Perfect pairing: liver and onions with Humagne Rouge, and for another night, Zurich Räuschling with Gruyère fondue.
Humagne Rouge
They were right: small yields, great old wines
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 […]
The backbone of Swiss wines: vignerons-encaveurs
A glass wine jar for a drum, women on stilts to welcome us, and a man with a long unwieldy Alpine horn that he suddenly picks up and starts to hurl jazzy notes into a bright blue Alpine sky – what a way to start a celebration! Above us a glass dome by contemporary Swiss […]
Electus and Eclat, well on the road
“A vine adds leaves, then flowers, then grapes. But wine goes in the opposite direction, from the fruit back to the soil.” Damien Carruzzo, oenologist, Valais Mundi Provins made a daring gamble a decade ago and it is starting to pay off. Switzerland’s largest winery, the Valais cantonal cooperative, decided that as part of its […]
Vaud Chasselas, 8 Valais stars – coming soon
I’ll be taking part in, and reporting back to you soon, on two annual events that are not open to the public but which will point you to some of the best Swiss wines. The first is the annual selection of favourite Chasselas wines from canton Vaud, the Lauriers de Platine Terravin, organized by the […]