A recent tasting at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Geneva brought together sixteen of the twenty-three members of the marketing collective Fully Grand Cru — devoted champions and enthusiastic purveyors of the native alpine specialty, petite arvine. On offer was the new 2015 vintage and a masterclass featuring a few older vintages in a range […]
An Honest Attempt to Debunk the Myth That Swiss Wine Is Expensive
It’s a familiar refrain: Swiss wine is too expensive, it won’t sell. Crooners of that song, including the eminent and influential Jancis Robinson, repeat it so often that most consider it axiomatic. Well, I’m here to say that nothing can be further from the truth—at least some of the time. The Set-up The best way […]
In Memoriam: Jacques Granges 1946-2016
Jacques Granges the iconic Pied Piper of biodynamics in Switzerland is dead following a tragic accident in his beloved vineyards above Fully. Monsieur Granges was known as an uncompromising champion of sustainable agriculture, worked tirelessly to improve the health and vitality of his soils and was an advocate for clean, minimally processed food and wine. […]
Lausanne À Table! — In Which I Become a Food Critic
In the immortal words of Rear Admiral Grace Hopper: “It’s easier to ask forgiveness than it is to get permission.” And so it was for my hosts, David Donneaud and chef Rafael Rodriguez, who braved municipal retribution and public scorn (no small thing in Switzerland) by setting aflame an otherwise innocent Weber grill in the […]
The Raw Wine Fair: London 2016 — The Swiss Guard
London is on fire. Apart from its wildly popular tourist attractions, London has evolved into a world-wide advert for provenance-based food sourcing as practiced by hundreds of its ardent chef believers. Quality local and regional foodstuffs are flourishing, family farms are reawakening and sustainable farming practices are restoring the health of the land. Just as […]
Artisanswiss Is a Finalist–Please Vote
That’s right! artisanswiss.com is a finalist for Best New Wine Blog at the 2016 Wine Blog Awards. I’m up against some pretty stiff competition, each of which is worthy of the award, but let’s keep it among friends. You can help by voting (follow the link provided) and letting the world know that you are […]
Wine with Dinner: Randomly Chosen in May
Ready for Summer!! A little house-cleaning in May brought out these samples from the cellar. Don’t hesitate to search for and try the interesting French-American hybrid from Geneva and the stellar Mondeuse from Canton Vaud. Nothing like some juicy reds to finish off the month but first some white wines of note. Aligoté 2014, Domaine […]
MDVS 2016: Part 2 – Red Wine
Part Two of my tasting at the MDVS event staged at Geneva’s newly restored Hôtel Beau-Rivage focuses on red wine. Once again I did not taste everything but can recommend these as being among the best wines of the day. Cabernet and Blends Domaine Grand’Cour (Satigny, Geneva): This ambitious winery draws a lot of inspiration […]
Profile: Luc Massy (Epesses, Lavaux, Vaud)
Luc Massy is one of the leading lights in the Swiss wine community. He is revered both as an ambassador for chasselas and as the soft-spoken force behind one of its most iconic brands. His tireless efforts have positioned Luc Massy, the enterprise—and its medieval-inspired label Chemin de Fer—as one of the few recognizably […]
MDVS 2016: Part 1 – White Wine
Mémoire des Vins Suisse—Geneva 2016 After 40 years and more than a thousand wine tastings later—after countless wine dinners, winery visits, seminars, panels, junkets and bottles opened at home—I am finally ready to confess that two of my favorite wine events ever are the two most recent MDVS gatherings: Mémoire and Friends in Zürich and […]
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