Wine region
German-speaking Switzerland
German-speaking Switzerland: about 2,650 hectares of vines from Basel to Graubünden, home of Blauburgunder, Riesling-Silvaner, Räuschling and Completer.
- Vineyard area
- about 2,650 hectares, about 18 per cent of Switzerland
- Main grapes
- Blauburgunder (about half), Riesling-Silvaner (about 15 per cent), Chardonnay, Räuschling, Completer
- Climate
- cool and rainier than the west; lakes, river valleys and the Föhn create warm niches
- Largest cantons
- Zürich about 620, Schaffhausen about 470, Graubünden about 420, Aargau about 390, Thurgau about 240 hectares
- Landmark
- the Bündner Herrschaft, Hallau in the Klettgau and the vine slopes of Lake Zürich
German-speaking Switzerland is the country’s third-largest wine region. About 2,650 hectares of vines, nearly 18 per cent of the Swiss vineyard, are spread over almost every canton north of the Alps: from the slopes near Basel through Aargau, Zürich, Schaffhausen and Thurgau to the St. Gallen Rhine valley and the Bündner Herrschaft, with smaller areas in Lucerne, Schwyz, Solothurn, Zug and on Lake Thun. Lake Biel counts as French-speaking Switzerland under wine law, the Mesolcina as Italian-speaking Switzerland. Three cantons carry more than half the area and have pages of their own: Zürich with about 620 hectares, Schaffhausen with about 470 and Graubünden with about 420.
The climate is cooler and wetter than in Valais or Vaud, so the vines seek out the warm niches: the south-facing slopes above the lakes of Zürich, Walenstadt, Biel and Thun, the valleys of the Rhine, Aare and Limmat and above all the Föhn valleys. In the Bündner Herrschaft, where the Föhn ripens the grapes in autumn, and in the Klettgau around Hallau, the largest contiguous vineyard in German-speaking Switzerland, Pinot Noir ripens as well as almost nowhere else north of the Alps. The soils alternate between limestone, molasse, moraine and schist.
Nearly two thirds of the area is red, and one variety dominates: Pinot Noir, called Blauburgunder or Clevner here, covers about half of the whole vineyard. It is made as a red, as a rosé called Süssdruck and as a white-pressed Federweisser. Among the whites, Riesling-Silvaner, the local name for Müller-Thurgau, leads: Hermann Müller from Tägerwilen in Thurgau bred it in 1882 at Geisenheim and from 1891 ran the research station at Wädenswil. Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Gris follow, along with two rarities, Räuschling from Lake Zürich and Completer from the Bündner Herrschaft. German-speaking Switzerland is also the region of the new fungus-resistant varieties, the PIWI grapes.
Viticulture here has had a chequered history. In the 19th century German-speaking Switzerland was a major wine country, the canton of Zürich alone had more than 5,000 hectares; mildew, phylloxera, cheap imports after the railways were built and industrialisation shrank the area to a fraction by the middle of the 20th century. Since the 1980s a new generation has bet on quality, with low yields, barriques and Pinot Noirs that stand international comparison. The open cellar days, invented in Zürich in 1999, are now held all over Switzerland.
What to drink: a Blauburgunder with Zürcher Geschnetzeltes and Rösti, a Riesling-Silvaner with asparagus and fried fish, a Räuschling with whitefish, a Federweisser or Süssdruck as an aperitif, a mature Graubünden Pinot Noir with game and Capuns.