The wine so good the Swiss won't share it

I had arrived in Switzerland fully prepared to be taken in by the clean water and extraordinary cheeses, the obsessive devotion to muesli and quite possibly the best chocolate in the world — and I definitely was. What I hadn't expected, however, was something else that struck me from my first trip to the gastronomic wonderland of my local supermarket. The Swiss, it turns out, make incredible wine. And they aren't too keen to share it.

For a nation that's so proud of its gadgety knives that let you always have a corkscrew handy, you think they'd be more forthcoming about what you can open with them. But though they produce nearly 150 million bottles of wine a year, as a 2022 feature in the alcohol industry magazine SevenFiftyDaily explains, "The Swiss maintain a time-honored tradition of consuming the bulk of their wine within their own borders, with fewer than two percent of the country's output earmarked for export."

I, too, had enjoyed drinking some of that lovely, eminently drinkable Swiss wine within its borders. Sitting by the Rhine one evening with friends, I sipped a glass of white purchased from a food truck that was one of the lightest, crispest wines I've ever consumed. Serious wine enthusiasts have long known that Switzerland has a robust wine tourism industry, offering visitors a chance to explore majestic vineyards and stay in fairytale chateaus. But why had it had never even crossed my mind that a nation nestled among the heavyweight wine countries of France, Germany and Italy would have its own treasures? And why I had never heard of them?

"One thing we learned early on is that the Swiss drink their own wine," Jeremy Sells, Chief Operating Officer of Rosenthal Wine Merchant, one of the first American importers to feature wines from the Valais and Vaud cantons, observes. "There's a lot of pride in that, there's a lot of local support there. There are about 20 cantons in Switzerland and I believe all of them have some kind of wine production. If people can drive to a winery and buy wine, they don't have to go far for it. They really do have their own culture around wine," he says. "In a way, it's a bit of a throwback to maybe the way wine was before it was such an international commodity, where people drank local, and the wines around you naturally pair with the foods around you, because that's how they grew up together."

Conversely, he says that the Swiss "don't drink a lot of wine from other parts of Europe, though I think they have respect for it and they appreciate it." He notes that this kind of regional loyalty is more common across Europe, which tends to be "much more insular when it comes to wine. It's hard to find even Italian wines in France unless you kind of seek it out," he says. "The one exception being champagne, which is everywhere." 

Chandra Kurt, a Swiss wine writer and consultant who also has her own line of Swiss-produced wines, speculates that her country's insularity about its wine is keeping in the national character. Switzerland, she says, "is always a little bit special, especially compared to the European Union. It is always like a place of its own, with our own dynamic and own own life." She adds that the relatively low output is a factor too. "They have to export cheese because there's much so much cheese," she says, "but wine exportation was never really necessary. So the wine always stayed a little bit hidden. It was a niche." 

And being surrounded by some of the premiere wine regions of the world may be a contributing factor as well. "I think in the wine there was always a modesty," Kurt says. "There is a good quality, solid, reliable, and of course full of surprises, because you also have a lot of indigenous grapes." But she says, "By the end of season, the good wines are gone. There are some simple wines that are left over, but if you compare them to say, Chilean wines, then we are too expensive for the basic quality."

That's the other thing about Swiss wine — it's reasonably priced for the Swiss, but the value can be a tougher sell for the international consumer. "Their cost of labor is relatively high compared to other countries," says Jeremy Sells. "The growers work in very challenging conditions — altitude, steep slopes. A lot of them have to harvest and then have to have helicopters take the baskets of grapes down to the bottom of the hill, which also makes her wines that are somewhat expensive. And the Swiss franc has always been quite strong."

Yet for all the barriers to experiencing Swiss wine, there's a unique pleasure in discovery. I am no expert by any stretch, but realizing there was a wine region of the world I'd never before encountered, one with such delightful offerings, was one of the great joys of my time there. And it's nice to feel a little bit in on something before the secret gets out. 

In June, the Consulate General of Switzerland in New York, Switzerland Tourism and other partners hosted the second Swiss Wine Week in New York, offering tastings and workshops for wine professionals, journalists and consumers to raise awareness of what the country has to offer and make the case that "We need more diversity, we need Switzerland."

But for regular Americans looking to get a taste of the Swiss wine experience right now, Sells says that "If you're a consumer trying to find it, I would suggest going to a somewhat well curated or serious wine shop and ask about it. There's a reasonable chance they'll have something, and if not, they'll know how to source it from a local distributor." He recommends, "There are some varieties that are the same; there's pinot noir. That's probably the most obvious entry point. There's also another wine called Dôle, a term that can refer to a red blend. That tends to be an easy drinking, friendly red wine that will probably retail around $20 to $30."

But Chandra Kurt has another different idea. If you want to try Swiss wines, "Well, I always say, of course, come to the country," she says. "Go to the lake of Geneva. I think you will see these wonderful lakes and these little villages that have these names that you find on the wine labels. And then you fall in love with the wine immediately."