Update 10:00 (link to blog with tips for visiting) LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – Wine-lovers will be spoiled three times over after this weekend, with canton Vaud holding what promises to be a major new annual event on the wine calendar.
Saturday and Sunday 11-12 June are open days for wineries in Vaud, with 70 percent of them participating and a host of new features, starting with a CHF15 “passport”.
The CFF rail company is joining in the transport offers for the first time, there are prizes and hotel deals: in short, a combination the organizers hope will pull in the crowds.
The two Open Days, organized by the Vaud Wine Office with the wineries, retailers and several other partners, follows Geneva’s hugely popular wine Open day two weeks ago and canton Valais’s long weekend of wine tasting that ended last Sunday. Vaud has held open days in the past, but until this year, the event has not had widespread and strong backing from the wineries, which tended to do their own thing.
“People in Vaud have a reputation for getting up early, but waking up late”, one Vaud winemaker said this week, with a little laugh. He conceded that this is the year when changes, after substantial planning and testing, are ready. When Vaud wakes up, it moves.
What tourists, consumers, wine-lovers can expect from Vaud’s wineries
The Open Days target a mixed crowd, from wine connoisseurs to those who just like to drink the stuff to people who are new to wine or new to the region and wonder about those beautiful vineyards that stretch from Lake Geneva up to the lower slopes of the Jura range.
Background, Vaud as a wine region: The canton is Switzerland’s second largest for wine production, with 3,818 hectares, nearly three times the size of Geneva’s wine production area (3,213 hectares). It has four wine regions, which are distinctly different:
- La Côte with 2,000 hectares, the stretch roughly from Nyons to Morges
- the steep and ancient slopes of Lavaux, which is home to the Unesco World Heritage site vineyards
- Chablais, the stretch between Lake Geneva and canton Valais
- Côtes de l’Orbe/Bonvillars where red wines reign supreme.
Vaud is home to Chasselas, the white grape that is behind Switzerland’s long reputation for crisp white aperitif wines. The same grape gives Valais its fendant wines. But the grape variety originated in Vaud, Jose Vouillamoz, a renowned international grape variety researcher has shown, and this is where it is happiest. Vaud produces many beautiful Chasselas wines in the hands of top producers: some very mineral, others floral and yet others fruity.
This is the varietal (single grape) wine you will see over and over during the Open Days. Try it in different locations and you’ll have one of the best possible lessons in what the wine term “terroir” means, for Chasselas is particularly sensitive to its growing environment: soil, air, climate, sun exposure and altitude. Chasselas from Begnins is nothing like the ones from Dezaley, and both can be elegant wines.
The red wines, although accounting for only one-third of production (in most parts of Switzerland red grapes are in the majority) in Vaud, are very often award-winning wines, so don’t overlook them. Gamay, Gamaret, Garanoir and Pinot Noir are some of the most popular grapes.
Details of the Open Days
Your best starting point is the Caves Ouvertes web site, if you read French or German.
Basics: for CHF15 you can buy your “passport” in any of the 250 participating wineries. It comes in the form of a glass which you can take home as a souvenir, but be sure not to lose it during the day, as this also gives you free tastings in any of the cellars, and access to the shuttle buses that leave from the following stations:
- Bonvillars : Yverdon
- Chablais : Aigle, Villeneuve, Ollon
- Côtes de l’Orbe : Yverdon
- La Côte : Morges, Allaman, Gland, Nyon, Rolle
- Lavaux : Cully, Chexbres, Vevey, Lutry.
The CFF Railaway offer gives you 20 percent off on roundtrip train fares to Aigle, Allaman, Bex, Chexbres-village, Cully, Gland, Lutry, Morges, Nyon, Ollon, Rolle, Vevey, Villeneuve and Yverdon-les-Bains plus 20 percent off on the regional Mobilis public transport system and 20 percent off the cost of the Open Days passport.
The wineries are open from 10:00 to 19:00 Saturday and Sunday and there are ample opportunities to discover regional foods. Several hotels have special offers.
Ed. note: GenevaLunch will publish a few suggestions and notes from the pre-Open Days press conference, early Saturday morning. If you have a smart phone you might want to consider the new Caves Ouvertes app.
[…] 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 […]