Swiss Chasselas captures its terroir and in the glass it reflects the beauty of summer here

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Switzerland produces and consumes more red wine than white, a fact that surprises many people. Surely, I hear the protesting voices, the lovely crisp white aperitif wine that you see and drink everywhere must be the main wine?

We’re talking about Chasselas, Switzerland’s justifiably most famous grape, of which some 40 million m2 were planted in 2010, the second most widely grown grape, with just 3 million m2 less than Pinot Noir, or about about 18 percent of the total space given over to grapes in Switzerland. The country has 160 grape varieties (planted on more than 100m2), and 42 percent of the total grape-growing surface is planted with white wine varieties.

Old traditions die hard and the Swiss white wines are gradually giving way to red: the country produces about 22 percent less white wine than it did 30 years ago, as consumers shift to a wider variety of wines and to higher quality wines, including more reds.

Chasselas nevertheless remains particularly popular in French-speaking areas. It’s a good all-around white wine and it carries the imprint of its terroir beautifully, which means it gives us good variety, making it an interesting wine for winelovers.

Its birthplace dating back centuries is canton Vaud, and nowhere in the world does it grow better than in Switzerland and, arguably, in Vaud.

Summer is the time when this wine is out in force, after the previous harvest’s bottles are put on the market, around May. GenevaLunch has been posting a series of video reviews by Romanduvin of selected Chasselas wines, in late July and early August.

About the grape

Chasselas has an afinity for beautiful places, here: Flchy, canton Vaud, in autumn, overlooking Lake Geneva

The grape known as Chasselas in Neuchatel and Vaud was called fendant in many parts of Vaud in the 19th century and it is still known as that in canton Valais, while it is known as gutadel in German-speaking Switzerland and Genevans often call it perlan.

The name fendant originates from the grapeskin’s tendency to melt away from the juicy interior when it is pressed, rather than to squirt out the juice. It is aromatic and in Switzerland is virtually always vinified dry.

The grape has mutated and is known under scores of other names outside Switzerland; it is used mainly in blends in France and is often vinified sweet in New Zealand.

Within Switzerland there are several varieties of Chasselas, all close cousins, so the precise variety is rarely mentioned.

How and why Chasselas varies from one region to another

Robert Taramarcaz in Sierre/Granges regularly wins awards with his Chasselas wines, available as a traditional version and classic

Terroir is more than the soil where a grapevine is planted: it is the mix of light and air, soil and water, climatic conditions in general. A short drive or train ride through Switzerland makes it quickly apparent why a grape such as Chasselas, very sensitive to its terroir, can have so many different profiles.

Winds off Lake Geneva that change dramatically with altitude, hugely varying amounts of rainfall, and exposure to the sun depending on the angle of a slope, are just some of the elements that shift significantly in this landscape.

The soil left behind when the Rhone glacier scoured the land varies, too, from one place to another depending on the steepness of the slopes, for example.

Geneva’s Chasselas wines tend to be more floral and lighter than those from Vaud, where the mineral aspect the grapes pick up from the soil often creates an almost sparkling (known as petillant) wine when the bottle is opened. Award-winning Chasselas wines tend to come from a number of different villages, but Féchy, between Rolle and Morges, has some of the finest Chasselas terroirs in the La Côte region and the whole of Lavaux, but particularly Dézaley is known for producing superb Chasselas wines.

Fendant in Valais tends to be smoother, making it the wine of choice to accompany cheese fondue and raclette cheese.

Neuchatel is famous for its unfiltered Chasselas, a variation on the wine that is available starting the third Wednesday in January every year.

When to drink a Chasselas

If you think Chasselas can only be drunk young, you're wrong: a vertical tasting last November with wines now 30 years old shows that a finely-made one can age well

Traditionally, these wines are drunk young, before they are three years old, when they tend to be fruity, aromatic and smooth in mouth. Increasingly, very good Chasselas wines are being aged and for those lucky enough to sample these, it is a tasting experience: they have a golden robe unlike their pale youthful colours, rich smells of honey and beeswax and in mouth they can resemble fine dry sherries. The Memoire des vins suisses group, 40 of Switzerland’s best wine producers, have been keeping members’ bottles and testing their aging abilities.

I sampled some beautiful older Chasselas wines at a vertical (several vintages) tasting session offered by Vaud’s Clos, Chateaux & Manoirs group a few months ago and I’m now convinced these can make a very special older wine.

Can you simply sit on your Chasselas wines for a few years? I’ve accidentally done this a few times, with very mixed results. A 2005 La Colombe from the winery of the same name in Féchy recently resurfaced in our house and it was surprisingly good. If you want to try keeping some for a few years, ask a good producer to recommend bottles that will hold up to this.

The birthplace of Chasselas, one of the world’s most widely planted grapes

José Vouillamoz's research put an end to the debate: the cradle of Chasselas is the Lake Geneva region

The grape first appears in historical documents in the 16th century, and its origins were long debated, with Egypt and Turkey mentioned as possible homes until 2009.

Chasselas was the focus of a geneological study by Swiss biologist and DNA specialist José Vouillamoz at the University of Neuchatel, who works at the Swiss federal Agroscope Changins-Wädenswil ACW research station in Conthey, Valais. Vouillamoz and C Arnold in 2009 published the results of their research (pdf, Fre), showing definitively that the grape originated in the Lake Geneva region between Italy, France and Switzerland, almost certainly in canton Vaud.

Chasselas spread, through numerous mutations and carrying a number of different names. Hungary is the country today with the largest plantings, but it is also found close to home in France, Germany, as well as further afield in New Zealand and Mexico.

Links to other sites:

• Jancis Robinson on José Vouillamoz’s work, describing him as “one of the world’s best-informed experts on vine identification through his work with DNA analysis”
• “Un conservatoire pour valoriser le chasselas”, Le Temps, 26 August 2010 (Fr)
• “Chasselas“, a web site from Schenk SA

If you find a corked wine in Switzerland, by law you can ask to be reimbursed; note that some of the best use screwtops, which avoid the problem

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Even the best winemakers’ products are occasionally corked. If you’re uncertain, leave the wine for a few minutes: it might just need to open. But if you suspect it is corked, or you’re sure it is: don’t drink it. Corked wine is likely to provide a headache and an unpleasant drinking and dining experience.

And don’t keep sniffing it to check, because your tolerance level for that corked smell rises with each sniff. Even your dog running in from a swim in the summer pond will smell all right after this!

Don’t panic, either, if you have a wine snob at the table and you’re not sure. Ask his or her advice and if the verdict is “corked!” but you don’t believe it, stopper the bottle and check it out again yourself, later. The smell won’t disappear and you’ll learn from it.

Serve another wine if you have one handy.

In Switzerland, you can get your money back

The good news is that if the wine has been bottled in Switzerland, you can get your money back. Here’s the law covering it:

(art. 197 and following CO 10 June 1988) “Swiss and foreign wines that are bottled in Switzerland will be replaced or reimbursed during one year starting from the delivery date. Foreign wines that are bottled in their country of production will not be reimbursed.”

Be sure to keep the receipt, which shows the date. But most winemakers will take back their own goods without question, as long as it is in the original container. If you drank a glass while you were trying to determine if there is something wrong, don’t worry: the producer will immediately spot the problem, if there is one, or won’t ask, in the interest of good customer relations.

You’ll have to pay for the shipping or the trip to the winery. If this seems like too much hassle, write it off to experience and have one last quick sniff of the wine to register the smell in your memory.

The knowledge of what “corked” smells like is gained the same way we learn all other smells. We learn to recognize and identify them over time, thanks to our memories. This is why wine experts are often found sniffing fruits and vegetables in the supermarket produce section! I have trouble distinguishing rose from pear smells, strange as that might seem, so I routinely smell pears at the store to improve my memory of them. I blame it on a childhood of canned-only pears, which smell more of syrup than the fruit.

Will corked wines hurt you?

No, they are just unpleasant.

Are corked wines a sign of a lower quality?

Not at all: it happens to even the greatest wines. I recently interviewed a wine expert from Sotheby’s following an auction where wines that cost hundreds of Swiss francs were sold and I asked what he would think if he paid such a price and then discovered the wine was corked. “My bad luck!”

Has a corked wine been mishandled during vinification?

No. The presence of TCA or other tainting factors can be due to a number of factors that are often beyond the control of even the most hygienic producers.

Will sniffing the cork tell me if the wine is off?

Sometimes but not necessarily. If a wine is well and truly corked, the cork itself may carry the unpleasant odour, but if the wine is a bit corked, enough to ruin an otherwise good wine, its presence in the cork might be too subtle to detect. Corked wines are more obvious as wines warm up, and in the glass, where the smell opens up.

So should we avoid wines with corks and buy screwcap wines?

That’s a whole different matter, and the debate is long over about whether quality wines can have screwcap tops (the answer is a resounding yes), but many of us sometimes enjoy the ceremonial side to drinking wine, where we unscrew real cork from an elegant bottle. Viva the cork!

More on corked wines:

• wikipedia
• Jancis Robinson on serving a corked wine to one of the world’s top sommeliers
• NY Mag on what to do when served a corked wine in a restaurant

If you think Chasselas can only be drunk young, you're wrong: a vertical tasting last November with wines now 30 years old shows that a finely-made one can age well

LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – Your starting point should be the GenevaLunch news story on the event, with some real changes this year that promise to make it easier, more fun and a great way to learn about Switzerland’s often excellent local wines.

You’ll get the most out of the visits if a) you spit out the wine after you’ve tasted it, in the small buckets provided for this and b) you ask questions, without worrying that you sound like you know nothing. Here are some pointers that I’m reposting from my piece on the Valais wine days, followed by suggestions for types of wineries you might want to visit, from ones with great views to ones with sublime wines.

How to decide what wineries to visit, how to get there

Select the village(s) you want to visit, based on how you’re planning to get around. The advantage of having a car is that you can buy and pack bottles in the car as you go. The disadvantage is that even if you spit out the wine most of the time, strongly recommended, you have to be careful about the amount you consume: Switzerland’s legal limit is 0.5, the equivalent of one glass of wine (please note that it was recently incorrectly reported on a radio programme to be 0.8).

Chasselas vines above Lake Geneva in September, harvest time

Most wineries will ship to you, with next-day service via the post office. This means that if you’re using one of the shuttle options you can carry home that one bottle you think you must have for dinner and leave the rest to show up later in the post. Wineries’ policies vary, but the shipping cost is not high and if you buy more than 6 or 12 the postage is often free or discounted.

The CFF Railaway offer is a good deal: 20 percent off to get there and back, another 20 percent off on the Mobilis regional public transport system and  20 percent off for the CHF15 “passport” glass that gets you in to all the wineries.

The tasting process, from white to red as a general rule

A good general rule is to start with whites and move on to reds. So how do you do this when you’re visiting several wineries? My approach is to select, for example, three wineries whose white wines I particularly want to try, then six whose reds interest me. I allow 30-45 minutes per winery, which gives me a chance to taste the wines, ask other visitors what they like and why, talk to the owners – and relax a bit. This means that I can realistically fit in three in a morning, take time out for lunch and do another three in the afternoon. Or two, lunch and four post-lunch.

That said, at the press conference for the Vaud Open Days, where journalists  I tasted a red with some strong cheese and before moving on to the dessert wine with chocolate I had the first wine offered, a Chasselas designed to be drunk as an aperitif. It also made an excellent palate-cleanser between courses.

Village restaurants are one option for lunch, with several offering special Open days menus, and several of the wineries offer meals. Keep in mind that many of the wineries also offer excellent snacks, so some people simply snack their way through the day!

Suggestions for varied approaches

These are a handful of wineries I personally like, but the most fun involves exploring and visiting new places, so be adventurous. You won’t always find wines that are magical, but you’ll learn while looking for them. The complete list/map is on Caves Ouverte’s web site. I’ve put an *asterisk where I know they speak English.

Wineries with great views

Cellars in Vinzel, Begnin, Mont-sur-Rolle, Bougy-Villars and Fechy, for the stretch between Nyon and Rolle, as well as the higher altitude wineries in Lavaux and, at the eastern end of Vaud, Aigle. Particular favourites for this: Caves des Rossillonnes, Vinzel, Caveau de Langins, Riex, Chateau Maison Blanche in Yvorne – but the list is far too long! We are spoiled for spectacular views from wineries, in Vaud.

Organic top wines

*Domaine La Capitaine, Begnins (see below)

Cellars with sublime wines

*Domaine La Capitaine, Begnins, *Chateau Le Rosey, Bursins, *Domaine La Colombe, Fechy, Domaine Louis Bovard, Cully

Wineries along La Cote that are special for other reasons

*Les Dames de Hautecour, Mont-sur-Rolle (guaranteed warm welcome and rare Chasselas violet), *Cave Cidis, Tolochenaz (don’t expect a romantic setting, but there is a huge selection from this excellent cooperative, for a good idea of what Vaud wines are all about, with knowledgeable staff)

Weather forecast: highs of 19C Saturday and 21C Sunday, with some showers replaced Sunday by haze: take an umbrella and sun cream.

Rhone valley vineyards in Valais, 1 June 2011

Update 21:00  SION, SWITZERLAND -  It doesn’t get much more perfect for wine-tasting weather, as Switzerland’s largest wine-producing canton opens its winery doors for three days, to present the newly bottled 2010 vintage. It was a very good year, the wines are a delight, the sun is shining and temperatures are expected to be 23-25C for the duration of the Valais Open days.

Here are the basics of how it works, and some suggestions for where to go – my highly personal selection that offers a good mix.

The real specialty of canton Valais is that it offers such a varied collection of wines, many of them found nowhere else in the world: a dozen easily found white grape varieties and almost as many reds, plus some excellent rosés and blends. Valais is increasingly being touted as one of the world’s top producers of late-harvest sweet wines, which age beautifully and are the after-dinner par excellence wine to share with friends.

The basics

Start with the cantonal wine web site

The Vins du Valais web site offers a wealth of information in English on the canton’s wines, including a database that you can search by producer, grape type and food/wine pairings. Its pages on the 2011 Open days are not in English, but its search tool for the 2-4 June event is very useful because you can search by location. Everyone who can grows grapes for wine in Valais, mostly on a family-consumption scale, but this still leaves some 600 growers-producers and another 190 cellars that trade wine: too much to experience in one or even three days! Note that most, but not all, wineries are taking part in the three-day event.

Select the area you want to visit: consider public transport

Select the village(s) you want to visit, based on how you’re planning to get around. The advantage of having a car is that you can buy and pack bottles in the car as you go. The disadvantage is that even if you spit out the wine most of the time, strongly recommended, you have to be careful about the amount you consume: Switzerland’s legal limit is 0.5, the equivalent of one glass of wine (please note that it was recently incorrectly reported on a radio programme to be 0.8).

Most wineries will ship to you, with next-day service via the post office. This means that if you’re using one of the shuttle options you can carry home that one bottle you think you must have for dinner and leave the rest to show up later in the post. Wineries’ policies vary, but the shipping cost is not high and if you buy more than 6 or 12 the postage is often free or discounted.

Sion and Sierre offer free shuttle buses, for the first time, to groups of wineries. It’s a great way to sample several without worrying about alcohol limits and driving, but also a way to avoid the problem of parking. Several villages have set up their own shuttle buses with drop-offs and pick-ups at a number of participating wineries. Others are organized as tours; some of these charge a fee, worth it in terms of simplifying things.

Bed-and-breakfast and farm stays are a good option in Valais, and the cantonal wine site has an online reservation option for these.

Select the wineries: consider concentrating on Valais specialty wines

A good general rule is to start with whites and move on to reds. So how do you do this when you’re visiting several wineries? My approach is to select, for example, three wineries whose white wines I particularly want to try, then six whose reds interest me. I allow 30-45 minutes per winery, which gives me a chance to taste the wines, ask other visitors what they like and why, talk to the owners – and relax a bit. This means that I can realistically fit in three in a morning, take time out for lunch and do another three in the afternoon. Or two, lunch and four post-lunch.

Village restaurants are one option for lunch, with several offering special Open days menus, and several of the wineries offer meals. Keep in mind that many of the wineries also offer excellent snacks, so some people simply snack their way through the day!

To buy or not to buy, and how many wines in a day?

I sample anywhere from three to six wines at a winery, using the bucket provided to spit out. If you don’t do that, you won’t be able to tell one wine from another after the first winery! If your really are there just to visit one or two neighbouring wineries, sit back and drink, santé! Just remember that these are mostly small family wineries, with very few exceptions, and this is the one day of the year when they invest in a major marketing effort: they will welcome you, but do the decent thing and buy at least three bottles to help cover their costs. Glasses will be poured small: you’re there to sample, not consume, remember.

If you’re really exploring and learning about the local wines, no one will expect you to buy, so relax, learn what you can, ask questions and ask for a brochure/order list. You can note on these what you like and what you don’t and decide at the end of the day where  you want to spend your money.

My personal list

These are not necessarily where I’ll be visiting this weekend, but I can recommend these villages and these wineries, as a good way to sample a cross-section of the best regional specialties. I’ve put an asterisk* in front of these where I know they speak English.

Fully – closest to Geneva and Lausanne, white and especially bio (organic) and biodynamic wines, is the long string of a village of Fully, with scores of wineries. This is home to Marie-Thérèse Chappaz, arguably one of the country’s best wine producers, albeit a tiny winery; she no longer holds open house days because she can’t keep up with demand. The dramatic mountainside covered in vines lends itself beautifully to fine wines.

Jacques Granges-Faiss, Caves Beudon, with a glass of his Schiller wine, an unusual wine with curiosity value

Caves Beudon, les vignes dans les ciel, a wonderful source of information about biodynamic growing, a step beyond organic methods, in a magical setting that you can reach only on foot, a steep climb. You can save that for another day, however, as owners Jacques and Marion Granges-Faiss have happily set up a stand and tables at the foot of their mountain home, for three days.

Jacques is a great raconteur and source of information about the geology, flora and fauna of the area. Quality-wise, in the past their wines have been somewhat irregular, so I’m keen to see what the 2010 wines are like. His wines are always interesting and be sure to ask why he created a second, golden Fendant called “Antique”. His best-seller is his very dry Petite Arvine. They also grow apples, pears and more down on the plain.

Benoit Dorsaz, note that despite the road closed signs, you can reach him by car: he makes beautiful wines, possibly because his vineyards are beautifully situated but also lovingly cared for but this grower who is passionate about nature and working hand in hand with it. Whites: his dry (it’s vinified in Valais from very dry to dessert sweet) Petite Arvine is reliably excellent and his Viognier and Petite Arvine sweet wines are lovely. His reds are also recommended.

St-Pierre-de-Clages and Chamoson, central Valais – broad and nearly flat, where the Rhone valley opens out and orchards are plentiful on the left bank, with vineyards covering the right bank. The first village is best known for its summer used-books sale, but it has several excellent wineries. Two are separated, a distinction more apparent to locals than to visitors, by a handful of wineries. Among the good ones here:

Cave du Vidomne, Catherine and Meinrad Gaillard (some English), one of the most startling little wineries in the region, with small volume and extraordinary red wines that are beautifully aged. These are not cheap wines by Swiss standards, but they are hand-crafted and barrel-aged for five years before being released, and the wait and price are worth it. They are generally only open by appointment, since this husband and wife team are almost always out in the vineyards, so this is the rare opportunity to drop in.

*René Favre et Fils, brothers Mike and Jean-Charles offer excellent wines, great knowledge about the region’s wines and vineyards, and Mike in particular, who has held several positions in the world of Valais wines, is a colourful character who enjoys what he does immensely. Some of the family vines are the oldest in Valais, tucked up on the hillside just below the abrupt mountain above the village, and they are treated as great treasures.  Their Johannisberg and Humagne blanc are good examples of these wines, and for the sheer pleasure of the names and fun labels, if not the wine (which is good), try the blends: the white Blue Bike and Red Pickup. Blue Bike is full-bodied compared to the varietal (single grape) whites and Red Pickup, with Merlot, Syrah and Diolinoir is hearty and designed to go with a meal.

*Maurice Gay, at the other end of the spectrum size-wise, will leave you wondering where to begin with its huge selection of wines. This is a winery that regularly wins awards and that consistently produces very good quality wines, in a large range. For whites, try the Johannisberg for which this area is famous, dry and crisp, the Heida/Paien, a Valais classic, and the wonderfully perfumed dry Muscat. The latter is a special treat for lovers of dry wines and anyone who wants to better understand how a wine can be both dry and very fruity. But given the large selection here, it’s a great place to just follow your temptations and try a new wine. Hint: The muscat is a great wine with Asian foods that are not too spicey. The winery is out in the vineyards below the town, easy to spot from the autoroute.

Sierre and vineyards in Valais at dawn, 1 June 2011

Sierre/Salgesch (aka Salquenen) - This is the language divide between French- and German-speaking Valais. A great mix of small and large cellars, includes Provins, the country’s largest and a cooperative winery that sets a great example for others, is open for the weekend on the main street of Sierre, at the entrance to the town, coming from the east side autoroute exit. Three of my favourite Swiss wineries are here:

Maurice Zufferey, discreetly one of the best winemakers around, with an understated elegance to his wines and the man himself: he has served as mentor for more than one good, young Swiss winemaker, and with reason. This is a small winery on the hillside above Sierre, near the easily visible Chateau Mercier, in the suburb/hamlet of Muraz. Start with his Fendant to get a sense of what a good Valais Chasselas is like and how it differs from the more mineral ones from Vaud, but be sure not to miss his Zirouc, if you’re lucky enough to find some left to try! It’s a fine sweet wine, so before you try it, sample his beautiful Pinot Noirs and two Valais specialties, Humagne Rouge and Cornalin. The first is a rustic wine, often saved for the game season, but it goes well with barbecued meats. Cornalin is a difficult grape and difficult wine, and here it is in the hands of a pro. His wife manages the Sierre/Salgesch vine and wine museums, which are well worth a visit.

*Domaine des Muses, Robert Taramarcaz, whose winery is in the industrial estate of Sierre, so he is not surprisingly playing host for the Open days at his other winery “home”, a charming farm at the foot of his vines in nearby Grange (see web page for map), with raclette on offer. The wines themselves are worth the trip, however. This extraordinarily hard-working young producer is a frequent winner of top wine prizes (eight gold medals in 2010) and while he is a specialist in late-harvest sweet wines, his Fendants are superb and his new Merlot is a great surprise: good nose, but smooth and very long in mouth. Be sure to try his “Seduction” line. For details about the wines, visit his web site.

*Rouvinez wines, sits in a spectacular hilltop spot next to a monastery, above the town’s aqua-blue Gironde Lake. You’re in a world-class winery here, in terms of size (they export) as well as quality, and the cellar itself, with its recently renovated area for guests, reflects this. A must-try is my favourite Swiss wine, their almost grapefruity Petite Arvine, Chateau Lichten, and their Marsanne is a lovely white wine that will suit others who are not great fans of dry and acidic wines. Their red blends are particularly worth trying. This is a great place to learn more about what makes Valais wines so special, as the educational part of the display is very good, with explanations about the climate, geography and soils.

Be sure to remember to look up while in Valais: the peaks, the mountains and the skirts that are traces of glaciers all add up to a very special place for making wine, as changeable as the magnificent clouds and light.

I’ll be visiting as many of the wineries as family permits, and taking photos, so expect to see some of the wineries featured here in coming days. This is part of my warm-up to judging at the Grand Prix des Vins Suisse, in which I’ll be taking part again this year, later in June.

Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Put these dates on your wine-tasting calendar, with 2010 whites freshly bottled in Switzerland:

Whet your appetite as the tasting season opens by learning more about Chasselas, aka fendant in canton Valais: the Wine museum in Sierre, canton Valais, has a wonderful lecture series and 7 April you have a chance to hear José Vouillamoz, genetics specialist, talk about the true origins of Chasselas. He lectures in French, but his English is very good, if you have questions you want to put to him. Thursday, 7 April at the Musée du vin et des vignes in Sierre, Château de Villa, Sensorama, 20:00. Price, CHF25, museeduvin@netplus.ch or telephone: 027 456 3525.

Arvinis, the big regional wine fair in Morges, is where everyone goes to try the newly bottled vintage, and 2010 is definitely a year worth sampling. The guest wine-producing region this year is the Pays d’Oc in France. If your first reaction is to think of those seas of poor quality wine that washed over Europe 25 years ago, part of a sad story of over-production, think again. I tasted these wines last week and was very happily surprised to see how well their move towards varietal (single grape) wines is working. Details to follow but for now note the dates: 13-19 April, in Morges, canton Vaud.

Memoire des vins suisses (hurry to make this one!) in Bad Ragaz, a golden opportunity to try Swiss wines as they age. This is a small group of some of the country’s best winemakers who have created a bank of their finest aging wines, and once a year they meet to taste and comment on the wines as they get older. The wines are also available to the public, as part of this moveable feast. I’m on the train, en route to the event, and will be reporting back in the next couple of days, so if you couldn’t rush to Bad Ragaz, your loss, but I’m happy to share my notes on winemakers and their goods here.

Kursaal du Grand Resort Bad Ragaz, 7310 Bad Ragaz, 15:00-19:00, Thursday 31 March

Two smaller, local wine-tasting events are coming up, closer to home if you’re in the Lake Geneva area, and great opportunities to discover more about wine:

Simon Hardy has started a new business in recent months, Fitting Wines, that helps you find personalized wine solutions. He is organizing the first of what he promises will be regular Sunday brunches: Sunday 17 April 2011 from 11:30 – 14:30, at Caveau Orpheus, Rue des Terreaux 16, 1095 Lutry. Details and more on Fitting Wines

Leman Events has organized a wine-tasting session at the new Vinorama in the heart of Lavaux (Unesco World Heritage site):  a presentation by François Margot in English about the relationship between Lavaux and Unesco, with a film showing one year in the life of a wine producer from the region. Light buffet and five wines, selected from some of the 200-plus Lavaux wines. 12 April, details.

The "nose" in Swiss wines is a good part of the fun of discovering them

Lausanne, Switzerland – A short note to explain my near-silence: it’s been a very busy summer in terms of wine, and the results of this will soon start to surface here, but right now I’m tied up with the new Swiss Wine Guide, second edition of the English version (it also comes out in French and German), due out in November 2010. The team of 20 or so people who put together this encyclopedic reference guide are now all scrambling to proofread the final pages. And then we’ll be able to sit back and start to drink wine again instead of writing, translating and editing texts about it!

It’s a daunting project, published by Ringier, produced by Vinea, and the end result is very good – a project I’m very proud to be part of.

I was busy a month ago taking part in the judging of Swiss wines for the national awards, the Grand Prix du Vin Suisse, my first time as a judge there. It was a great experience. The quality of the wines was very high and it is reassuring to see how well the computerized marking system works, a huge asset when you consider that more than 2,000 wines were entered. Photos and a story on that soon, once the wine guide is put to bed.

Meanwhile, my son, age 22, has suddenly discovered wine, after following what seems to have been a great introductory semester-long course on wine at the University of British Columbia, where he’s just finished his studies. He was home for three weeks before heading off to China, and we spent much of that time visiting wineries in Geneva, Vaud and Valais, tasting wines at the cellars and at home. I’ll be sharing some of those tasting notes and descriptions of the wineries here soon. He and a friend who was visiting, who also followed the UBC wine course, spent a few minutes every day sniffing little aroma bottles in my Le Nez du Vin (Jean Lenoir) box, memorizing smells and testing themselves. These boxes are not cheap, but as long as you use them, they really can help you learn to recognize scents, and that adds a lot more fun to wine tasting.

We also paid a flying visit to the newly redone Vaud vine and wine museum in Aigle, enough to want to go back for more, so I’ll also be writing about that here soon.

Sante!

Cornalin and Syrah from Cave de la Madeleine, Vetroz, Valais

Update 21:30 I’ve started tweeting wineries + 1 type of wine for each, some of my top picks among the Swiss wines at Arvinis, in addition to the California and selected Swiss tasting notes I’ve already posted here. It’s always hard to decide which ones are worth a stop and once there, what wines to taste. I hope that sharing my shopping list of good Swiss winemakers and a personal favourite among their wines will simplify the hard work of tasting in Morges!

Consider signing on as a GenevaLunch follower on Twitter or getting the rss feed. I’ll be posting about 20 10 (enough!) of these in total by Saturday night.

I haven’t noted which are white or red, dry or sweet, so in order of tasting, try this: whites – Chasselas, Fendant (same grape, just Valais), Ermitage, Johannisberg, then reds – Pinot Noir, blends, then sweet whites – Amigne (ask what the bees signify), Malvoisie late harvest.

Santé!

Alexandre Truffer, a young and excellent Swiss wine writer, is coming out with a book on the best wines from French-speaking Switzerland that will be available in bookstores 22 March – I’ll be carrying a review of Vins de suisse romande here next week, as I’m keen to see which are his favourites, but more importantly, to have his guidance in tasting them. I’ve been on courses he has given on wine and chocolate and sat alongside him at tasting sessions, and his advice is worth listening to. The book covers 65 winemakers selected by Truffer, with some 300 wines in total. The advance online look I have had is promising.

Truffer is the author of the wine web site Roman du vin (see our link on this blog).

The book is published by Creative Publishing, a small local company which is starting, at the same time (and this is not an accident), a new wine club, Cellier Romand, dedicated to the best in wines from Swiss French-speaking areas. It goes live online at the end of this week. I’ll share my thoughts with you once it opens, but the first peek looks good, with three bottles of wine a month for CHF65, their selection of the best, accompanied by descriptive and background information.

Pierre Casamayor is a name that resonates with anyone who reads about wines: he is the author of a number of articles and books, notably the How to Taste Wine, which is something of a popular bible on the subject, in part because it is so readable. He is meeting in March with several groups of professionals in Switzerland. His visit includes two events open to the public, a wine tasting evening Thursday 18 March at the Chateau Villa in Sierre and an educational evening Friday 19 March that blends wine conference, tasting and a “cocktail dînatoire” (Swiss French for a standup buffet with cold and warm dishes). The Morges evening’s theme is “Wine-tasting and sensory analysis” and the focus is on Vaud Chasselas (note: in French).

The programme starts at 18:00, the presentation and tasting at 18:15 and the cocktail dînatoire at 20:00. Price CHF65, reservation needed.

Casamayor is honorary professor of oenology and a permanent member of the committee of wine-tasters for what is arguably France’s  top wine publication, Revue des vins de France. He was professor of sensorial analysis (wine-tasting) at the graduate school for oenologists of the Université Paul Sabatier in Toulouse before his 2003 retirement.

The congress centre and hotel La Longeraie, which is hosting the event, is offering a special package: CHF65 for the event and CHF145 for a room for 1-2 persons, breakfast included.

Registration, Morges evening with Casamayor: Hotel and Restaurant, Congress Centre La Longeraie, Tel: +41 21 804 6400, e-mail hotel@lalongeraie.ch, www.lalongeraie.ch

(The evening with Casamayor is sponsored by Arvinis, Vin Vaudois and Roth & Sauter)

Vinea wine fair: right age, right environment for learning about wine

France, like other European countries, is trying to work out how to best deal with teenage binge drinking and the latest advice from the experts is to offer wine tasting courses. Britain’s Guardian turned this into headline news, while France’s Le Monde relegated it to a small mention at the end of an article about recommendations for improving university student eating habits and TF1 television notes mainly that the authors regret that a glass of wine at lunchtime has virtually disappeared from the students’ menu.

An Irish Times article in February noted that the French have yet to come up with a term for binge drinking.

Cultural differences are alive and well in the European Union.

Winemakers in France aren’t alone in arguing that educating young people about moderate consumption of alcohol is the secret, and that teaching them to appreciate wine in the broadest sense will help. I was told the same thing recently by Daniel Dufaux, head of the Swiss oenologists union.

But French officials have startled their European counterparts by suggesting that universities should offer wine tastings at lunchtime, to teach young people to appreciate wine. Valérie Pécresse, the minister for higher education who ordered the report on how to improve university canteens, reacted to the report she had commissioned by saying “Yes to wine education, no to wine courses at noon” so it doesn’t look like this suggestion will be implemented.

Wine courses are a great way to learn about the value and pleasure of moderate drinking even if you don’t equate it with sex, as one French gastronome did in commenting on the report (okay, he actually said “l’amour” which you can interpret as sex or love). But would this work? Maybe in France, where wine = culture = nous, les Francais. You can’t separate French wine from the country’s cultural heritage, and pride in that still runs very deep in France.

But few people appreciate wine until they are in their mid-twenties, according to several people in the industry. For months I’ve been asking: when is the best time to learn about wine, and how? Daniel Dufaux would like to see school history and science courses include more on the role of grape growing and winemaking in agriculture and in land dvelopment, for example. He would like to see schools encourage students, perhaps in science or health courses, to learn to develop their sense of smell through tasting sessions, which don’t necessarily need to include wine-tasting.

Francois Murisier, the new president of Vinea, told me last summer that young people outside the wine profession are rarely ready to fully appreciate wine before their early to mid-twenties. But if as children they have learned to appreciate the context, by hiking near vineyards, for example, by learning to appreciate different kinds of grapes, by seeing adults drink moderately and enjoying wine, their interest will suddenly come to life.

And if they are lucky enough to learn about wine then, while they are young so that they develop a nose for it, they are more likely to be moderate drinkers.