Friday - Trip to Valais Region

We got an early start today to drive to the Valais region, which is actually the upper Rhone River Valley above Lac Leman (Lake Geneva). We had a tremendous tour of a very old vineyard and winery, Domaine de Gilliard. The vineyards are accessed through a tunnel! The vineyards are very steep and highly terraced. They have an old gondola system that is quite elaborate, but now remove the grapes from the vineyard at harvest via helicopter.

We then took a long walk through vineyards and over a ridge that separates the French and German speaking regions. Very varied terrain, with some wonderful alpine rivers and small waterfalls. Broad range of wildlife and plants along the way.

The end point of the walk was the Wine and Vineyard Museum, where they are preserving the knowledge and equipment of yesterday and today, in the vineyard and the winery.
Mark wearing a modern picking basket, still used throughout Europe.

We then went to the family winery of one of the Swiss students, Madelyn, took the group to her family’s winery, Denis Mercier, in the city of Sierre. In the Valais region, Chasselas wine is called Fendant. There is a definite difference, as this region is much warmer and dryer. They use sprinkler irrigation for the vineyards.

At the winery, we had a very nice tasting. Savignan Blanc (not a typo) as a varietal was really aromatic and wonderful. This is the grape used in the Jura region of France. Next was my favorite Fendant of the trip thus far, a Pinot Noir, and a Pinot Noir – Syrah blend (I think) that was quite nice.
Madelyn and her parents (to the right)

We also had a wonderful Raclette meal for dinner. Raclette is a cheese, but also a dish prepared by heating the cheese to a boiling point, then scraping it onto some boiled potatoes with pickles and pearl onions. They purchased cheese from three local regions, and the differences amongst the cheeses were interesting to explore. This is usually a cold weather dish, but it is so important that we had it on a quite warm day.

The chefs and the cooking equipment.

A nice plate of food to enjoy with the Fendant wine.

Thursday - Class Sessions

Today we had two lectures from Swiss professors in Enology.

The first lecture covered the use of an elaborate filtration system to remove many things from wine: sugar, VA, malic acid, alcohol, etc.. By the use of ultra and nano-filtration, as well as reverse osmosis, these compounds could be removed from wine.

The big project was to remove malic acid from must, and eliminate the use of malolactic fermentation, which produces the buttery aromas. This worked pretty well, and the Chasselas wine was actually better this way. But for the malic acid reduction, there was an elaborate two pass filtration of the must.

The second lecture covered the artisan wine barrel cooperate in the German speaking part of Switzerland. They are trying to create complex models that will predict how the wine will change from barrel aging, as well as trying to determine if a wine was actually stored in a barrel or oak chips were used.

We observed a unique vineyard machine that is used to position the growing canes, and then hold them in place with string that is tied to the end posts, and stapled each few feet. Really saves on labor. Neat Swiss designed machine.


We had a student wine tasting today, with wines from the home regions of the students. Cal Poly brought some very nice wines, but I was really impressed with some of the Swiss wines and the Canadian icewine (one word). Fantastic stuff that is very viscous and sweet but has wonderful aromas and acidity.

Tonight we watched the second semi-final game of the UEFA cup. Spain beat Russia. Either way, we will get lots of cars honking their horns by the dorms tonight, as we live right by the main road out of Laussane.

It's all about the soil!

Greetings! Today was another wonderful day. We are continually amazed at the country-side here and the graciousness of the Swiss who have invited us here. Our topic(s) of study today were geography, soil profiles and climate. We started our day at the University and then headed North through completely new areas to the city of Neauchatel. It was a beautiful drive, and along the way we learned more about the different soils of the areas based on the geography. Much of the country is mountainous, formed by continental drifts millions of years ago; the other parts are valleys, with rich soils and climates influenced by glacial shifts and volcanic action.

The area we visited was called Vully, which is a valley sandwiched between Lac de Neuchatel and Lac de Morat; Chateau de Praz is the name of the winery. The owner/mother is 5th generation and her daughter is the winemaker. Their generosity was infectious and I liked their wines. We were poured another Chasselas, a Gewurztaminer, a Framburger and a distilled Gewurztraminer(very strong!) In addition they brought out pastries to pair with the wines. I enjoyed their presentation, and their kindness. Once finished with the tasting, we sat in their garden to enjoy our lunches. The winemaker and her mother served water, coffee and sweet pastries. Ah, the incredible food!

A hotel across the street from Chateau de Praz, where we had our first tasting today.

Chateau de Praz, and some of their vineyards

Madeline, one of the Swiss students waiting for our tasting to begin.

Mark enjoying the sweet pastry after lunch. Think of it as creme brulee on a really soft pastry!

A view from the garden where we enjoyed our lunch today. Lac de Neuchatel is in view.
Empty bottles from the winery. Recycling is pretty important in Switzerland!

After lunch, we spent the rest of the afternoon visiting different soil profiles in vineyards around the area. Our professor, Stephane, was very informative, and encouraged our participation in problem-solving some solutions for the differing vineyard issues. It was a great experience.

Stephane standing in a soil profile examining some soil; one of our "problem" vineyards. We're looking down a steep grade set high on a hill. The vines are three years old, but not growing.

Our dinner today was a special bbq at the lake back in Lausanne. Several of our team went swimming, but most just enjoyed the relaxing evening drinking wine and getting to know their Swiss/CA/Canadian counterparts. It was a great evening. BBQing our own steak/lamb/pork/veal and veggie skewers, Mark and I were reminded of one of our favorite SD restaurants—the Turf Club.

The evening did not end with dinner—remember, Euro 2008 is alive and exciting in Lausanne—so we all headed to the soccer match between Germany and Turkey after dinner and then to a club in the Centre of town for drinks afterwards. Our younger friends had a very LONG night. We however, crashed early—around 1:30am. Sante!

Our First Days at School

The teams from California and Canada have been warmly welcomed, and we are truly enjoying ourselves. Monday we toured the campus, winery and vineyards at Changins, and were introduced to the Swiss professors and students who will participate in the program with us. Our first lecture, “An Introduction to Swiss Vineyards” taught us about the different wine regions of Switzerland and included a wine tasting of the primary wines from each region. We learned that currently the Swiss people drink 99% of the wines they make, leaving only 1% for the export market. This may explain why we haven’t seen too many Chasselas wines at Vons.

In the evening we attended the opening ceremony, where we learned that the school is celebrating its 60th anniversary. Many Swiss officials attended. Afterwards we were treated to a very nice meal and then taken back to our housing facility, about 30 minutes from campus. It was a long and rewarding day.

Each day we meet the bus near our rooms and are taken either to the University in Changins or to wherever we might be traveling to for the day. Tuesday was a day of travel. We started in Lausanne and traveled by bus to Rolle and into the vineyards in Luin. We stopped at a chapel that had an amazing view of the valley below.

From there we took the bus to Nyon where we boarded a boat and spent most of the day traveling on Lake Geneva, called Lac Leman in Switzerland to many different cities and ports: Yvoire, Evian, Rolle, Morges, Lausanne, Vevey, and Montreaux—just to name a few. It was a breathtaking trip. The coastline of the lake is amazing, and I couldn’t stop taking pictures!

We disembarked the boat in Montreaux, which is Switzerland’s Mediterranean city and headed into the Lavaux wine region. This is where it really got exciting. I’m not sure any photo can truly capture how amazing this region is, with its steep slopes and breathtaking views, but we tried our best. The vineyards are steep and dangerous, and everywhere the eye could see.

After a short walk we arrived at our first winery, owned by the city of Lausanne, called Clos des Abbayes. The hosts were gracious, informative (this winery is nearly a 1000 years old!!) and very generous with the wine. We tried three varieties: Chasselas, Chardonnay and a blended red with Pinot noir, Gamay and Merlot.
Rounding out the day we stopped in Cully, visiting with the owner of another old winery, Louis Bovard. This man is 10th generation winemaker, and his wines show the richness of his history.

From Cully, we head back to Lausanne. Mark and I are exhausted from the day, have dinner and call it a night! Whew, what a couple of amazing days.

Travel Day to Switzerland (posted a bit late)

We are leaving Fresno at 11:44 am for LA, then a long layover before flying to London (Heathrow) and finally Geneva at 6 pm tomorrow. This will be a nice opportunity to catch up on some sleep, as we have been going strong for a few weeks now: putting our belongings into storage in Fresno, then cleaning up the house in San Diego. We did find a few days to relax on the beach in San Diego and hit some of the old hangouts, which was a ton of fun.

The Fresno airport is very small, and was used as a set in the new Indiana Jones movie. I’m not sure what part they used, but this is a little tiny airport.

Good bye for a month, Central Valley.

Our friends Vickie and Eric in Fresno are watching our beloved dog Buster. He will have a great time playing with their bulldog. Our cat Annie is living with Kathe’s mom in San Diego, and will have a whole new house to explore.

Vineyards on the way to Lausanne from Geneva. More vineyards than I expected to see.

Introduction

We will be publishing this blog of our travels as we enter the wine world. Stay tuned for a big Switzerland trip this summer, followed by internships in Napa Valley this fall.