Yoddle-lay-hee-tee

I am in Genève, Switzerland for work, but of course there is wine to explore. Over the last couple of years I have been back and forth several times to Genève and each time I have tried to taste as many of the wines as possible. There are around 19,900 hectres of vineyards in Switzerland divided between thousands of full and part time growers. Production of wine is not huge in world terms and according to data from the Swiss Federal Office of Agriculture, production in 2009 was just over 1.1 million hectoliters, divided into 527,000 hl of white wine and 587,000 hl of red wine.

The Swiss tend to drink all their wine themselves with less than 2% being exported and that mainly goes to neighbouring Germany. The Swiss are the 6th highest per capita consumers of wine in the world at around 45 litres per person per year. Not surprising then given the Swiss’s love of wine and the sky high value of their Franc, that we do not see any Swiss wine on the shelves in Kenyan supermarkets or anywhere else for that matter.

You do not have to go far in Genève to find vineyards as there are dozens within 10 kilometres of the city centre. Crossing the Rhône River and heading west in the direction of the French border, there are lots of attractive villages such as Peissy, Satigny, Bourdigny, Choully and Russin. I am told that within the Genève canton there has been a significant revival of small family runs vineyards over the last ten years or so. This is surprising as the price of land is astronomical, which makes me wonder about the economic viability of these small, normally less than 4 hectres, vineyards. There are though very strict building regulations that prohibit the urban sprawl from swallowing the patchwork of vineyards, thank goodness.

Once a year about twenty-five vineyards in and around the village of Peissy open their doors to the public for a goûter (taste). The taste of Swiss wines is likened to the Alpine air fresh and clean. The famous grape varietal of Switzerland is Chasselas which produces a light, dry, spritzy, and delicate wine. Chasselas goes particularly well with fondue, a sort of gooey cheesy mixture that various bits of bread, fish, or meat are dipped into. Chasselas constitutes 40% of all vine plantings in Switzerland and like most grapes is known by different names in different places including Dorin in the Vaud region and Fendant in the Valais. Switzerland also has a long list of historic vine specialties such as Petite Arvine, Amigne, and Humagne Blanc for the whites. For reds, the Swiss love affair with Pinot Noir has seen a significant increase in plantings this vine often at the expense of Chasselas.

In general Genève winegrowers are in the process of downsizing Chasselas, formerly the most widely grown grape in the canton. The wines I found interesting and liked were made from the Gamaret grape. A red grape it is a cross between Gamay, (the famous grape of Beaujolais in France), and the white grape varietal Reichensteiner. Gamaret was developed for cultivation in French Switzerland, and is a sibling of Garanoir, which was intended for the German part of the country and was created by André Jaquinet at Station Fédérale de Recheres en Production Végétale de Changins in 1970. Total Swiss plantations of the variety in 2009 are small at 380 hectares (940 acres) and about 100 hectres are found in the Genève vineyards. Gamaret has good resistance to rot and ripens early. It gives dark purple wine with aromas of blackberries and spices and subtle tannin. In many ways the style is much more New World with up-front fruit, light tannins, and subtle (French) oaking that can be drunk a year or so after bottling.