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 Chasselas at guaranteed prices. Swiss wine then amounted to neutral, mildly fizzy Chasselas from all the French-speaking cantons; Dôle, a dull blend of Pinot Noir and Gamay from Valais 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 Dôle’s star has fallen even further from favour (though a few enlightened producers are reviving it). Alongside familiar international varieties like Pinot Noir, Merlot and Chardonnay that took root here long ago, ancient indigenous varieties are being re-assessed and resuscitated, while novel varieties are appearing thanks to Switzerland’s 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! There’s 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), it’s 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, Cistercian monks arrived from neighbouring Burgundy and continued the winegrowing tradition, clearing steep slopes, creating terraces and building hundreds of miles of walls to delineate and contain the vineyards – terraces and walls that are still visible and still in use today. Switzerland’s Golden Age for winegrowing came in the 19th century, followed by the tragedy of phylloxera – 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. It’s an invitation to adventurous wine drinkers to branch out beyond their familiar haunts, to try Pinot Noir from Neuchâtel, Basel-Land or neighbouring Aargau; Chardonnay from Graubünden; Syrah from the sun-baked Valais; or Merlot from Ticino. As for lovers of little-known, indigenous grape varieties such as Petite Arvine and Humagne from the Valais, or Completer and Räuschling 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 Neuchâtel, Murten and Biel, through the German-speaking cantons of Basel-Land, Aargau, Zurich, Schaffhausen and Thurgau to Graubünden, 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 Switzerland’s leading winemakers, discover what makes their wines distinctive, and where they can be found.
On the question of price, you’ll often hear it said that “Swiss wines are expensive”. As already acknowledged, the costs of winemaking in this challenging landscape are exceptionally high. But to put things in perspective you need to compare like with like and to consider value for money, not just price. As Gilles Besse, a past President of Swiss Wine Promotion and winemaker and co-owner at Domaine Jean-René Germanier puts it: “Cheap Swiss wines are expensive, and expensive Swiss wines are cheap”. The wines you will meet in this book may start at fifteen Swiss francs (2019 prices); in rare cases they may cost over one hundred and fifty Swiss francs. For each producer I’ve listed the range of current prices for a single 750ml bottle. It goes without saying that there are no great Swiss wines in the lowest price category. However, when excellent Swiss wines are compared with wines of similar quality from other countries, many look very fairly priced.
For sheer variety, quality and value for money, therefore, Switzerland’s wines have much to offer. The tiny scale of Swiss winegrowing, the hugely varied terroirs and microclimates, each of which leaves its stamp on the wines, not to mention the sheer cussedness of those crazy enough to make wine here at all, means that there’s little chance of boring, industrial, anonymous bottles. Authentic, rare, obscure and elusive, they are for adventurous, curious wine drinkers, the kind of people who relish the challenge of tasting wines they’ve never met, which they don’t yet know they will like, and which stand every chance of stacking up against their international peers. I hope you will enjoy this Tour des Vins Suisses.
Sue Style, Bettlach, March 2019