Recently the Canton of Vaud unveiled a new three-pronged plan to help stabilize a wine industry beset by foreign competition and climate-related setbacks. The plan, which runs through 2027, earmarks 25 million francs for new sustainability initiatives, targeted investment in e-commerce and digital infrastructure, and an aggressive, yet undefined, consumer awareness campaign aimed at German-speaking […]
Tag: Chasselas
The Last Man Standing — Domaine de Mucelle
It’s not everyday that a two hundred year old international treaty is invoked to settle modern customs and cross-border taxation issues, but France and Switzerland, or more specifically the Republic of Geneva, can break out The Treaty of Paris every now and then as an example. Article One, Section Three of the 1815 Treaty — […]
Book Review: Wines of the French Alps, Wink Lorch (2019)
Wines of the French Alps: Savoie, Bugey and Beyond by Wink Lorch, Wine Travel Media (2019) Wink Lorch’s new book, Wines of the French Alps, is a slap in the face for those who bitch about the current state of wine writing or seek to trivialize wine expertise. This is a full-blown, old-school reference work with all the details a […]
Neuchâtel Non Filtré: Let Yourself Be Disturbed
Every year on the third Wednesday in January, at five-o’clock sharp, there’s a party in the charming Swiss city of Neuchâtel. It’s not a raucous affair with loud music or wild dancing; instead, it’s a dignified civic event with some costume-clad celebrants and some excellent young wine to drink. Good wine, however, is in the […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Three from Geneva: A Contrast in Styles
When the Three Bears of porridge fame attend a wine tasting their scribbled notes might read something like this: Chasselas number one is too light; Chasselas number two is too heavy; but Chasselas number three—ahhh, that one’s just right. After my recent trip to the Vinumrarum event in Bern, I can relate. Among the numerous family […]
Calamin 2016: A Comprehensive Tasting
Despite its recent elevation to the ranks of Grand Cru, Calamin still has a lot to prove. At sixteen hectares it doesn’t yield much wine and among forty-four producers a lot of that is variable. It’s no wonder Calamin is the least understood of all of the Chasselas crus. Calamin has been described as “more robust, […]
Profile: Steve Bettschen — Living the Phusis Life
When I slow down enough to glimpse the future of Swiss wine, it’s almost always with a next generation winemaker in tow, just returned from an apprenticeship abroad and flush with new ideas and important contacts. Some of them are excited for the opportunity to blaze a new path apart from the previous generation’s, and […]
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