Sue Style - The Landscape of Swiss Wine: A Wine-Lovers Tour of Switzerland

THE LANDSCAPE OF SWISS WINE

A Wine Lovers Tour of Switzerland

The Landscape of Swiss Wine: A Wine Lovers Tour of Switzerland

Copyright 2019, Bergli Books, all rights reserved.

Text copyright 2019 by Sue Style, all rights reserved.

Picture copyright: see .

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, by any means, without prior permission in writing from Bergli Books.

Swiss Edition: ISBN 978-3-03869-057-3 (Printed in Lithuania)

International Edition: ISBN 978-3-03869-073-3 (POD)

978-3-03869-013-9 (MOBI)

978-3-03869-012-2 (EPUB)

The production of the first edition of this book was made possible by the generous support of Swiss Wine Valais.

Bergli Books received a structural grant from the Swiss Ministry of Culture 20162020

To MWS

faithful supporter, trusty chauffeur and fellow wine-taster

THE LANDSCAPE OF SWISS WINE

A Wine Lovers Tour of Switzerland

SUE STYLE

A Guide to Tasting, Buying, and Experiencing the Best Wines of Switzerland

CONTENTS

DR JOS VOUILLAMOZ

GRAPE GENETICIST AND CO-AUTHOR OF WINE GRAPES: A COMPLETE GUIDE TO 1,368 VINE VARIETIES, INCLUDING THEIR ORIGINS AND FLAVOURS

My homeland Switzerland is a tiny wine country with a huge diversity of soils, climates and grape varieties. On its mere 15,000 hectares, more than 250 grape varieties are officially cultivated, which probably constitutes a world record. This is nothing to be proud of, in and of itself: diversity does not create identity but it does create excitement. And Swiss wines certainly have plenty of excitement to offer. With exports stagnating at around a meagre one percent, however, very few people outside Switzerland know that the Swiss have been making wine since before the Roman era.

Among the few foreigners who have tasted Swiss wines, many have done so during a visit to the country, and some reduce the countrys offerings to dull Chasselas and acidic Pinot. But Switzerland has so much more to offer! The well-informed amateur will seek out the aromatic Petite Arvine from the Valais, the Pomerol-like Merlot from Ticino, the Burgundy-like Pinot from Graubnden, the Chasselas-based Dzaley and Calamin Grand Cru from Vaud, and many more. However, only the geekiest oenophile will have ever heard of super-rare varieties like Himbertscha, Lafnetscha, Ruschling and Bondola. When I first met Sue Style in 2013 at the birthday party of our mutual friend Josef-Marie Chanton, nicknamed the grape archaeologist for his work in rescuing several of these ancient local varieties, I was shocked to find that she already knew them all! Ninety-nine percent of the Swiss people themselves have never heard of them.

Since then, I have seen Sue at numerous wine events around Switzerland, and weve had the opportunity to enjoy many a fine meal together in the gourmet restaurants of the Valais region. I have always been impressed by Sues writing skills, as seen for example in her excellent articles in Decanter . I have no doubt that she qualifies as the best person to help you discover the wonderful Swiss grape varieties and the unique wines of this tiny country.

Over thirty years ago I arrived in Switzerland and took my first tentative steps into writing about Swiss wines. Since then there has been a quiet but significant revolution in the Swiss vineyards. Those were the bad old days, the 1980s, when the Confederation was still bound to buy up swimming pools literally of unsold (and unsaleable) surplus that did few favours to either grape; and thin, sweetish Blauburgunder (aka Pinot Noir) from the northern cantons. They found a market locally, not least because of lack of competition. Excitement there was none.

Later I moved across the border to Alsace, close enough to keep tabs on things and to note a quiet but steady revolution in the Swiss vineyards. Slowly but inexorably, things began to change. Subsidies were removed and restrictions on foreign wine imports were lifted. Swiss consumers suddenly gained unaccustomed access to wines from France, Italy, Spain and beyond. The modestly priced imported wines competed directly with the bottom end of the Swiss market, while the fine wine imports had little or no local competition. Swiss producers were forced to concede that in a high-cost country, whose dramatic landscape poses particular challenges to the winegrower, the only game in town was quality.

Since then it has been a story of steady progress. Hectares of Chasselas vines have been uprooted, and Dles star has fallen even further from favour (though a few enlightened producers are reviving it). Alongside familiar international varieties like Pinot Noir, that took root here long ago, ancient indigenous varieties are being re-assessed and resuscitated, while novel varieties are appearing thanks to Switzerlands world-class viticultural research stations. All the while, an older generation of winemakers has been quietly investing in the family vineyards, sinking money into barriques from Burgundy coopers, and even venturing into the occasional trendy, concrete egg fermenter. Their sons and daughters have been off on study trips and internships in France, California, Australia and New Zealand. What a transformation! Theres never been a better time to discover Swiss wines.

I still meet people who express surprise that Switzerland is actually a wine-producing country. Today the surface area of vines is small with 15,000 hectares (37,000 acres), its about the same size as that of Alsace, or half that of Burgundy and hardly any of it ever leaves the country. But there is a rich and old-established winegrowing tradition in this tiny, landlocked, alpine country.

Wine has been made here as in the rest of Europe for at least 2,000 years, starting with the Romans. During the Middle Ages, the vine louse which reduced the vineyard area to barely one-third of its original size. The push for quantity in the second half of the 20th century has now been replaced by a single-minded focus on quality.

My aim with this book is to give inquisitive wine lovers the opportunity to visit this singular wine-growing country through the wines, the makers, and the extraordinary landscapes in which the wines grow. It will serve as an introduction for those who know little or nothing about Swiss wine (but who want to learn), as well as offer deeper exploration for those who have already dipped a toe into these teeming waters. Its an invitation to adventurous wine drinkers to branch out beyond their familiar haunts, to try from northern Switzerland, they will find much here to delight and surprise them.

Taking the form of a clockwise Tour des Vins Suisses (this is Switzerland, and clocks go with the territory), the book starts in the heart of the Valais region and works its way down the Rhone and along the shores of Lake Geneva, then up past the three lakes of Neuchtel, Murten and Biel, through the German-speaking cantons of Basel-Land, Aargau, Zurich, Schaffhausen and Thurgau to Graubnden, and finishes up full-circle in the alpine foothills and lakes of Italian-speaking Ticino. Along the way, through hugely varied terroirs and microclimates, from harsh alpine foothills to radiant, lakeside sites, the book explores how the work of winegrowers down the centuries has shaped the landscape, and how the landscape the terroir confers character on the wines. On the way round the country, you will meet Switzerlands leading winemakers, discover what makes their wines distinctive, and where they can be found.