Swiss Wine

Swiss wine is like a neatly packed, miniature treasure box, and the Swiss wine story is long and twisting.

Evidence indicates that grapes were cultivated almost 3000 years ago in Valais. Wine grapes are often grown on steep slopes and Swiss wine production is labor-intensive. Yet, through the centuries, Swiss wine production has survived blight, pests, wars, and famine. Today, Swiss wine production is a pragmatic blend of tradition and modernization. The Swiss wine market is thriving, and Swiss wine is regularly winning international awards.

Crisscrossed by rivers, dotted with lakes, and including every type of soil a grapevine is capable of growing in, Aargau is the 4th largest German-speaking Swiss wine region.

The region is subdivided into three wine zones. The better-known wines from Klingnau, Doettingen, Tegerfelden, Wuerenlingen and Ennetbaden, are in the northeastern zone, in the Lower Aare and Limmat valleys.

The other two zones are the northwestern wine zone, between Rheinfelden and Aarau, and the Southeastern zone between the Aare and Limmat rivers.

Early opinion of the 2009 Swiss wine vintage was “promising”, but by the end of the year, the federal agriculture department near Nyon officially declared it as “excellent” for both quality and quantity. For most of Switzerland, the weather played nice. The early budding in spring, helped by a hot and dry June, led to quick flowering. A dry late summer and early fall helped the grapes mature well, and the weather stayed friendly for the harvest. There were some problem patches: for example, a 15-minute hail storm in July in the La Côte region damaged some vine parcels.

"So how good was the 2008 Swiss wine harvest?"

Well, thank you for asking, because it was a close one. The hail storms in some areas of Switzerland didn't cause too much damage, but the bad weather in the early fall had the Swiss wine growers skittish. Fortunately Bacchus proved accommodating. A pleasant Indian summer followed with gentle breezes and sunny days. In the end the Swiss wine growers were more than satisfied.