Vineyards, Rocks, & Soils: The Wine Lover’s Guide to Geology by Alex Maltman, Oxford University Press (2018) The futility of writing a book review (or anything else for that matter) after British wine writer Andrew Jefford has already tackled the subject hit me hard the other day. His brilliant review of Alex Maltman’s Vineyards, Rocks, and Soils: The Wine […]
Category: Wine
Profile: Weingut Möhr-Niggli (Maienfeld, Graubünden)
Graubünden is Switzerland’s largest and easternmost canton and the only one that trades in three of the national languages—German, Italian and Romansch. Despite its size and eye-popping beauty it’s not a common destination for outsiders except when it’s luxury they seek. The three-star chef Andreas Caminada is ensconced at Schloss Schauenstein and the high-brow resort […]
A Day at the Cooperative–Provins Valais
It’s not sexy, in fact, it’s one of those boring statistics that puts most people to sleep, even if it is true: more than half of all wine made in Italy, France and Spain combined is made in cooperatives. That’s a lot of wine but much of it is dreck destined for distillation, flex-tanks, or […]
Profile: Litwan Wein (Oberhof, Aargau)
The first thing you notice about the wine country in Aargau is what you don’t notice: vineyards. That’s because Aargau, in contrast to the comparably-sized but contiguous vineyards of Bündner-Herrschaft and Klettgau, offers a different proposition—discrete micro-parcels scattered in hidden, often heavily wooded valleys. In other words, rather than monoculture, Aargau offers a diversity of […]
Domaine de la Ville de Morges: A Natural Pivot
A wise winemaker/photographer friend given to platitudes offered up the following: A perfectly focused photograph and a flawless wine are of no interest to me. I need more. Buried in there somewhere is the observation that a focused photograph and a flawless wine both require technical proficiency to execute, but, without more, may fail to […]
Vinea On Tour: A Few Stand-Out Wines
The Vinea road-show organizers took pity on me this year and finally staged one of its tastings in my back yard of Geneva. Vinea is a Swiss wine trade organization that sponsors tastings of its member’s wines in various locations throughout the year, culminating in the epic, two-day Grand Prix du Vin Suisse in Sierre. It […]
Les Vignes de Paradis: Chasselas From the Other Side of the Lake
Within minutes of my home in the Geneva suburb of Vésenaz are four vineyards located along the south shore of Lake Geneva. Each is devoted to the iconic Swiss grape Chasselas, but not one is located in Switzerland. What gives? The four — Crépy, Marignan, Marin and Ripaille — are crus in the neighboring French […]
Valais: The Lay of the Land
A recently published inventory of vines by the Office Cantonal de la Viticulture in Valais offers some perspective on where the canton stands in its effort to refocus on native varieties. The newest vine register provides a snapshot of the changes from 1991 to 2017. The first key takeaway is that the surface area dedicated to […]
Domaine La Colombe: Pinot Gris “La Colombe Grise” Retrospective — 2015-2006
Back in the formative years of my professional career Pinot Gris was a life-jacketed castaway clinging to a barrel stave in the vast sea of wine. Its most significant presence was in Alsace, but even there it was treading water and a second fiddle to Riesling. Gewürztraminer was an afterthought and continues to flail close […]
Profile: Steiner Schernelz Village (Ligerz, Bern)
The public transport options in Switzerland are many and they’re famously efficient but is there one as quirky as the Vinifuni of Ligerz? Probably not. A funicular is a thoroughly Swiss contraption that runs on rails in steep and difficult to access areas. It’s a mechanized version of the mule. When one is available it’s […]
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