A Short History

In 1987, a handful of Chamoson’s professional winegrowers formed an association with the forward-looking name VITI 2000. Most of the founding members had finished their studies only a few years earlier and were looking to energize the region’s wine industry.

At that time — twenty years ago — industry needs were different than they are now, and the level of technology used in vineyards and wineries more closely resembled that of the 1960s than current methods. Motivated by a passion for winegrowing, this group of volunteers organized tastings and carried out studies of various vineyards, of which Chamoson was among the first. The association inaugurated an annual town exhibition and began collaborating with Regio Plus on projects to promote sustainable development.

While the benefits of these initiatives quickly became apparent, the association’s complete reliance on volunteer work became unsustainable as the founding members grew older and there was a chronic shortage of new blood to replace them. The idea of opening the association to all winegrowers in Chamoson, as well as to wineries outside the commune, began to find approval among members of the committee.

A New Direction

At the special meeting of VITI 2000 held in February 2000, it was clear that the association needed to adopt a professional structure. At that meeting, two people were appointed to study the issue and to develop a plan to implement the organization’s vision of the future iwhile building upon previous achievements.

New Economic Realities

The politico-economic situation has changed radically over the last ten years. Chamoson used to be a self-contained system, but with vineyards now selling for the price of gold, the import market becoming freer at the end of the 1990s, the adoption of new rural financial laws, and increasingly stiff competition for this traditional market from foreign wines, Chamoson winegrowers have been forced to adapt or go under. The transition to a free economy has not been without problems: marketing must now be on a global scale, existing niches are saturated, and it is clear that the number of factors to be considered in marketing grapes and wine has multiplied.

Traditional Ownership Meets New Trends

Winegrowing in Valais in general, and in Chamoson in particular, is unique in the world. Nowhere else is such a small area of vineyards divided among so many owners. There are 22,550 owners for 5,200 hectares of vineyards in Valais, while Chamoson’s 428 hectares of vineyards belong to 1,120 owners, of which 400 are located outside the commune. This works out to an average of 382 m2 per owner in Chamoson, the equivalent of 100 toises, an ancient measure used in the region. The vineyards are organized into 9,800 numbered plots and planted with 38 grape varieties. This may give the impression that winemaking is well understood by everyone in Chamoson, but such is not the case. Winegrowers here focus on their vines and not on winemaking, and it would be an error to presume that the rest of the population who do not own vineyards are sensitive to the region’s winegrowing problems.

Globalization, changes in society and consumer habits, new means of communication, development in other regions, and a new federal policy regarding the financing of special projects have all forced winegrowers in Chamoson to rethink their role in the new economy. Four years of active collaboration with other players working with Regio Plus towards the overall development of the region has opened exciting new avenues. It is clear to everyone that winegrowing needs to co-operate more closely at all levels with other economic sectors. Interdependence has grown significantly in recent years. In this context, the right path for the future was clearly to replace a self-centred association with a multipurpose foundation open to everyone.

La Fondation l’Homme et le Vin

Fondation l’Homme et le Vin was officially created in Chamoson by a notarial act on February 1, 2005. VITI 2000 was the founding patron and remains the funding agency.

Excerpts from the act:

ART.  II    GOAL OF THE FOUNDATION

The goal of the Foundation is to develop the culture of wine by informing the public of the latest advances in all areas: technical, scientific, historical, artistic, and epicurean appreciation.

The Foundation is responsible for encouraging conservation of the Chamoson region, ensuring a continued quality of life for the population, and protecting the region’s winegrowing zone by fostering sustainable development.

The Foundation is also responsible for developing a communications strategy for increasing the appellation’s visibility nationally and internationally.

The Foundation is a non-profit organization with the same status as a public utility.

ART. V     ORGANIZATION

1) The Foundation Board shall comprise a minimum of three members and a maximum of fifteen members. The Board is free to determine its own membership subject to the provisions of paragraph 2 below. The first Foundation Board shall be appointed by the founding members named in section III below. The Foundation Board shall then elect and re-elect future members.

2) The majority of the members of the Foundation Board must come from the association VITI 2000.

3) The Chairs of the standing committees listed in article VI shall be ex-officio members of the Foundation Board.

4) Members of the Foundation Board shall serve a four-year term and are eligible for re-election an unlimited number of times. The Chair is limited to serving two consecutive four-year terms. If a member leaves the Foundation Board before the end of his or her term, the member elected as a replacement shall finish the term of his or her predecessor.

ART. VI   BY-LAWS

At a minimum, the Foundation shall comprise at least the following standing committees:

A)	A Wine and Health Committee, whose objective shall be to prevent excessive consumption, promote the benefits of moderate consumption, and fulfil other related responsibilities.
B)	A Wine and History Committee, whose objective shall be to research communal and cantonal archives to identify documents containing useful information about the historical relationship the inhabitants of Chamoson and Valais have had with wine, publish the fruit of this research, and fulfil other related responsibilities.
C)	A Wine and Art Committee, whose objective shall be to organize art exhibitions and concerts in the context of events and themes related to wine, encourage the creation of artistic and musical works celebrating wine, and fulfil other related responsibilities.
D)	A Grand Cru Committee, whose objective shall be to establish a communal by-law setting out the qualifying requirements for Grand Cru appellation status.
E)	A Wine Tasting Committee, whose objective shall be to encourage improvement in the quality of winemaking through comparative tastings, provide financial and logistic support in the selection of wines for submission to national and international competitions, select wines representative of the terroir of Chamoson for publication in a wine guide, and fulfil other related responsibilities.
F)	A Tourism Committee, whose objective shall be to organize events presenting each new vintage, promote wine-related walking, restaurant and accommodation packages, identify sites and buildings of touristic value, encourage the owners of these sites and buildings to promote them, and fulfil other related responsibilities.