The Winery Balthasar of Zürich

Discovering the wine region of Zürich

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.