Heida: Pearl of the Alps
Heida is an old variety with a modern freshness planted in the Swiss Valais heights of the Visperterminen.
Heida is an old variety with a modern freshness planted in the Swiss Valais heights of the Visperterminen.
Chandra Kurt is one of Switzerland’s foremost wine writers and critics, based in Zürich. She has authored more than 20 books on wine, including “Wine Tales” and the annual guide “Weinseller,” while also launching her quarterly print magazine “Weinseller Journal” in 2015. Chandra is also an international wine consultant and a member of the Circle of Wine Writers, the Ordre des Coteaux de Champagne, and the Confrérie du Guillon. Chandra was born in Sri Lanka, to an Italian mother and a Swiss father. She spent her childhood in Asia, where her parents were exploring the life of elephants for the Smithsonian Institution.
With a third generation of fungus-resistant hybrid wine grapes in development, are we poised for a breakthrough in the spread of so-called PIWIs? Will the quest for an alternative to disease-prone Pinot Noir finally bear fruit? Swiss researchers, breeders, nurseries, and winemakers are at the forefront of this effort. For an increasing number of vintners, traditional grape growing with seven to 12 rounds of spraying annually has become unsustainable. For some, organic farmingisn’t the answer. Because organic agents work superficially and wash off with rain,they must be applied more frequently. This requires more labor and more passes through the vineyard,…...
The lure of 007 and having bubbles at their fingertips in the Bollinger Suite pulls some people into Erlinsbach, in northern Switzerland, for a night or two of intrigue. Others fantasize about being lulled to sleep surrounded by gently aging (shhhh) vintage Burgundies in the Wine Cellar Suite. For the rest of us, it’s a simpler dream of a night that opens with great food and a hard-to-find bottle of a Swiss vintage wine. Albi von Felten was ahead of his time when he bought the Landhotel Hirschen from his parents 22 years ago. He and his wife Silvana are gratified to…...
My socials fill up with harvest photos at this time of year. It’s joyful and a bit primal. Nature controls the parameters of how and when, no matter how hard we try to predict and plan. The act of picking grapes initiates an even more fundamental process. Fermentation is to wine what oxygen is to humans. It’s both essential and deadly at the same time. There is no wine without it, yet fermentation’s transformative effects can destroy as readily as they create. It’s a kind of magic. Smoke, Stinks and Magic It’s magic because you start with fresh fruit, then…...
Above, a postcard from the German fertilizer industry of the 1920s. At the time, perspectives on soil were changing: Until then, people had spoken of plant growth as being affected by forces; afterward, it was substances. Deficiencies could simply be addressed with the help of agrochemistry. As recently as a decade ago, biodynamic viticulture could be shrugged off as “some dogma about phases of the moon and cow horns.” But now that we find a who’s who of the wine world on the member lists of relevant biodynamic organizations, it’s no longer so easy to cancel adherents to this form of farming. Those…...
Pinot Blanc is neither a distinctive cépage nor a particular grape variety – at least, not from the viewpoint of ampelography or genetics. And what there is of pure Pinot Blanc worldwide is nearly all rendered in German-speaking growing regions where it is typically known as Weissburgunder.
Kalterersee is Alto Adige-Südtirol’s oldest DOC zone, and the most fragrant and floral expression of Vernatsch in the region.
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