‘Tis the season for overseas guests and non-Swiss friends to drop in for a sociable drink or two. Here are some suggestions for showing off the fine wines of Switzerland.

Aperitif food, uncomplicated

Keep it simple – Swiss wines work well with Swiss air-dried meats and cheese platters for late afternoon or early evening.

Dried meats are a mountain tradition that dates back centuries, with each region having its own recipes. Graubuenden Buendnerfleisch is one of the best known, but, especially with a nice wine, I prefer the Valaisan (Walliser) version where the meat is cured in salt and spices, rinsed then hung to dry, taking advantage of the very dry Alpine air. Slice it in very thin slivers.

Dried doesn’t mean it keeps forever. Eat it soon after you buy it, to get the full flavour and a fresher texture.

On a recent trip to Graubuenden I was taken to a shop near Lenzerheide that offers dozens of meats. Note that dried meat on a commercial scale doesn’t always come from Swiss animals. And if you don’t read German be aware that you can buy pork, beef and game of several sorts.

The Swiss cheeses that work best, unless you want to offer a mixed platter, are hard cheeses, with Gruyère as a classic. There are four varieties. I prefer the salée (salted) with wine, over mi-salée. The surchoix is more refined, but I find it is not sharp enough to provide good balance for many wines.

Some like it white, some like it red

Serve both. Switzerland produces and drinks slightly more red wine (52%) white (48%), and both have been winning awards at international competitions.

The encyclopedic Swiss Wine Guide 2009-2010 (sold online for CHF39) lists 450 producers, and these are only some of the best. The guide, produced by Vinea and published by Ringier Romande (EW note: I was responsible for the English version, published end November 2008), refers to 31 main grape varieties. Switzerland’s real specialty is the rich variety of its wines, so set out a sampling and let your guests explore them. Note: The cellars listed below have people who speak English.

THE WHITES

The classic Swiss aperitif wine, Chasselas (Fendant in Valais) is always a good choice, if you buy a good one. Three of my personal favourites:

Vaud Chasselas (Féchy), wine – La Colombe Féchy, Domaine La Colombe, Raymond Paccot, CHF10. Available mainly directly from the producer. The 75 cl bottles of this highly popular wine from one of Switzerland’s best winemakers are out of stock, but you can order smaller bottles.

Vaud Chasselas (Mont-sur-Rolle), wine – Chasselas sur lie, Domaine Les dames de Hautecour, Coraline de Wurstemberger, CHF13. Aged on its lees in barrel 12 months, then at least two years in bottle, this is a sharp yet smooth wine with a yeastiness that is appealing but might not be to everyone’s taste. De Wurstemberger also makes a lovely Chasselas Violet wine, from the uncommon grape variety of this name, an unusual and surprising wine with a nose of exotic fruits.

Valais Fendant (Chamoson), wine – Les Mazots, Cave Maurice Gay, manager Claude Crittin, CHF10.50. A very well-balanced wine, slightly bubbly, mineral, surprisingly long in the mouth. This is a cellar that takes great pride in its Valais roots, very focused on bringing out the best of the grapes from its many terroirs, mainly through temperature control. The cellar produces 19 wines, working with its own 20 hectares of grapes grown mainly on the terraced slopes between Sion and Martigny, as well as with 200 ha of grapes  from some 450 other growers. (Ed. note: I’ve just come across this profile, in French, of Maurice Gay, published 15 December in Le Nouvelliste.)

Also consider these options:

Pinot blanc, Valais (Veyras), wine – Pinot Blanc, Cave Le Verseau, Stephane Clavien, CHF15. This cellar’s Pinot Blanc (the grape variety is a mutation of Pinot Noir) provides a rich, powerful fruity and very round white wine, typical for the variety, that some people will find overwhelming as an aperitif (I prefer it with a meal: the Claviens suggest with a mushroom cassoulet, an excellent combination). It is a good wine for guests who want to sip slowly, and not in great quantity, who can appreciate its fullness.

Pinot gris, Vaud (Féchy), wine – Pinot Gris Réserve, Cave La Colombe, Raymond Paccot, CHF25. This is my idea of white wine heaven. The grapes are hand-selected from 40-50 year old vines and the vinification process, which includes aging on fine lees in tank and in barrel, is equally carefully managed. The wine that comes out of the bottle is beautiful, very elegant and well structured. Paccot’s magic runs through his most basic Fendant to this, one of his top-line wines.

Tip: if you’re looking for a good Swiss white wine to offer as a gift, this is perfect, excellent wine in beautifully elegant packaging.

THE REDS

Red blend, Geneva (Satigny), wine – Le Radaillon 2006 (Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Gamaret), Domaine de la Roselle, Jacques Meinen, CHF25. This is a good example of a new wave of Swiss blended red wines, velvety and well balanced after aging nine months in barrel and 10 months in bottle. Kathy Meinen runs a shop on the main street in Satigny, where you can find her husband Jacques’s wine, as well as a selection of some of Geneva’s other top wines and a good range of gourmet items. The tasting room at the back, with its old wooden table, makes it a pleasant place to sample some of canton Geneva’s best wines. She’s an American from Pittsburgh who headed for Europe in her student days, then built a career working in large US corporations before settling down with her husband in Geneva to run his family winery.

Red blend, Geneva (Jussy), wine – Château Rouge (Pinot Noir and Gamaret), Chateau du Crest, CHF13. A lovely wine, powerful and with richly spicey notes, a very good buy at this price. The chateau itself is worth a visit, a reminder that canton Geneva offers wonderful scenery just outside the city of Geneva.

Pinot Noir, Valais (Balavaud, near Vétroz), wine – Pinot Noir Balavaud Grand Cru 2007, Cave Jean-René Germanier, CHF17. This is an old Valais famiy winery that takes a very up-to-date approach to the wine business, which does a thriving trade abroad. Third and fourth generation members of the family are the oenologists for this cellar, whose 2006 Pinot Noir won a silver medal at the Concour Nobilis and whose 2007 won an impressive gold medal at the Mondial du Pinot Noir, the only international competition for this grape’s wines. This is a lovely, elegant and well-rounded example of a Pinot Noir, and it’s a wine that can be drunk now but that will age well, up to 10 years. Pinot Noir is fruity yet dry, but with less tannin than many other reds, so it makes a good aperitif wine for those who prefer red but don’t want something too dry or powerful.

Cornalin and Syrah, Valais (Vétroz), wines – Cornalin du Valais AOC and Syrah du Valais AOC, Cave la Madeleine, André Fontannaz, CHF18 for50cl for the Cornalin and CHF23 for 75cl for the Syrah. He is one of the top winemakers in Valais, particularly known for his sweet whites, but his reds offer an excellent example of how well these two grape varieties can do in Valais, at the hands of a good producer. Cornalin is a native grape found only in Valais and the Val d’Aosta that produces a strong, quite dry red with high tannin and excellent wild fruit and spicey notes. It produces irregularly, is one of the last grapes to be harvested and is susceptible to rot, all of which makes it a real treasure when a good producer manages to bottle it! It should be drunk in two to three years, says Fontannaz. The Cornalin has a rustic touch in mouth at first, but it lingers very pleasantly and is a real treat for anyone who likes full red wines.

If you have a diabetic who drinks, among your guests, this is the kind of dry red that is more acceptable than sweeter wines. The Syrah is a bit lighter, but still a full-bodied wine with spicey notes, well-balanced, with lovely violet lights.

Tip: Fontannaz’s Petite Arvine is a magnificent wine: buy it while you’re picking up the others, but save it for a foie gras starter or for after dinner, as this is a sweet wine.