A remarkable tasting session Monday 12 November, of older wines from Valais, made by a group of small independent vignerons-encaveurs, members of the Charte de qualité St Théodule. The oldest wine was 1964, just two years before a handful of pioneers, intent on making quality wine, created the charter. They were firm in the belief […]
Benoît Dorsaz
Rare grapes, do we love their wines?
What do rare wines from old and new grapes taste like, and should we love them? See also: The strange world of rare grapes Discovery wines Serge Heymoz of Cave les Sentes sums up my feeling for many of the old varieties I’ve tasted, when he speaks of Rèze, a wine that has been around […]
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 […]
Ski slopes and Petite Arvine
Note: At the end here you’ll find an interview done with me by Tony Johnston at WRS radio in Geneva, about Petite Arvine, one of Switzerland’s most interesting “native” specialty grapes. Tony and I have agreed to talk about a Swiss wine pick of mine every three weeks. This is not a commercial agreement and […]
First in a series of three: regional travel & wine
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – I’ve just posted the first of three articles about travel and wine touring in the region as a GenevaLunch feature article; the other two will appear Friday 6 February and Monday February: Swiss wines, followed by the Friendship Triangle on the area where France, Switzerland and Italy come together. The three have […]