Valentina Andrei and Nicolas Wüst with one of the first in a budding and beautiful collection of wines, Ivresse: think of the elegant sense of the word in French, a state of euphoria.
Petite Arvine
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 […]
Tsampéhro finds its stride
A lingering autumn day of sunshine and the option to dine outside will put anyone in a good mood, but I don’t think this is the reason that the newly released Tsampéhro wines I tasted Monday were good – it was the best of the tastings I’ve done of these wines, which came onto the […]
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 […]
Recent wine fun, Best of Swiss Wine Tourism
Prologue: cycling, diplomats, wine in Spain I haven’t been writing here much lately. This summer has been devoted mainly to three things: renovating a garden, building up physical strength following three major orthopaedic surgeries in 15 months and working on a collection of essays and another of short stories. But there has been, happily, time […]