The flavor of oak in wine of Zürich
Discover the of Zürich wines revealing the of oak flavor during the olphactive analysis (nose) and during the gustative analysis (mouth).
Zurich is a Swiss cantonal wine region covering all winegrowing sub-regions and vineyards within the borders of the Zurich canton. It is one of the more productive cantonal appellations in the German-speaking Northern Part of Switzerland.
The main viticultural area here arches to the north, above the city of Winterthur, stretching up to Schaffhausen and even crossing the Rhine briefly around Eglisau, Rafz, Rudlingen, Wil and Huntwagen. This area is generally known as Zurcher Weinland, although as an area it is not precisely demarcated.
To the east is Thurgau, the birthplace of Dr Hermann Müller, so it is perhaps not surprising that his Muller-Thurgau crossing is the most widely planted Grape variety in Zurich vineyards. Here in Switzerland, though, the variety is often still referred to as Riesling-Sylvaner, revealing its genetic identity.
As is standard for the northern, German-speaking part of Switzerland, red wines made from Pinot Noir constitute the majority of the region's production. They are not dissimilar in style to those made just to the north across the Rhine, in Germany's most southerly region, Baden.
The Gamay x Reichensteiner crossings Gamaret and Garanoir are also grown here, as are the alliterative trio Dunkelfelder, Dornfelder and Diolinoir.
Winterthur is Switzerland's sixth-largest city, but the landscape just to the north is a Dense patchwork of fields and forests. The region is divided by the Thur river, which eventually flows into the Rhine just north of Rudlingen.
Onwards, upwards. The roads get narrower, the corners get tighter. I step out of the car when I finally reach the winery and the air is so much fresher here. I go to take a sip from my water bottle and a gust of wind makes it whistle. I stand with Thomas Jullien and we look over the vineyards. It’s not yet spring, and the vines look little more than sticks. ‘It’s a lunar landscape at the moment,’ he says, as a friend’s flock of 300 sheep has just passed through to graze on every scrap of green b ...
Whisky is emphatically a product of place. The flavours in the glass conjure images of the spirit’s origin, from an Islay malt’s distinctive peat smoke to the exotic perfume of a Japanese blend. Traditionally, however, that local accent is lost when spirit is filled into cask. The vast majority of Scotch malts and blends, for example, are matured in oak sourced from thousands of miles away, and previously used to age bourbon or Sherry. Some whiskies might venture into more exotic territory. Thin ...
You don’t need a state-of-the-art winery to make wine. You don’t need rows of pristine oak barrels. One thing you do need to make good wine is good vines. Have you ever asked yourself where all these vines come from? How do they find their way into the ground? It used to be easy. In the past, winemakers simply took cuttings from their vineyards, propagated them, and planted them in the ground. But phylloxera put a stop to that. What was a simple process acquired layers of complexity: winemakers ...