Welcome to the 21st century! Valpolicella was one of my first wines, along with Chianti, drunk with pizzas as a student in Milwaukee – the cheaper the better. You can’t really blame the Verona area, home to these wines, for my youthful folly in drinking some of the worst of its products. This was 40 […]
Food & dining
More wine fun in the neighbourhood
There is a lot going on – far too much to list everything – in our little Swiss wine world. I’m having to say no to a trip to Zurich for the mega event, Expovina, which opens today. Too much going on, but I would go if I could, and so should you. Meanwhile, closer […]
Electus and Eclat, well on the road
“A vine adds leaves, then flowers, then grapes. But wine goes in the opposite direction, from the fruit back to the soil.” Damien Carruzzo, oenologist, Valais Mundi Provins made a daring gamble a decade ago and it is starting to pay off. Switzerland’s largest winery, the Valais cantonal cooperative, decided that as part of its […]
Wine-lover’s sensory life: look at the clouds
If I told you this is a red wine, and so is the next one, and the next, I would not be wrong. But it wouldn’t tell you much. And yet, the first thing we know about a wine, most of the time, is what it looks like. Being bewitched by a wine is a […]
Wines from Spain, mulled pleasures
I spent a happy Saturday in February tasting some very good Spanish wines in Zurich, at the Robert Parker Matter of Taste – the wines at the public tasting are all rated 90 or above, so it was a powerhouse kind of day. Most were from the north of Spain, with an exciting dash over […]