Caves Ouvertes - best thing ever!!!

This past weekend I felt so lucky to be living in Switzerland! I went to one of the best Wine related events I've ever been to or heard about. It basically works like this:
In one weekend, most wineries in the Vaud canton open their cellars for tasting! You buy the glass for 15 swiss francs and you're entitled to one tasting(usually one glass) in each wine maker (about 300 that participate). There are about 5 regions of wineries and each region puts small trains or buses from their main train station or the town center to the wineries, these local transportation are free, but f you plan to go to more than one region I'd suggest getting a train pass for the weekend, that way you won't have to worry about the drinking, and let's be honest, who would?? Considering a tasting glass is about 30 ml of wine, times 300 wineries, that gives us about 9 liters of wine in two days, of course it's probably impossible to go to all the regions and drink from every place, but even us, that had only sunday to do this, and we started quite late, at about 2 pm and went until 7 pm, we had 14 glasses each, and we could have had more, but we're not that strong!!!

We've been to the Aigle area and one part of Lavaux. It was amazing, a lot of people, but you could always get to the tastings, very organized, most tents had snacks, some even had high-quality small dishes to pair with the wines(not free, but well worth it). Beautiful settings, and even grape syrup for the kids!

Now that I know about this event, I'm gonna make sure I come every year, and I'd suggest you do the same, and it's the perfect opportunity to get to know the amazing Swiss wines that most people never even heard about.

Go with a white Chasselas and a red Pinot-Gamay and you won't be sorry you came all the way to Switzerland, and of course, enjoy the view!

Let's go out for a Rosé?

I've I always felt a little bit "out" of the group after high school when after a class or just when we wanted to get together, the main question was "Let's go out for a cold beer?"! As I don't like beer, I was always an outsider, but since I moved to Europe it seems I have found my place. When April comes and the flowers starts blooming, the first thing people want to do is go out for a cold ROSE! Yes, pink wine is really THE drink in spring and summer, specially amongst women. You'll always see lots of people with a pink wine glass on their hands in open air bars, terraces and even their own balconies. Hot weather is a blessing for europeans, they worship temperatures above 25°C, even the French get less cranky when it's warm! Everyone gets out in the streets, it's just like that part in a movie, when a fun, happy song starts and you know something good is gonna happen, that something here, is summer!

Time to be happy - spring is here!!!

But enough about the weather, let's go back to the rosé! Rosé wine was and still is in some places underestimated and looked down on, as it's not worth it. But in France and Switzerland, it's just like any other wine, they're usually dry(not sweet at all), you have some good and some bad, and you have a right time to drink it. I love a rosé for an afternoon break, but you could also accompany food, usually light food, salads, some fish, light meat like veal and pasta with vegetables.

For more rosé anedoctes, read the post 10 Common Ordering Mistakes People Make in Paris by my inspiration David Lebovitz, a great blogger, that was a pastry chef in a great restaurant in California and moved to Paris to enjoy his life and now he writes about food and Paris, in this post, on the number 7 he talks about rosés, but read the full post as it's just as fun!


My favorites rosés today would be Oeil-de-Perdrix, a Swiss wine made from Pinot Noir, really easy to drink, dry but not too dry, and it goes with most things,  and a traditional Côtes de Provence, delicate and fruity. Of course if you actually drink it in Provence it will be much better, as the Oeil-de-Perdrix if you drink it on the shores of the Lac Léman!

Vineyards and Lavender in Provence, France