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‘Excellent’ Swiss wine touted for 2015 vintages

Swiss wines from the 2015 harvest promise exceptional quality after the particularly hot and sunny summer, although production was lower than the previous year, federal experts say.

Published: 7 January 2016 11:04 CET

'Excellent' Swiss wine touted for 2015 vintages

Photo: Switzerland Tourism

The weather conditions allowed for the harvest of grapes of a “fabulous quality” with a higher than usual sugar content, the federal agriculture office (FOA) said in a news release issued on Wednesday.

But dryer than normal conditions impacted production, which fell to 85 million litres from 93.4 million litres in 2014, making it one of the smallest harvest in recent years, the FOA said.

After a mild winter but a cold February vines across the country developed later than usual in the spring when mild weather induced early blossoming in many vineyard areas.

An extremely hot summer combined with little rainfall led to the lower harvest levels, which were also impacted by reported damage from Moon Privilege, a fungicide produced by Germany’s Bayer company and used by many Swiss wine growers.

In the autumn, Swiss growers said the fungicide was responsible for cutting their grape harvests by up to ten percent and demanded compensation from Bayer.

The company issued a warning advising grape growers not to use the fungicide until an investigation into its link with crop damage could be completed.

Despite the lower volume, the 2015 vintage is expected to be excellent and even though the first wines of the year will not come on the market for several months, Swiss vintners are already talking up the product.

The chances of anyone outside of Switzerland enjoying the new wines remain slim given that most of the production is consumed within the country.

Less than two percent of Swiss wine is exported.

The FOA said the area of cultivated vineyards remained stable last year at just under 15,000 hectares.

Most of the grapes are grown in western and southern Switzerland, with the canton of Valais the biggest producer.

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What is Switzerland's 'one franc vineyards' scheme - and is it legit?

Earlier in Spring, news broke of a new scheme where Swiss vineyards were available for just one franc.

As with similar stories offering one franc plots of land or houses, the news spread far and wide – which of course was the point – while some eventually became disappointed.

READ MORE: Gambarogno: The latest Swiss village to sell houses for one franc

While it’s likely to cost you a good deal more than one franc, if owning a Swiss vineyard (or at least part of it) is on your bucket list, you now have an opportunity to do so.

Why are Swiss vineyards going cheap?

With nearly 5,000 hectares of vineyards and 60 different grape varieties, Valais is Switzerland’s largest wine-growing region.

Unfortunately, 20 percent of the canton’s vines are abandoned and municipalities must uproot them because they can’t find people willing to cultivate them.

A case in point is the community of Savièse, nestled in a picturesque Alpine valley. About 120 plots — four to five hectares — of its vineyards were abandoned by their owners and therefore not harvested last year, as the commune can’t find people to do the work.

This is a serious case of neglect because “when a vine is not pruned, there is a period of one year to uproot it. Otherwise, there is a risk of spreading disease”, according to Savièse’s mayor, Sylvain Dumoulin.

“There are some vines where we need to do this now, and I fear the number will increase in the future”, he added.

How much does a plot cost?

In order to protect its winemaking traditions in general and abandoned plots in particular, the municipality has launched a new vines-saving project which includes a “stock exchange” of sorts for the sale and purchase of abandoned parcels.

READ MORE: EXPLAINED: How to drink wine like a Swiss

Dumoulin didn’t reveal the cost of a plot of vineyard, as it depends on its location, condition and other factors.

Unfortunately, while you may have seen articles reporting that parcels are being sold for “a symbolic one franc”, this is more than likely a marketing ploy to attract attention than a realistic price.

Savièse’s vineyards. Screenshot, Savièse.ch

“The main long-term objective is to encourage the grouping of plots and thus the rationalisation of the exploitation of these parcels”, Dumoulin told The Local.

He added that currently the project is “exclusively accessible for people who already own vineyards. But from July it will be open to anyone with an interest in purchasing vineyard areas”.

From then on, “anyone can download the application to find plots of vines for sale and to make their owner a price proposal”.

The app, called “Vignoble Savièse” can be purchased in Apple or Google stores.

One example of such a gimmick was the Ticino town of Gambarogno, located on the shores of Lake Maggiore, which offered houses for one franc.

‘Impossible’: Why Switzerland’s one franc homes are too good to be true

As The Local reported, “the news – along with pictures of the Ticino countryside and the lake itself – spread across the globe, with people inside and outside of Switzerland letting themselves dream”.

However, the “rustic houses with the view of the lake” turned out to be nothing more than ruins, with no roofs, windows, electricity or running water, situated in remote locations — about an hour’s walk from the nearest village.

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