Sierre, Valais (GenevaLunch) – The Swiss wine industry is well into a strong revival, shrugging off economic doldrums elsewhere by reinventing the image of one of the country’s favourite beverages after milk. Ninety litres of milk are consumed every year, 57 litres of beer and 41 litres of wine, on average.
In April 2008 the Swiss federal agriculture office published statistics showing that wine consumption rose in 2007 for the first time after several years of falling, then stabilizing. Consumption of Swiss wines rose 5.7% and other wines 2.3%. The number of hectares of vines planted also increased. According to the government, the turnaround is the payoff of 15-plus years of Swiss wine producers replanting and rethinking their offer.
Enter the Grand Prix du Vin Suisse, the country’s main national wine competition, where judging ended Tuesday in Sierre, Valais. The number of entries was up 20% over 2007: a daunting 1,860 wines from 460 producers were sampled. Wines from every wine-producing canton were entered. The results will be announced in November at Swiss Wine Night, a gala event to be held in Zurich.
The enthusiasm for the competition, organized by Vinea and Vinum wine magazine, is the latest in a series of signs that the world of Swiss wines has moved out of its 1980s stupor to become very dynamic.
Morges, Vaud, Switzerland - Arvinis, the wine festival that opened Wednesday evening in Morges, is a great place to start learning about Swiss wine in particular, or about wine in general, suggests Yves Paquier, who offers a beginner’s course in wine tasting at Arvinis. English-speakers in particular can use the festival as a springboard to learn more about local producers and decide which caves they want to visit later.
Visitors pay a CHF20 entry fee, which gives them a glass and they are then free to make the rounds, sampling as much wine as they like. The atmosphere is convivial and drunks are a rare sight: most people come to learn about the wine rather than drink themselves under the table. It’s a popular place with people under 30, who come with a host of questions. Robert Taramarcaz is a remarkable young winemaker from canton Valais, Domaine des Muses, whose Fendant (the Valais name for Chasselas) was voted number two in Switzerland in October 2007. At his stand a group of young people listened intently while he explained the difference between his classic Fendant, designed to be an aperitif, and another which is a gastronomic wine, designed to go with elegant fish dishes, for example. The first is “fresh, more acidic, fruity and should be served cooler,” he explained, while the other is “rounder with aromas that stay true to the grape, where the fine lies are larger.” They liked the wine and one asked what that word “lees” means. [Ed. note: some wines are left in contact for a while with their sediment - yeast, skins, pulp - to gain more flavour].
Paquier, who has taught for several years at the Changins wine school in Nyons, part of the federal grape and wine research station, offers some tips for beginners as well as people who like wine but are unused to the prospect of sampling 2,000 of them at a time. He points out that the festival exists to let producers present their wines, rather than sell them, although they will take orders. “You’re not obliged to buy, and producers are not pushy.” Winemakers use Arvinis to introduce their newest wines and they’re anxious to get feedback. Tell them what you think, what you like and what you don’t, says Paquier.
- “Be confident, don’t worry about what you don’t know, and ask questions. Don’t hesitate to talk to people!” English-speakers in the Lake Geneva region often learn about wines by making group visits to cellars, which is a good introduction. But you won’t learn much, or have the fun of discussing wines with the producer, unless you’re a bit braver and break away from the group, he urges.
- “Don’t worry if your French isn’t good enough. There are plenty of people around who speak English.” And if you’re looking for an opportunity to practice your French, you’ll find plenty of people who are happy to let you do so.
- In practical terms, start by making a tour of the white wines, sampling as many as you like and taking notes for yourself on the order slips the producers have a their stands. Note if you might like to buy the wine later, or not. Then do the same with the red ones, and after that the sweet wines. “So do a round for each.” And if the producer suggests you go from his white to his red, say no thanks unless you’ve decided you’re moving on to the next round.
- Do spit out the wine or you’ll be under the table in no time. That doesn’t mean you can’t decide to swallow some of it, but use good judgement. Every wine stand has crachoirs, designed for you to spit into. Lean over, get close to the crachoir and maybe keep a tissue handy for dribbles. It happens to everyone.
If you want to order, some but not all producers offer discounts and sometimes free delivery for orders taken during Arvinis. A good alternative is to make a date to visit the cellar later. Swiss vignerons are often small businesse and while they welcome visitors you must usually make an appointment. Point in case: I visited a small producer this morning, but we had to cut it short because he had a problem with machinery and at a critical point in the bottling process this couldn’t wait.
Producers will often offer you a clean glass, taking your dirty one. And at the end of the evening, when you take the train home, you will be one of dozens of cheerful people boarding the train with their souvenir glasses.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Swiss wine producers at the opening today of Arvinis in Morges will be smiling, with the government announcing Tuesday the first upturn in wine consumption in several years. Figures for 2007 show a 3.6% overall increase in wine consumed, but with a rise of 5.7% for Swiss wines and 2.3% for foreign wines. Non-Swiss wines nevertheless remain a substantial part of the market, with 1.7 hectolitres out of a total of 2.8 hectolitres consumed.
Pinot noir, the grape made famous by Burgundy but grown widely throughout the world, is Switzerland’s largest variety, with 4,449 hectares planted. Chasselas, the white grape often associated with Swiss wine, is the second most common variety, with 4,265 hectares planted. Red wine accounts for 51% of the total produced, with white wine having 49%.
Switzerland is notable for the variety of grapes grown because of the large variations in terroirs, with their specific mixes of soil, air, altitude and light. There was strong growth in several new varieties and some of the specialty grapes in 2007, including Gamaret (+18 ha), Merlot (+17 ha), Garanoir (+13 ha) and Diolinoir (+11
ha), plus Petite Arvine (+7 ha) and
Savagnin blanc/Heida (+12 ha).
Arvinis is one of Switzerland’s main annual wine events, with 18,000 visitor expected to sample some 2,000 wines from 16-21 April 2008. GenevaLunch will be publishing a series of articles on Swiss wine during the event.
Ed. note: wine is measured in hectolitres, one of which equals 100 litres.
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Perfumed, crisp and best drunk young – in the next two years – was the general verdict on Geneva’s 2006 white wines, presented to the public Monday at La Colombière in Lully. The reds have plenty of tannin, are well-balanced and can be drunk relatively young but they will also age well. A chorus from the wine industry agreed with remarks made by Geneva counselor Robert Cramer that "we drink our reds too young. Our culture doesn’t yet let them age."
This is changing, as is Geneva’s wine industry, whose specialty is rapidly becoming a panoply of popular, well-regarded wines. Geneva’s wines went through a difficult patch in the 1990s after market protection disappeared. In 1985 the Chasselas grape accounted for 50% of Geneva’s wines. In just 20 years this was halved, to 22% in 2006. Gamay, whose rosé has long been a Geneva
Morges, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Arvinis, Switzerland’s largest wine fair, will pull in some 18,000 people to sample wine from 130 exhibitors before the event closes Monday evening, with most of them visiting this weekend. To make it easier to taste and not worry about driving, Arvinis reduces the entry by Sfr5 if you show your train ticket at the door.
The fair has made a name for itself as one of the best and easiest places to learn about Swiss wines,
Editor’s note: This is the fifth in a year-long series on the life of a Vaudois winemaker, or vigneron, in the Lake Geneva region. GL follows Raymond Paccot and Domaine La Colombe in Féchy from the 2006 harvest to the next one in 2007. (click on photos to view larger)
Bottling the wine
For three weeks in late March and early April Paccot and his team bottled much of the 2006 harvest. Other wines will sit longer, such as the Réserve Colombe Rouge, bottled in September.
Féchy, Switzerland – April, and the weather is suddenly balmy. The last of the bottles slide into their cartons and move upstairs to the storage space. In three weeks the shelves have gone from being nearly empty to bulging at the seams. "That’s always part of the problem," says Raymond Paccot, studying the space. "Part of the year you don’t know where to put it and then suddenly you have too much space."
He says it with satisfaction, having just overseen wine put into several thousand bottles, part of the total of 150,000 bottles La Colombe produces in a year. Three weeks of hard work have gone into la mise en bouteille, or bottling, where hygiene and business management join oenology. For Paccot and other winemakers, this is the moment
