Winemaking in Switzerland . The total vineyard area of Switzerland is approximately 15 thousand hectares. Mostly wines are produced in the west and south of the country.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture of the country, in 2009 1.1 million hectoliters of wine were produced in Switzerland, of which 527 thousand hectoliters were white, 587 thousand hectoliters were red. Almost all wine produced is consumed domestically - no more than 2% of wine produced is exported (mainly to Germany).
Content
Wine History
Viticulture and winemaking on the territory of modern Switzerland began in the era of the Roman Empire .
The first ceramic bottles were found by archaeologists in the canton of Valais in the grave of a Celtic woman dating back to the 2nd century BC . The same spindle-shaped bottles were common in Celtic farms in northern Italy, and the inscriptions on the bottles indicated the presence of wine in them. In the Roman era, amphoras were used to store wine.
Main wine-making regions
- Valais
- Geneva
- Ticino
- In
- Neuchatel
Cultivated grape varieties
White varieties:
- Shasla
- Sylvaner
- Muller-Thurgau
- Riesling
- Pinot gris
- Chardonnay
Red varieties:
- Pinot noir
- Merlot
- Malbec
National Wine Classification
Switzerland does not have its own strict, legislatively fixed system for classifying wines. Since Switzerland is not a member of the European Union , it is not obliged to comply with the EU requirements regarding wine production and products. At different times, the German wine classification or the French Appellation d'origine contrôlée system , the latter mainly in the French-speaking cantons, has been and is used in different cantons.
Links
- Jancis Robinson, ed. (2006). "Switzerland". Oxford Companion to Wine (Third Edition). - Oxford: Oxford University Press. - p. 671. ISBN 0-19-860990-6 .
- J. Robinson Jancis Robinson's Guide to Wine Grapes. - Oxford University Press, 1996. p. 152. ISBN 0198600984