Épesses

Epesses is a former municipality in the Swiss canton of Vaud, located in the district of Lavaux-Oron on Lake Geneva. It is noted for its wine production. The municipalities of Cully, Epesses, Grandvaux, Riex and Villette (Lavaux) merged on 1 July 2011 into the new municipality of Bourg-en-Lavaux. Traces of a Roman road and coins finds indicate an early settlement in the municipality. Epesses is first mentioned in 1453 as Espesses. The name comes from the Latin word spissa (meaning dense, thick) probably in reference to the spruce. With the conquest by Bern of Vaud in 1536, the village came under the administration of the Bailiwick of Lausanne. After the collapse of the ancien régime, between 1798 and 1803 it was part of the Canton of Léman during the Helvetic Republic and then fell under the Canton of Vaud. In 1798 it was assigned to the district of Lavaux. It was not until 1824, when the community was split from Villette, that Epesses attained the status of an independent political municipality. A project to merge the independent municipalities Cully, Epesses, Riex, Grandvaux, and Villette failed in a vote on 27 February 2005 due to the resistance of the population of Grandvaux. The project is therefore not being pursued. Epesses is located at above sea level, east-southeast of the capital of the canton of Lausanne (as the crow flies). The village is located on a small flat surfaces on steep slopes amid the vineyards of Lavaux on the slopes of Mont de Gourze in a scenic location about above the lake level of Lake Geneva. Epesses has an area, , of . Of this area, or 62.9% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 29.6% is forested. Of the rest of the land, or 8.2% is settled (buildings or roads), or 1.3% is either rivers or lakes and or 0.6% is unproductive land. Of the built up area, housing and buildings made up 1.3% and transportation infrastructure made up 6.9%. Out of the forested land, all of the forested land area is covered with heavy forests. Of the agricultural land, 3.8% is used for growing crops and 23.