or where to buy good wines???

I like this one:

http://www.jrgermanier.ch/en/vin-syrah_aoc_valais_39.html

It's available in large Coops.

Also, some of the white wines are good too.

There's a vine-tasting event in Autumn:

http://www.expovina.ch/index2.php

20 bucks, but you can taste a lot of wines.

Swiss wine is almost completely for the domestic market - practically none goes into export.

Thanks rainer_d, a Syrah from Switzerland, interesting, I'll give it a try.

I remember when I first moved to CH I thought "lets see what you got" and tried the most expensive Swiss white wine I could find in my local Denner. It cost 13CHF and was, frankly, appalling ! Eventually I got over that 1st impression and I like a lot of the whites, e.g. Petite Arvines seem to be good usually.

Have been meaning to go to that expovina event but so far my lethargy has got the better of me, I'm hopeful for 2010. 

Hi Rich,

Try the wine shops of Manor, Movenpick and Globus and ask them.

For Valais wines try Heida and Petite Arvine grape varities (white) and Humagne (rouge).

To find a decent independent wine dealer try looking a for few wines you really like, using wine-searcher.com. This will give you an idea of local caves with interesting and correctly priced stock..

Cheers

Phil

What a peachy subject.  I have been really impressed with some of the wines here but rather than buy them from a shop I just go to the vineyards where they let you try the wines.  It is so much more interesting to see the history and meet the people who actually make the wine - plus you always find some pearl that you would have never have spotted blindly looking at a label in a shop.  I don't think it is any cheaper but it certainly much more fun and you find wines that you wont see in the shops. 

If you go to any of the vineyards in Geneva they will have a copy of a book with a page allocated to each of the vineyards in the canton, and links to their websites and contact details so it is easy to drop by.  My favourite so far of those I have visited is in Anieres, Domaine de la Cote d'Or.  They have some unexpected pearls- great muscat, their chasselas is a delight, and they had a lovely Gamaret if i remember correctly.  Wine wine wine wine wine

http://www.lacotedor.ch/

I would also recommend the winery of Champs Lingot. It's above the lake in Hermance. Claude-Alain and his wife, Tina, are lovely hosts. The winery has a tent that can be used for events and the view is breathtaking.

http://www.champs-lingot.ch/NewDCL/English.html

Thanks for the tips Phil, I'm a bit intimidated by the Globus wine department I must say, I imagine asking for a wine of a certain style and them immediately suggesting a bottle for about 5x my budget. They have a 70cl bottle of spring water there for 86 CHF!!! I'm not sure Manor in ZH has wine? And the only Mövenpick I know of is out by the airport.

Never come across that wine-searcher site before and it seems brilliant, it even corrected my spelling mistakes of the names of wines. Going to explore that a bit more.

Otherwise I've been lured by Italy on the wine front recently, the Risacoli Chianti Classico in COOP is awesome.

Thanks Hucklewoo and Misskate for the suggestions, though being in Zurich I'm not in a good place to explore the vineyards of Romandie. Was contemplating going to Caves Ouvertes in Geneva but then the stupid company I work for decided to have a stupid team-building event on the same day that didn't involve drinking stupid amounts of wine 

This is a great way to discover Swiss wines from Valais:

The 4th "Caves Ouvertes" will take place on 13, 14 and 15 May 2010, during the Ascension public holiday weekend, from 11:00 to 19:00.

http://www.lesvinsduvalais.ch/en/news/les-caves-ouvertes-des-vins-du-valais-2010-0-1730

Have fun!

Thanks marsprincess, looks excellent, and the site has pages describing each of the grape varieties, often the Swiss use a different name for well known grapes so this is really useful.

Here in Geneva ,we have cave ouverte in two weekends time and after in Vaud

There u can taste all the wines directely from the producers it is fun and u can buy at better prices .

Also in Morges (vaud) there is a very good shop with also very good prices and u an samples all the wines )))

That way you can disvover everything by yourself and at better prices )))

good swiss wine! 

Some would frown at the 3 words together!

There are some good ones out there. Neuchatel make an ok rose, oiel de pedrix, wallis make ok wine, red and white, and I dont mind some of the geneva dessert wines or the gammay. The good thing is you need to get out there and try it all, and there are plenty of wine events through out the year to practise.

As for buying wine, believe it or not denner has a very big wine selection and its reasonably priced so is certainly worth a look.