Graubünden, Switzerland

The first time we came across Christof’s name was through our close friend Patrick Schindler — restaurateur and one of the masterminds behind the vibrant restaurant scene in Zürich with his infamous concepts like SoiThai and Stadthalle as well as Action Burger and Bar Lupo.

Back in 2021 we were visiting the Valais and as we were wrapping up our visits to drive to Markus Ruch in Klettgau Patrick called us and insisted we’d take a detour to visit Christof in the unassuming Bündner Herrschaft. A four and half hour drive through the most picturesque mountain peaks of Switzerland later we arrive with Christof who welcomes us in the small village of Jenins where his tiny 0.4ha (or 13 rows) of Pinot Noir are located.

The Bündner Herrschaft — a small chain of villages within the Canton of Graubünden is somewhat the Swiss prime real estate when it comes to high end Pinot Noir within the borders of the alpine nation.

Many affluent collectors and winelovers flock the small number of vignerons and often wines will be priced at the same level like top end Burgundy — making it a very one-sided, elite narrative that hardly ever gets noticed outside of the country.

Christof, despite his microscopic production feels that this isn’t the whole story and purposefully follows an unconventional appraoch by farming his vineyards organically and vinifiying his wines with little to no intervention.

As we taste through his barrels (Christof ages his wines in the cellar of his father in law’s winery) we are reminded of incredibly vibrant Pinots from clay-rich soils like the Hautes Cotes de Beaune or the best examples of Baden Pinot Noir today. A style that contrasts the prevailing overripe, over-oaked signature so often found in the valley.