LAST WEEK has been quite a vinous one and also a rather unprecedented one. I went from tasting Swiss wines one day to wines from Virginia, US, the next. By any measure, those two could perhaps be counted among the least commonly-known wine regions in the world. And to taste them one after the other is something that doesn’t happen often in the wine world, even in the West.
So why not share a bit about each, I thought. Switzerland, a land famed for chocolate, cheese, watches and any other expensive indulgence you can think of, also makes some very exquisite wines. Most of it comes from the southern and western reaches of the country, but there is some in the north as well. A bit more reds than whites overall, as the Swiss prefer reds. In fact, the Swiss rank as one of the highest consumers of wine per capita and import more than a significant chunk of it. Which explains why nobody has ever heard of Swiss wine—they drink it all themselves, leaving a mere 2% for exports, which is immediately lapped up by the coveted fine-dining establishments of neighbouring countries. The wines are quite unique (a lot rounder and richer than their cold climate would suggest) and very different from anything produced in France, Italy or Germany. But with a total area under vines only one-tenth of Bordeaux, the scale of production remains boutique and, hence, expensive.
Let’s move on to Virginia. Who would have thought that wines were made there? Well, Thomas Jefferson was a big believer and although he never managed to produce one bottle of the stuff, he never gave up believing. The trouble was that French grapes were not immune to the local yellow bug that killed off plants as soon as they were planted, and American varieties made wine that was too awful to drink. Things changed when they found some American grapes that weren’t entirely un-workable and, more pertinently, when grafting French vines on American rootstocks worked brilliantly. And thus was born the local wine industry, which was a big step, considering that about a century ago, the local governing body was desperately offering 500 pounds as reward to anybody who could produce about 300 litres of wine! But their troubles were far from over, as the two wars and the Prohibition period in between didn’t do much to stabilise things. Fast forward 100 years and we have an established wine culture here, not quite unlike California and equally historic and rich.
Trump Winery and Williamsburg Winery recently showcased their products to a select few and the response was fairly positive. The wines showed good ripeness and typicity, and the Meritage (the US term for Bordeaux-style reds) was a keeper with great potential.
All in all, a fanciful week, with a myriad wine selection from the Chasselas and Pinots of Switzerland to the Chardonnays and Cabernets of Virginia. It’s times like these when you have to remind yourself that work for a sommelier is never really dull.
The writer is a sommelier