World’s best Chasselas is from La Côte in Vaud – winery’s second time

Cave de la Côte, a Swiss cooperative winery on the western edge of Lake Geneva, has won the top honour at the Mondial du Chasselas competition, which was held in early June: its La Montoise Esprit Terroir, Mont-sur-Rolle 2017 was named the world’s best Chasselas, winning out among 664 wines. The winery took the top prize in 2016 as well, for its Morges Vieilles Vignes 2015. The awards were announced at the castle in Aigle during the annual Chasselas festival the last weekend in June, attended by some 1,500 people.

The highest note for a wine in the competition went, however, to another wine from canton Vaud, Château de Châtagnéréaz 1998, which was awarded an impressive 97.2 points. Vaud won several prizes, but Valais, with its Fendant wines, was close behind, and German wines made a good showing.

Lausanne fêted in Verona

Lausanne became the newest member of the Great Wine Capitals of the World group at the end of June, welcomed at a gala dinner in Verona, Italy, with the municipale (executive director) of Lausanne, Natacha Litzistorf, leading the official delegation. The 10 members include such long-famous wine areas as Napa Valley in California and Bordeaux in France. They focus on wine tourism in their regions, sharing best practice and their experience, as well as helping each other to promote their regions.

The Lausanne region will now be able to take part in the annual international Best of Wine Tourism awards.

Note: I took part in the Verona official welcome visit and will be posting more about Lausanne’s new role.

Honest news about fake French wine

Millions of bottles of rosé labeled as French were in fact cheap Spanish wine imported in bulk and mislabeled, French authorities announced this week, after a two-year investigation.

Their report says that charges have been filed relating to several cases of fraud; the equivalent of some 5 million bottles of wine were involved. Drinks Business carries the details in English.

Underwater in Spain

On a more upbeat note about Spanish wines, the Nation (Thailand) reports that Crusoe Treasure, a winery that specialises in underwater-aged wines, expects to sell 30,000 bottles (at €30-40 a bottle) this year, up from 7,000 bottles last year. The company stores the wine in the Bay of Plentzia near Bilbao, in northern Spain and its owner attributes the increase to a growing interest in these niche wines, reputed to be more complex thanks to an accelerated aging process.