The mask
Oeil-de-Perdrix La Matze
AOC ValaisRosé wine
Pinot Noir
13.5%
Stainless steel tank
8-10°C
Swiss Champion, Grand Prix du Vin Suisse
World's best rosé, Mondial des Pinot 2021 & 1986
Pairs beautifully with poultry, pork dishes, and red sea fish. It’s especially suited to a Valais-style pork schnitzel, filled with apricots and topped with melted raclette cheese.
Throughout Switzerland, the term Oeil-de-Perdrix is used for rosé wines primarily made from Pinot Noir grapes. Originally from Neuchâtel, Oeil-de-Perdrix translates to "partridge eye," as the wine’s color, like the eye of a partridge, is a vibrant pinkish-red.
The wooden mask, known in French as La Matze, represents an ancient Valais tradition. In earlier times, when the bishop also ruled as secular leader, this mask, seen on the Oeil-de-Perdrix La Matze label, was used as a symbol of protest. When discontent with the bishop grew too strong, people gathered around the mask in each village center and marched determinedly to the Valais capital. Along the way, anyone they met who also had grievances would hammer a nail into the mask and join the march to Sion.
The number of nails symbolized both the villagers’ discontent and the courage of the determined. If you keep your eyes open in Salgesch, you can still find this mask today, hidden in a side alley. A pot with nails and a hammer stand beside it as they once did.
Oeil-de-Perdrix is a dry rosé wine with a complex aroma bouquet of red berries, peach, bonbon anglaise, and strawberry. With its pleasant acidity, elegant and full-bodied, it offers a dry palate and combines the charm and freshness of a white wine with the structure of a red.
The wine is separated early from the Pinot Noir Lucifer mash, a process known as "Tête de Cuvée." This top-quality juice is then matured to perfection in neutral stainless steel tanks.
The grapes for Oeil-de-Perdrix "La Matze" ripen in Salgesch’s finest vineyards, renowned and valued for their limestone and magnesium-rich soils.
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