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.