Several months ago, I made the case there is too much Chasselas in Switzerland. My well-meaning rant was in response to a call from farmers for more government support for those with excess wine to sell—mostly, over-cropped Chasselas. Although I stand by my original thesis—that no one should subsidize inferior wine—I do want to make […]
Tag: Lavaux
A Wine of Note: Domaine des Faverges, St-Saphorin, Vaud
2017 Chasselas, L’Énigme, Domaine des Faverges (St-Saphorin, Vaud) One of my favorite pastimes when researching a wine region is digging into the side stories — the whys and hows. For example, after tasting this wine and knowing nothing of the winery’s history, I wondered how the canton of Fribourg came to own property in the […]
A Wine of Note: Domaine Mermetus, Lavaux, Vaud
2017 Altesse, Une Touche de Fantaisie, Domaine Mermetus (Lavaux, Vaud) Like a lot of orphan grapes, Altesse suffers from some persistent, seemingly unshakeable origin stories. But thanks to modern genetic sleuthing, we can say for sure it’s not from Cyprus—which means it never hitchhiked with Count Amadeus VI on his way home from a 14th-century […]
Mondial du Chasselas: Les Palmarès 2017
Whatever you call it—the Super Bowl of chasselas, the World Cup of fendant or the NBA Finals of gutedel—make no mistake, this is the Grand Daddy of them all: the Mondial du Chasselas. Sporting analogies are particularly apropos in this, the year of the upset. Never one to flinch at competition, I answered the call […]
Swiss Grapes: Plant Robert — A Tasting at the Cully Bazar
Even though it’s back from the brink, the grape known as Plant Robert remains endangered and little known. Absent a timely intervention it would have been lost decades ago to urban sprawl — in 1966 the last parcel in existence was condemned to make way for the A9 autoroute. Today its eight hectares are spread […]
Mondial du Chasselas: Les Palmarès 2016
Chasselas is about balance: Terroir, but not too much; Fruit, but not too much; Round and full, but not too much; Acidic, but not too much.—Stéphanie Delarze in Chasselas Forever The History While most of the world is content to eat chasselas out of hand the Swiss are hard at work transforming its golden-hued berries […]
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 […]
A Wine of Note: Blaise Duboux
Plant Robez 2014, Epesses, Blaise Duboux, Lavaux, Vaud (Plant Robert) This relic from another century is actually a local mutation of gamay noir boasting a scant ten hectares extant in a smattering of Lavaux villages. Left for dead as recently as 1966, several prescient growers gathered to plot its resurrection and in 2002 launched the […]
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