“St Prex” in the A320 fleet might puzzle passengers, but not pilots GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Airline Swiss once named its planes after Swiss mountains, but it recently began to name them after Swiss cities, starting in Vaud with Lausanne, Montreux and Nyon. This week Saint Prex will have a an A320 Airbus named after it, […]
‘Tis the season, bring on the bubbly stuff!
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND / AMONG THE VINES – A hard week at the office started with tasting 80 sparkling wines Monday, including a handful of French champagnes. Oddly, friends and family showed very little sympathy for a solid eight hours in front of my three tasting glasses, sitting in a large 15th century chateau in Neuchatel. […]
Light dinner & Celtic musicArte & Vini, Cave des Lauriers
What a wonderful way to show support for a good winery in one of the areas hardest hit by the 17 June 2013 hailstorm. Haunting music from Brittany in this old family winery, with dinner (by reservation)
One billion for Lausanne train station upgrade
Swiss to vote in February on financing main hub mega-upgrade GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Lausanne’s train station will need 12 years for a major facelift to its tracks and surrounding areas to be completed, but what an improvement for travelers and for links to Geneva is in the works! The federal government and canton Vaud, with […]
Wine tasting, des Bulles et du Gamay (update)
First-ever bubbles & Gamay wine fair, a chance to sample fine sparkling wines from Switzerland, with caviar and chocolate – promises to be an excellent pre-holiday tasting warmup in Ouchy-Lausanne!
Here’s a review of some of the 80 Swiss sparkling wines I tasted Monday, including some of those offered at Saturday’s event, to help you get started.
A word about the Gamay part of this: it includes newer spinoff grape varieties Garanoir and Gamaret, both developed in Switzerland, often used in blends. Swiss Gamay wines can be excellent – les Frères Dutruy in Founex have a particularly good line. If you’re familiar with this grape mainly through Beaujolais, you’ll find here well-structured wines with a deeper colour where the fruit is still very present but with more complexity.