Terravin’s best Vaud Chasselas It was glass number 13 that forced me to stop and ask myself if it is really possible for a single wine to be the absolute best. And for us – the judges for the Lauriers de Platine Terravin – to choose it with any certainty. To be clear: this is […]
Wineries
Why it pays to visit small wineries
A glass of wine is of course much more than its contents. It’s a place, its geography and geology, its history, its people. When you visit a small winery, you have a chance to hear about this. Last weekend I went to Colline de Daval in Sierre to learn a bit about distilling, of which […]
They were right: small yields, great old wines
A remarkable tasting session Monday 12 November, of older wines from Valais, made by a group of small independent vignerons-encaveurs, members of the Charte de qualité St Théodule. The oldest wine was 1964, just two years before a handful of pioneers, intent on making quality wine, created the charter. They were firm in the belief […]
The backbone of Swiss wines: vignerons-encaveurs
A glass wine jar for a drum, women on stilts to welcome us, and a man with a long unwieldy Alpine horn that he suddenly picks up and starts to hurl jazzy notes into a bright blue Alpine sky – what a way to start a celebration! Above us a glass dome by contemporary Swiss […]
Tsampéhro finds its stride
A lingering autumn day of sunshine and the option to dine outside will put anyone in a good mood, but I don’t think this is the reason that the newly released Tsampéhro wines I tasted Monday were good – it was the best of the tastings I’ve done of these wines, which came onto the […]