GENEVA, SWITZERLAND / AMONG THE VINES – A hard week at the office started with tasting 80 sparkling wines Monday, including a handful of French champagnes. Oddly, friends and family showed very little sympathy for a solid eight hours in front of my three tasting glasses, sitting in a large 15th century chateau in Neuchatel. […]
Search Results for: Paccot
Biodynamic wines, slipping into the mainstream
New guide provides useful tool GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Organic wines, known as “bio” in French, and more particularly biodynamic wines, were long regarded suspiciously by many consumers, conjuring up vague (and not quite right) images of hippy wines made with animal horns and consumed with unpalatable brown rice. Those were the bad old days and […]
Regional travel & wine: Switzerland’s surprising wines
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Torches light the lovely 15th-century cobblestone courtyard, once a two- or three-hour carriage ride from Geneva. A hum of voices carries from an open cellar door where soft candlelight offers a glimpse of amphoras and barrels. Upstairs, in a renovated area of the old Grand’Cour château, Jean-Pierre Pellegrin describes what makes his […]
Regional travel & wine: French Jura
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – France’s Jura mountains are defined by deep, secret forests and rushing streams, so it is always a surprise to suddenly come upon snug villages edged by magnificent vineyards. Coming down into Arbois, there is such an abrupt change of scenery and state of mind that your arrival calls for a pause. A […]
Vaud open house, a little planning will help
Correction: my apologies, but a couple of the wineries listed below are not taking part in the open house days. At Henri Cruchon, where the winery was packed out Saturday morning, they explained that they are already so busy on Saturdays that they could only add to the crowd if they are sure of good […]