MONTREUX, SWITZERLAND – A bit of news tucked away in the list of interesting summer events at the Chateau de Chillon near Montreux: the Clos de Chillon, an excellent Chasselas, will be aged and bottled at the castle starting this year. The wine has been made for the chateau foundation by the Badoux winery, famous for its Aigle les Murailles Chasselas, among others on its large wine list.
Some 40 barrels have just been deposited in the first room of the underground cellars, the chateau’s newsletter tells us. These will hold the 2011 vintage.
The wine is made from the chateau’s own vineyard, 300 metres from the castle. Daniel Dufaux, Badaud’s head oenologist and president of the Swiss Oenologist’s Association, will make the wine on the site.
Clos de Chillon sells at the castle shop for CHF19 a bottle. It is dry, elegant and shares features of the two regions it straddles, the excellent growing areas of Chablais and Lavaux. It’s the perfect crisp aperitif wine and in a classic pairing, it’s excellent with grilled fish.
More than 330,000 people visited the castle in 2010, making it one of Switzerland’s top tourist attractions, with over 70 percent of the visitors from abroad.