And some of it is quite good!
Some of you may remember the first not-terribly-successful attempt to attend the "Introduction to Swiss Wines" class taught by Jack and Silvia at the Laughing Lemon.
Wednesday night was the Make-Up Class. As GLH was busy with a Work Event, to which wives were not invited, I took along Laurie, a fellow abandoned wife. This time I made certain to study a map before I left and to leave by the correct exit at the Oerlikon train station. It worked much better and we arrived at the class with no further difficulties.
The class was not only a wine tasting, but an overview of the history of wine in Switzerland, climactic and geographic considerations and the types of grapes grown and the characteristics of said wine.
GLH and I had experimented some with Swiss wines, and while we found some whites that were nice, overall we had been disappointed. But I am happy to say that Laurie and I found some wines that we truly enjoyed.
Here are my top three:
1. Pinot Noir Barrique Nr. 562 (2002), a red produced by Zweiful & CO AG, a winery based in the Zürich area.
2. Grand Cru De la Tour (2003), a Chasselas produced by Domaine des Frères Dubois, Cully in Canton Waadt.
3. Federweisser (2005), a Blauburgunder produced by Weingut, Oberhallau in Canton Schaffhausen.
Laurie and I both enjoyed this class quite a lot. I am eager to sign up for another class. Perhaps even one at which GLH can join me!
4 comments:
I was quite disappointed in Swiss wines as well, but there are a few quite nice ones. Unfortunately, you'll hardly find them at Coops and such.
Oh man - we were not disappointed in Aug 2005 when we came! The wines in Switzerland rock and the selection at such cheap prices compared to Canada is insane...
Really when you know that you have to pay about $20 for a half decent bottle, you think other countries like Switzerland are heaven..
Now I had to laugh at your comment on #2 wines...
Cully is near where I used to live in Switzerland. That's Canton Vaud in English or French..
Cully in Canton Waadt. Just cracked me up too much!!!
:)
My suggestion is to try some Aigle wine. We absolutely loved it. Cost was around 15chf..
Go for some in Canton Vallais/Wallis...
By the way, your pic/view is amazing!
There are some really nice merlots from Ticino...
Try the Blauburgunder (Pinot Noir) from Salgesch in Vallais. I'd recommend Caves du Rhodan. With Swiss wines you'll often find the reds from Vallais or Graubunden are among the best, and the whites from Vaud. The Aigle le Muirailles you can buy at COOP (the one with the salamander on the label) is one of the best white wines in CH, in my opinion.
For a good cheap sparkling wine, try the Volgaz from the little VOLG supermarkets. It goes for about 13chf.
Often, you need to find out about a winery from a friend or co-worker. Then you can go out and visit and perhaps do a tasting. Zweifel's shops would probably also be a good place. Zweifel also imports wines from all over (though the Zweifel wineshops might not be the same as the wineries. Manor also tends to have some of the better Swiss wines on hand.
You can usually find a good bottle of wine for 15chf. If you know what you're looking for.
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