Nicolas Joly pitches biodynamic to the Swiss Nicolas Joly is a superstar in the increasingly accepted world of biodynamic winemaking, although he would probably cringe at that label. But a presentation Monday night in Valais, at the Tsampéhro cellar in Flanthey, made it was easy to see why he’s not just another farmer touting natural […]
Marie-Therese Chappaz
The many shades of Arvine: a tribute
Today has been a day for celebrating in Fully, canton Valais, the day when Spring and Petite Arvine are declared to be partners, and people turn their attention to this wonderful grape, one of Europe’s finest. Wineries invite special guests – last year saw several winemakers from Burgundy – the wine flows to keep up […]
Biodynamic wines, slipping into the mainstream
New guide provides useful tool GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Organic wines, known as “bio” in French, and more particularly biodynamic wines, were long regarded suspiciously by many consumers, conjuring up vague (and not quite right) images of hippy wines made with animal horns and consumed with unpalatable brown rice. Those were the bad old days and […]
Regional travel & wine: Switzerland’s surprising wines
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Torches light the lovely 15th-century cobblestone courtyard, once a two- or three-hour carriage ride from Geneva. A hum of voices carries from an open cellar door where soft candlelight offers a glimpse of amphoras and barrels. Upstairs, in a renovated area of the old Grand’Cour château, Jean-Pierre Pellegrin describes what makes his […]
Swiss film on gem of a winemaker wins int’l award
Top Swiss sweet wines, including film subject Chappaz’s, tasted at Vinea It’s easy to see why Fred Florey chose Marie-Thérèse Chappaz in Fully for the subject of his wine film, the 52-minute documentary Les saisons de Marie-Thérèse Chappaz, which has just won the Grand Prix Spécial du Grand Jury at Oenovideo in France. The film […]