Our labels are historic, having been created by Robert Héritier, a renowned Swiss artist.
The works of this illustrious engraver and stained glass creator, originally from Savièse, are prominently displayed along the “stained glass trail” in Saillon, a route lined with 21 stained glass artworks, “sparkling like diamonds in the sun with the Rhône Valley as their cathedral.”
Dive into this fascinating story between Maison MAYE and Robert Héritier
Extract from the text of May 23, 2016 during the presentation of Monsieur Michel Logoz, the man with 30,000 wine labels
We return to the 1950s with the meeting of two spirited characters. On the one hand, Fernand Juilland, director of Fils Maye who, along with his two associates, Marc and Georges Remondeulaz, launched a vast offensive to conquer one of the leading positions among Valais wine houses. He’s a great strategist. As I wrote in 1999 in the FIls Maye centenary brochure, he set up sales networks and extended marketing to all distribution channels. The wholesale trade, which until then had accounted for 80% of sales, is giving way to the retail trade. Les Fils Maye are on all fronts. A stubborn fighter, Fernand Juilland always wants more. They had to occupy the field with a stronger, bolder image.
This is where our second character comes in. Max Roth, owner of Roth & Sauter SA, known throughout Switzerland as the “Couturiers du Vin”, has been summoned to Riddes. Passionate about his profession, which he sees as a divine vocation, and enjoying the aura conferred by publishing great authors and artists such as C.-F. Ramuz, Paul Budry and C.-F. Landry, Max Roth’s appearance evokes that of a pudgy country parish priest in a black cape. How did these two men, both intrepid and daring, but no less authoritarian, get along? Perhaps each recognized a part of himself in the other. In any case, Max Roth pulled out of his sleeve a wood engraver he’d fallen in love with, by the name of Robert Héritier.
He teamed up with Emmanuel Bosshart, a virtuoso graphic designer and calligrapher. The faith of a visionary and the talent of two artists led to the prodigious birth of these robustly drawn labels, these powerfully sculpted characters and symbols, whose worthy perpetuation we celebrate today, more than sixty years after their birth.
HÉRITIER Robert
1926 Tolochenaz – 1971 Lutry
Robert Héritier was born in Tolochenaz (VD) on August 2, 1926, into a modest Catholic family from Savièse (VS). He trained as a ceramist at the Swiss Ceramics School in Chavannes (VD) between 1942 and 1946. Renowned for his wine labels, his figures still adorn the bottles of Les Fils Maye.
