CAVE DE L’ORLAYA

At age 11, Mathilde’s family relocated from their 60-hectare wine estate in France to Lausanne, but the desire to make wine was already in her blood. She returned to France to earn both a Bachelor’s and a Masters in enology, after which she began the search for a vineyard of her own in Switzerland. In 2015, she purchased an eight-hectare estate in Fully, and named the winery “Cave de l’Orlaya” after the wildflower that grows among the grapes on her steep, southwest-facing slopes.

With a deep commitment to sustainability, Mathilde converted the estate to Organic viticulture, and was certified in 2022. She’s subsequently shifted three hectares to biodynamic practices, and the entire estate is hand managed and harvested. Perhaps even more remarkable is the fact that her vineyards are made up of eighty individual plots, each of which she personally oversees in the pursuit of her award-winning wines.