I’m in a place known as “the land of three suns”, and it’s easy to see why. The landscape is flooded with light. Autumn sunshine cascades on to the glacial blue Lac Léman (Lake Geneva), splinters off the serrated French Alps, and radiates on to the ranks of grape vines beneath Château Chillon’s terrace. My glass of white chasselas glows honey-yellow.
This is Switzerland’s vertiginous Lavaux wine region, where chasselas vine roots have been twisting into the alpine bedrock for more than 1,000 years. Unesco-listed Lavaux sits within the so-called Swiss Riviera – a catch-all for the waterfront towns of Lausanne, Vevey and Montreux.
If you’ve never heard of Lavaux – or of Swiss wines – you’re not alone. While Switzerland has a long tradition of wine production, dating to the Romans, it’s typically all polished off by the Swiss. Only one per cent of the wine made there is exported.
Lavaux owes its success as a wine-producing area to those “three suns”: the sunlight from the sky, the glistening haze of light reflected off the lake, and the warmth absorbed by the more than 400 kilometres of stone walls that shore up the mountain terraces. Constructed by monks in the 12th century, Lavaux’s twice-warmed walls help ripen the fruit for harvest.
A historic grape variety, harvested in small quantities and produced in Europe’s most expensive country (based on Eurostat’s comparison of prices of consumer goods and services) – it sounds like a pricey proposition. But it is possible to experience this wine and its blissful region without making Swiss cheese of your bank balance.
Arriving from Geneva, Lausanne is the first Riviera stop. Home of the International Olympic Committee, this lively city is built on the southern slopes of the Jorat hills. And it loves its wine. You can even try it in the La Buvette Vaudoise restaurant in the Vaud canton’s parliament, where the menu lists bottles produced by local MPs.
For something less establishment, find Mosto. This bijou wine shop is dedicated to Lavaux’s burgeoning natural wine offering, best sampled in its subterranean tasting room.
It’s unlikely, however, that you will be served wine from a shot glass, such as the one my retiree guide, Annie, produced from her coat pocket during our city tour.
“The wine here used to be drunk in shot glasses,” Annie reminisces.
“As a child, I remember accompanying my uncle when he sold a cow. They sealed the deal with a shot of chasselas.”
As we stroll up to the Gothic cathedral containing, among other treasures, a CHF6,000,000 (£5.3m) organ designed by an Italian who also works for Maserati, Annie tells me about other expensive things in Switzerland.
Lausanne is the first Riviera stop (Photo: Getty)
Health insurance for a family of four costs about £2,000 per month (an extra 10 per cent is paid for every doctor’s visit). A bottle of water is, on average, £4.50. And a three-day Swiss travel pass sets you back £217.
To offset costs, tap Lausanne’s 300 fountains for water. Migros supermarkets have machines offering decent cappuccino for less than £1. And check in to accommodation in town to qualify for a Lausanne City Pass – allowing you free passage on the metro, trains and buses as far as Vevey.
Three-star Hôtel des Voyageurs has rooms from £153, although there are cheaper options, such as the Mad House (from £80, in the hip Flon district).
Lavaux is on Lake Geneva (Photo: Getty)
Alternatively, load up on cheese from Lausanne’s La Ferme Vaudois shop, take the 10-minute train to Grandvaux village, and check into the accommodation that’s dotted around one of the 14 hamlets sprinkled amid the Lavaux. Bottles of wine, bought directly from the producers’ cellars, benefit from up to a £4 discount on store prices.
A glass of fruity chasselas, in Lausanne, or on the terraces, starts at about £5 (more if derived from the grand cru areas of Dézaley or Calamin), with tastings of a trio of wines starting at £17 (roughly the same as a wine tasting in Chianti).
During the harvest, when the rust and fire of autumn ignites the lakeside, cellars remain open (as they do all year). If you’re planning a visit to a smaller producer, it’s wise to call ahead to ensure they’re not too busy with the harvest.
To walk from cellar to cellar, it’s okay to traverse the historic terraces, despite being private land. However, on our way to the terrace of Château Chillon, Laika, a wine expert from the area asks us not to pick the grapes: “some producers lose up to five per cent of their crop to hikers.”
A 20-minute winding bus ride from the dinky Lavaux “capital” of Grandvaux delivers you to the arty lakeside town of Vevey. This is where silent movie star Charlie Chaplin spent his final years. The town springs surprises (including occasional 40 per cent reductions on Lavaux wines in its Obrist wine emporium).
Vevey’s art installation is among the unexpected attractions (Photo: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty)
A distant whistle announces a steam-operated, year-round belle époque ferry on the lake. Then, lo and behold, there’s an 8m-tall dinner fork protruding from the shallows – an art installation that reflects the lake’s blush pink sunsets. The artwork only hints as to how deep Vevey’s still waters run.
Every 20 years or so, Vevey hosts its Fête des Vignerons wine festival (the last was in 2019). A 20,000 seat arena is constructed, there’s a cast of thousands, ornate costumes, and goats and cows ambling across underlit sets. It has the bonkers mayhem of an Olympics opening ceremony.
This is the magic of Lavaux – delicious wine, exuberant tradition and hidden value.
Getting there
Take a fast service from London St. Pancras to Lausanne (with one change in Paris) arriving in Switzerland in just over seven hours. Fly direct to Geneva Airport from UK cities with Swiss, EasyJet, British Airways, and Jet2 (around 1 hour and 40 minutes). From Geneva, it’s about 45 minutes to Lausanne by train.
Staying There
Doubles at Hôtel des Voyageurs from CHF 173 (£153) per night, B&B. CHF 5.50 (£4.50)pp, per night tourist tax. voyageurs.ch
More Information
montreuxriviera.com/en/Z12840/wine-tourism
lausanne-tourisme.ch/en/lausanne-wine/