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 […]
Neuchatel
Italy, France, Switzerland: 7 Ceps regional wine competition winners named
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The 7 Ceps wine competition is an interesting variation on the theme of “best of” that for most competitions means best of a grape variety or a politically defined region. These are wines from a geographically linked area, the vineyards in the greater Mont Blanc region with producers in Italy, France and […]
How the cantons fare: finalists in the Swiss wine competition
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The Grand Prix du Vin Suisse, while not a competition that pits one canton against another, serves as a kind of register for how well wines from the six main wine regions fared against those from other parts of the country. The 2012 distribution of Swiss wine finalists by region and canton […]
Swiss wineries open house days: tips for visiting
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Swiss cantons are becoming increasingly organized and coordinating their work for the cantonal wineries’ open house days. The same basic tips apply for visiting all of them: Your starting point should be the GenevaLunch news story on the event (search name of canton + wineries open house). The open houses are designed […]
About Chasselas, Switzerland’s emblematic wine
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Switzerland produces and consumes more red wine than white, a fact that surprises many people. Surely, I hear the protesting voices, the lovely crisp white aperitif wine that you see and drink everywhere must be the main wine? We’re talking about Chasselas, Switzerland’s justifiably most famous grape, of which some 40 million […]