GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – A morning of judging Pinot Noir wines from around the world and the judges need a break and a little educational boost.

So Friday afternoon ended with a visit to the Lavaux Vinorama, built into the rocks on the lakefront near Vevey in May 2010.

If you haven’t yet visited, do so. It’s beautifully done and offers all the producers’ wines from Lavaux at winery prices. And take the time to watch the film about a year in the life of a wine producer.

Photos: Philippe Corthey of Terravin shows the judges one of the Terravin labels that designate top-quality Vaud wines. The outside of the Vinorama.

Nicolas Schorderet, OVV (photo: Alexandre Truffer, romanduvin.ch)

LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – Nicolas Schorderet, who has headed the OVV, the Vaud wines office, since March 2009, will be leaving at the end of August, the OVV announced Tuesday 29 May. A search for his successor is underway.

Schorderet was hired to turn around the finances of the organization and re-position Vaudois wines on the Swiss market. The OVV is the promotional arm of its members, the canton’s wine producers. Vaud is the second-largest wine production area in Switzerland, after canton Valais.

Schorderet has been responsible for a number of improvements in the way Vaud wines are promoted, including developing the wineries open day, which this year blossomed, with 300 wineries taking part and large crowds turning out for the Pentecost weekend event.

Schorderet will be pursuing a new direction in his career, says the OVV, and while the decision was clearly his, 24 Heures suggests it may have been politically driven.

The administrative arm, which Schorderet has been managing, works with a board that for the past nine months has been presided over by Pierre Keller, the dynamic Vaud politician and head of Ecal, the art school in Lausanne, who retired last year.

Schorderet is a Fribourg native trained as a chef before attending the Hotel School in Lausanne and running two restaurants with his wife.

Interview with Nicolas Schorderet in Le Guillon, Vaud wine magazine, April 2011, by Alexandre Truffer