings together around 300 winegrowers over more than 450 hectares of vines. Banto’s station is not a small domaine bench, but a larger discipline: listening to member growers, reading parcels, and drawing a line through Chasselas, Merlot, Doral, sparkling wine, dessert wine, and the broader La Côte AOC program. His clearest public reference remains Merlot «Inspiration» 2009 for Cave Cidis, named best merlot in the world at the 2010 Mondial du Merlot. The same instinct sits behind the work here, choosing restraint before extraction.

A cooperative cellar with a single line

The method begins with scale, then asks for precision. Around 300 growers means many vineyard decisions before a tank is filled; more than 450 hectares means differences in slope, exposure, soil, and ripeness have to be sorted with care. For Banto’s Merlot, the language is direct: “Merlot needs more sun than heat, which certain plots in La Côte make possible. We selected them, looking for those with deep, clayey soil.” That is not a romantic statement. It is a picking instruction, a blending principle, and a guardrail against force. Chasselas carries another part of the house, with freshness and regional clarity at the center of the white wine program. The cellar also works across still white, still red, rosé, sparkling, and dessert styles, including traditional-method sparkling wine from Chardonnay. Oak belongs where it can support red wine structure; stainless steel protects the line of the whites. The house won Swiss Winery of the Year in 2019, an award attached to this cooperative rather than to a borrowed reputation.

The vinothèque beside the cellar

The room in Tolochenaz feels built for a working cooperative, modern and orderly rather than estate theatrical. Bottles sit in a retail rhythm, with regional selections close at hand and the tasting room kept conversational. This is a place made for comparison: Chasselas against Merlot, a familiar La Côte bottle against a cuvée with more cellar work, a grower’s parcel translated into a finished blend. The scale is visible, but not loud. Cave visits and tastings sit beside the vinothèque, and the atmosphere keeps returning to the practical business of showing what the appellation can do across many hands. Near Lake Geneva, the cellar does not pretend to be a single-vineyard house. Its character comes from coordination.

What the next bottle has to hold

Banto’s recent recognition, including Gran Maestro du merlot in 2022, keeps attention on the grape he has studied longest, but the harder task is daily continuity across the cooperative’s full range. The next measure is not a speech about scale. It is whether the same reading of sun, clay, and restraint comes through when a glass of Merlot follows Chasselas in the Tolochenaz vinothèque.