Switzerland: Swiss Wine

Evolution, or the Golden Age of

Millennials
Stephan Reinhardt
24th Mar 2022 | The Wine Advocate | March 2022 Week 3

Folks, get ready for something new! There's a lot going on in Switzerland.
Unheard of, completely unique wines of great class and expressiveness are
flowing into our glasses—not always, but more and more often. The wine scene
is as lively, colorful and diverse as an alpine meadow in summer, and anyone
who’s been to Switzerland and seen the breathtaking landscape between the
Rhône and the Alps will be amazed by all the activity. But let's start leisurely, look
back and contextualize.

For a long time, Swiss wine stewed somewhat too complacently in its own juice.
With a few exceptions, the wines were always good but also rather fruit-driven
and soft, flattering to the common consumer and the hardly critical domestic
press. Only a few wines and winemakers succeeded in arousing interest abroad,
especially among ambitious fine wine drinkers. This should now change with the
millennials, i.e., the winemakers born between 1981 and 1996, who have
meanwhile taken over the enological scepter of their parents' domaines or
founded their own enterprises. This report is dedicated to many well-known but
also less well-known names, who, compared to the past, often produce
completely new and also novel, post-modern and uncompromisingly origin-
oriented, often organically or even biodynamically cultivated wines, which are
sure to attract great international interest. Perhaps for the first time, Swiss wines
are really cool, especially for young people who value natural expression over
power, concentration and sheer fruit intensity. It's no wonder that even New
York importers are now traveling to Switzerland to track down the new wines
that offer so much quality and soul for comparatively little money. Are there any
better Pinot Noirs produced outside Burgundy that cost less than so many fine
Pinots from Switzerland? In fact, in the land of expensive watches and chocolates
grow perhaps the least expensive Chasselas, Pinot Noir and Syrah, as well as
outstanding indigenous specialties such as Petite Arvine, Heida or Cornalin. Their
qualities are characterized by naturalness, liveliness and inspiration, and the only
luxury is to get hold of them, rare as they are.

The steep terraces of Lavaux (Vaud) overlook Lake Geneva. (Photo courtesy of Swiss
Wine Production)

Swiss Elites, Swiss Protectionism

While the first Swiss wine reports in The Wine Advocate were thematically related
to Pinot Noir and Chasselas or had regional focuses like Valais, for example, this
is the first major Wine Advocate report on Swiss wine, taking into account more
than 400 wines from all major regions. Nevertheless, like any report, it must of
course remain incomplete, even if it covers most of the country's best producers.
I had to drastically limit the number of wines to be tasted from 115 producers
(plus one from Liechtenstein) in order to be able to report in a reasonably
representative yet timely manner. Otherwise, I could have included well over
1,000 wines, which, given the fact that still very few Swiss wines leave the
country, would have been ridiculous and not very useful to include so many
wines for an English-language publication read by fine wine hunters around the
world. For this report, it was not an explicit requirement that the wines featured
be available in the major export markets. Otherwise, I would have had to remain
silent about too many wonderful wines, which would not have done justice to the
Swiss wine scene. That you might miss out on some things because you can't get
to it is a real shame, but I want you to at least know what you're missing—or not,
if you're still coming to Switzerland this year. The pre-selected domaines and
producers were each invited to send me a certain number of wines of their
choice to Zurich. I then tasted about 400 wines in February at the Vinothek
Brancaia and others at home in Germany. As a consolation for you, not all the
wines I wanted to taste arrived there. Some winemakers wanted to show me
their wines only at their domaine, but I could not travel across the country due to
the pandemic as well as time constraints. Nevertheless, this report shows the
high level of so many Swiss wines that I was able to taste in the meantime.

Donatsch's vines in summer (Photo courtesy of Donatsch)

Years ago, the Swiss press was still surprised that I had rated so many wines with
90 points and more, since Swiss wines had been virtually absent from the
international press until then. Indeed, with its nearly 15,000 hectares of vines,
Switzerland is today one of the most dynamic and interesting wine-producing
countries in Western Europe. Although some Swiss politicians are still trying to
force the mediocre, barely selling Swiss wines into happiness by all sorts of
chicanery for domestic wine importers, a free market doesn't work that way, and
blind protectionism doesn't bring about an evolution either. People drink not
only what is Swiss but everything that is good—especially in Switzerland. In the
future, even the Swiss Wine Promotion will rely on the elite producers when it
comes to representing Swiss wine in international markets, because only top-
quality wines are able to convince and achieve appropriate prices, not just the
ones that are Swiss made.
Vineyards in Lavaux (Vaud) on the shores of Lake Geneva (Photo courtesy of Swiss
Wine Production)

Swiss Self-Confidence
The fact that Switzerland does not produce as much wine as it consumes and
that many of the best Swiss wines are only available to long-standing regular
customers has long shown that Swiss wine can compete but not through
nationalistic protectionism. Or by a wholly uncritical press that tends to court the
winemakers or names them clients. Self-sufficiency also led Swiss wine into a
crisis in the early 1980s, from which today's elites, who focus on the highest
quality and small harvests, have remedied. While international styles—Bordeaux
and Burgundy, for example—may have been the focus of aesthetic
considerations back then, today it is the local terroirs and the country's own
drinking culture that have led to decidedly origin-based, lively and digestible,
indeed unique and unmistakable wines. No copies carry the success, just self-
consciously Swiss originals. If you don't believe it and want to check it out, try a
dozen Chasselas wines from different appellations. The fact that Chasselas can
transport terroir in such a versatile way is unfortunately no longer believed
throughout Europe. Swiss winemakers, however, unflinchingly prove, not only in
Vaud and Valais (where Chasselas is called Fendant), that one only has to
understand this art, while the rejection (for example in the Loire or in the French
Northern Rhône, where it was once also widespread) is not only very simple but
also quite snobbish. Does every wine have to be a great Burgundy? You have to
be able to listen well to Chasselas to really understand it and enjoy it in its
subtlety, say the Paccots of Domaine La Colombe in Féchy (Vaud). How right they
are. And actually, this bon mot applies to all wines, doesn't it?

Jean-René Germanier‘s Coteau de Vétroz in the Valais

So, the best Swiss producers don't need protectionism at all—it might even be
counterproductive for them. Really, all the elites of Swiss wine, starting with
Gantenbein, Donatsch and Fromm to Bovard, Chappaz, Simon Maye, Germanier,
Zündel and Huber (I could certainly mention more names), who made Swiss wine
internationally known as early as the 1990s, are unimaginable without exchange
with the world. They are all well-networked internationally, exchange ideas and
critically taste beyond their own four walls. They all have advanced Swiss wine
over three or even four decades, leaving their children (if they have any) to build
on this achievement (if they are smart).
Thomas and Martin Donatsch receiving perfectly ripe and healthy Pinot Noir grapes
(Photo courtesy of Donatsch)

The Time of the Millennials

In any case, the Swiss wine scene has become very young. Highly educated and
well-traveled, cosmopolitan winemakers between the ages of 25 and 40 who
have recognized the signs of the times and for whom proper, i.e., good
winemaking is only possible with nature and only sustainably. Many Swiss wines
are now produced organically and, more and more, biodynamically. It now even
seems to be a trend to produce organic wines with BioSuisse certification. In this
context, it is also worth mentioning that the younger generation seems to have
more confidence in their own terroirs and vineyards as well as in the healing and
self-regulating powers of nature than their parents did. Still, in Switzerland,
especially among winemakers around 60 years of age, one finds the ambition to
be able to produce wines like the great, famous appellations of this world.
Sometimes wines are the models—such as from Bordeaux, the French Rhône
and, of course, Burgundy—and other times it is grape varieties, such as Merlot or
Malbec.
A Bouvet-Jabloir Neuchâtel vineyard (Photo courtesy of Bouvet-Jabloir)

It is now up to the Millennials to produce wines in their own style, to be more

intuitive and to listen to nature and the given conditions to see how they could
be expressed in the wines, while the winemaker takes a step back with all his
ideas. Many are taking over their parents' businesses on their own responsibility
and can build on their great achievements, develop them further and adapt
them to today's requirements—key words are authenticity, regionality,
naturalness, liveliness, sustainability. Other young winemakers without an
agricultural background are just starting up in order to give their previous
experiences and intuitions not only a playground but also a meaning to their
lives and hopefully a sustainable economic basis as well. In doing so, they are
proving themselves to be inventive and have been making use of social media
for crowdfunding projects. These can be farms like Ô Fâya by Ilona Thétaz in
Valais or négociant projects like "Väterchen Frost" or "What the Hail!" by Stephan
Herter near Winterthur (Zurich). Others work honestly and excellently in secret
and on a low flame; they don't talk about it, like Sven Fröhlich (Graubünden),
Anne-Claire Schott (Lake Biel), Christian Vessaz (Cru de l’Hôpital, Vully), Etienne
Javet (Javet-Javet, Vully), Olivier Pittet (Valais) or Adrien Stevens (Ticino). Still
others, whom I recommended as a discovery only a few years ago, are now
starting to establish themselves among the best in Switzerland, such as Tom
Litwan (Aargau), Möhr-Niggli (Graubünden) or the Riehen winery (Basel
Landschaft). It also fascinates me to see how even renowned domaines that have
been established for decades are transferred quite naturally and without
revolution into the present and future by being further developed by the
younger generation instead of being wound up or completely rehashed, as can
easily happen after a change of generations. Myra Zündel in Ticino is an example
of a good transition, as well as Catherine Cruchon in Vaud; Laura Paccot, Sarah
Besse, Madeleine Mercier and Sandrine Caloz in Valais; Martin Donatsch and
Patrick Adank in Graubünden; or Cédric and Nadine Besson-Strasser
(Schaffhausen and Zurich) and Alain Schwarzenbach on Lake Zurich.

Henri Cruchon's Chasselas cru Au Clos with the Château de Vufflens in the
background
It is the millennials who are carrying the baton forward today, and I hope that
this report and its reception will also help to increase the world's interest in Swiss
wines. The young people are well educated not only in theory but also in
practical experience they have gained from all over the world: in New Zealand,
Australia, South Africa, California, Oregon and, of course, in the neighboring
countries of France, Italy, Austria and Germany. They move at the international
natural wine fairs as naturally as at the domestic wine fairs and are lucky to have
parents behind them who see their children's experiences and visions as an
asset and not as fluff in their heads. Handing over the scepter to them, but at the
same time standing by with advice and action, is another basic requirement of
the new Swiss self-image. It recognizes its own identity in the exchange with the
world as well as with its parents and its own culture. Developing its own style
through adaptation but tied to natural and cultural conditions is what
distinguishes Swiss winemaking today. And the conditions for this? They are
excellent.

Donatsch's vines at harvest (Photo courtesy of Donatsch)

Switzerland not only has fabulous landscapes and diverse terroirs from the
Rhine Valley to 1,000+ meters above sea level, it also has diverse soils and
geological substrates that leave nothing to be desired, climates that are mild to
Mediterranean and sometimes even extreme, and last but not least, a rich fund
of international as well as autochthonous grape varieties that are suitable for the
highest qualities and individual wine styles. Completer, Räuschling and Freisamer
are old-established varieties in German-speaking Switzerland, and in the Valais
are Cornalin, Heida, Humagne Blanche, Humagne Rouge, Petite and Grosse
Arvine, as well as many more rarities to discover. In addition to classics such as
Chardonnay, Chasselas, Sylvaner (Johannisberger) Traminer, Cabernet, Gamay,
Merlot, Pinot Noir and Syrah, there are also proven Swiss breeds such as Müller-
Thurgau (Riesling x Sylvaner), Gamaret or Diolinoir. In short: There is nothing that
does not exist, and winemakers can resist the rich offerings and only grow what
suits the region and makes its terroirs resound. In doing so, great wines can
emerge. Where "great" here means "distinctive and of the highest quality."
Jean-René Germanier‘s Coteau d'Ardon with Parcelle de Rives in the Valais

Spring Awakening in the Three-Lakes Region

While I can’t mention all of Switzerland's regions, I would like to mention the
Drei-Seen-Land (literally translated to Three-Lakes-Land). It has been
underexposed so far, but during these tastings, it has aroused my increased
interest and is a possible destination for future visits. Therefore, I would like to
draw your attention to this area as well, where four wine regions and four
cantons come together: Bielersee or Lac de Bienne (Lake Biel, Canton of Bern),
Lake Neuchâtel (Neuchâtel), Vully/Murtensee (Vaud and Fribourg) and the Côtes
de l'Orbel (Vaud), which is not highlighted here.

Created by the Valais glacier and characterized by rolling hills, the diverse Three-
Lakes region is at the transition from the Jura chain to the midland molasse basin
and is not only scenically and climatically beautiful (namely, mild to sometimes
even Mediterranean) but also currently one of the best kept secrets in all of
Switzerland. Here, one can find fascinatingly fruity or even mineral as well as
structured, extremely elegant, round and vital Chasselas and Pinot Noir, to name
the two most prominent varieties that grow in the limestone-rich, marly
vineyards of the Jura foothills on sandy molasse or on moraine and river deposits
along Lake Biel, Lake Neuchâtel and Lake Murten. The lakes usually protect the
vines from spring frosts and allow the grapes to ripen more slowly in the fall.
Almost 1,300 hectares of vines are cultivated here, just over half of which are
white varieties. In total, Chasselas (40%, mainly on Mont Vully) and Pinot Noir
(35.5%, mainly grown on Lake Neuchâtel) occupy three-quarters of the total
vineyard area, but this does not mean that you will not find other specialties,
such as Gamay, Gamaret, Pinot Gris, Traminer or even Freisamer (Freiburger).

Another Neuchâtel vineyard of Bouvet-Jabloir

The varieties of these wines are varied due to the different soils, so there is
hardly an area-typical wine from the Three-Lakes region, but I am particularly
fascinated by the Pinot Noir here. It is no longer a secret that Pinot is produced
at Lake Neuchâtel, especially at the Maison de la Carrée of the Perrochet family
and the Caves de Chambleau of Louis-Philippe Burgat. Rather, the secret is that
producers on Mont Vully at Lake Murten are also able to do it, where both
Christian Vessaz (Cru de l'Hôpital) and Etienne Javet (Javez-Javez) produce
fascinatingly intense, profound and sensual Pinots, partly without the addition of
sulfur. I count these wines among the finest in Switzerland. Other highly
interesting, dense and modern red wines are produced by Fabrice Simonet’s
Petit Château in Môtier. The wines are based entirely or in part on Diolinoir (a
Swiss crossing of Dioly x Pinot Noir) or Merlot that age in predominantly new
barriques for up to 22 months, as well as a fascinating Freisamer (a Swiss
crossing of Sylvaner x Pinot Gris). And the fact that Anne-Claire Schott in Twann
on Lake Biel is an artist working in the vines and produces extremely subtle
natural wines is another reason for my fascination, not to mention what Thomas
Gromann from the Vogelsang site fills into the bottle.
Of course, other regions deserve our interest as well, in particular Zurich and
Graubünden, of course, but also the Aargau, Ticino, the Vaud and always the
Valais. There is a lot to discover, even if it’s only by reading for those who cannot
make it to this spectacular country.

Tenuta Castello di Morcote sits on a mountaintop in the Ticino region. (Photo courtesy
of Swiss Wine Production)

Statistics: Vineyard Area

In 2020, the Swiss vineyard area amounted to 14,696 hectares, a decrease of
0.05% (eight hectares) compared to 2019. The area planted with white grape
varieties accounted for 6,427 hectares (41 more than in 2019), while the area
planted with red grape varieties was 8,269 hectares (49 less than in 2019). The
area planted with white grape varieties represented 44% of the total area, while
the area planted with red grape varieties represented 56%. In the canton of
Valais, the area planted with vines in 2020 was 4,766 (29 less than in 2019).
However, Valais still remains the largest wine-growing canton in Switzerland,
followed by the cantons of Vaud with 3,787 hectares of vineyards (13 more than
in 2019) and Geneva with 1,391 hectares (16 less than in 2019). The Ticino
vineyard area expanded by 31 hectares compared to 2019, with a total of 1,127
hectares in 2020. In German-speaking Switzerland, the canton of Zurich had the
largest area under vines in 2020, with 608 hectares (down by six hectares
compared to 2019), which was ahead of the cantons of Schaffhausen with 472
hectares (down by seven hectares), Graubünden with 423 hectares (down by 0.5
hectares) and Aargau with 386 hectares (down by 0.6).

Despite a further decline in 2020, with a decrease of 73 hectares compared to

2019, Pinot Noir remained the most cultivated grape variety in Switzerland, with
3,875 hectares of vineyards. The area planted with Chasselas also decreased in
2020, with 51 fewer hectares, for a total of 3,606 hectares. Previously the third
most cultivated grape, Gamay continued to decrease in area in 2020, with 58
fewer hectares than in 2019, and was overtaken by Merlot, which increased by
39 hectares. Other grape varieties are also on the rise in Switzerland. These
include the white grape varieties Savagnin Blanc (with an increase of 20 hectares
in 2020), Sylvaner/Rhin (an increase of 18 hectares) and Petite Arvine (an increase
of 16 hectares). (Source: Bundesamt für Landwirtschaft. Das Weinjahr 2020.
Weinwirtschaftliche Statistik, 30-31)

A Donatsch vineyard in spring (left) and at harvest (right)