Vaud has a lot to offer the wine-loving history buff with dozens of castles and miles of terraced vineyards to choose from. There are grand chateaux in strategic positions along the lake, hillside palaces with views of the Alps and beyond, and humble estates barely worthy of the “chateau” moniker. But it’s not the size […]
Tag: Pinot Noir
On the Dôle: Not Quite Down and Out in Valais
During the long French summer of 1937 the marriage of close relatives, Pinot Noir and Gamay, was officially consummated with a new AOC. Since then, Bourgogne Passetoutgrain has been the standard bearer and sole guardian of this sometimes uneasy union. I say “uneasy” because the original cahier des charges has changed very little in the […]
2023: A Summer of Tasting—Episode One
Swiss Natural Wine Festival: Three Years Later As a seasoned taster, you might think the biggest downer to afflict a natural wine event would be the opinions of a few chip-on-the-shoulder wine critics who write for magazines nobody reads anymore. But you would be wrong. The biggest downer, as I recently discovered, is a climate […]
Profile: Michael Broger Weinbau (Ottoberg, Thurgau)
When Michael Broger and I strolled through his vineyard garden in late August, it was bursting with life. In one corner was a flock of brown-coated Såne sheep quietly feasting on a selection of grasses and legumes. In another corner, an assortment of winged and jumping insects loitered around their rustic wooden residence. Underfoot were […]
The Clos du Mormont—A Spirit in the Vineyard
As a child of California who grew up during the New Age Movement, I’m familiar with talk of energy vortexes, power centers, and other metaphysical notions. I’m also familiar with the movement’s many intersections—Werner Erhard’s human potentiality seminars or the eclectic offerings of the Esalen Institute. Back then, it was normal for young adults to […]
Eglisau: Vines of the High Rhine
This article first appeared in Trink Magazine — Issue 2, 14/12/2020 Every guide to Swiss wine begins with the same simple premise: There are six wine regions in Switzerland. That means one of them, Deutschschweiz, is forever miscast as a single entity, even though it encompasses nineteen cantons and covers two-thirds of the nation’s surface area. Meanwhile, […]
The Wine Rivers of Switzerland: The Rhine
If the Alps are “The Water Tower of Europe”, as they’re sometimes known, then the Witenwasserenstock, a mountain peak in central Switzerland, is the spigot. Its pointy summit (header photo) is one of the few triple watersheds in Europe and a feeder for the alpine catchments of the Rhine, Rhône and Po basins. There’s more. […]
A New Pest in the Vineyard — What to Watch For
I’m one of those wine lovers who prefers a face-to-face at the local bottle shop to a blind purchase online. My other preference is to order directly from a few trusted Swiss producers. This allows me to avoid the middleman, gives me time to talk things over with the winemaker, and puts me first in […]
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 — […]
Pinot Noir from the Bielersee — It Runs In the Family
Standing in the vineyards between Ligerz and Twann I often feel a little dreamy as I stare at the Bierlersee below and its signature landmark, St. Peter’s Island. From this vantage point I can only begin to imagine the serene isolation of someone living there alone, as the philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau did for a short […]
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