Editorial
Anyone who achieves the best overall result three times in a blind tasting of 3,000 wines and is therefore named “Winery of the Year” three times has simply achieved great things. Diego Mathier, the bundle of energy in Salgesch, is the only Swiss winemaker to have achieved this triumph three times. In 2007, 2011 and now again in 2018, he has won the most prestigious special prize within the Grand Prix du Vin Suisse.
Diego Mathier’s success is also a success for the jury of this competition, which has now been held for the twelfth time by VINUM together with the VINEA association. After all, when a 150-strong jury tastes around 3,000 wines completely blind and the wines of one winemaker are shown to be above average over a period of more than ten years, this means nothing other than that this jury acts with great continuity and very clear evaluation criteria.
Quite a few people are of the opinion that a certain type of wine is particularly successful in competitions, namely the type of round and fruity wines, while crus with rough edges tend to have a hard time. However, anyone who tastes the five wines from the Adrian & Diego Mathier winery, Nouveau Salquenen, which made it onto the podium at this year’s Grand Prix du Vin Suisse, quickly realizes that these are by no means superficially pleasing wines, but very independent crus with a lot of personality and a drinkability that is always based on an animating acidity.
“Do good and talk about it” is another principle that Diego Mathier masters perfectly. With his open, spirited manner, he is not only the best ambassador for his own wines, but also for Valais and Swiss wines in general. With personalities like him, Swiss viticulture is ideally positioned to survive in the market in the future. So: Swiss wine needs more Diegos!
Cheers!
Yours, Thomas Vaterlaus
Editor-in-Chief VINUM, [email protected]
…
