BERN, SWITZERLAND – Restaurants throughout Switzerland are preparing to focus on Swiss wines during the third annual Swiss Wine Week scheduled for 12-22 November. It’s your best opportunity to sample Swiss wines, and not just local wines, with food designed to go with them.

Lake Geneva region examples

Check out the interactive map to find participating restaurants. In the Lake Geneva region they range from local cafés and renowned village auberges like Auberge de l’Union in Arzier above Geneva to some of Switzerland’s world-class restaurants such as Sophie Pic’s at the Beau-Rivage Palace in Lausanne.

Price-wise and in terms of quantity and complexity, there is something for every budget and taste. Each menu or dish includes a glass of wine and the 3 menus that restaurants must provide include wines from three regions.

Café Zinette in Grand Lancy (Geneva), for example, offers three menus with two prices, CHF26 and CHF46. Auberge de l’Union in Arzier has three menus, all CHF128 each. The exquisite L’Ermitage de Bernard Ravet restaurant near Morges, at Vufflens-le-Château, has a menu for CHF312.

You can also find out which restaurants are offering your favourite wine producers‘ bottles, either by searching or browsing the wineries map.

A nation of good restaurants, wines

I’m intrigued and impressed by the courage of the chef at Brasserie Le Beausite in Fribourg, who is serving a Diolinoir from Le Petit Château (Môtier, Vully) with sauerkraut, surely one of the season’s most difficult dishes to offer with wine. I wondered where I could find wines from two Ticino wineries that I appreciate: Fattoria Moncucchetto and Agriloro. For the first I’d have to be in Ticino and for the second, either Ticino or Lucerne. My loss, but if you’re lucky enough to be there, go!

And the list goes on, wines from Zurich or Winterthur. And Basel – do you know wines from this area? Check the map, find one that you don’t know, and see where the wine is being served. Raymond Paccot‘s wines from La Colombe in Féchy will be served in four restaurants in four corners of the country.

Wineries and restaurants are still adding details to the site, as the week draws closer. Sophie Pic, for example, has three lunchtime menus, each CHF145, and the restaurant lists the wines, but as of today they are all to be confirmed and the meal menus are not yet posted.

Here’s what the organizers, Vinea and Swiss Wine Promotion, say about the event: “You are invited to sample very special Swiss Wine & Dine gourmand pairings during 10 days. Each pairing includes a glass of wine chosen from one of the six main Swiss wine regions and a dish created by the chef of your restaurant.”

App that lists 500 wine producers

Note that the (free) Vinea Swiss Wines app (I’m responsible for the English texts, annual update completed a week ago) is a good way to find out more about 500 Swiss wineries, so if you’re wondering which ones interest you, this might be a good starting point.

Bonus: competition

Swiss Wine Week is also offering 50 gift cartons of wines and if you dine in one of the participating restaurants, ordering one of the menus, you can take part in the draw for some very good wines.