Switzerland In Focus - Discover Switzerland: Experience the Best of Switzerland - page 607

Swiss Wine
Savouring local wine in Switzerland is an exquisite, increasingly rare gastronomic joy in
this globalised world. Switzerland exports little of its wine, meaning that most of its qual-
ity reds, whites and rosé vintages, including dozens by small vignerons, can only be tasted
and enjoyed in situ.
Lake Geneva & Vaud
The bulk of Swiss wine production takes place in the French-speaking part of the country,
where vineyards line the shore of Lake Geneva and stagger sharply up hillsides in tightly-
packed terraces knitted together by ancient dry-stone walls.
Most of Lake Geneva's winemaking estates are found on either side of Lausanne in the
canton of Vaud. Whites from the pea-green terraced vineyards of the Lavaux wine region
between Lausanne and Montreux are so outstanding that the area has been designated a
Unesco World Heritage Site. Lavaux's two grands crus are Calamin and Dézaley.
Swiss Chocolate
In the early centuries after Christ's death, as the Roman Empire headed towards slow collapse on a diet of rough
wine and olives, the Mayans in Central America were pounding cocoa beans, consuming the result and even using
the beans as a system of payment.
A millennium later, the Spanish conquistador Hernando Cortez brought the first load of cocoa to Europe in 1528.
He could not have anticipated the subsequent demand for his cargo. The Spaniards, and soon other Europeans, deve-
loped an insatiable thirst for the sweetened beverage produced from it. The solid stuff came later.
Swiss chocolate ( www.chocolat.ch ) built its reputation in the 19th century, thanks to familiar names such as
François-Louis Cailler (1796-1852), Philippe Suchard (1797-1884), Henri Nestlé (1814-90), Jean Tobler
(1830-1905), Daniel Peter (1836-1919) and Rodolphe Lindt (1855-1909). For factory visits, Click here .
Valais
Drenched in an extra bonanza of sunshine and light from above the southern Alps, much
of the land north of the Rhône River in western Valais is planted with vines - and this is
where some of Switzerland's best wines are produced.
Dryish white Fendant, the perfect accompaniment to fondue and raclette, and best
served crisp cold, is the region's best-known wine, accounting for two-thirds of Valais