Château de Praz Vully

Hands close to the Vully fruit

The amphorae give some white wines their slower turn in the cellar. Marylène Bovard-Chervet, winemaker at Château de Praz Vully in Praz Vully, uses them with the same restraint that runs through her work here: a vessel chosen for texture, not display. She has held the winemaker’s role at the château since 2011, after working there as oenologist in the same year, close to the fermentations and to the character of the fruit as it came in from the estate. The place asks for that nearness. Built in 1521 above Lake Murten, the château sits inside the small wine-growing village of Praz, with Vully vineyards around it and the lake below. Bovard-Chervet’s method is minimal intervention, not as a slogan but as a cellar discipline. She works to keep the typicity of each vintage and each variety intact, letting the year keep its own accent. Her signature Traminer Vully AOC belongs to that same grammar: variety, origin, and the hand kept measured.

Eleven wines from one estate

The estate makes a focused range of eleven single-varietal wines, with Chasselas and Pinot Noir among the named varieties associated with the house. Its farming and cellar work remain estate-based in scale, with 12 hectares of privately owned vineyards set between the north-western shore of Lake Murten and the foot of Mont Vully. The slope matters here. Some parcels sit on steeper ground at the top of Mont Vully, others on gentler ground closer to the lake, and limestone is part of the region’s underlying rock. The lake moderates the growing season, helping ripening while preserving the acidity that gives Vully wines their line. In the cellar, Bovard-Chervet keeps the intervention low and the decisions close: fermentation aimed at freshness, aging chosen by the needs of the wine, amphora used selectively for some whites. The château’s range also includes reserve work, with Réserve Rouge 2022 AOC Vully taking the top podium spot in its category at the Grand Prix du Vin Suisse 2025.

The cellar under the old house

The tasting room and cellar sit inside a house that carries its age without forcing the point. Stone, lake light, older vintages, and the scale of a small estate set the pace. Tastings here lean toward explanation by the people who do the work, with group experiences that can include older Vully reserves from the cave. The room stays quiet enough for the details to land: the difference between a young bottling and a reserve, the way Chasselas changes with time, the way Pinot Noir takes its place beside the whites rather than above them. There is no need for theater when the cellar has five centuries behind it. The close attention belongs to the glass, especially when an older Vully reserve comes up from the cave.