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 […]
Tag: Savoie
Mondeuse: The Ghost of Grapes Past
The landscape of Swiss vineyards offered a more complicated puzzle in 1880 than it does today. Not only did viticulture suffer a massive decline during the decades of phylloxera infestation, it endured a mass migration from north to south and an alarming loss of diversity. First, some statistics. Zürich’s area under vine fell from 5,279 […]
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 […]