Golden harvest of 2018 Grapes are in the air, literally, with the Swiss harvest moving out of the vineyards and into the cellars, where fermentation is adding pungent aromas to wine villages across the country. Facebook and Instagram images from wineries abound now, most of them featuring the finest grapes we’ve seen in a few […]
Chasselas
The beautiful past redux
Learning to love wines from ancient lands Fine wines from Armenia and Turkey are not what you might imagine Sunday afternoon I went to a high mountainside in Armenia and drank a magnificent red wine that was deep and rich in fruit and fresh and silky. I wish I had done all of that physically, but […]
Why sommeliers love a grab bag of wines
Many – most? – of us tend to repeat certain meals at home and we know what we like to drink with them – and now and again we try something a bit different. But home is about comfort and coziness, while dining out is about splashing out socially and emotionally, whether or not you […]
Parker Wine Advocate, latest notes on Swiss wines
The Swiss are still getting excited (Le Nouvelliste) about their wines being reviewed by Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate, the influential American newsletter. “Great Swiss wines you shouldn’t miss…” The latest batch of 167 reviews (available to subscribers) by Stephan Reinhardt, just out, is headed “Great Swiss wines you shouldn’t miss when you’re in Switzerland”, a […]
Hunting for great Arvines (Bern)
It’s hard to stay focused at a good wine fair. I went to Bern recently to visit Vinumrarum, an annual weekend wine fair for independent family wineries. I decided to focus on Petite Arvine wines. The more people who make this increasingly popular wine (Valais produced 1.9 million kg Arvine grapes in 2016, about 100,000 […]