Wines made from Sylvaner grapes of Valais
Discover the best wines made with Sylvaner as a single variety or as a blend of Valais.
The sylvaner is grown mainly in Germany and Alsace. The buds are somewhat cottony and the young leaves are green. The same applies to the ribbed branches. Once mature, the dominant colour is golden-green and small elliptical berries with small to medium-sized bunches can be seen. The ripe fruit is then adorned by five-lobed leaves. This variety is susceptible to chlorosis, gray mold, powdery mildew and mildew. It is also sensitive to frost and wind because of its long branches. It can be grown in any kind of soil, although it prefers stony, sandy and light soils. It is indeed moderately acidic and offers a complex set of aromas such as bitter almond, fruity and floral background. The taste has an excellent mixture of honey and candied or dried fruits.
The Valais is the largest wine region and appellation in Switzerland, responsible for around one third of the country's total wine production. The main Vineyard area covers the southeast-facing slopes of the dramatic Rhône river valley as the glacial waters run southwest between Leuk (Loeche in French) and Fully. The river changes direction at Martigny and then runs northwest to exit the valley and empty into Lac Léman (Lake Geneva). Vineyard area here comes to around 4,800 hectares (11,800 acres) and is generally located on (often steep) slopes and terraces between the flat, fertile, Heavy soils at the bottom of the valley - often given over to fruit production, industry and urban development - and the bare rock of the mountainside that towers above.
Starting with the 2021 vintage, non-late harvest Alsace Riesling must be ‘dry’, as defined by EU regulations, according to a proposed decree agreed by a two-thirds majority of the Alsace Winegrowers’ Association (AVA). Winemakers backed the plan at a vote in Colmar last week, although it requires approval from France’s appellation body, INAO. The move comes in addition to the introduction of a standardised way of communicating sweetness levels on Alsace AOC still wines. As per EU rul ...
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 ...
The first tranche of the range, drawn from the stocks of the Gordon family, owner of Glenfiddich and Balvenie distiller William Grant & Sons, sold out within weeks of its release in May this year. The second batch again comprises eight whiskies – four each in The Charles Gordon Collection and The Legacy Collection – priced from £950 to £4,900 per bottle. All are exclusively available to pre-order online. The rarest of the autumn releases is ‘A Singular Blend’, a combination of grain and malt ...