Domaine de Autecour

Chasselas held on the lees

The Chasselas rests on its lees in large oak foudres while Michaël Monnier, winemaker at Domaine de Autecour in Mont Sur Rolle, keeps the cellar tied to slope and fruit. His title at the estate is chef-winegrower, a useful description in this part of Vaud: the work begins with cultivation and ends with taste, texture, length, and the decision to let Chasselas show structure without force. Monnier took over the domaine after a deep commitment to vines, and his station remains fixed to Mont-sur-Rolle, in the Canton of Vaud, where La Côte wines are judged by line as much as by breadth.

The house itself reaches back to 1663, with a manor classified as a historical monument and vineyards looking toward Lake Geneva. That age matters here because the method has not been pushed toward speed. The estate works a small holding of 6 hectares planted to Chasselas, Plant Robert, Merlot, and Gamaret, with the white wines carrying the main argument. Its Premier Grand Cru Chasselas, elevated to that rank starting with the 2011 vintage, is built for freshness, shape, and a quiet capacity to age.

Large wood, controlled cold, patient length

The cellar program turns on temperature-controlled fermentation and élevage sur lies in large oak foudres. That choice keeps wood in the background as a vessel, not a flavoring agent, and gives the Chasselas roundness without sanding away its mineral line. The Premier Grand Cru is listed at 12.5% vol., with a service window of 10–12°C and an aging potential of 4–6 years, figures that suit a wine meant to hold freshness and texture together.

In the vineyard, Monnier works within a La Côte discipline of yield control and long élevage for the top Chasselas. The fruit is hand-harvested from vines bordering Lake Geneva, where slope, exposure, and the lake’s moderating presence shape the grapes before the cellar has a say. Plant Robert gives the domaine another register: dense, long-lasting red wine from a long-established variety of the Gamay grape. Monnier has described Les Treisières as “a unique terroir, called Les Treisières, which provides the vine with just the right resources for its development and the development of concentrated and healthy grapes.”

The cellar below the manor

The room at Autecour is quiet in the way working cellars often are, with the weight of the manor above and the measured presence of wood below. The estate’s atmosphere is classic rather than theatrical: vineyard slopes, a protected building, and a cellar built around foudres, oak barrels, and crus that need time. Nothing in the setting asks Chasselas to behave like a louder grape.

What carries through the tasting room is the connection between the hillside and the vessels. The estate visit is less about display than sequence: vines on the Lake Geneva slope, hand-picked fruit, controlled fermentation, then the slow contact of wine and lees. The final impression belongs to the Premier Grand Cru Chasselas from Mont-sur-Rolle AOC La Côte.