Marie-Therese Chappaz, Grain Pinot 'Charrat' 2021

Marie-Thérèse Chappaz is celebrated as a viticultural queen, or even goddess, in her local Switzerland and her reputation is starting to expand to icon status in the international wine scene too, boosted no doubt by the 100 point Wine Advocate score she received for one of her stunning sweet wines.

That said, we should quickly return to why Marie-Therese is hailed at such an esteemed level, and for those who know her it has nothing to do with Parker points. Those close to her point to her humility, her high standards and her concern for others and use the word icon more in its original sense than anything to do with fame and celebrity - almost a holiness.

Her vineyards are situated around a natural granite amphitheatre above the villages of Fully, Saillon, Chamoson and Charrat, where she now produces terroir-driven wines from 25 grape varities, having started with a small plot of Pinot Noir she inherited in the 1980s.

The majority of vineyards are cultivated in terraces supported by hand-built dry stone walls according to the centuries old tradition in the Valais. Many of these sites can be reached only by foot or cable car and require laborious and costly vineyard work to maintain.

She has been practicing biodynamics for decades, explaining in her own words: "Wine is something magical when it tells the story of a land, a terrain, a climate, a grape variety, in other words when it has an identity."

Given her limited production and huge demand for her wines at home, they rarely ever make it to the export market.