Arvinis in Montreux, Wednesday evening: I visited Cave Rodaline’s stand to do a comparative tasting of their three terroir Petite Arvine wines, which I’ve wanted to do since my Combe d’Enfer hike in March among their vines, above Fully in Valais. This is a great way to understand how a producer can make different Petite Arvines […]
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The strange world of rare grapes
Why would you drink wine from grapes you’ve never heard of unless you’re on your honeymoon or an exotic vacation? Just when you thought you were starting to understand wine because you could rattle off the names of a few grape varieties and even briefly describe the kind of wines they give, someone gets excited […]
Exhilarating vineyards: La Combe d’Enfer
Impossible vineyards. Impossible to stand in the middle of Fully’s dramatic Combe d’Enfer in Fully, across the Rhone river from Martigny, and not be awestruck. There are higher vineyards in Switzerland and in the world, there are possibly steeper ones, there are wilder ones. My own home is higher than this. But the name gives […]
New member: Mémoire des Vins Suisses
The Mémoire des Vins Suisses, which regroups many of Switzerland’s best wine producers, has approved me as a non-producer member, at their recent annual meeting. It’s an honour, and I’m delighted, because the wineries are widely considered among the best in Switzerland and membership is by invitation only. I appreciate their recognition that serious writing […]
Wines from Spain, mulled pleasures
I spent a happy Saturday in February tasting some very good Spanish wines in Zurich, at the Robert Parker Matter of Taste – the wines at the public tasting are all rated 90 or above, so it was a powerhouse kind of day. Most were from the north of Spain, with an exciting dash over […]