«Switzerland offers everything that wine lovers desire.» – Micha Davaz
In the case of Bündner wine, you get twice as much.
Anyone in Maienfeld who lets their eye wander over the Falknis immediately imagines Heidi roaming the forests and fields with the shepherd boy Peter. The Bündner Herrschaft (Region) represents the Switzerland that you typically see on postcards. Yet just as the tedium sets in, a clatter disrupts the stillness. This droning of motorcycles is a well-known noise in this area, yet it's still invigorating and thrilling. Welcome to the Davaz Brothers in Fläsch. The two Bündner natives want to breath new life into the Swiss wine scene – something like how their motorcycles once woke the inhabitants of Fläsch and Maienfeld from their daydreams and brought them back to the here and now. «Our goal is to produce innovative Swiss wines of excellent quality, and to make the broadest possible clientele more familiar with it,» says Micha. He studied business administration in St. Gallen and has been managing the Salis wine store since 2018. His brother Luca is a wine technologist and is responsible for vinifying their own wines. «We complement each other very well,» they both say, and anyone who sees them believes this right away. Nowadays, however, the biker boys no longer attract attention with noise and fumes. Instead, they do so through something completely different: fine wine. In other words, Gamaret and Pinot instead of Hercules and Pony. What has stayed the same, however, is their youthful exuberance as well as their desire to try new things and expand their customer base.
Over the last 15 years, the image of Swiss wine has substantially improved. The new generation can build upon this and does so with great confidence and creativity. Despite this, just over a third of Swiss Germans regularly drink domestic wines. Nevertheless, the trend is increasing: «Young people especially are increasingly wanting to discover regional wines,» says Micha. For many years now, anyone looking for robust wines with an intense color and alluring fruit sweetness no longer has to resort to the wines of Southern Italy. So why let your eye wander? The good stuff is just a motorcycle ride away.