Wines made from Marsanne grapes of Switzerland
Discover the best wines made with Marsanne as a single variety or as a blend of Switzerland.
Marsanne is a white grape variety that originated in Montélimar in the Drôme, several centuries ago. Marsanne is also found in Cassis, Savoie, Languedoc-Roussillon and Saint-Péray in the Ardèche, where it produces remarkable sparkling wines. The warm, sunny climate of the Rhone Valley, Languedoc-Roussillon and Provence, as well as the dry, stony soil, are ideal conditions for its development. Its bunches are quite large and provide small, juicy berries that are sensitive to grey rot and strong winds. These two grape varieties complement each other perfectly: together they give light wines with little acidity, aromas of yellow fruit, white fruit and flowers with notes of honey and liquorice. This is for example what the appellations Saint-Péray, Hermitage, Crozes-Hermitage, Saint-Joseph, Côtes-du-Vallée du Rhône, Corbières, or Cassis express... which represent about 700 hectares.
Switzerland may not be the most famous of wine-producing nations, but this small mountainous country in Western Europe has been producing wine for over two thousand years. The lack of awareness of Swiss wine is not due to a lack of quality or quantity, but to the fact that it is produced primarily for (and enjoyed by) the Swiss themselves. But things are slowly changing; the world beyond the Alps is now discovering the high quality of much of Switzerland's Grape/pinot">Pinot noir and white wines made from the country's flagship grape, Chasselas. High-end Vineyards can be found in almost every corner of the country, but the vast majority are in the Alpine Valais and around Lake Geneva, in La Côte and Vaud/lavaux">Lavaux.
At a national committee meeting held on Thursday 8th September, members of the Institut National de l’Origine et de la Qualité (INAO) voted unanimously to ratify the change to the appellation guidelines to allow white wines into AP Gigondas. A working group of growers and négociants has been pursuing the amendment for 11 years. The amendment states that white Gigondas must contain a minimum 70% Clairette. Other permitted varieties include Bourboulenc, Clairette Rose, Grenache Gris, Grenache Blan ...
I’d like to say we took advantage of the lockdown and its related commotion to do a stock-take, explore new avenues, turn over intriguing stones, widen and deepen our drinking, taking careful notes as we went. Sadly, no. I won’t say we got stuck in a rut, but we did tend to stick with comfort wines – and “comfort”, in our case, means familiar. Regular readers of this quarterly column can probably guess the labels on the resulting empties. We have a wider range of comfort foods, I’m afraid, than ...
Decanter has published a list of ‘12 vineyards to rule them all‘, featuring some of the greatest vineyards across the globe, after consulting a selection of leading wine world experts. After much debate and discussion, the final dozen takes wine lovers on a journey across the international wine world, from Burgundy and Barolo to Napa Valley, via South Australia and Argentina – to name just a few destinations. Not everyone will agree with the choices made, of course. It’s a list that ...