Grand Prix du Vin Suisse, Gault&Millau
The major awards of the year for Swiss wineries were presented this evening in Bern at the gala dinner to mark the end of the annual Grand Prix du Vin Suisse competition. There are some beauties among them – there should be no shortage of interesting and very pleasing new wines to try in the coming weeks.
The list of the main winners of the GPVS follows. The top award goes to the Cave Nouveau Salquenen of Adrian & Diego Mathier in Salgesch, Valais – the third time Mathier has won the prize for Swiss Winery of the Year. The GPVS is a joint project of the wine magazine Vinum and Vinea in Sierre, which organizes several wine competitions and hosts the annual Vinea wine fair.
The fall season of Swiss awards opened last week with the Gault&Millau. Gault&Millau treated restaurant-goers to its new list of the best Swiss restaurants. This is no small feat when you consider that the Swiss still have the highest density of Michelin stars in Europe and that this small country has some of the highest per capita spending on wine in the world. For the wine industry, this small wine planet is of interest because of its high spending on quality wines. It’s called interest+knowledge, based on good food and drink. Yes, a decent income is helpful.
The 2019 Gault&Millau guide (there are two, one for the French regions and a larger one for German-speaking countries) contains a list of the country’s 125 best wine producers, selected by Gault&Millau’s jury of seven wine experts.
Further awards are on the way. The “Lauriers de Platine Terrevin” for the best Vaud Chasselas wine will be awarded in mid-November, and the “Valais Star” for the best local wines will be presented at the beginning of December.
Gault&Millau names larger group
Gault&Millau began including a list of top wineries in its guides just a few years ago – 100 in fact. This year, the list has grown to 125 as the number of award-winning wineries has increased. The list reflects a fact that has been noted by many Swiss wine journalists in recent months: The younger generation of producers in German-speaking regions is rapidly catching up with French-speaking areas in terms of quality. In this region, which stretches from Basel to St. Gallen and to the borders with Austria, Ticino, Italy and Valais, a handful of very good producers have dominated until now. But now the number is growing – 38 from this area for 2019 – and the future of this large “region” looks bright.
Note: If you don’t know the G&M website yet, you should definitely check it out. There are some interesting things to discover there, and I like their videos.
Winner of the Grand Prix du Vin Suisse
Here is the summary of the GPVS press release: No less than 39 wines (from a list of 79 wines) were awarded in the 13 different categories, with Salquenen producer Diego Mathier winning the coveted title of “Swiss Winery of the Year” for the third time, as well as the Vinissimo award for the best white wine at the show. The red Vinissimo award went to Uvavins-Cave de la Côte in Tolochenaz (VD), while the Prix Bio went to the talented Geneva winemaker Bertrand Favre from Domaine de Miolan in Choulex (GE).”
The fun new tanks from Cave de la Côte
Personally, from a market perspective, I am delighted that Mathier has won again, because his winery is good, competitive, continues to focus on quality and has a high goal: the world. Switzerland needs more of this and less of the “who’s who” of the neighborhood in the wine sector. I am also delighted that Cave de la Côte is receiving this award tonight: Prix Vinissimo “Coup de cœur” red: Gamaret Réserve Collection Inspiration 2015 AOC la Côte, Uvavins Cave de la Côte, Tolochenaz (VD). If you are not yet convinced that Swiss cooperatives make excellent wines, then shame on you! Read my article about this winery and a recent article by Dennis Lapuyade about another Swiss cooperative, Provins. Cave de la Côte also won the prize for the best Chasselas in the world this summer – a winery to keep an eye on. And a top prize for Gamaret, this very special Swiss grape variety, means that we will achieve a lot with this new variety. Take a look at the GPVS awards this winery has won.
This year, the prizes were evenly distributed among the Swiss wine regions, even though each region has its own specialties (e.g. Ticino, which won all three prizes in the Merlot category).
Valais is the largest Swiss wine region: wines from here received 15 awards, followed by the canton of Vaud (seven awards), German-speaking Switzerland (six), Trois Lacs (five) and Ticino (four). Geneva received two awards thanks to Sarah Meylan-Favre and her husband Bertrand Favre: Sarah’s Gamay la Vigne Blanche 2017 from Cologny took first place, while her husband took third place in the 100% Gamaret, Garanoir and Mara category with his Garanoir 2017 (Domaine de Miolan, Choulex).
Four special prizes were awarded:
- Prix Cave Suisse de l’Année (Swiss Winery of the Year) 2018: Adrian & Diego Mathier, Nouveau Salquenen, Salgesch (VS)
- Prix Bio Suisse (Swiss Organic award): Chasselas Réserve non-filtré 2017 AOC Genève, Domaine de Miolan, Choulex (GE)
- Prix Vinissimo ” Coup de cœur ” Blanc: Heida les Pyramides 2016 AOC Valais, Adrian & Diego Mathier Nouveau Salquenen, Salgesch (VS)
- Prix Vinissimo ” Coup de cœur ” Rouge: Gamaret Réserve Collection Inspiration 2015 AOC la Côte, Uvavins Cave de la Côte, Tolochenaz (VD)
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