Swiss Wines Win Some Palates

When the sun sets, the villagers of Russin get a light show as the rays sparkle across the spires and rooftops of Geneva up the Rhone Valley.

The nearby city is known around the world as a center of international banking, watch making, Protestantism and peace talks. But it has an agricultural secret: On its outskirts, with a view over Geneva to the Alps, lies a string of picturesque villages and wine vineyards.

“People think of the city and forget that Geneva has the countryside,” said Sherrill Hofer, a Chicagoan on a business trip. “People think of Switzerland as being cold, and so you think it’s too cold to grow grapes.”

Fendant wine from the south of Switzerland -- made from grapes grown on the steep slopes of Alpine valleys -- is perhaps the best known of the country’s wines. But the rolling green countryside of the Geneva canton is Switzerland’s third-largest winemaking region.

“There are a lot of traditional grape varieties around Geneva,” winemaker Francis Inessens said over a glass of local wine.

Inessens, who has worked for Cave de Geneve vineyard in Satigny for five years and was previously a wine taster and sommelier, says Geneva traditionally produces chasselas grapes for white wine and gamay for red.

The vineyards of Geneva canton, which is almost entirely surrounded by French territory, also grow better-known grape varieties such as chardonnay, sauvignon and merlot, and specialties like gamaret.

“Geneva has lots of specialties, for about 25, 30 years,” Inessens said. “It’s for consumption in Switzerland.”

Customs barriers with the surrounding European Union make it hard for Swiss wines to compete in the domestic markets of its neighbors, particularly as, Inessens noted, “sometimes it’s a little expensive.”

Swiss wines are generally good quality, but rarely match the classic names of France, Italy, Spain and California, wine writer Tony Aspler says. “Stylistically, wines made around Geneva, because of the climate, are more like the whites of the Loire Valley and the red of Beaujolais -- dry, light and fruity,” he said.

“While they don’t reach the heights of great white Burgundy, the whites are pleasant and quaffable and the reds easy drinking -- and chillable. Consumers with a Californian palate would find them lacking intensity of flavor, especially since they use little oak.”

Just 1% of Switzerland’s annual wine output of 29.1 million gallons is exported, mainly to Germany, but people coming to live in the country quickly get to like the taste.

“When we came here, we knew the wine was good but thought we’d be buying primarily French wine,” Tim McCalley, a computer engineer from Indiana now living in Geneva, said while sipping a glass of red. “It’s a little underrated. I mean, there’s a few lines that are actually some of my favorites that come from Switzerland.”

Consumption of locally produced wine has been falling, and vineyards are trying to increase exports to bolster their industry, which has estimated annual revenues of $880 million.

Swiss Wine Communication, an organization created by Swiss winemakers to promote their products, recently opened a Swiss wine bar in Brussels, a target market because Belgium’s cold climate doesn’t allow the growing of grapes, so there are no local wines.

“Swiss vineyards offer a large choice of grape varieties, but they are still scarcely known abroad,” the trade group said.

The rolling countryside of the Geneva region encourages large-scale growing and mechanized production techniques.

“Geneva produces an increasing variety of fine wines, both white and red in about equal quantities,” Swiss Wine Communication said.