........in vino veritas -
particularly in Germany, Switzerland and Austria............
I love the wine from Germany, particularly the white wines. My favourite regions are along the river Rhein from the south to the mid of Germany. The southwestern part around the "Kaiserstuhl" delivers extremly full and rich Pinots (Blanc, Gris and Noir) but also very good Muscat, Sauvignon, Chardonay and some Rieslings. The Rhein-Main region comes with worldclass Riesling.
Swiss wine, especially from the Canton Valais, belongs to the best in the world. The last five to ten years this region developped an outstanding winegrowing culture. Forget about the traditional Fendant - it's still there and often quite good - but now you can find a variety of international and very local grapes in supreme quality. It started with excellent Pinot Noirs - today there are high class Chardonays, Sauvignons, Viogniers and Muscats as well as Syrah, Cabernet and even Pinotage. Absolutely unique are the local varieties like Humange Rouge, Diolinoir and Cornalin.
A really amazing winelovers place is the Chateau de Villa in Sierre. You'll find a Vinorama, which is a wine-bar with almost every bottle of wine produced in the whole Canton and a typical Swiss restaurant where you will get the best Cheese-Fondue or Raclette.
This restaurant has a winelist of 550 different bottles composed from around 40 grape varieties grown by 102 vinters.
On the first weekend in September every year, you can visit the "Vinea", a wine-exhibition of all vinters of the Canton. For 30,-CHF per day you can test as many wines as you like and this means to choose from 1500 different wines.
