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Buyer's Guide to Swiss Wine

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Buyer's Guide to Swiss Wine SWITZERLAND Buyer’s guide to Swiss wine An enigma to many, this Alpine nation at the heart of Europe produces some excitingly diverse quality wines, though many never make it beyond its borders. Sue Style takes us on a tour, and recommends 12 to try WHEN I STARTED exploring and writing about winemaking into another gear. Firstly, the Swiss wines 30 years ago, few people had federal government no longer agreed to buy up heard of them beyond the borders of this tiny, swimming pools (literally) of unsold Chasselas mountainous, landlocked country. Even today – neutral, mildly fizzy, inevitably designated as when I sing their praises – which I do at every a vin de soif – at guaranteed prices, or oceans available opportunity – I still get more than a of Dôle, then a dull blend of Pinot Noir and Above: picture curiosities and hunting down original, few raised eyebrows. Gamay that did few favours to either grape. In postcard views of exciting wines that stand out from the crowd, Switzerland’s six wine regions Many people are unaware that wines are parallel, restrictions on foreign wine imports vineyards in Valais, these Alpine treasures are worth seeking out. produced here. Others have heard of them, were lifted. which produces a third Valais (33% of total wine volume Geneva (10%) In the foothills of the and maybe even unearthed a few jewels – a Producers were forced to conclude that, in a of Switzerland’s wine Regional essentials produced) In the heart of the Alps, sub-Alpine Jura mountains and rare Petite Arvine from the Valais, perhaps, or high-cost country, the only game in town was Switzerland’s vineyards – 15,000 hectares in with vineyards extending over both banks of the Rhône as it leaves a fragrant Pinot Noir from one of the cool- quality. Novel varieties have since been total; about half the planted area of Burgundy 100km along the Rhône river the western end of Lake Geneva climate, German-speaking cantons; a complex pioneered by the federal research station at – are a magnificent patchwork of widely Chasselas from the Lavaux vineyards that rise Changins, ancient varieties resurrected and varying climates and terroirs, from the cool, Vaud (25%) Predominantly along Ticino (7%) On the southern side of in majesty above Lake Geneva, or even a sleek grapes new to Switzerland planted. verdant slopes of the northern cantons to the the shores of Lake Geneva, with some the Alps close to the Italian border, Merlot from Italian-speaking Ticino. And while the older generation has been sunbaked Alpine terraces and parched heat of vineyards at the southwestern end with abundant sunshine tempered by Inevitably the question of price comes up, quietly investing its ever-strengthening Swiss the Valais. Of the wines, 58% is red and 42% of Lake Neuchâtel lake-effect rain from its proximity swiftly followed by the complaint that Swiss francs in vineyards, barriques and even the ‘In a high- white, with Pinot Noir and Chasselas leading to Lakes Lugano and Maggiore wines are hard to find outside the country. occasional concrete egg fermenter, the the pack respectively. German-speaking region (19%) younger generation of winemakers has been cost country, The country divides itself, wine wise, into Widely scattered across 17 Three Lakes (5%) Mostly on the What’s new? off on study trips and internships in France, six distinct regions (see box, right). Starting in German-speaking cantons from slopes of the Jura along the Wine has been made in Switzerland – as it has Australia and New Zealand. the only the north, a virtual tour takes us first to the Basel and Aargau in the northwest northern banks of Lake Neuchâtel, throughout Europe – for at least 2,000 years, The net result has been a significant rise in German-speaking region, which sprawls via Zurich, Schaafhausen and with the balance on the equivalent but it’s the past 20 years that have seen the quality and a welcome increase in the ‘tingle game in town across gently hilly farming country running Thurgau, to St Gallen and shores of nearby Lakes Biel/Bienne greatest changes. Two key developments came factor’ of Swiss wines. At a time when more from Basel through Aargau, Zurich, Graubünden in the east and Murten/Morat in the 1990s, which helped to push Swiss and more people are interested in sampling was quality’ Schaffhausen and Thurgau to Graubünden, ➢ Photo Stock blickwinkel/Alamy Photograph: 72 | January 2017 • DECANTER DECANTER • January 2017 | 73 SWITZERLAND Five names to look out for The star of the show is Heida, grown in the vineyards of Visperterminen at 800m altitude, giving a deep golden wine of exotic character and class. www.chanton.ch Louis-Philippe Bovard in Cully, Vaud Lord of Lavaux, Bovard started out as a lawyer and now heads the 18ha Martha and Daniel Gantenbein family estate with vines in prime Gantenbein in Malans, sites from Lausanne all the way Graubünden around to Vevey. His recently created Conservatoire Mondial du Martha and Daniel Gantenbein’s Chasselas, planted with 19 different handcrafted wines are among the Chasselas varieties, aims to explore few Swiss wines to have gained which ones are best suited to international fame. Every step is Lavaux’s uniquely positioned, dictated by a single-minded clay-limestone soils. But Bovard is Above: Completer tucked in beneath the Alps on the eastern pursuit of perfection, from the also an iconoclast, bringing Chenin wines made by border with Liechtenstein. selection table in the vineyards and Sauvignon Blanc, Merlot and Donatsch in Malans, This German-speaking region turns out through the architect-designed Syrah to what was once only one of the few some of Switzerland’s most exciting and cellar to the array of oak barrels territory for Chasselas. producers in the world ageworthy Pinot Noir (sometimes labelled toasted by Burgundy’s best www.domainebovard.com to use this rare grape Blauburgunder) and Chardonnay. Growers coopers. Elegant, complex, long- acknowledge the role of climate change, which lived Pinot Noir and Chardonnay Jean-Pierre Pellegrin in – with a little help from the Föhn, the warm (plus some Riesling), produced in Peissy, Geneva wind that caresses the autumn vineyards – minute quantities and dispensed Pellegrin is nicknamed ‘the has brought increased ripeness to these by the drop through a small watchmaker of Swiss wine’ for the northerly grapes. Meanwhile Müller-Thurgau, network of global distributors. beauty and precision of his wines. known in Switzerland as Riesling-Sylvaner, has www.gantenbeinwine.com Responsible for an eclectic range upped its game, since many winemakers have from white and red blends aimed reduced or eliminated their use of malolactic Above: the steep, terraced Chasselas vineyards of Geneva brings us to Vaud, the nerve-centre of Marie-Therese Chappaz at the Swiss gastropub market fermentation, giving a crisper profile to this Lavaux at St-Saphorin, looking across Lake Geneva Chasselas. If ever Switzerland had a signature in Fully, Valais through fine Chardonnay, otherwise mild-mannered wine. towards Lausanne grape, comments Swiss wine writer, author Chappaz is often described as Sauvignon Blanc and Viognier Two white specialities to seek out in this and consultant Chandra Kurt, Chasselas would la grande dame of Valais’ wine varietals to elegant Domaine region include the historic Räuschling, grown be the obvious candidate. In the giddyingly growers, with 10ha of vines planted Grand’Cour white and red blends. on the shores of Lake Zurich, and the Much to discover steep vineyards of Lavaux, stacked above the on steep terraces braced by dry- The pinnacle of his production are vanishingly rare Completer, produced by Continuing around the country in a clockwise lake from Vevey around to Lausanne, the stone walls and farmed along the oak-aged Chardonnay, Pinot Donatsch in Malans in tiny quantities and direction, we come to Valais, the country’s grape over-delivers to give wines of rare depth biodynamic lines. Several cuvées Noir, Merlot and Syrah wines, aged in used oak barrels to tame the grape’s largest wine region, producing one-third of all and complexity. of Fendant (Chasselas) illustrate designated C, P, M and S natural acidity. ‘We’re the largest producers of Swiss bottlings. The climate was once On the red front, Pinot Noir and Gamay ‘If ever her belief that the grape is a great respectively. +41 22 753 15 00 Completer in the world,’ jokes Martin Donatsch described by poet Rainer Maria Rilke as a have a new challenger in Vaud: ‘Who would reflector of terroir, her Petite Switzerland – hard to dispute, since barely anyone else in cross between Provence and southern Spain, have thought we would ever grow Merlot Arvine (including a late-harvest) is the world makes it. with an annual sunshine rate to rival both. here?’ wonders Epesses winemaker Luc Massy, legendary and her Dôle (the Valais had a Across the Alps via the San Bernardino Pass Here, confirms Gilles Besse, oenologist at who is not alone in acknowledging the extent blend of Pinot Noir and Gamay) is Ticino, Switzerland’s Italian-speaking Lake Domaine Jean-René Germanier in Vétroz and to which global warming is changing the Swiss unusually dense and racy. signature District. Though its steep terraces bask in head of Swiss Wine Promotion, quality and vineyard landscape. www.chappaz.ch sunshine much of the year, it has about twice professionalism are now the norm, and the At the western end of the croissant-shaped grape, the precipitation of neighbouring Valais. days of ‘les vignerons du samedi’ (part-time lake are the Geneva vineyards, formerly Chanton in Visp, Valais Merlot rules here, mainly as a single varietal grape-growers) a distant memory. known for tank-loads of overcropped and Josef-Marie (aka Chosy) Chanton, Chasselas but increasingly in Bordeaux-inspired blends.
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