Wine region
Zürich
Zürich, the largest wine canton of German Switzerland: about 620 hectares on Lake Zürich and in the Weinland, Blauburgunder, Riesling-Silvaner, Räuschling.
- Vineyard area
- about 620 hectares, the largest in German-speaking Switzerland
- Main grapes
- Blauburgunder (over 40 per cent), Riesling-Silvaner (nearly a fifth), Räuschling, Chardonnay
- Soils and climate
- moraine, molasse and limestone; the lake and rivers moderate, frost threatens in the Weinland
- Signature wines
- Räuschling from Lake Zürich, Blauburgunder, Riesling-Silvaner
- Landmark
- the vine slopes on the right bank of Lake Zürich and the monastery island of Rheinau
With about 620 hectares of vines, the canton of Zürich is the largest wine canton in German-speaking Switzerland, even if the business capital does not look the part. The vineyards fall into five areas. The Zürcher Weinland in the north, around Andelfingen, Flaach and the Stammheimer Zipfel, is the largest with about 220 hectares; here the vines grow between half-timbered houses on the slopes of the Irchel and Kohlfirst hills. The Unterland around Bülach and Dielsdorf covers about 145 hectares, Lake Zürich about 130, including some 15 hectares within the city itself, Winterthur about 80 and the Limmat valley about 30. The soils shift from moraine and molasse to limestone and marl; the lake and the rivers moderate the temperatures, while the Weinland and Unterland, without large bodies of water, are more exposed to frost.
Nearly 60 per cent of the area is red. Blauburgunder, as Pinot Noir is called here, covers over 40 per cent and gives dense wines on Lake Zürich and in the Limmat valley, finer ones along the Rhine. Among the whites, Riesling-Silvaner, that is Müller-Thurgau, leads with nearly a fifth; the variety is bound to the canton, since its breeder Hermann Müller ran the research station at Wädenswil from 1891. The real Zürich speciality, though, is Räuschling, an old, high-acid white grape that was already widespread on the Upper Rhine in the Middle Ages and today grows almost only around Lake Zürich: of the roughly 28 hectares in Switzerland, about 20 are in the canton of Zürich, mainly on the right bank of the lake around Stäfa and Meilen. Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Gris and PIWI varieties round out the range.
Viticulture goes back a long way: in the 9th century Benedictines planted vines on the monastery island of Rheinau, and in the late 19th century Zürich, with about 5,600 hectares and more than 20,000 growers, was one of the largest wine areas in Switzerland. Mildew, phylloxera, industrialisation and cheap imported wine shrank the area to a few hundred hectares by 1950. Recovery came through quality: today many Zürich Pinot Noirs and Räuschlings are sought-after wines, and the open cellar days invented in Zürich in 1999 have spread across the whole of Switzerland.
What to drink: a Räuschling with whitefish or perch from Lake Zürich, a Blauburgunder with Zürcher Geschnetzeltes and Rösti, a Riesling-Silvaner with asparagus from the Weinland, a Federweisser or Süssdruck as an aperitif among the vines.