Goûts et terroirs, an excellent fair The more wine tastings, competitions and other events that I attend with wine professionals, the more uncomfortable I am with that wines are almost always rated at tasting sessions without food – out of the context in which people generally drink them. Yesterday I read, on Vivino, an assessment […]
cheese
For the love of goats and sheep
Wine and cheese are classic buddies, and pairings from the mountains anywhere are among my favourites. I live in the Swiss Alps, at 1,100 metres, with a small herd of beautiful Val d’Hérens cows next door; in spring and fall they eat down the pastures that surround my garden, and in early winter I listen […]
What makes a wine traditional?
Tradition is a hot word in wine marketing right now, one that reassures consumers – and yet few of us who are on the buying end of the sales chain question what it means, I think. If you have been making wine the same way for 50 years, does that make your wine traditional? 100 years? Or what […]
Eating to learn about wine, Italian-style
I spent an afternoon this week at Taste of Italy, an event in Geneva that brought in two dozen premium food suppliers from Italy, a kind of matchmaking fair for wholesalers, retailers and the restaurant business. My idea was to learn more about Italian regional products in order to better understand Italian wines. Wine and […]
Swiss drinking less milk, less wine but cheese and chocolates are happy staples
BERN, SWITZERLAND – Chocolate and cheese consumption in Switzerland aren’t slipping, but two liquid icons of Swissness are continuing their downward trend: milk and wine consumption are both slipping, despite an increasing population. Whether the larger share of foreigners in the population partially explains the change is a matter for conjecture. Cheese consumption has remained […]