Swiss wines have generated polite interest abroad over the years, but high costs and poor marketing have kept them off the international market. This might be about to change due to a glowing review in the influential Robert Parker Wine Advocate.
This is not the first time that Swiss wine has received the plaudits of internationally renowned critics. But as prominent expert Hugh Johnson pointed out 30 years ago, the evidence of its quality rarely gets beyond Swiss frontiers since most of it is consumed at origin.
In a 2008 seminal review, Financial Times wine critic Jancis Robinson applauded the rising quality of Swiss wines but deplored that «Swiss wine, like Swiss anything, is expensive». It comes, she specifies, from «some of the world’s prettier and more inconvenient vineyards».
As a result, Switzerland only exports between two per cent of its production, reduced to one per cent when the Swiss franc is strong, which is presently the case.
Now, because top Parker reviewer David Schildknecht has included four wines from Vaud, Valais and Ticino in his personal Best of 2012 collection and sung the praises of the Chasselas (the second most prevalent grape in Switzerland, after the Pinot Noir), Swiss winemakers believe that their time may have come.
The Wine Advocate, commonly abbreviated TWA, started by Robert Parker in 1978, is widely regarded as the most influential publication on wine in the world. Parker’s notations on a scale of 100 have opened or closed wine markets overnight.
Only five reviewers, including Parker, cover the entire planet, so it comes as little surprise that a country that drinks up most of its wine is rarely on the experts’ rounds.
The man who finally managed to woo Schildknecht to a tasting of rare Chasselas is American-trained José Vouillamoz, a grape geneticist from Valais and co-author of the ultimate guide to Wine Grapes with Wine Masters.
Not so expensive after all
Vouillamoz is an ardent believer that Swiss wines deserve to be better recognised. He explains that the extraordinary variety of wines with distinctive personalities on such a small territory is due to the presence of different soils (a result of the formation of the Alps and their glaciers) and climates (Atlantic, Mediterranean, Continental), as well as the hot-blowing Föhn wind that crosses the main wine-growing regions.
He admits, however, that the Parker recognition can create tricky situations. If producers are tempted to raise their prices unduly or export their better wines, they will neglect their local bases.
He mentions the case of Marie-Thérèse Chappaz, whose legendary organic wines from Fully in the Valais are so successful that she is obliged to set quotas on her sales.
«For comparable qualities, Swiss wines are still a bargain,» Vouillamoz affirms.
He becomes almost emotional when he describes how he introduced Schildknecht to an Arvine produced by Robert Taramarcaz at his Domaine des Muses. The American critic insisted on meeting him.
Quality instead of quantity
«I have had so many requests from abroad since being mentioned by Schildknecht,» Taramarcaz told swissinfo.ch. «It’s as if a spotlight was suddenly shining on Swiss wines.»
Asked whether recognition hadn’t come rather late, Taramarcaz expressed the opinion, shared by many other winemakers, that the quality of Swiss wines has improved immeasurably only in recent years.
Following several years of over-production and the impossibility to compete against cheaper foreign table wines, «We realised that the only way to survive was to aim for top quality, not quantity,» he pointed out.
Vineyards in Switzerland, Taramarcaz added, are generally family-run businesses, but younger generations tend to be professionally trained, sometimes abroad. Taramarcaz, who is only 34, spent four years in New Zealand and France to perfect his skills.
«To make our quality mountain wines, we need the traditional know-how of our forbearers, but we also need scientific knowledge. Many of us are engineers,» he said.
Swiss wines still unknown
Gilles Besse, another reputed Valais wine producer and oenologist, is president of Swiss Wine Promotion, an organisation that represents the cantonal wine offices. Like Taramarcaz, he is convinced that Swiss wines have reached an uncommon degree of excellence.
«But there is still no demand. People don’t even know that we exist,» he told swissinfo.ch.
Part of the problem is a lack of support from the government. And because most wine domains are small and difficult to exploit, there is little funding left for marketing.
For Besse, the Parker mention is therefore a heaven-sent. He points out however that Schildknecht hasn’t noted any of the wines. «We need a 93 for things to really start moving,» he said hopefully.
«Although it’s not in our Latin temperament, we must become more commercially aggressive,» Besse observed. A promotional campaign is currently being launched with Swiss airlines, with on-board tastings.
Ironically, he sees the greatest potential of growth coming from the German-speaking part of Switzerland: «We’re not even very well known in our own country!»
Caution recommended
Contacted for the purpose of this article, Schildknecht was more cautious in his appraisal of the situation of Swiss wines.
High local consumption keeps prices at levels that, in his opinion, remain uncompetitive for wine merchants abroad. Secondly, Swiss wines suffer from a lack of clear identity.
«Such a plethora of varieties are grown in such strikingly diverse Swiss micro-climates and are vinified in so many styles that only in rare instances … can one plausibly speak of readily recognisable stylistic types.»
Furthermore, Switzerland’s linguistic diversity contributes to the confusion, since the two most popular grapes are known under several names: «Pinot Noir may be referred to as Blauburgunder, Clevner, Blauer Spätburgunder or simply Spätburgunder,» whereas Chasselas in Valais becomes Fendant.
Lastly, Schildknecht is annoyed by the unmerited reputation of some Swiss wines, which he attributes to «partisanship on behalf of home-grown wines» – a phenomenon that is perhaps not reserved to Switzerland.
On the other hand, he admits that he has been «embarrassingly and inexcusably delinquent in publishing tasting notes or any extended report of Swiss wine». He came in 2011.
But other matters may be on his mind: in an extraordinary twist of events, just as Swiss wines were «Parkerised» for the first time, The Wine Advocate has been sold to a trio of Singapore-based investors, with the effect that the guide’s imperial influence may wane.