Was just in the wine section of my grocery store (this is an "upscale" grocery that prides itself on its wine department) picking up some wine for Xmas dinner. Asked the wine guy if they carried any Swiss wines. Thought since we're going to Switzerland in May would be nice to try some Swiss wine. He looked at me as if I were beserk, then laughed and said, no.

I respectfully disagree with you, casinoroyale. There are some quite good Swiss wines; however, they export very little.

I guess it's like Blue Bell ice cream --they drink what they can and sell the rest....

Here's some info about the scarcity of Swiss wine outside of Switzerland:

The Swiss wine area covers only around 15000ha (per 1996). In comparison, the Bordeaux wine area covers 98000ha (per 1989). This explains why Swiss wine is relatively rare to find outside its boundaries, and as a small wine producing country only a tiny amount is exported.

We drank plenty of very nice light reds and "deep" roses on our trips to the Ticino. We brought some back with us for some friend who border on being wine snobs and they were pleasantly surprised. But it IS hard to find Swiss wines outside Switzerland, just as it's rather difficult to find good Austrian wines outside Austria.
So the wine guy at your upscale grocery store obviously doesn't know nearly as much as he thinks he does.

Several times in Switzerland I've been bold enough at nice restaurants to ask about a Swiss wine. Now first let me say I'm more of a red wine drinker than white wine -- and I strongly suspect the Swiss whites are better than the reds. Or at least I hope so. Although several times they've presented me what they called "one of the very best Swiss wines", I've considered them on a par with some of the worst and cheapest other wines I've ever tasted. And often the screw top doesn't add much appeal.

Hi orangetravelcat,

Well I couln't resist sending along a few websites in case you'd like to read up a bit before your trip. I know there are some wines from the Valais (as well as the Ticino as Btilke notes), but all of my information is about the wines from Vaud, the Lake Geneva area.

www.vins-vaudois.com (I think this is in French only)

www.swiss-riviera.com (ignore the "gastronomy and wines" link as it'll just take you to the restaurants). Click on the "Lavaux" section of the map, then surf around "best wines" or "winegrowers."

www.lavaux.com (in French & German only), go to any of the "Appellation" links or click on "les vins Vaudois."

I always drink Swiss wines while there and I've always enjoyed them . . . I guess my palate isn't very well developed!

s

There are some fantastic wines growing in Switzerland.

The Lake Geneva region is well-known for its white wines: try Dezaley and St. Saphorin (which are the best IMO).

I also bought a surprisingly good and reasonably priced Pinot Noir there, as well as a local specialty called Plan Robert.

I highly recommend to go to a caveau and have a wine tasting there. My favourite was the one in Lutry, a charming small town near Lausanne.

As BTilke and Swandav said, the Ticino (especially Dole) and Valais (especially Merlot) have excellent red wine.

There are still more wine regions in Switzerland ("Three Lakes Region", Graubünden, Zurich, Schaffhausen) with good examples. It is true, however, that you will rarely find a good Swiss wine outside Switzerland - they produce too few to export them. They drink these wines themselves, and tourists like me care for the rest

Ingo

I will look forward to trying some Swiss wines while we are in Morges and that area. Thanks.

I get a warm, fuzzy feeling when thinking about Swiss wines. Decades ago a gorgeous redhead and I went to Geneva from Paris and while there had a delicious dinner of veal accompanied by a Swiss white with just the tiniest effervescence. The veal was delicious, the wine perfect and the dinner companion sublime. Three months later we were married and will celebrate our 45th anniversary in a week. May you have the same memories as I.

The Swiss drink 33 million cases of wine yearly and produce only 14 million so not very much is exported.

The following excerpt is from Wine Spectator:

"The mostly French-speaking Valais is Switzerland's undisputed star wine region. The headwaters of the Rhône River are in Valais. It stretches east of Lake Geneva (known in French as Lac Léman) into a fairly narrow valley surrounded by dozens of high mountain peaks, including the world-famous Matterhorn. It is a region full of surprisingly good whites and reds, often made in microscopic quantities, produced on terraced hillside vineyards rising above the shores of the wide, sluggish Rhône."

http://www.winespectator.com/Wine/Ma...7,1216,00.html

Congratulations, jsmith, on 45 years of marriage.

www.bboxbbs.ch/home/tbm/wine/wine-ch.htm will tell you a lot on swiss wines.

First of all, the annual production cannot be compared with countries like france and italy, because of the size of the wine region and because of the general climate.
Secondly, these wines are rather expensive when exported, because of the swiss currency and because of the smaller quantities and the intensive production method.

For these reasons:
- as swiss wines can hardly compete on the global market because of its production costs, almost all wine is for local consumption,
- as imported wines are cheaper than plain normal swiss wines also, the only solution for swiss wine producers is to produce quality wines and small quantity specialties. The Wallis canton now has a new generetion of passionate wine producers. The Wallis region, which is not that big at all, grows about 30 different kinds of vines.

So swandav, don't say your palate isn't well developed. I would say your palate accepts something new, something different, something exceptional. Also something else than what some megalomanic 'industrial' wine producers try to impose as the global standard wine taste, which since some years, has to be very close to oak juice to be good.

I am an expat happily living in Geneva and quaffing Swiss wine by the buckets! Love the stuff. It is correct that the white is superior to the red (at least in my humble opinion), however, there are many excellent reds as well and this appears to be increasing. The Swiss do drink the majority of their own wine and who can blame them!! Gotta love a country that consumes the vast majority of it's own wine production.

Orangetravelcat, I suggest you print out this message thread and hand it to your store's "wine expert." Tell him you'll be glad to bring back some Swiss wine recommendations after your trip, to help fill the apparent gap in his wine "expertise."
(P.S. I had a similar experience at Zupan's, an upscale market in Portland, OR. Some years ago, after a trip to Paris, I asked if it was possible to get some President brand Camembert cheese. It's a popular, easily available Camembert brand in France and served on airlines, so I figured it would be possible to get it. The cheese expert also laughed in my face and said I must be thinking of the President label at Fred Meyers, another U.S. grocery store chain. I said, no, this was a French brand. He insisted there was no such brand. Now, I could have understand if he said he wasn't familiar with it, but to insist that the brand didn't even exist was arrogant as well as just plain wrong. A couple of years later, a few places in Portland started carrying President brand camembert and butter, including Zupan's, if memory serve me correctly. Another Zupan's gaffe [this was supposed to be one of Portland's best gourmet markets]: I ordered a case of 1994 Sokol Blosser pinot noir, after a wine tasting at the store. 1994 was a good PN year. When I went to pick it up, they tried to fob off a case of 1995, a lesser vintage. When I asked the reason for the switch, they shrugged and gave a lame excuse about how they thought I probably wanted the cheaper wine. Moral: the experts at these "upscale" stores often aren't half as smart as they think they are.)

Ok, let's talk beer. (I do love the white wines of the lavaux and a local red that the folks gave me to bring home from Gerra-Gambarogno.) I ask merchants here if they can get Feldschlossen or Cardinale just to see them search through their catalogs, but it's a no go. This is a good thread. Thanks again, o'cat. (two-week school break, yes!) jw

Oh well, there are many good (white and red) Swiss wines, but they're only produced in small quantities.

Federal subsidies for many years have favoured quantity over quality, so there are still producers turning out lots of mediocre or downright awful stuff, which is practically unsaleble.

When travelling in Switzerland inform yourself locally about good wines. It is virtually impossible to get them abroad, as we consume the good ones ourselves ;-)

jmw: try asking your beer dealer for Ueli-Bier or Unser Bier to see him even more flappergasted (and try them when in Basel).

Merry Christmas to all of you

Phil.

Swiss wines are very good but just hard to buy outside Switzerland. Feldscholssen, Cardinal etc are not nice beers and I am releived you cannot but them in many places outside Switzerland. Ever wonderted why the Swiss drink beer so slowly - because it is horrible beer.

While staying in Lugano, we had some wonderful Ticino champagne. On a par with anything comparable in France.

The noted food writer M.F.K. Fisher wrote extensively of her life in Vevey, Switzerland - mostly about her home, relationships, garden and most importantly, the food and drink. She mentions a wine called Dezelay (sp?) which was produced in the region. I've had some Swiss wines and enjoyed them - mostly white, and as another poster pointed out, with a slight hint of effervesence.

JMW

The post is about wine - please refrain from changing the topic. If you want to talk about beer kindly start a new thread please.

ouch, and Merry Christmas to you, too.