LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – The Arvinis wine fair opens Wednesday evening 2 April and will pull in several thousand people before it closes Monday night 7 April. The sheer quantity of wine, some 2,500 from around the world at 150 stands, can be daunting. Where to start?

Here are some tips on making your way through the maze, finding wines you like and heading home without reeling. But before we start, a word for the tulips. Morges has one of the world’s finest spring tulip shows, from early April to mid-May and the city centre lakefront park where they are on display makes a great outing before you head off to taste wine. It’s a 5-minute walk from the park to the train station.

And another word on following me as I trek around the fair. I’ll be leading a tasting session Friday evening (see the end of this article) and would love to have you join the fun. Please sign up by Thursday.

After that I’ll be visiting stands and doing some live-blogging from the event. Last year I tried recording two interviews but the buzz from the crowd was too loud, so this year you’ll find my comments on wines and wineries as well as photos here on Ellen’s Wine World.

Where it’s held and how to get there

The fair takes place at the CFF Halle, a large storage space just across from the train station in Morges. You’ll notice a lot of jolly people getting on Morges trains as the evenings wear on. They’ll be carrying home their Arvinis glasses as souvenirs.

Yes, you can drive and park 10 minutes away the at Parc de l’Indépendence on the lakefront or in any of the town parking lots, for a fee. Better: take the bus or the train, so you don’t have to worry about drinking and driving. Check cff.ch, mobilis-vaud.ch and mbc.ch for schedules.

Remember that the limit in Switzerland is basically one glass of wine, 0.5/1000.

Another option is car sharing.

Entry fee

You pay CHF30 for an adult entry, which gives you a glass that you keep all evening or day. This is your passport to unlimited wine tasting.

AI/AVS is CHF25 and 6-day passes are CHF60.

Tasting vs drinking and buying wine

Canton Vaud law makes it illegal for the wine producers to sell and hand you bottles on site, and it’s strictly enforced. You can, however, order wines you like from the producers, who will certainly have order forms with them. If you haven’t yet experienced the efficiency of Swiss Post for delivering wine, this is a good time to give it a try.

You can sit down and enjoy a glass of wine in the restaurant, which serves meals with wine, and at the bar. Some of the larger wineries have tables and chairs, but the idea is to pause there long enough to taste a little one, not to sit down and drink for the evening. Wear comfortable shoes, as you’ll spend a lot of time on your feet.

The purpose of the fair is to let you taste a good range of wines and to do this, you really need to taste and spit. My suggestion, if you’re not used to this, is to take along a packet of kleenex until you get into the spirit of spitting out. The wine stands all have crachoirs to spit into.

If this seems like a waste of good wine to you, keep in mind that after a couple of glasses you’re not really tasting the wines properly anyway, so that’s a waste of another kind.

Another helpful tip is to take along a small bottle of water or buy one at the shop next door to the CFF Halle, because tasting wine can make you thirsty, especially if you’re dipping into heavy reds.

I prefer to taste several whites and then go back and start again with the reds. Some people decide on one or two grape varieties and limit themselves to that, which requires a certain amount of discipline, but it’s a good approach.

Guest of honour Vins de Bergerac

This year’s guest of honour is wines from the southwest of France, Bergerac. Think of that colourful fellow Cyrano de Bergerac and you’ll start to have an idea of the wines, described by producers from the area as “authentically regional, charismatic and generous”.

It’s a land of 13 AOCs (appellation d’origine controlée), 1,150 growers, 150 wine merchants and seven grape varieties. Reds: Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Malbec. Whites: Sauvignon, Sémillon, Muscadelle.

Classes, workshops

Arvinis offers a good chance to learn more about wine in an organized way, as well, with seven events, all in French except for the Friday evening wine tasting that I will be guiding in English, “The sensory pleasure of Swiss reds”. Price CHF65, which includes your CHF30 entry fee. Complete list of events and online registration

A kindness on your part – if you sign up for a workshop but can’t make it, please let Arvinis know as soon as possible, so the place is freed up for someone else or so the people leading the tasting sessions can plan ahead to have the right amount of wine on hand, at the right temperature.