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.