Ghana: local chief holds out cocoa used in Cadbury chocolate (photo: Cadbury)
Geneva/Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – US-based Kraft Foods went public with an offer for Cadbury, UK confectioner, after the British company refused its proposal. Kraft is offering £10.2 billion for Cadbury, which formally turned down the proposal Monday 7 September, noting in a statement that “the board is confident in Cadbury’s standalone strategy and growth prospects as a result of its strong brands, unique category and geographic scope and the continued successful delivery of its ‘Vision into Action’ plan. The board believes that the proposal fundamentally undervalues the group and its prospects.” Shares in the company rose strongly Monday.
Burgundy comes to Sierre's sunny Vinea: Colline de Cortons wines were guests
Sierre, Valais, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – For the 16th year in a row, Vinea, the main wine fair for Swiss wines, managed to order sunshine for its two days of wine-tasting. This is the first year that the fair, organized originally by Valais winemakers to promote their own wines, has been opened to bottles from throughout Switzerland. Some 1,200 wines were on offer, and more than 10,000 people from around the country showed up to sample them.
Switzerland produces 1.12 million hectolitres of wine, a little over half of which is red wine, and Swiss consumers drink 37 litres per inhabitant a year.
The foreign wine guest of honour was the Colline de Cortons region in Burgundy, France, which brought 2006 bottles from several of its producers, providing a good basis for comparison within the region.
Vinea 2009, Swiss wines take over main street of Sierre, Switzerland (photo: ©2009 www.photo-genic.ch)
Vinea wine fair 2008
Lausanne / Sierre, Valais, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Canton Vaud’s wine group Domaines Clos & Châteaux will be one of the guests of honour at Vinea, Switzerland’s main fair for Swiss wines, which opens to the public Saturday morning at 10:00, outdoors in Sierre. MeteoSwiss is predicting that Friday’s rain will turn to sunny skies during the day Saturday, with temperatures around 15-18C (take a jacket).
The fair, traditionally focused on Valais wines, is extending its reach to include other Swiss winemakers as part of the main offering this year, with two guests of honour: the second is wines from Burgundy’s Cortons hills in France.
The wine fair draws some 10,000 winelovers from Switzerland and neighbouring countries each year, thanks to an easy system for sampling the 1,200 wines and talking to the 110 winemakers presenting. The main street of Sierre is taken over by white tents organized in a line that replicates the Rhone River’s wine-producing villages in Valais, and visitors pay CHF30 for a tasting glass they use to sample as many wines as they like.
Friday the fair opens formally with the awards ceremony for the international wine competition, the Mondial du Pinot Noir.
Title: World Trade Organization Open Day
Location: Geneva
Link out: Click here
Description: Guided tours, art display, documentaries, food stands, children activities and much, much more. Program begins at 10:00.
Date: 06 Sep 2009
Pinot Noir: a subtle, elegant wine
Sierre, Valais, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - A wine from Spain and another from Valais are the big winners at the annual Mondial du Pinot Noir wine competition, the world’s only top-level competition for wines made from this widespread grape, held in Sierre. “Cortijo los aguillares”, a Pinot Noir from Ronda, Spain, from the domain of Jose Antonio Itarte and “Malvoisie Flétrie sur Souche”, a Pinot Gris sweet wine made from grapes withered on the vine, from Cave de la Madeleine (André Fontannaz, Vétroz, Valais) were both awarded the Grande Médaille d’Or.
World Champion of Pinot Noir Producers
A new award, World Champion of Pinot Noir Producers, went to a Zurich, Switzerland producer, Urs Pircher from Eglisau, Zurich. The new award is designed to recognize the best producer who, over three consecutive vintages, has continued to make top-quality wine.
Title: Gastronomical walk in Lake Geneva
Location: Vevey and Montreux, Vaud
Link out: Click here
Description: The “Gourmande route” is a 5km walk through some of the most popular vineyards in Vevey-Montreux and a taste of the region.
Date: 13 Sep 2009
Title: Train ride through the land of the “grand crus”
Location: Lavaux, Cully and Lutry
Link out: Click here
Description: From April to October ride a charming tourist train on wheels and visit the Lavaux vineyards. Departure from Lutry or Cully.
Start Date: 30 Aug 2009
End Date: 01 Oct 2009
Title: Evening visit to winegrowers in the region
Location: Aran, Cully, Epesses, Grandvaux, Riex and Lutry
Link out: Click here
Description: Visit the Lavaux vineyards every Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Depart from Lutry and enjoy a train ride.
Start Date: 30 Aug 2009
Start Time: 18:30
End Date: 20 Sep 2009
Title: Guided wine tour
Location: Ollon, Vaud
Link out: Click here
Description: Take a tour through the vineyards of Ollon, enjoy a meal and partake in wine tasting.
Start Date: 09 Sep 2009
End Date: 13 Sep 2009
Title: English cheeses and Swiss wines tasting
Location: Mont-sur-Rolle, Vaud
Link out: Click here
Description: A day to enjoy five different kinds of English cheeses, paired with Swiss wines and local specialties.
Date: 04 Sep 2009
Title: Sailing, food and flea market
Location: Morges, Vaud
Link out: Click here
Description: A day to enjoy sailing, local flavors and do some shopping in Morges.
Date: 06 Sep 2009
Title: Carouge Vogue Festival
Location: Carouge, Geneva
Link out: Click here
Description: Three days of music, food, activities for kids and adults, an artisan market and more!
Start Date: 28 Aug 2009
End Date: 31 Aug 2009
Switzerland's new Galmac eating apple - early August harvest
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Stores in Switzerland are starting to sell the new Galmac early variety of apple, developed by the federal research station Changins-Waedenswil, developed in part to provide an early apple that could compete with foreign imports. Most apples sold in Swiss shops in summer are imported. The new variety is a cross between Gala and Jerseymac, and it matures before Gravenstein, a popular eating variety.
Only 80 cals, and cheaper by far than the multi-calorie restaurant iced coffees!
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) -While Swiss over 50 years are likely to grab a yoghurt for a between-meal snack, in Britain an iced coffee from one of the high-street café shops can contain the calorie content of the evening meal. Older Swiss look for freshness and taste when they snack, according to a survey released by Agroscope Liebefeld-Posieux Research Station ALP (Swiss federal agricultural research centre). Top of the list of preferred snacks is fresh fruit, followed by milk products, such as fresh or flavoured milk, and plain or flavoured yoghurt.
The survey targeted people over 50 years, the fastest-growing segment of the population. Life-expectancy has been increasing since the middle of the 20th century, according to the Swiss Federal Statistics Office SFSO.
Title: Sailing competitions and more
Location: Rolle, Vaud
Link out: Click here
Description: Daily regattas, music, exotic food and fun!
Start Date: 03 Aug 2009
End Date: 07 Aug 2009
Big Mac Swiss: more than a spot of Swiss cow here
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – McDonald’s Switzerland has been catching people’s eyes lately with its local foods marketing campaign that features a potato with a Swiss map and a spotted cow, one of whose spots is a map of Switzerland. The Tribune de Geneve took a closer look at the cow and came up with a startling bit of information: it carries an Austrian ear tag.
The Swiss head office of the fast food giant protested that it had been tricked, when the Tribune contacted it. The company insists that it has been faithfully using Swiss products in its 30 years in the country, as the marketing campaign underlines. The ad, it appears, was prepared for several countries, using the same, now international cow.
Paleo crowd, 2009
What it is: The largest outdoor music festival in Switzerland, started in 1976, with over 4.3 million concert-goers since then. In 2008, the audience was 227,000 strong, and there were 146 performances on six stages.
Volunteers, all 4,062 of them, helped to make the experience a great one for all. According to a survey in 2008, 59 percent of concert-goers came from the Lake Geneva region.
Title: Fetes de Geneve
Location: Geneva
Link out: Click here
Description: The traditional Geneva Festival kicks off 30 July but the “pre-fetes” or pre-fest concerts and activities start on the 16th. Food, music, carnival rides and more on the shore of Lake Geneva. The host of honor this year is the Sultanate of Oman.
Start Date: 16 Jul 2009
End Date: 09 Aug 2009
Féchy's vineyards, Lake Geneva, French Alps
Féchy, Vaud, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Wine producers in the small (population: 700) village of Féchy, above the lakeside town of Rolle, met Friday 12 June for the annual “baptism” of their Vigne du Monde, vintage 2008.
It was a remarkably charming event, held next to the landmark hillside white chapel, with the sun shining, the lake shimmering and world-class chef Fredy Girardet talking about the vintage for which he is the godfather.
New AOC rules prompting marketing efforts
A question of terroir and the winemakers' skill
Behind it lay a serious 21st century marketing push. Féchy’s wines are some of the best in the canton and their producers want to ensure that under a new AOC (appellations d’origine contrôlées) system, as many of their wines as possible win the right to the coveted premier grand cru label that will designate top regional wines. These are likely to be among the Swiss wines that are exported, extending the market, so the financial incentive for producers is significant.
This time next year, in May and June 2010, wine lovers will see the results of a major change now sweeping through the vineyards of canton Vaud (see wine buyer’s guide below).
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Fabio Masi, sommelier at the Il Lago restaurant at the Four Seasons Hotel des Bergues in Geneva has been named Italy’s best sommelier of 2009. He will participate in the Best Sommelier in the World competition in Santiago, Chile in April 2010.
The competition involved recognizing a large number of wines in blind tastings, but also naming in blind tastings 10 brandies and two coffees and recogniziing a variety of cigars. Possibly even more challenging was the service test where he was required to wait on three tables of difficult customers.
Title: Arvinis 2009, international wine fair
Location: Morges, Vaud
Link out: Click here
Description: One of Switzerland’s largest wine events, 6 days and 20,000 people, wines from around the world, showcase for Swiss wines, sensibly next to the train station (don’t drive!), GenevaLunch feature story
Start Date: 22 Apr 2009
End Date: 27 Apr 2009
Coffee in Geneva has reached world-class status. The Richemond Hotel’s Le Bar now has a coffee menu and staff trained by one of Italy’s best coffee-art specialists, barista Giorgio Milos.
The coffee menu
Go for the cappuccino, worth every sip at CHF8, but expect it to come with a beautiful design on the top and hazelnuts and Domori almond covered in chocolate, and plan to linger over it all a very long time.
In a hurry? Just get an espresso, CHF6, but you’ll have trouble parting company with it as fast as planned, with honey caramelized pecan nuts and a glass of mineral water on the side.
Better yet, here’s the perfect coffee hour for two girlfriends who’ve found a slot to meet and catch up on each other’s lives. The top end of the coffee menu (it really is a menu) at Le Bar offers these: the Neve Fondente and Il Bicerin.
The first is made with cocoa powder, skimmed milk, sugar and double expresso. The skimmed milk is not there for the lower calories but because it works better for the kind of frothy top that makes this drink so appealing. On the side: a mini tiramisu (Ed. note: I’m not a fan of tiramisu but this is exceptionally good!).
Il Bicerin is an espresso, hot chocolate and cream, with a small serving of crunchy cocoa leaf, mini cream chocolate cake and coffee mousse. CHF18 for the first and CHF20 for the other.
A Swiss love affair with coffee
The beauty of coffee is that it is adaptable, letting itself be loved by people who simply want a quick fix of adrenaline as well as those who expect no-fuss excellence in a cup at the office, and then a leisurely, foamy Sunday morning treat.
The Swiss have always liked coffee: it makes up well over 80% of retail sales of hot drinks. The country has a reputation in the coffee industry for appreciating good quality coffee.
This easy-going beverage has had great demands put on it lately in Switzerland, however. First, the long Swiss tradition of a cup brewed just-so and served with a newspaper at the local cafe has been forced to give ground to Starbucks and other foreign invaders. Starbucks opened its first shop in Switzerland in 2001 in Zurich, and by mid-2008 it had 37 shops, with more planned.
Tastes began to change. A good café-crème, or renversé (white coffee) was for years the most popular hot drink away from home, but by 2005 it had slipped to only 33%, according to Research and Markets. Espresso and cappuccino shares rose to around 20% each, and macchioto has made good headway.
Then the sacred mugs of not particularly good stuff spewed out by office coffeemakers began to disappear, often replaced by Nespresso machines.
The capsule coffee business has done so well that Vevey-based manufacturer Nestlé told Reuters in May 2008 it expects to reach its goal of CHF2 billion in sales before the end of 2008, a full two years ahead of schedule.
Ecology-minded drinkers could comfort themselves with the knowledge that the second capsule plant the company recently built in Switzerland recycles rainwater and that 40% of the coffee Nespresso buys is sustainable coffee.
Machines began to invade the home, replacing all those interesting national variations for dripping or percolating, but given their pricetags, from CHF200-2,700 for Nespresso, not everyone was buying them.
In early November 2008, Coop announced that it would sell coffee capsule machines made by the Italian firm Martello at prices everyone, but particularly young people, can afford.
The result? Good coffee abounds, Christmas gifts will undoubtedly include all the accoutrements for making and drinking it, and it hardly seems worthwhile leaving home or the office to buy a cup of the brew.
Coffee as an excuse to go out
Enter the Richemond, which had the good idea of returning coffee-drinking to the status of an event, an excuse to go out, a reason to meet someone.
Patrick Mossu, managing director who has worked at several of the world’s five-star hotels, says he was tired of people complaining that the coffee wasn’t good. It’s true, he insists: top hotels too often have a reputation for charging outrageous prices for their coffee, then serving a mediocre beverage.
The Richemond is one of Geneva’s smaller five-star hotels. It closed for 21 months for renovations and when it reopened in September 2007 it made a point of welcoming local guests to its bar and restaurant.
The Sapori restaurant invited Italian Chef of the Year Fulvio Pierangelini to help refresh the menu with the goal of making it the best place in town for Italian food.
The Italian touch worked and the Richemond decided to extend the influence to the bar. It called in Amici Caffè, the Swiss arm of the Italian coffee company Illy.
Giorgio Milos is a barista who teaches at Illy’s University of Coffee in Trieste. “My mother worked in a coffee company and my father for a milk company, so I grew up surrounded by milk and coffee.
“But I must say, I learned this from another barista,” he grins. His eyes never leave the cup in front of him.
His arm wiggles effortlessly as he puts the finishing touch on what looks like a plain milky coffee. Pause.
A beautiful leaf shape suddenly surfaces in the foam. Another great cappuccino.
Coffee-art
Coffee-art became a trend in Italy about 15 years ago, and has become widespread, but it’s more difficult to create a perfect-looking coffee than Milos makes it appear.
And even the pro admits humbly that on a world scale, he’s good, but he’s not the greatest.
“Italy has the best baristas! In Italy it’s a profession, where you work in a bar maybe 30 years. In other places you do it maybe two to three years to earn money for your studies.”
But, he admits, despite having been named Italy’s best barista in February, he came in only 29th in the World Barista Championship 2008 in Denmark.
“Italians never win,” he says sadly. How can this be?
“They were good, just very good,” he admits.
In Copenhagen, where the championship was held, and each barista had to show his skill in four areas, an Irishman, Stephen Morrissey, walked off with the trophy.
“I love him! He’s the best barista in the world!” says Milos with a show of purely Italian-style enthusiasm. And then, cheered by memories of barista excellence, he concentrates on the next cuppa.
l’Hebdo and GenevaLunch present Switzerland’s top wines with tasting notes, adapted in English from articles that appeared in the 13 November print version of l’Hebdo, Switzerland’s leading news magazine in French. The magazine ran a major story on the winners of the Grand Prix du Vin Suisse, which is Switzerland’s main wine competition, open to all producers in the country.
Discover Switzerland’s winning wines, all 66 of them, in our four-part series, 25-28 November. Wednesday: other whites. Thursday: rosé, Pinot Noir and Gamay. Friday: other reds and an interview.
- Original French version of part of the text, in l’Hebdo
- l’Hebdo’s web site
- Grand Prix du Vin Suisse site
English texts: GenevaLunch
Click on images to view larger.
Salgesch, Valais, November 2008
By Marie Maurisse
1,900 wines tasted, 120 judges, and in the end only 66 bottles selected, each one exceptional.
The wealth of Switzerland’s vineyards might seem inexhaustible, but how do you
go about choosing among the thousands of bottles available? To give us some help, Vinea and the wine magazine Vinum recently organized a Swiss wine competition on a scale grander than any before: 1,900 wines entered, 120 professional judges tasting them. In the end, 66 wines were selected as the best, all of them exceptional bottles, vintage 2007 unless otherwise noted
We introduce you to them here with tasting notes by Barbara Meier-Dittus of Vinum, and Emeline Zufferey, author of the French texts for the Swiss Wine Guide, in bookstores and at kiosks 24 November 2008.
The secrets behind the selections
How many wines were tasted?
The tastings took place in Sierre, Valais, in June, with the same system that was used in 2007: there was no pre-selection and all the wines registered were tasted. In 2008, 460 producers from all of Switzerland participated, for a total of 1,900 wines. Elisabeth Pasquier, managing director of Vinea, which organizes the event in partnership with the European wine review, Vinum, says “The Grand Prix reflects the wonderful diversity of the Swiss winemaking landscape. We’ve had wines from every corner of Switzerland entered,” she notes. “But the two wines we received the most of were Chasselas and Pinot Noir, which is representative of what is grown in Switzerland.”
With participation voluntary, some of the best-known winemakers, such as Marie-Thérèse Chappaz, did not take part.
Who were the judges?
Most of the judges were professional oenologists or sommeliers, but the group also included a few wine journalists and a small number of people who are simply passionate about wine. Foreigners were also invited by the organizing committee that selected the 120 judges.
How were marks given?
Each wine was tasted blind by 5 people who were instructed to give it marks, or points, out of a possible 100. The marks were not a matter of chance or personal taste: the judges must follow the precise criteria laid out by the OIV (International Organization of Vine and Wine), such as the intensity of the nose and how long the wine is on the palate. The final tally is the average of the five scores.
What are the categories?
These are 11 groups of wines ranging from white Chasselas to white blends to rosés and red varieties. For each category the judges selected six finalists, all of whom figure in the tasting notes to follow here. They then narrowed these down to three winners for each category.
And the special prizes?
There are three: the Vinissimo prize goes to the wine with the highest overall score, the Bio Suisse prize is given to the biodynamic production wine which gains the most points and the prize for Winemaker of the Year goes to the winery which has the most wines which figure among the winners.
The 2008 winner of the coveted Winemaker of the Year award is Madeleine Gay, oenologist at Provins in Sion.
The Swiss Wine Guide
Vinea brings together the annual wine competition and the publication of the Swiss Wine Guide (Le Guide des vins suisses in French). The book features all the gold and silver winners of the Grand Prix competition but also lists several hundred of the country’s best wine producers.
And for the first time, the book has been produced in English
(Ed. note: Ellen Wallace, editor of GenevaLunch, was responsible for the team that produced the English version).
CHASSELASAntoine & Christophe Bétrisey
1958 Saint-Léonard, rue du Château 12
+41 27 203 11 26, info@betrisey-vins.ch
Yvorne Grand Cru Château La Maison BlancheMaison Blanche SA
1180 Rolle, place de la Gare 7
+41 21 822 02 02, vente@schenk-wine.ch
Dézaley Grand Cru L’Ermite Pascal Fonjallaz-Spicher
1098 Epesses, La Place
+41 21 799 37 56, pascal.fonjallaz@urbanet.ch
Cave du Consul, Laurent & Nicolas Martin
1166 Perroy, Grand-Rue 39
+41 21 825 2801, caveduconsul@bluewin.ch
Fruit dominates the nose with floral touches and a hint of yeast. In the mouth it’s fresh, with the attack deliciously underlined by a slight bubbliness. Overall very pleasant and with good balance on the palate. A great success for this cellar in the middle of the La Côte area in the Lake Geneva region. Best drunk before 2011.
Cave La Cornalle, Philippe Rouge
1098 Epesses, chemin de la Bastioule
+41 21 799 4122, info@rouge-vins.ch
Domaine des Faverges, Gérald Vallélian & Zvan Régamey
Yet again, and forever more: Lavaux with its Saint Saphorin whose nose is dominated by an appetising fruitiness rounded out by a mineral touch with a breath of bergamot and floral whisps. In the mouth this has good freshness, while being rounded with good structure. It has an interesting persistant aroma. Best drunk before 2010.
Title: Bizarre food workshop
Location: Morges, Vaud
Link out: Click here
Description: A food workshop aimed to awaken your taste buds.
Start Date: 20 Nov 2008
End Date: 22 Nov 2008
Some 1,200 wines from 110 Valais producers are ready to be sampled at this largest of Swiss wine festivals, where 10,000 people are expected. The special guest wine production area this year, for the festival’s 15th year, is St Emilion, France – doubly special because the producers’ group there, the Collège des Vins de St-Emilion is offering Vinea a first: open-air tastings of its wines, offered to the public. The festival will also be showcasing different risottos from neighbouring Italy, Nez du Vin aroma kits, and there are activities for children as well as hikes through the vineyard and guided tours along the Vinea street. The entry fee is CHF30 (all wines tasted for free as long as you have a Vinea 2008 glass).
Updated 17:45. Lake Geneva region, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - A Spanish import, botellón, or mass drinking parties for young people in an open-air public place, has politicians throughout Switzerland debating how to handle them. Lausanne Wednesday morning banned them but Wednesday afternoon Geneva decided to let one Friday night, the 22nd, go ahead after announcements appeared on Facebook of bottelones in the two cities, as well as Bern, within the next 10 days. Geneva’s authorities are putting in place extra clean-up crews after the giant party, but also asking people who are part of it to take responsibility for making sure it all goes well.
At issue is how to deal with a large public gathering, which normally requires permission from local authorities, when no one takes responsibility for organizing it. City politicians have in fact met with two of the people who launched the invitation on Facebook and while the discussions were reportedly friendly, at least one has refused responsibility as an organizer. Zurich banned one scheduled there and some politicians are taking a hard line, saying that police have authority to deal with any large public gatherings.
Related: Le Matin, Le Temp,
Background: Discover Seville; "Spain moves on youth binge drinking," Global Alcohol Policy Alliance, 2006 and Wikipedia
Changins, Nyon, Switzerland (Le Matin/ats, Fre) – With a little less than two months to go, the Swiss grape harvest is looking very promising, reports Francois Murisier at the federal research station, the man who every year makes the official prognosis for the country’s vineyards.
For the most part, grapes are healthy and have had adequate rain, although Valais has had less than elsewhere.
Growers are now hoping to move through the rest of the season with no heat spells and relatively dry weather.
Sierre, Valais, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Vinea wine fair, Switzerland’s largest, has unveiled its 6-7 September programme, which features three special tasting sessions for those who want to go a step beyond sampling the 1,200 wines on offer.
Photo: vines above Vetroz, Valais in July show the great variety of grapes grown in the region.
The fair is now in its 15th year and is designed, not as a commercial venture, but as a means of introducing the public to the best of the 22,000 wine producers in Valais (some 100 participate). In addition to the three "Discover fine wines" workshops the festival organizes a guided 5km vineyard walks, a visit to the cantonal grape growing and wine museum, activities for children and a photography exhibit of images from around the world by South Korean Jan yng joon, "Wine is a natural emotion."
Discover fine wine workshops
Jean-Marc Amez-Droz of the Hess Group will guide a tasting session of some of the best wines from Napa Valley, whose producers were part of the famous "judgment of Paris" where California wines won over French ones.
Saturday 6 September, 10:30. Cost: CHF100.
A second Saturday workshop is a mouth-watering one, with top Italian wines paired with Piedmont’s finest cheeses. Among the names: grana padana, Barolo de Bruno Giacosa, Bolgheri Sassicaia
Tenuta San Guido, Amarone Classico
Bertoni and wines from Etna, Sardinia and Trentino. Tasting session led by two Italian food and wine stars, Giandomenico Negro, oenologue and master cheesemaker and owner of the
cheese house of Arbiora, with Gianni Fabrizio, oenologue and the
organizer of the Torino Salon du gout. Fabrizio is well known for his slow food movement.
Saturday 6 September, 14:30. Cost: CHF150.
The third workshop features the naturally sweet wines for which Valais is rapidly gaining an excellent reputation after winning numerous international prizes. The ConfidenCiel wines will be tasted, with comments by their producers.
Sunday 7 September 10:00-12:00. Cost: CHF50.
Ed. note: the places for Vinea’s workshops are limited and always fill up quickly, so register soon, if you’re interested.
Special guests for the weekend outdoor event are wines from St Emilion in France, Dézaley in canton Vaud and the wines of canton Ticino.
Geneva and Montreux, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - You couldn’t get tickets or you didn’t want to pay the price for the Montreux Jazz Festival, which opens today in Montreux?
Head for Cointrin International Airport in Geneva, where earlier this week the first Montreux Jazz Festival cafe opened, the first of a chain planned around the world. You can’t miss it, centrally located on the arrivals level.
A glass of Italian Pinot Gris wine costs CHF4.70, you can listen to all the music from previous festivals and watch concerts in a darkened bar on a large screen TV. Note that the bar is around the back side of the kitchen, if you enter by the main arrivals area door.
The cafe opens at 05:30 for earlybird travellers and closes at 23:00, after the last flights come into Geneva.
Ed. note: the MJF web site is down today, so we’ll add the link later.
Click on images to enlarge.
Ecublens, Vaud, Switzerland (Le Matin, Fr) – Le Shop, the online store owned by supermarket chain Migros, continues to see strong growth, with sales up 26.2% for the first half of the year, over the same period 2007.
The group, based near Lausanne, says its 100,000 household customers now use it for large-scale weekly shopping, accordng to Le Matin.
