LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – Yves Paquier is a name well known in Switzerland to students of wine at hotel schools, the university at Changins near Nyon and sommeliers or others expanding their knowledge to include Swiss wines, many of whom he has taught over the years. Paquier has just been acknowledged for his significant contribution to a rapidly growing field, wine tourism in Europe.
Winetourisminfrance, France’s magazine devoted to the field, created the award in 2009 to recognize those who have contributed significantly to the development of wine and tourism, in particular who has ” drawn attention to the rich vine and wine cultural heritage: the landscapes, geology, historical sites and cultural events, wines and their cultures, the men and women who work the vines.”
Paquier was cited for his numerous recent activities:
- creating AEFO, the European Association for Wine Tourism Training, in 2009, to provide more training and consulting help in the field of wine tourism
- involvement in creating La Voie des Sens BAM (Bière-Apples–Morges train), a tourist train to discover the region’s products, in the area between the Jura mountains and Lake Geneva
- developing, in 2010, La Route des Vins du Mont Blanc, a wine and culture project designed to put a spotlight on the historical, cultural and heritage value of the vineyards of Bugey, Savoie, Jura, Valais, Vaud, Geneva and Neuchatel, and the Val d’Aosta.
The award was given in July at the Balma Venitia winery in Beaumes de Venitia, between the Dentelles de Montmirail and Mount Ventoux in France.
Winetourisminfrance says of Paquier that he “is an exceptional wine taster. In 1994 he won the prestigious Chapeau Noir, given to the winning wine taster at the celebrated Concours des Millésimes du Jean-Louis, and his services are much in demand by major wine competitions. He is also the driving force and the technical director behind the Concours des Sept Ceps, a wine competition that brings together wines from the seven regions around Europe’s highest mountain, the Mont Blanc: Bugey, Savoie, Jura, Valais, Vaud, Geneva and Neuchatel, and the Val d’Aosta.”
Yves Paquier lives in Saint Prex, in the heart of the La Côte wine region in canton Vaud.
Note: Yves was my first white wine tasting professor, at Changins, and he has proved since to be a wonderful source of information about the wider world of wine as well as a rich teacher of how to appreciate the more narrowly focused but rich world to be found in a fine glass of wine.