Switzerland/ Swiss wine tasting and answering some questions

Switzerland/ Swiss wine tasting and answering some questions – Episode #68

August 10, 2006

2003 Bovard Epesse Terre A Boire

Gary tastes a very special white wine from Switzerland. Gary also asks for your help at the end. Watch as Vaynerchuk also tackels many of your burning wine questions.

86 Responses

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September 15, 2009

John J.
Hey Gary, this was a killer episode. Really happy to see that you did one on Swiss wines. I do know where to find them around me, but I haven’t had one yet. (gotta focus on different varietals/areas right now for my blind tasting technique test coming up.) But I have read about them, and have heard how they are of very high quality, but pretty pricey and rarely exported. I can’t wait to try one soon as I can. So you hit the nail on the head with this one. Love when you do episodes where you turn people on to wines that are more obscure than the avg.
Qotd: now that I’ve FINALLY been making sense of those German and Austrian wine laws and labeling terms, I’m gonna go with Greek wines. Hard to understand language, lots of varietals you’re not seeing anywhere else, not carried by alot of people, and if so, in small amounts, barely talked about, and then there’s that Retsina aromatized wine they do, with all that Aleppo pine resin they throw in the wine, which seems to be such a turn off to western palates, or is at least an acquired taste.
Love it every time you say you wanna see those comments, gives me the opportunity to request that you give us a vin jaune tasting/episode and one on charbono as well. Ty.
July 28, 2008

Randy B
Hey Gary,

I absolutely love your show! Since discovering it a couple of months ago I’ve been going through the entire archive from the beginning. I’m up to #68!

Anyway, I had to leave a comment regarding this episode. You mentioned the price of wines in restaurants and how exorbitant they are. I couldn’t agree more! So what did I do about it? I opened a restaurant/wine store. We sell our wine for people to take with them, but if you come in to eat, we only charge $3 extra to enjoy the bottle at the table. Wine at retail prices in a restaurant! And we’ve been open for almost three years now. I hope to franchise my idea within a couple of years. I’ll look you up when we expand to New Jersey!

Keep up the great work!

Randy
February 10, 2008

The Fanjestic
Qotd: Why is wine the 1 and only industry in which the critics are more famous and well known than the actual players involved.

Imagine if the local movie critic was more well known and famous than Brad Pitt or Tom Hanks!
December 27, 2007

Kristen
I’ll have to try and seek out some Swiss wine!

QOTD: Why does wine scoring start at 50 points?
November 18, 2007

Tursiops
Thanks for answering my question on facebook and giving me this link.
I am from swizerland, and I know they make great wines, I have a friend who his father is in the business.
This episode is more than 1 year old, so maybe I’ll send you some other great swiss wine so that you can try something else.

Keep up the good work!
September 30, 2007

Greg
Thanks for doing an episode on Swiss wines.

There’s a great wine festival here in Zurich every year in November with wines from all over the world. It’s a great chance to find out what great wines are around AND compare them with the Swiss wines. It’s a fun time, and I learned a lot when I was there last year.

There are some great deals in Swiss wine. The problem is that most of these deals are with wines that get bought directly from the wineries and never make it into a store, even a Swiss store. I’ve found some great Chasselas that go for about $8-$10. Chasselas is a great wine for Asparagus.

What I really like about Swiss wines is that they make very unique wines here. The wines are made for a local market that’s very educated about what they want their wine to taste like, and could care less about what Robert Parker or anyone else thinks.

You should take a trip to Switzerland one of these days and visit a few of the wineries here. You’d love it.
August 31, 2007

WA Ambassador
I never knew that Switzerland even made wine. They have totally been off of my radar. Now I’m going to have to check them out. Thanks for a good start.
August 21, 2007

Fred
Hi,

just find out about this interesting episode about swiss wines. Winemaker myself in geneva I was thrilled and quite surprised by the way you spoke about our CHASSELAS (typic swiss grape).

Wines made from this variety are often misjuged and misunderstood from people outside Switzerland because it (almost) always contains CO2 and produces light wines that are not in “the way we make wine today”. But that is the way we drink CHASSELAS in Switzerland.

Thanks anyway for the curiosity and the objectivity you put in your wine tasting, that is the way we should always taste wine..

Do know that aside from CHASSELAS we also produce a lot of different wine types made from Sauvignon blanc, Scheurebe, Kerner, Chardonnay and lots of other stuff.

Hope to discover more about wine around the world soon through The Wine Library TV.

See you. (why not in Switzerland).

Fred who apologise for his poor english.
June 29, 2007

David Canada
QOTD – Got to be pricing….so damn realtive.
May 12, 2007

Sam
I think the restaurant idea sounds great… I say “Del Frisco’s”-esk with a solid sommelier and good price wine. I’m there… Book me for every weekend for the rest of eternity… My doctor is going to kill me for the cholesterol though
January 25, 2007

ThomasS
Yuw, another late comment … I never had a Swiss wine. You know, the only bottles you see here are Fendant de Valais and, I think its merely because of the crappy labels (with a large Swiss flag on it) that every time puts me off when my hands itch to grab it from the store shelves. Yet, I still believe I’m not a label buyer … . Maybe it’ll change: a good friend of mine has a Swiss boyfriend who every time a meet him goes nuts lyrical about his wines. So … . Let’s hope.
QOTD: confusing? The split up of the wine market between supermarket wine shelves and ‘real’ wine shops. There is quite a big tradition over here of the supermarkets having for about 200-400 different wines on their shelves. Yet, lot of people say that these wines are inferior to the ones you buy in a small shop. Is that true? Some things I already noticed are that they have different labels, the lead caps differ sometimes and cuvÃ©es you’ll find in a supermaret are not always mentionned on the winelist of a domaine/producer’s website, … Is it true maybe that the same wine on label is in fact different when found in a supermarket/small shop? Is it true that maybe the supermarket wines come from different and/or inferior casks/cuves? Is it all crap or is it true or half-truth? I never tried to seek that out myself with a blind tasting or something like that …
October 28, 2006

SS Chris
Gary, Dede and I are in our kitchen, Dede concocting some kind of nice pasta dish, and we have just cracked Bovard Epesse from this episode (I’ll talk about the wine in a second). But first I must talk about the SS (the most important thing–wink, wink).

Besides using the SS to help pick the wines I like…I also use it to go back and view the episode when I’m tasting the wine for the 1st time. With all due respect to SS Chris and the copious tasting notes that he transcribes, it is still no substitute for actually watching “The Chuk”. We watched the episode while we were drinking the wine for the first time. The SS also helps to quickly identify the episode, and then, through the outstanding work of Sir Brian, there’s the direct LINK to the episode. I think you should share this “SS method” watching the episodes when tasting the wines for the first time.

Back to the wine….UNBELIEVABLE white…so, so good. I’m not sure if WL has some more because you stated that it was a “special order” at a special low price….but I’ll check it out.
August 15, 2006

Christopher
Most confusing thing â€“ you can’t judge a wine by it’s bottle (or lable) which makes it difficult to choose a wine. For a consumer it isn’t always possible to taste before purchasing, Regardless of any review, critic or salesman suggestion, you have to taste the wine first before knowing what it is like (or being able to judge it for yourself). No other information will give you all the details, of course, the wine drinking experience is very important part of this.
August 12, 2006

JP
Gary,

Great show. I was expecing you to pull out the lobster. I have noticed that many wine raters say the wine should drink well for X years. The problem is there is no date on when they rated the wine. Does X years refer to the vintage year or the date of tasting? It would be a good idea for the wine write up to have projected dates of consumption at the assumption of proper storage tempetature. Am I missing something? Could you give some general guidelines for the typical dates of consumption base on wine types, etc.?
August 11, 2006

Craig K
Entertaining episode Gary and I have to admit I have never had a Swiss wine. Not sure whether this is good or bad, but when you taste only one wine it barely fills my left WLTV cavity. Most confusing? I agree with others: France! My question of the day relates to a different aspect of wine “resiliency”. Parker has described a phenomenon called “bottle shock”. Do you believe there is such a thing, or is it a bunch of hoo-ha?
August 11, 2006

ronguy
Keep up the good work Gary. I have been a fan since before the videos started. DECANTING: How can I decant a wine for an hour or two at room temperature and still have it at the proper drinking temperature? AGING: will wine age the same with an artificial cork or a screw cap as it does with a real cork? PRICING: why do you show all your wines as being on sale? Your sale price seems to be your regular price.
Now I have to watch the new episode.
August 11, 2006

Bruce
Gary, great episode. How does one develop a “nose” for wine? I love complex wines but can’t put those pleasant aromas into words well.
August 11, 2006

Chris
Gary,

My biggest question currently is when to open my bordeaux and petite syrahs. Both are exceptional when drank at the proper time but can be ghastly if too young or old. Great episode.
August 11, 2006

joe
Gary:

p.s. I LOVE the idea of a fine resteraunt offering wine for retail+$5 for glass service. GREAT concept. I usually try to bring my own wine, for the reasons you cited…and tend to go to the finer BYOBs. But if there was an outstanding resteraunt with wines at retail prices – - I would flock there. Also, in your episodes, I love when you taste a wine and speak to the food you would match it to. In your resteraunt you could have your menu items included your favorite wine-pairing recommendation! I would love to revisit so I could try every pairing you suggest.
Joe
August 11, 2006

Peter
The last Swiss wine I bought I used in fondue. Thanks for getting me interested in them again.

I would love to know how you built your internet business, (legally I assume), where others had difficulty. I keep writing letters to Trenton to allow direct shipments from producers to consumers in NJ. Are you in favor of this, or do you like the current system?
August 11, 2006

K Spengler
Exciting fun filled episode again, Gary. I haven’t seen this addressed, but for me, it’s an issue most basic and confusing.
It’s taste profiles in general. I realize, there are certain profiles that are familiar to everyone, but so many are quite distinct and unique. Lemon, tar, tobacco, those things I get,,but Quince, gooseberries, etc., kinda hard to get a base note on those. Are there ANY decent “tasting” kits available that are not artificial in flavor, or do I need to go on a wild “gooseberry” chase??
Thanks for your time, great job!
August 11, 2006

kjb
Boy I think this thread will give Gary enough Q&A material for the foreseeable future… there are some great questions.

Gary, I second (or third?) that restaurant idea.. Seeing as you live in NYC, have you been to Landmarc in Tribeca? They have a great wine list with a similar pricing strategy. In fact when the New York times profiled them a few years ago they demonstrated that they had many bottles at, and some below retail prices using well-known wine merchants as the benchmark. And the food is great as well (which as others have pointed out is key)!
August 11, 2006

Chris Fehnel
Hey Gary,

Another fine episode. Not at 100 comments yet, but I’m trying to help a brotha out.

Oh yeah, and a restaurant like that would be sweet. I’d definitely make the trip.
August 11, 2006

Jaye
Gary – just ordered 6 bottles (I have trusted your opinions in the past and been mostly delighted with your picks). When would you suggest this wine should be drunk by (a year from now, 2 years, more?) Some will get drunk right away, but I don’t drink nearly as much white wine as red, so I would like to know how soon I should think about finishing these bottles.
Thanks! Hope you read comments this far down the list!
August 11, 2006

TimF
Dan – Others probably have thoughts about this, but I think it’s generally accepted that Robert Parker came up with the 100 point scale. He wanted people to be able to relate to the scores they earned in the classroom. So essentially 90-100 = A, 80-89 = B, 70-79 = C. That was his idea and now it’s permeated the entire community/industry…