Swiss Wine Trends
It would be easy to dismiss what happens in the tiny winegrowing country of Switzerland as an inconsequential alpine eddy, an iridescent surge in the…
When Vermouth was Spelled Wermut
It was the first hour of my first shift, and of course, it was a “Manhattan Cocktail.” I pictured the flashcards heavy in my pocket…
Sober Culture
What does one drink, when one doesn’t drink? Isabella Steiner opts for an oat milk latte. On the sun-kissed, hipster corner of Berlin known as…
Shimmering Schiller
An initial Internet search on Schiller reveals little more than references to Friedrich Schiller, the 18th-century poet and philosopher from Württemberg. While many have assured…
“It’s the Nitrogen, Stupid!”: On Agrochemistry, Biodynamics and Wine
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…
What’s Driving Swiss Wine?
The Donatschs were never conformists. Starting in the 1970s, Thomas Donatsch of Graubünden turned the Swiss wine landscape on its head with his illegal Chardonnay…
3 Can’t-Miss Wines from Vulkanland Steiermark
In Vulkanland Steiermark — “volcanic Styria” — the name says it all. Some 1,500 hectares of vineyard are, for the most part, sited on the…
WeinGoutte: A Suitcase Winery Unpacks on New Ground
Home is where the vines grow. We’ve all heard variations on that theme. But just how far can that idea be taken? Wein Goutte…
Completer: The Answer to a Prayer
By traditional measures, my first year of college was a waste. I spent a lot of it playing cards with a gang of liberal theologians…
José Vouillamoz on Swiss Wine Grapes
I’ve read about as widely on Swiss wines as an Anglophone can: the relevant chapters of Jason Wilson’s delicious Godforsaken Grapes. The late Sue Style’s…
The Swisstory of Absinthe
Banned and beloved, feared and revered, one would assume the birth story of absinthe to be as spirited as its character. Yet its quite conventional…
Heida: Pearl of the Alps
Heida is an old variety with a modern freshness planted in the Swiss Valais heights of the Visperterminen.