Mythopia
Winemaker Profile | Valais, Switzerland
Hans Peter Schmidt is the founder of Mythopia, a Valais estate born in 2004 from his vision to create the most living form of wine. An ecological researcher and the founder of the Ithaka Institute (2007), Schmidt has long been at the forefront of carbon-neutral agriculture. With the Mythopia project, he reimagined the vineyard as a self-sustaining ecosystem, where wine is not a manufactured product but a synthesis of the life that exists in the vineyard.
For Schmidt, if chemical intervention is needed, agriculture has already failed. His vineyards therefore resemble wild gardens: fruit-bearing trees, flowering plants, and a symphony of cover crops flourish among the vines, while butterflies and insects thrive and carry out crucial roles. At Mythopia biodiversity is not an accessory but the foundation—more than sixty butterfly species have been recorded in some of the estate’s sites. The Swiss Alpine terraces are planted to Fendant (Chasselas), Pinot Noir, and a touch of Muscat. Mythopia has since extended its roots beyond Switzerland, with projects in Andalusia and the South of France, yet the Valais remains its beating heart.
- Call me Moscato
- Disobedience
- Moravagine
- Illusion
- Insoumis
- Lost Highway
- T&T
In the cellar, time is the only intervention. Mythopia’s AOC Valais wines, often with names derived from art and film, rest untouched in neutral oak for a minimum of four years—never topped and left untouched until bottling. Some cuvées trace a single plot, others blend sites in an instinctive pursuit of a specific style; while a few names return each vintage, many appear, disappear and reappear, like characters in an ongoing story.
Mythopia wines are far from conventional, yet they retain a cleanliness and structure that distinguish them from most of the natural wine world. They are singular, intense, and thrilling wines that challenge and reward.
To taste them is to encounter wines that emanate from an iconic project that is as close to authenticity as it is far from fashion. One thing is certain: Mythopia does not leave us indifferent.
