What counts: Swiss wine on the festive table
Swiss wine on the festive table
It doesn’t always have to be Bordeaux or Barolo: Wines from Valais or Vaud are just as tasty.
Quality instead of mass: That must be the credo of the Swiss wine industry. The area under vines totaling 14,629 hectares (2021) is small in international comparison: in France and Italy it is around fifty times larger, even that in Austria is more than three times as large as that in Switzerland. In terms of cantons, Valais and Vaud dominate, with white even more than with red. Geneva is also in the top group, in both white and red wine. The vineyards of the Geneva winegrowers in existing France are counted here. Ticino (including Graubünden’s Misox) is a force in red wine, i.e. Merlot. The vineyards of all other cantons only make up a few percent of the total, whether white or red. But that says nothing about the quality. A well-tended Pinot from the Bündner Herrschaft, for example, can easily measure up to its competitors in western Switzerland, even those in Burgundy. The vines with white grapes bear 55% Chasselas, those with red 47% Pinot Noir and 15% Merlot. The fact that the reputation of Swiss wine is rather restrained internationally has to do with the naturally marginal export volume: the resulting small production is consumed in the home market, so no global image can develop. By the way, speaking of end-of-year festivities: there are also sparkling wines made in Switzerland.
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