Patrouille des Glaciers military/civilian ski race

Hat’s off to the people preparing for the Patrouille des Glaciers, 13-19 April, a military race open to civilians that crosses the top of the Alps, organized by the Swiss Armed Forces. Skill, fitness and training: it’s far more than a ski race and takes place on two high-mountain routes.

• Zermatt–Verbier: 57.5 km and 4,386 metres of elevation gain

• Arolla–Verbier: 29.6 km and 2,200 metres of elevation gain

The 2026 PdG will have 1,376 patrols (teams) and 5,504 participants, with a record 112 women’s patrols. The number of mixed military/civilian teams is up and there are 279 military patrols.

It’s grown in popularity as a spectator sport, so this year there’s a guide for spectators, including information about parking (mostly none) and public transport for Verbier and Zermatt. The race was run three times between 1943 and 1946, then every two years since 1985 except during Covid; in 2024 only the Arolla race was held due to weather conditions. Forecast, for now, mid- to heavy rain in Zermatt on the 13th [update Monday morning: only a tiny bit of rain! 3mm, not even an inch if you’re a feet and inches person], with highs from 7 to 14C up to 17 April. In the mountains, weather forecasts can shift quickly, though.

For the Armed Forces, the Patrouille des Glaciers (PdG) represents a major planning operation. It combines the challenges of alpine terrain, the effects of the environment—altitude, rapidly changing weather conditions, and isolation—as well as the simultaneous management of several missions. Logistical, medical, and security preparations have been underway since March. The military deployment will remain in place through the dismantling phase until the beginning of May. Nearly 300 tons of equipment are being mobilized to support all units. Distributed across 15 posts along the route, Armed Forces personnel provide command, security, medical support, logistics, and communications. This continuous deployment makes it possible to cover the entire route in an especially demanding environment. (Armed Forces press release, 8 April)

The Alphorn

Someone is bound to play an alphorn during the race—this most Swiss of instruments, with a sound that carries from peak to peak. Horn blowers are often surprised to find that it is remarkably difficult to play. On a walk along the Rhone recently I heard one and finally spotted the player, in a space where he wouldn’t disturb the neighbours and had room to play. Background video on the alphorn, all about this instrument by an orchestra musician.

Alpine rescues

Some 4,000 people involved in classic mountain sports were rescued in 2025, up by 11%. The good news is that the number of deaths in Switzerland from such accidents for the year was 98, down from a ten-year average of 119. Statistics are kept by the SAC, Swiss Alpine Club.

Weather in the Alps

Snow, last week, sunshine and in the twenties (C) this week, skiers in ski suits and hikers in shorts going up the lifts in the resorts Saturday. In my garden at 1,100 m, tadpoles are trying to survive cat and bird attacks. Nesting birds need to be fed. A hare and deer were spotted wandering up the cow pastures in the wee hours. And a badger is digging up my garden [update Monday morning: it looks like my charming blackbirds are the culprits, not a badger]. Forecast at this altitude is just above freezing at nights, so we heed the old folks who say even with climate change it’s too early to plant.

Wine: fun with a glass of it

A short period of mostly abstinence at my house while I finish intensive reading and writing a longish short story for a writers workshop. I made time with friends for two fine Valais Syrah wines with Easter duck, reminding me that this a grape to look for in this region, particularly between Vétroz and Chamoson. Let them age if you can; we had a 2012 and 2016

In lieu of a wine report for this newsletter here is a playful photo, with Johannisburg from Chamoson in Valais. The glass is a forty-year-old old Irish handblown wine glass, so not your usual shape, one of only three left of the original six. I save it for special moments. Here, sipping while rereading Knut Hamsun’s novel Mysteries, which I last read decades ago. I love the way wine in the glass can reflect the world around it, doubling our pleasure.

Coming soon, wines from Spain

I’ll be posting notes from late April master classes and new tastings plus pairings of Spanish wines, Rioja and Ribera del Duero.

Meanwhile Mas Doix, a Catalan winery of deserved renown, published its 100th newsletter, which is one of the best winery newsletters around, an educational source for anyone who cares about sustainability, climate change, terroir in the bottle and much more in the vineyard and cellar. I highly recommend it, although be prepared to want to head for Barcelona immediately and inland to the vineyards, for the photos are beautiful.

Hiking: urban river walks, Sion city

Still staying close to home, but I have at least two hikes around Geneva planned for late April and May. I’ve often cycled along the Rhone near Sion, but for a change I decided to walk from near the train station in the direction of Sierre (heading east). It reminded me that Switzerland is a great country for urban river walks. I’ve walked for kilometres along the Rhine in Basel and Zurich, the Aare in Bern and Rhone in Lausanne, Morges, Nyon and Geneva: the largest cities’ river walks are accessible and offer wonderful views. The smaller cities, like Sion and Olten (Aare), and Winterthur (Töss) are fun to explore, ending with a river walk from the centre outward.

Out & about

List of Winery Open Days, the annual event in each of the six Swiss wine regions, which kicks off 1-3 May in the German-speaking wine region. Note that in Geneva this year for the Open Day 30 May in the Mandement region the TPG is offering free shuttle service. Wineries in the Arve et Lac region, on the left bank, are also offering a free shuttle service. The CFF is putting extra trains on the Léman Express La Plaine line. Bicycles are discouraged, and remember that a drunk cyclist is a drunk driver as far as the law is concerned.

Among the many hikes being organized in coming weeks by wineries and local groups, I can recommend the annual Balade gourmand, Bourgeon d’Or 18 April at Mont d’Or, the oldest winery in canton Valais. Sion, Valais (CHF25, reservation required).

Morges tulip festival is now in full swing, with large weekend crowds. Suggestion: take the train, plan to walk for at least an hour in Independence Park, let your heart sing and enjoy the little city’s coffee and pastry shops.

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Here & there

For a change from reading about current belligerent leaders you might want to read a long and well-researched article about our ancestors and sociopaths—blame farming, is the upshot.

“Violent leaders abound in the ethnographic literature on small-scale agricultural societies and serve as a cautionary example of thee capacity for the worst people to climb to the very top in hierarchical political systems.” Oh dear.

An ancient Roman freight haul: they aren’t yet on public display, but that is the plan for this remarkable collection from a shipwreck 2,000 years ago in Lake Neuchatel. You can get an idea of the items found, in excellent condition, in photos on the canton’s official site. The wreck was spotted in December 2024 with aerial photography.

Wine and time: Nature published a report on DNA research into wine grapevine ancestry which shows that the French were using sophisticated techniques to propagate vines dating back to the start of this millennium. The same study found a surprising Pinot Noir pip from Valenciennes that is genetically identical to modern Pinot grapes.

Wine and hiking: nice to see the commune of Ecublens suggesting my book as a guide for walking in the region and discovering their vineyards!

Bad news from Amazon for owners of older Kindle e-readers: support is being discontinued “for Kindle devices released in 2012 or earlier” the company announced this week. My recommendation: ban Amazon from your world and buy a Kobo reader. I bought a Clara model earlier this year, love it, and the selection of books is good. Kobo works with independent booksellers, a huge point in its favour. What I buy belongs to me, unlike the Amazon books I bought, which Jeff Bezos & co. own—they can’t be read anywhere else. As business models go, Kindle’s is rotten through. Wired just published a selection of the “best” readers—I agree with their choices, based on my own testing—but as an Amazon partner Wired puts links to buy Kobo readers on Amazon. You can find them as cheaply elsewhere. I found mine for a good price at Manor, where I could test it against other models.

Looking for another way to say “we” lovingly? It seems we used to have more words for this.

More seniors (over 65) than young people under 20 now, in Switzerland. The federal statistical office offers lessons on the difference between average life expectancy and lifespan (in English), with an interactive mortality table. Apparently I can expect to live to 91, and it’s rising every year—unless something happens before then!

Never seen a woodpecker at work? Here he is, just outside my window, minus the sound because I didn’t want him to be aware of me.

Ellen’s World

There seems to be an almost desperate longing for Spring this year, judging by the number of news media articles about this season for hope. I’m guessing it’s in part the result of too much disturbing news and in part because of the winter-summer seesawing. Here’s the moment when Spring arrived at my home, technically at 10:46 Thursday, after a splendid godfingers dawn (more on the Equinox).

Spring, a reminder to pay attention to nature

Composters, this is for you!

For those of you who garden, my most recent wonderful discovery is a podcast, two-plus hours of some of the best polyculture gardening advice ever (but applies to all gardening), from Huy Richards, a very popular Welsh gardener whose YouTube videos and books are worth your time. I watch and re-watch it, one tip at a time. Thanks to his good counsel, I’ve just expanded my composting area significantly, by converting two little-used paths near my raspberries to compost (no kitchen waste, though) areas.

On birds and bees

The number of birds in my garden has jumped significantly, the feeder needs replenishing more often, and the ten quiet little mountain frogs that showed up in late February have laid spawn galore above the waterfall. Blooming pink and white heathers are covered in bees and two of the relatively rare and solitary shiny black carpenter bees have shown up for the garden party.

Today I watched milan royal raptors (red kites) with similar ideas start their season of aerial acrobats, part of their courting routine. The brown female blackbirds fly low, as always, while the shimmering darker males change altitude and find treetops from which to sing and woo the little paler birds below. I rarely see owls, some of the most amazing birds on Earth, but I think it’s because I don’t know enough about them. A bird learner help: a primer for learning Swiss bird songs. Bird Life Switzerland late in 2025 announced that the nearly extinct little owl is making a comeback in Switzerland. My favourite remains the tiny burrowing owl in British Columbia, Canada, to which I was introduced at the Burrowing Owl Winery in Oliver, BC (very good wines, too).

Bird Life (F, G) reminds us to be careful if we’re pruning this time of year - it’s illegal in Switzerland to disturb nests in use. This is one of many groups working together to encourage gardeners to plant more indigenous bushes and trees. Communes throughout the country are part of the movement, often with educational panels next to their new plantings.

On poop and permaculture

Outside, I watch the wild gooseberry grow energetically. Three pies this year, maybe four. Yum. The farmer just offloaded winter barn manure to the other paysans in the valley. His hardier cows are now nibbling out in the pasture. In a month—it’s too early to plant much at 1100m—he’ll deliver a nice load of dried, aged (and not smelly) manure for me to make a fresh permaculture layer, which I’ll then top with straw: soil regeneration. I plant down into it without digging up the soil, and I rarely weed.

Garden to kitchen: winter vegetables to love

This is the season when garden-to-kitchen gets more interesting. I’m now adding baby dandelion and radish leaves to salads, young kale to everything and the large blueberry bush in a veranda pot has just been pruned. Those little buds will be June fruit.

It’s been a winter to learn about vegetables. My bay leaf bush nearly died and then had a burst of new growth—but the leaves were uselessly free of perfume. It turns out that it’s only the mature leaves that have the oil so appreciated by our soups, even more intense if you dry the leaves. No wonder they’re sold dry in packets!

I learned to finally like turnips after some salsify, grown in Valais but a mystery vegetable to me, arrived in my kitchen. They can be cooked the same way as turnips, basically caramelised in the oven by tossing with olive oil then roasting with a bit of mustard and drops of honey or maple syrup. Put little strips of them under a roasting chicken, with chunks of sweet onion and life is good! I have more cabbage than one person wants to eat, from Robin des fermes, which regularly delivers, via Swiss Post, fresh fruits, vegetables, eggs, bread and fair-price milk from a group of nearby farms. The web site will tell you if they deliver in your area. Here’s how to store cabbage, for weeks—seriously!—in the fridge. If you’re wondering how to freeze kale, here’s another tried and true tip.

Yes, you can love avocados

Crowdfarming is where I often order food that isn’t grown locally. The Spain-based non-profit works with some 3,500 farmers throughout Europe, organising grouped deliveries straight from the farms. I’m now making marmalade from my final seasonal delivery of oranges from Valencia, Spain and re-ordering bergamots from southern Italy. Crowdfarming, with its emphasis on research and organic but especially farms switching to soil regeneration, is also a good source for learning about farm foods. I eat avocados daily for much of the year, after learning more about how they can be produced in Europe: time to get rid of some of your preconceived notions, especially if you think they’re worsening drought conditions.

Wine, Cave des Vignerons, Fully: Rèze

Rèze and shine, a fine old wine! This is not a white wine you’ll come across often, but it’s rich in history and, happily, several wineries in Valais now make good versions of it to drink on its own. Think white and dry. My most recent re-discovery of it came this week at the Maison de la Petite Arvine, just off the autoroute in Fully. I sampled a 2022 from Cave des Vignerons in Fully. It has a remarkably unusual and pleasant walnut and hazelnut mouth with a balsamic and pine finish - think of a hint of retsina. I shop for wine here partly because they have a good collection of half bottles from a number of wineries, but it’s also a good place to sit down with friends and explore new wines.

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Hiking the ‘hood

Spring weather is unpredictable, so I’ve decided to stay close to my home in Valais until April and explore my mountainside. I’m hiking every marked trail, even the smallest, to get a better understanding of how they hook up. I’m finding new local treasures, sometimes visual, often new information, tracking the bisse irrigation systems that water the vineyards during droughts and the underground sources of our drinking water. If you’re wanting wilderness hikes, you’ll have to wait, but if you want to understand how we depend on nature, here’s a start. I highly recommend using Switzerland Mobility Plus if you’re doing this anywhere in Switzerland.

Hike description and photos, an Ellen World long read

Out & about

Wine and tulips: Divinum, an excellent place to learn about canton Vaud wines in particular, 25-30 March in Morges, but with German-speaking wine regions as the guest of honour, this is a chance to sample wines from Basel to St Gallen and more. The tulip festival for which the town is famous opens 27 March and runs until 10 May: 140,000 tulips, 350 varieties on display in the beautiful lakeside Parc de l’Indépendence. Weather in Morges isn’t everything the flowers might want, with temperatures down to 0C at night this week, but Saturday to Monday, expect 9-12C during the day.

Wine in Geneva: the new vintage will be presented officially 7 May - I’ll let you know what I think after spending the day tasting wine and hiking in Geneva.

Here & there

Shingles and its vaccines: you need to get up to speed on this one. New research is indicating that shingles can leave you with brain fog, make you age faster, be more prone to strokes and have a higher risk of dementia. The good news is that getting vaccinated, possibly at a younger age (and this goes for anyone who’s had shingles) could turn some of this around. Case in point: I had Covid and ocular shingles at the same time in early 2025, followed by months of brain fog. I had to wait but then had two vaccinations six months apart, and, finally, early this year, the fog lifted. Hello again!

The physics of trains - how can a locomotive pull the enormous weight of a long freight train? The short answer is friction, but of course it’s a little more complicated than that, and very fun if you like to know how or why things work.

If you need something purely remarkable to read:

• Why Minnesota matters more than Iran for America’s future, Thomas Friedman in the NY Times (gift link; if you can’t read it for free, contact me)

• Uwaa: the sound of the feeling that cannot be spoken, Polly Barton, Granta

The Smithsonian reports that the era of the mass market paperback is over, after 90 years, RIP. Also in book news, Publishers Weekly announces the arrival of “human authored certification”, and Wired reports on Babelbots.

Notes on electric cars: 1) I love mine, a little thing for zipping short distances 2) environmental arguments on electric vs. traditional gas/petrol cars from Fascinating World 3) The hype, reality and future of EVs, according to Wired (American view) 4) The Swiss Federal Bureau of Statistics reports that “In 2025, almost 250 000 all-electric vehicles were registered, representing 5.2% of all passenger cars.” But to put this in perspective, the average age of cars is 10 years and as they get replaced, electric has growing appeal: “the number of new electric car registrations was 15.6% up on the previous year. As a result, their share of all new cars rose by 3.5 percentage points to 22.7%.”

Digital services, Chat GPT: Yet another tip from Wired, this time on how to avoid US-based digital services. And from Ellen, who has been testing it, a recommendation if you’re in Switzerland to switch from Chat GPT etc. to Swiss-based (as in, your data stays here) Euria, from Infomaniak.

Now that the ski season is nearly over, and with luck you didn’t have an accident, it’s might be an idea to review just what exactly your insurance covers, in Switzerland and abroad, when you ski.

Ellen’s world view

A fine sunrise this morning over the Swiss Alps, Monday 23 March

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A public fund has been created for the victims of the 1 January fire at Le Constellation bar, in Crans-Montana (where I live), to which you can safely donate:

IBAN number CH3400765001060342603 and the QR payment code

Faire un don / please donate

• Coordonnées bancaires (bank details)

• Facture QR (QR bill)

The fire that broke out, at a bar as the new year was being celebrated by mostly young people, killed 41 and injured 115. Monday 2 March the Swiss Parliament honoured the victims and pledged a full inquiry and to “never forget” the disaster.

Please beware of possible GoFundMe scams. There is, of course, insurance money and government funds to help, but the ongoing costs for victims and their families are expected to be enormous. A foundation, Beloved, has been set up to oversee aid and memorials. Doris Leuthard, former president of the Swiss Confederation, at the end of February was named to head the foundation.

Cezanne and the fullness of space

Paul Cezanne’s show in Basel at the Beyeler Foundation is rich for anyone who wants to explore his focus on structure, especially in his later years. “Cezanne’s Whites”: join me on my recent visit to the exhibit shortly after it opened. How I love it that the Beyeler gives you space and uncrowded visits for its shows.

Wine: celebrate wet-your-whistle

Dry January went up in puff when Neuchatel cheered the arrival of Swiss 2025 vintage new wines with its le non-filtré (unfiltered Chasselas). For my part, in recent weeks I’ve found myself working my way through bottles of bubbly that landed on my table over the holiday season, usually in the company of people who are not wine experts. I learned that a lot of sippers drink champagne, prosecco (or spumante) and cava without a clue about what causes the bubbles, or what differentiates these three popular versions of fizz. Some of our table chat (experts, this is not for you):

The visual aspect of the bubbles matters more than you think, and part of the beauty of a really fine champagne is seeing a neat vertical stream of small bubbles that go on and on and on.

Champagne famously comes from the north of France, from the area of the same name, and is made from a blend of mainly three grapes—Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Meunier, the last two of which are red grapes. It is the result of the Champagne method, with a second fermentation inside each bottle. Legally, it must be called the traditional method elsewhere. Here’s a complete rundown on champagne bubbles, from the role of surfactants to what bubble size signifies. Glasses, from flutes to white wine glasses to how the glass affects bubble size will keep people arguing over many a future bottle.

Cava is Spain’s version of champagne, made using the traditional method. There are four key zones, three of them in the north of the country and on near Valencia, in the middle near the Mediterranean coast. Like champagne, the quality range is huge, but it should not be considered a lesser kin: some of these whites and rosés are excellent wines and production is increasingly artisanal, with single vineyard and integral (whole process in-house) cavas adding to quality.

Prosecco is, in a word or two, lighter, fruitier, cheaper and frankly a bit more fun than its French and Spanish sparkling cousins, although this remark could spark another argument. It’s made in the Venetto area north of Venice, from the Glera grape, and it’s made in tanks. For more on the champagne/prosecco differences, Wine Folly takes you through production, the aromas and more. And if you’re wondering, so what’s spumante then? Spumante is a category of Italian sparkling wine, prosecco is a protected regional wine - which is sometimes called spumante.

And now, the good part: Switzerland has some very good sparkling wines. Two of my favourites from the holiday crop were Mauler’s Cuvée Eclat Brut blanc de noirs organic, which won a 2022 gold medal at the world sparkling wine awards, and the 2019 Brut blanc de noirs from Novelle wines in Geneva. The latter kept our Christmas turkey company in fine style.

Hiking: Swiss mountain huts

Nights when the sky is clear, lights twinkle in odd spots on the mountains up and down the Rhone valley. These shine from some of the 150-plus huts run by the Swiss Alpine Club, founded in 1836, whose 180,000 members keep the country’s mountaineering traditions strong. The CAS, as it’s known in French, has been in the news in recent months because of fears for these huts due to climate change impact. The CAS itself has appealed for funds to help strengthen and rebuild these extraordinary buildings, part of a larger chain of huts throughout the Alps. Possible solutions to slow down the thawing of permafrost include solar-powered underground cooling pipes. The huts are used by climbers and back-country skiers this time of year, but in warmer seasons they are popular with hikers. If you’re dreaming of soon lacing up your boots and trekking up one of the 6,000 routes proposed by CAS, now is the time to remind yourself about hiking responsibly.

Hiking into Spring in Vaud

My most recent hike was a loop near Saint-Prex, Vaud, testing out Terre & Nature’s recommended hikes. Two-and-a-half hours, easy, mostly flat and just above Lake Geneva (meaning, no snow), fine scenery. This is a nice way to prepare for the hiking season, soon upon us. I lived in the village for 35 years and the hike is similar to one in my book Wine Hiking, but this takes a couple of short, pleasant detours. I highly recommend spending an hour wandering around the historic lakefront village.

Wolves in Switzerland

Here’s a map, late 2025, of wolves in Switzerland. Worry more about cows, if you’re a hiker.

Garden to table: hot peppers, aging pumpkins

The snow around the garden pond has melted, and Saturday the frogs made their first appearance, ten amorous frogs leaping on each other and away from each other. By Sunday, eggs were laid.

Meanwhile, kale, that remarkable vegetable, continues to produce tightly curled little leaves that enliven salads. My favourite use, however, is to tear the leaves into small pieces and drop into boiling water with broccoli for 3-4 minutes, before stirring them in a small pan with softened or caramelised onions, slivered garlic with a couple of small pieces from a medium-hot red pepper. Oh the taste! Oh the vitamins! And the bright colours.

On peppers: I grew several varieties last summer and realized when I harvested them that I wasn’t very sure how they compared, in terms of heat. I’d lost some of their identifying markers, so meals occasionally included mystery peppers and oh my, can that be a surprise!

I looked for charts and good photos of pepper varieties that give information about their heat. American sources tend to get competitive, as in how many hot peppers can you eat in five minutes (not my goal). The best source I found is the Escoffier cooking school site. Forewarned, lots of ads to get you to sign up for a culinary course.

March is the end of the storage period for most pumpkins. I cooked one enormous fellow last week, putting some into the freezer for pies and soups and muffins, baking some as part of sheet pan veg dishes, slicing some for soup this week (rushing out to buy a chicken for good bone broth). But not all pumpkins have the same shelf life, and storage conditions make all the difference. Those I store in my garage should, in theory, last longer because it’s very cool. But snow dripping from a parked car means it’s too humid. Those I store in an under-stairs area just inside the garage do better - still cool, but dry. Here’s a guide to how long you can keep different pumpkin varieties.

Out & about

“The Stars’ Share”, photos of “stars” - not quite the same thing as celebrities - in a wine context, by Gerard-Philippe Mabillard, who is also the director of Valais Wines. The 30-photos show returns to Switzerland after a huge success in Spain. Beautiful photography, moments shared with international “stars”, images that are natural, not staged, that make you rethink the word “share” when it comes to wine. (hint: you might just find some celebrities you love) 6 March-26 July, Musée du vin in Sierre.

Swiss Wine now lists several upcoming wine tasting events. This should be your first source - but not everything is listed, since it is up to event organisers and the cantonal wine organizations to post them to the site. So Valais open days, for example, are not yet listed (14-16 May).

On your calendar: Swiss wine vintage tasting, a rare opportunity, Swiss Wine Connection, 30 August 2026 in Zurich. Also, well in advance, on your calendars: DIVINes, Swiss vigneronnes in Rolle (a favourite of mine), 5-7 November 2025.

Here & there

Beeswax coating for cork wine stoppers, building on the already honeycomb structure of cork stoppers.

Blouge wines, where red and white wines are blended, very trendy and up to you if you like it. France is, of course, the centre of the trend, which may well have its roots in the darkening economic picture for wine, worldwide.

You’re never too young to consider Swedish death cleaning, which comes and goes in the news. This is the perfect time of year to declutter.

Ancient olive oil, when Romans turned to Tunisia to cover market demands. Nothing like international trade.

The price of oil (petrol, not olive) could zoom as the Middle East and the oil passageway of the Straits of Hormuz are affected by war in the region. The US has reduced its support for electric cars, but in Switzerland, electric cars remain a growth area for the auto industry. They now account for 23% of the national car fleet.

Ellen World View

A season for beauty, above us and under our feet, and all around.

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Related story: Who owns the night sky? A longer essay on finding solace in the stars, published on Medium. (You may use this gift link to pass the paywall)

Please take a moment out of your busy lives to honour the 40 young people who died in my village, Crans-Montana, 10 days ago, and for the 116 who are injured, some of them still fighting for their lives, many of them with critical injuries from burns and smoke inhalation. Their families and friends are beginning a long and very difficult journey as the official national period of mourning ends; please send them hope for the strength they will need.

When fire broke out in the wee hours of 1 January we had finished celebrating New Year’s Eve, but in the village centre people, especially the young, were still partying. The daughter of a neighbour had friends for dinner and they were getting ready to leave when one of them, a volunteer fireman, received an urgent message. No one was surprised: a couple of days earlier the fire department had set out signs everywhere, one in front of my house, saying that fireworks are banned for the holiday because the canton is still suffering from drought. Despite that, we’d all seen and heard small fireworks and knew the firefighters and police would be busy chasing offenders. I live in a wooden chalet and nearby is a barn filled with hay, as most are in winter—I’m all for respecting the ban.

It’s unlikely you haven’t heard about the fire at the Constellation bar, so I won’t repeat the details, although I would like to point out that much of the reporting in foreign media has incorrect details about the drinking age(s) rules here, safety regulations and more. The BBC in particular, which ought to know better, doesn’t appear to have sent their (too old) reporter from eastern Switzerland to Valais to assess the mood on the day of the memorial service, and what she wrote corresponds to nothing I see or hear, personally or in official reports or media reports in French, our local language.

Clearly, several things went wrong. Sadness and sorrow for those lost and injured runs deep—everyone knows someone involved (my garage door was made by a man who lost his daughter)—but there is a determined attitude all around me to identify the mistakes to make sure it doesn’t happen again, ever, and, (how Swiss) to do this in a methodical way so that justice is served. For the impatient, that sounds like a lack of action, which it is not. No one is shirking responsibility; the reports abroad to that effect were due to a lack of understanding of how the Swiss system works—reporters rushing to get a story, a world I recognize too easily from my 35+ years of international news reporting. For the moment, information is incomplete, and that leads to speculation, which helps no one.

The Swiss were justly praised by Italian and French officials for the rapid and orderly handling of an unimaginable catastrophe, and while people in C-M are relieved and quietly proud of this, what they talk about is gratitude to neighbouring cantons and countries for rushing to help in a situation that was immediately overwhelming. That was one of the main themes at the memorial service Friday 9 January. The other was addressed by the head of the Valais government, Matthias Reynard, who said in a voice raw with emotion that we adults have let down our young people, who should be able to count on us. Rarely have I seen so many officials with tears in their eyes.

In front of me stood two groups of teenagers Friday. We were among the hundreds and hundreds who braved icy falling snow for an hour Friday, all of us motionless, soundless, cell phones put away, watching the memorial service on a large screen, needing to share with those families our “compassion, humanity and sorrow” in the face of such loss. The teenagers wrapped their arms around each other, leaned into each other, buried their faces on friends’ ski jackets. Not a single selfie was taken.

All the town’s businesses were closed to allow everyone to attend and to share the national minute of silence for the victims. There were no cafes or bars or shops open to warm chilled feet and most of us just kept walking for an hour after the ceremony, seemingly at a loss in more ways than one.

A week earlier, the morning of 2 January at 7:00, about 30 hours after the fire that consumed so many lives in the centre of Crans, the Alpine world was eerily silent. There were virtually no cars on the road, up and down the Rhone Valley. The sky was lightening, stars still bright high above us, and my heart was heavy thinking about how so many who hoped to be going skiing on this beautiful day had not lived to see the sun rise, while others, grievously injured, were lying in hospitals. Suddenly, my village church bells and others along the heights of the valley began to ring, in an ancient and unplanned show of solidarity.

Please share this moment. The bells begin after 20 seconds of near silence (the muted sound is one car about a kilometre away).

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New Year’s Eve wine means traditions and stories

I hoped to write this and share it with you on the first of January, but events made that impossible. How do you write about celebrations when you’re in mourning? Yet our family themed dinner of traditions and stories that tie together generations feels all the more important knowing the losses these families are facing and how important memories will become.

When guests tolerate your love of food and wine, give them some slack

The New Year’s Eve dinner at my house this year was planned—mostly by me, the elder—to carry us into 2026 strengthening links between generations. This doesn’t happen automatically—we need to make time for it, and so we did, with some grumbling—by them, the youngers—noises about how sorting out skis was more important. My son and his small family were home and an old school friend of his came with his wife and their dog. A tired two-year-old would need to be fed, a dog calmed.

The menu and sign-up sheet was the first step. Since everyone would be skiing from 8:30 to 16:00 on their first day on the slopes, keeping it relatively simple was a must because no one would have the energy for preparations once the ski boots were parked downstairs. I’m the wine pro; they like wine but don’t want to overthink it. Ditto for the food.

We started with a sparkling wine from Geneva, in a nod to the boys’ school days near there. Jean-Michel Novelle’s (Le Grand Clos, Satigny) sparkling Pinot Noir Blanc de Noirs Brut 2019 was a hit with everyone, dry and fruity with fine bubbles, and we talked about the importance of bubbles in sparkling wines, the difference between cava and champagne and prosecco, Geneva’s vineyards and winery open days and the folly of riding bicycles when you drink too much. It’s a wine that goes well with many dishes, but we had just nuts and various olives and crackers, to get people focused on dinner without nibbling too much. When you have a young dog that has to be fed and her bed sorted out and a small boy who’s too interested in the dog to eat, you need to approach the meal with some timeframe flexibility.

Next was the pièce de résistance for me, a 2011 Château d’Yquem my husband and I bought years ago for my son to drink now. It was all I hoped it would be: rich, aromatic (notes of honey, saffron, mango, nuts), smooth, with the sweetness of Sauterne perfectly balanced. There was some discussion about why expensive wines cost what they do and fragments of market economy lessons given by my economics teacher husband to both of the “boys” when they were 17.

The wine was appreciated, but the experience of a rich Sauterne with sliced foie gras and four blue cheeses (Auvergne, Rocquefort, a brébis blue from the Pyrenées, British Stilton) was new to them and a bit overwhelming, so to the shock of a winemaker friend when he heard this, we did not finish the bottle. This was also an introduction to blue cheeses and their varied textures, which they knew little about. They compared the cheeses (Rocquefort the winner) and I mentioned my husband’s love of cheese, how we discovered Auvergne bleu during a trip there early in our marriage. Thanks to my alpha-gal allergy from a tick bite I can’t eat cheese so I had an extra helping of foie gras and a larger glass of Sauterne, fair enough. Nick died in 2020, so our friend took a photo of mother and son holding a photo of Nick, the bottle of French wine in front of us. We laughed and agreed it was a weird but nice photo that we’ll appreciate in the future.

Rich food and Sauterne call for a simple dish to clear the palate and when I saw them groan at the idea of more food, I knew I was right. A spicy soup from the pride and joy of my 2025 garden was just right. The musquée de Provence pumpkin weighed at least 25 kg. One of about 20 potential slices was enough for a large pot of soup, spiced with ginger and a mildly hot red pepper, smoothed with coconut milk. No wine except for sips of the Sauterne.

Main course: two large beautiful baked bass (bar in French) fish with rice, which gave our friend a chance to recount his restaurant worker days stories after he volunteered to cut and serve it and also lift the heads and backbones so I could make soup the next day from the remains. What could a Swiss wine writer offer with fish but a white wine from Vaud with a story. The young Anima collective wine project’s first bottle, by a group of young wine professionals about the age of my small group, led us into conversations about careers people choose, entrepreneurs and the future of the wine business.

Drooping eyes and weary legs notwithstanding, someone cut the fine apple crumble our friends brought from Geneva and each brave diner was served a thimbleful of Chartreuse, with tales of my visit to the monastery near Grenoble, France for a travel magazine article long ago, about the monks and their secret herbal recipe, high in the French Alps, their beautiful silent home and how, for once, briefly, I wanted to be a man so I could live there. It nearly put my diners to sleep and by 23:00 I was alone in the kitchen and all lights elsewhere were out. It was perfect.

The wines were wonderful but the success of the dinner had much to do with the stories woven through, with each object serving as a reminder of a person or an event or an era. If I was uncertain about this, I was sure in the morning when scraps of the evening’s discussions resurfaced over coffee and Panettone.

… I wished everyone else in the world could have a few hours of New Year’s Eve like this, where past and present come together to send us into the new year with bright hopes for the future. My mother began to collect her Fostoria as a young bride in the days at the end of America’s Great Recession. She talked about the small, old houses in Clinton and Independence, her first family dinners at Christmas, Easter and Thanksgiving with these dishes. Maybe the meals varied but I would swear we always had mashed potatoes and peas, with the Easter ham and the Thanksgiving turkey. We all drank milk with the meals, in fancy goblets.

My mother had fewer than five glasses of wine in her life. I shared the first with her, from a bottle of Mateuse that my father brought home one day when I was in high school. If we had cheese, it came from nearby Wisconsin, or the boxes of Velveeta we bought regularly, part of our macaroni and cheese Friday night dinners (no meat on Fridays in that Catholic household).

The champagne glasses carried another story. They were handmade by a glassblower I knew when I lived on the west coast of Ireland decades ago. I could only afford his seconds but I love each flaw — no two glasses are alike — that shows the hard road to perfection…

from “Who owns the stars” essay. Free-read friend link at the top of this newsletter

Hiking: the perfect altitude in icy weather

Winter in the Swiss Alps has kicked in, first with a vengeance - temperatures of -10 and -11, which we rarely see at 1100 m, and then warmer days with no snow, and as of mid-week plenty of snow. And now the coming days will bring sub-zero nights and above-zero days. We’ll be walking on ice. For those of us who prefer hiking to skiing or even snowshoeing, finding a good place to walk in the mountains can be tricky. Too high and you’re into icy slopes. Too low and you get the ice and chill that comes from inversion, with too few hours of sun. The best walking trails are generally found at 500-1000m, although midday when the sun is highest I like to walk along the Rhone.

Swiss winter hiking trails are marked in pink. Most of them follow regular trails but they are selected for (and sometimes prepared for) easier access. Snowshoe trails are not groomed/cleared, as the hiking trails are. Please be sure to keep your dogs on leashes, especially in forest areas. Check MeteoSwiss for local weather forecasts, available in English.

Some suggestions for January and February:

• If you haven’t yet discovered Romansh-speaking Switzerland, walking some of its trails in winter makes for a magical mini-vacation. CarsPostal has details for hikes starting from Vals (English). You can easily add in some gentle family skiing and thermal baths. SwissRando provides a handful of detailed hikes (F, G, I), all of them of average difficulty, 5-8km long, with maps.

• The Bisse de Clavau in Valais, near Sion, is low enough to remain walkable most of the year, and high enough to provide beautiful views. Difficulty: easy. 8 km, 4 hours roundtrip but you can do half and use public transport to return to the start.

• An 8km loop in the Geneva countryside, Collex-Bossy, is a good option if there is snow elsewhere, and an opportunity to learn some of the region’s history.

• Combine a family trip to Gruyère with a 4km walk around the Schwarzee lake, suitable even for strollers, cleared when it snows.

Here & there

The new US food pyramid is getting plenty of press, with mixed reactions. Did you know it includes changes to alcohol consumption recommendations? Even those of us who believe some alcohol is fine, emphasis on moderation, are likely to find this a step backwards. The NY Times summarizes it: “Now the government’s recommendation is to ‘limit’ drinking, without specifying safe amounts for men and women. The guidelines no longer warn of risks like cancer.”

Mapping has just gone gigantesque, and we’re all on the map, or 97% of us: “The most detailed 3D map of almost all buildings in the world. The map, called GlobalBuildingAtlas, combines satellite imagery and machine learning to generate 3D models for 97% of buildings on Earth.” The implications for climate modelling and urban planning are huge, and just a start.

The best article I’ve read on drinking in a long time, unfortunately paywalled but worth seeking out for the diagnosis, prognosis, research and humour you’ll find: “How human-kinds 10m-year love affair with booze might end”. The Economist.

Out & about

Wine: put Wednesday 21 January on your calendar for the arrival of the Neuchatel unfiltered Chasselas, with public tastings.

Art: The Beyeler Foundation’s new exhibit, starting 25 January, focuses on Cezanne and promises to be a big seller, so plan visits and buy tickets ahead.

Ellen’s world view

When the going gets tough, the tough get going—hugely popular t-shirts sported this in Minnesota half a century ago when I lived there. I’m sorry mine wore out long ago. Political news has come in such a steadily negative stream in 2025 that the impact can be numbing. Right now I can’t help thinking about all the good Somalis, long established in Minnesota, who are suddenly so unjustly under attack and I hope the entire State rallies to protect them.

My personal goal during this miasmatic time is to use my writing to help others maintain hope that the world can and will improve. I recently decided I needed a new wellspring of energy and a fresh perspective, so I set off in November on a walking retreat in the White Desert in Egypt. I also wanted to celebrate the end of a year of poor health (ocular shingles, Covid at the same time, rebuilding muscle loss, etc.) with some serious hiking.

We had two days to visit the tombs of pharaohs and their families plus the spectacular new (opened 4 November) GEM museum in Cairo, and I added another two days at the end of my trip to take the train alone to as Alexandria. I wanted to visit the Biblioteca Alexandrina, a place of pilgrimage for writers and researchers on the Mediterranean coast. Its precursor was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. I hoped to pick up the trail of Justine, which I was rereading after 40 years. It is part of the acclaimed Alexandria Quarter by British writer Lawrence Durrell, with the story wandering through the streets and alleys of the city 100 years ago.

[If you’re looking for a simpler day-to-day morale booster instead of a hike through antiquity’s sands, Lesley Joy Allen, American historian, just shared some inspiring bits of wisdom in How I maintain peace and equilibrium].

The White Desert is remarkable for its beauty, its silence and its history, for this is a seabed that millions and millions of years ago was teeming with underwater life. Traveling 12 km a day on foot with quiet Bedouins across a landscape that was formed some 80 million years ago when the prehistoric sea disappeared erodes your notions of time. The seabed on which you walk is strewn with fossilised seashells and flower bursts of ancient lava, the endless blue of sky during the day veers into dark velvet at dusk and becomes the ceiling of the world at night. Countless stars shrink your sleeping bag into less than a grain of sand among the constellations. Eons of history have washed over this land and the realisation that your place is tiny in this scheme is quickly clear and oddly comforting. Dictators and power-grabbers and their short-lived monuments: they count for nothing here.

I’m writing an essay on my hike, with reflections on our notions of temporality and space and infinity—where we fit into the grander scheme. It will be published on Medium; I’ll send subscribers to Ellen’s World a short email with the link when it’s posted.

Meanwhile, some photos and details. I flew in early November with a small Swiss group from Geneva to Cairo on EasyJet, inexpensive if you book ahead and it’s not high season, which starts in December. The flight is a little over four hours, via the French and Italian Alps, down the length of Italy and the Adriatic Sea, over Greek islands, Alexandria on the Egyptian coast and on to Cairo, one spectacular aerial view after another. In Egypt’s capital, a city of 22 million people, we stayed in simple small inns and hotels near the pyramids, designed for educational groups and people on retreats. After a day to get our bearings in the din of the city (non-stop horns and a style of lane-drift driving I’ve never seen elsewhere) we traveled five hours by mini-bus to Bawiti, part of the Bahariya Oasis, 370 km south and west of Cairo—if you’re picturing two trees and a waterwell, reconsider, for this is a town of 70,000 people that suddenly appears after nothing but miles and miles of desert. The highway (there are no other roads) is used mainly by trucks carrying huge white bags, which I later learned carry potatoes. The oases in this area supply the country’s potato chip makers: this is the eponymous national snack.

Rocks, dunes: endless sand, crystals, lava and chalk

We met up with our Bedouin guides on the edge of the ancient settlement of Al Qasr. Their three Land Cruisers were loaded with tents, rugs, tables, food supplies and logs for building fires: we would be camping in the desert, but this was not the kind of roughing it that I know from northern wilderness hikes. The weather in November is ideal, very cool at night and 24-26C during the day, so that hikers who wanted to go barefoot some of the time—most did—could do so.

And with that, we were off for several days of hiking in silence. The group spread out across empty landscapes that varied from loose dunes to harder sand pebbled with purple and black nuggets of ancient lava and hillocks of chalk and limestone. We would gather when Waheed, who guided us, stopped to point out that we were in an area of quartz crystals (which he asked us to leave in place) or over there was a mound where we would find several seashells turned to rock, or in the distance, where the sun would soon set, were the sand dunes that are the start of the Great Sand Sea that runs to eastern Libya.

The 300 km2 White Desert became a national park in 2002. Tourism is regulated, with small groups allowed in limited numbers. Trails are not marked, but Waheed, our guide, told me that while the Bedouins don’t name areas in the desert, they follow rock formations to which they do give names. They are highly respectful of their homeland, proud to show it off, ready to talk about their families and desert lifestyle, happy of course to have tourism income—and keen not to repeat the mistakes of areas where excessive tourism causes problems, such as some safari regions in southern Africa. We quickly realized we were their guests in every sense, with logfire-cooked meals of typical Bedouin food prepared for us, eaten at low tables with cushions on colourful rugs for seats, rugs and bright fabrics hung around us to protect us from wind and sand. They played Bedouin music, loud and lively around the fireside, until the pull of sleeping bags in tents or outside under the stars grew too strong.

I dreamed of seeing the wild camels whose soft padded prints we saw in the sand, but they keep to themselves, as do sand cats, who follow the camels hoping for milk. Our hosts were surprised one night to see a fennec fox approach their tent and we could see one spying on us, on the outskirts of our temporary camp—a sign, unfortunately, that someone had probably fed the animal, said Waheed. This smallest of the foxes, notable for its large ears, needs all its wild instincts to survive the harshness of life in the desert.

Towards the end we stopped by Crystal Mountain, which is close to the highway, and here we saw other tourists doing the bucket list thing of briefly stopping and taking selfies before jumping back in their jeeps. This bit of desert is so known for its remarkable rock formations that some of it has to be protected by a ring of rope with signs asking people to respect the site. Once the others left we were able to step back and admire the alien-looking landscape with strange large rocks that have been formed by wind and sand erosion over millennia.

Was I able to set aside, for a time, the world’s sorrows? Yes, and my own, one of which is marking the fifth anniversary of my husband’s death next week. Listening to new friends over a campfire, reminding oneself of others’ efforts to overcome fear and loneliness, and considering the place we each occupy in a universe too grand to comprehend fully: these are crucial to the perspective we need in order to move through and past hard times.

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When dictators leave

Did I mention dictators above? Spain’s conservative Francisco Franco left us 50 years ago, 20 November 1975. Five years later I visited Spain for the first time, and came across one of the weirder side-effects of the end of the Franco era, which drove home his departure in a way none of the news reports had managed. I was invited to join the family of a man I worked for, who had a home on the Costa Blanca. The beach cafés in Alicante were lined with chairs, dragged there by old men in berets who arrived early to take a seat.

It was soon apparent why. German tourists were flocking to the beaches, where topless bathing was now allowed. Long-legged beauties with blond hair streaming and freshly tanned torsos ignored the ogling and strode into the water, then spread their glorious near-nudity out to dry on towels. An invisible line between the two groups was respectfully observed. When my boss asked one of the oldsters later if life was getting better now that Franco was gone, he looked over at the beach happily. “Oh yes, much better.”

Wine: world tour Fendant, alternative drinks

Top Valais wines

Valais, Switzerland’s largest wine region, every November names its “Etoiles”, eight wines that represent its main grape varieties. This year offered a surprise, with Weingut Seewer in Susten, near Sierre, having two winners. Its Fendant 2024, which for me is exceptionally good, won, as well as their Cornelin 2023. Another surprise was an announcement by Swiss Wine Promotion that the Seewer Fendant will be one of its featured wines during the organisation’s 2026 world tour to promote Switzerland’s wines. The small family winery has been going from one success to another—in 2023 and again in 2024 they were named Swiss Winery of the Year.

The collection is available in a limited quantity and can be ordered online and by phone at (+41) 027 345 4080. When I tasted these last week at the awards event I was impressed by this year’s entire selection, not always the case. I particularly like the Syrah from Cave Mabillard-Fuchs in Venthône, a good example of what Switzerland’s north of Rhone French Syrahs can do. It’s smooth and balanced, with elegant pepper notes. It will benefit from a couple of years to gain depth. Another favourite was the very fresh Petite Arvine with excellent rhubarb notes, from Cave les Collines, Pierre Dorsaz in Charrat.

Heddi Nieuwsma (Swiss-based American cookbook author, food writer and recipe developer—check out her books) sent out her Cuisine Helvetica Swiss recipes newsletter today and it includes an interview with me. She ends it by suggesting a good Christmas present would be my book Wine Hiking Switzerland (available at most Swiss bookstores in English, French, German), accompanied by two of my favourite wines, Cornelin and Petite Arvine. The Etoiles du Valais 2025 winners for those wines are exactly the thing! Her featured recipe for lebkuchen with vanilla buttercream, by the way, will make your mouth water.

From bourbon to hibiscus juice

Let’s take a minute for a drink outside the wine lines, folks. A delightful discovery in Egypt was hibiscus juice, often served as a welcome drink. Light and non-alcoholic and a beautiful colour—if you come across it, be sure to give it a try.

At the other end of the scale the bottle of Iowa bourbon I bought a year ago is gradually going down (I’m not much of a hard liquor drinker), and American Thanksgiving with friends in Geneva let me use a bit more of it—not to drink but in a pecan pie. Cheers! Molasses and bourbon and pecans are an unbeatable trio.

Out & about

The Christmas markets everywhere are now in full swing. I spent a good part of last Friday at the Basel one and was pleased to see that virtually everything is locally or regionally made. Switzerland Tourism’s list is a good place to start if you’re wondering where to go.

The City of Lausanne’s 223rd annual wine auction is Saturday 13 December, starting at 08:00, but for winelovers who want to learn how this works and sample the local Chasselas, try the Carnotzet visit 12 December, 18-19:30. It’s free but registration is required.

‘Tis the season to be sure you’re not drinking and driving after office parties and outings with friends. Police are reminding us again to designate in advance one person to drive and make sure that person stays sober or use a reliable alternative: public transport, taxi or Nez Rouge. Checks for drivers over the limit will be stepped up in December.

Here & There

A Swiss newspaper recently carried an article about odd road accidents. One of the strangest was a driver who had too much to drink and crashed his wheelchair, injuring his passenger. Think about it. And don’t get on a bicycle or scooter after drinking, either, with the idea that little wheels don’t have the same road rules as big ones.

The more that drones are in the news, the more questions they raise and the New York Times has just published an informative column “Your drone questions answered” (paywall). If, like me, you’re looking for a new ebook reader, Five Books has a good guide to the various Kindles. If, like me, you’re boycotting Amazon and you want to move on from Kindle, Techradar has a very detailed article on Kindle vs. Kobo.

To cheer you up, here’s an interview with Italy’s “longest serving barista”, age 101. And some great alternatives to canned holiday music from a wonderful jazz listening expert, Tom Storer’s “A Christmas jazz playlist as long as your arm”. Enjoy!

Ellen’s world view

Night-time and moonlight this week in Switzerland

Here they come, all those invitations to parties, wine tastings, prize awards with nibbles or more, office festivities. Now is the moment to stay on top of the coming season. In other words, take a deep breath and check your waistline and promise it that you’ll still be able to see it two months from now so that you don’t find yourself in despair and bemoaning a dry January, twice a week fasts, never-again salty fatty snacks and two hours of walking every morning or a daily tough dose of boxing. Ease up, be kind to yourself and use a little common sense as the holiday season kicks in. Diets and a month without booze are not necessary, possibly not even good for you.

The magic word here is balance, helped along not just by willpower, but advance thinking and planning.

A few suggestions:

• For my part, I’m about to do a retreat/hike in the White Desert in Egypt and you’ll soon be seeing photos of a place of extraordinary beauty. Make November your month to start the 2026 fitness programme; it’s easier now, before extra calories pile up.

• I’ll be swapping hours of garden labour for sedentary jobs like end of the year family admin and bookkeeping, so I’m already putting on my calendar a mix of swimming, cycling and hiking before snow arrives down on the plain. Noting in advance a series of varied winter walks and places to ride makes it easier on a cold morning to just go out the door and get moving.

• Think of others: they, too, are suffering from fear of over-doing the holidays. For baking, I’m making sure that if I don’t have enough guests to finish treats I make, these must freeze well and I plan to send people home with the extras and a freezer bag. Cookies work (Basel honey cookies are great for this), quick breads—cranberry is festive, holiday bars, pies less so. Olive-oil lemon and orange cakes have several pluses: they are very easy and quick to make, some have no dairy (as in the link here) so they’re good for vegan diets, alpha-gal allergies and lactose intolerance. My personal over-the-top for Christmas Eve after small people are in bed: we nibble pistachios just arrived from Spain and sip a dry Swiss sparkling wine (I’m going for Apex from La Colombe in Féchy), wrap gifts to slip under the tree. I will drizzle some Chartreuse over the unfrosted lemon cake. It’s sweet and intense and you can almost hear the Carthusian monks singing as they gather herbs for their secret recipe. Gifts of kitchen sweets for friends will be things that keep well, not candies that must be eaten by the 6 January Epiphany/Feast of the Three Kings (they were probably nibbling on healthy nuts on their journeys).

• Allow yourself small amounts of the best chocolate in the world, if you live in Switzerland (ok, France and Belgium, too). Buy artisanal chocolate, preferably from chocolatiers (two of my favourites, near me are David in Crans-Montana, Valais and Tristan in Perroy, Vaud) who are working directly with growers or who, at the very least, tell you the source of their ingredients. Resources: fair trade and sustainability: Chocolat du Monde, Fairtrade Max Havelaar, Stella, Pronatec. Also, please don’t store your chocolate in the refrigerator. If you don’t read French/translations, it’s all about the taste.

Sources to help you plan ahead:

Slow Food Switzerland is part of the international movement of the same name; the Swiss web site is in F/G/I and it’s always an interesting source of information on nutrition but also events, including educational workshops. Ticino and Zurich are particularly active regions. The international site (E) focuses more on advocacy, with “Good, clean and fair food for all” as its motto.

World Liver Day falls on my birthday; I’m never quite sure what to make of that. This is a healthy eating/drinking web site. Hint: eat clams, kale, snack on nuts. Read their myth-busting tips and more. Keep in mind what The Economist says this week, that hangover cures mostly don’t have science backing their claims.

Crowdfarming is where I order my clementines, those holiday fruit gems from southern Europe. In winter, I also buy, straight from these farmers, roasted pistachios, lemons, bergamots, oranges, avocados. Here’s why I do it (from their newsletter):

“Ripe clementines can’t be stored: no artificial ripening, no postponing. Once harvested, time becomes critical – especially in organic farming. This moment has come for our organic farmers in southern Europe. The harvest will soon begin – each clementine handpicked by farmers. In conventional trade, clementines are often picked early and kept in cold storage to extend availability. While that prolongs shelf life, it alters freshness, flavour, and texture. The fruit becomes watery, the cell structure deteriorates. 👨‍🌾 Our organic farms do things differently: they harvest only what’s ripe – and only when it’s ordered. Shipping takes place within 24 hours. No cold storage. No middlemen.”

I’ve just finished making jars of quince marmalade to accompany the Christmas turkey and cheese. I was reminded by Elisabeth David, British food author writing in 1980, pointed out that the word marmalade comes from the Portuguese word marma, who used it to describe the jam they made from quince. I also learned a new word, thank you Ms. David—carnelian colour, that breathtaking dark reddish-orange in all its manifestations, named after a gemstone, tones that give the deep pumpkin notes of autumn, so present all of a sudden, the frame they need. Balance in nature.

Wine picks—Ticino Chardonnay, Neuchatel Pur Sang

Weather sparks moods and moods can drive the desire for certain wines. Bring on the Chardonnay, dry and rich and deep in colour, for the last days of autumn! I opened a very classy one from the Zundel family winery in Beride, Ticino. They are better known for their reds, but this is a remarkably elegant crisp white from their nearly 40-year-old Coó vineyards—their highest, at 600 m. Fifteen months in used oak barrels and 300-litre vat. A piercing purity, notable acidity, very dry and rich in aromas. The winery is a member of the Mémoire des Vins Suisses. All the wines are Demeter certified.

A quick mention of Pur Sang from Chambleau winery in Colombier, Neuchatel, as the first truly wintry foods make it to the table. This magnificent deep, rich Pinot Noir has immense appeal, either for a grand dinner with well-flavoured red meat or a spicy meal or, as they suggest, on its own to end an evening. At CHF93 cellar price, and they sell it only in boxes of six, this is not your everyday wine, but one to be treasured for a special evening for winters to come—you can easily age it for at least 10 years. From three terraced vineyards (the domain is entirely organic), oaked 12-18 months.

Out & about

Christmas markets in Switzerland generally open around 1 December, although several, like the famous Montreux market, open a month before Christmas. Whether you’re a tourist or someone who longs for a hot glog and the smell of cinnamon and nutmeg riding waves of cold steamy air, put at least one visit on your calendar.

A Piedmont evening north of Bern at the Bären Buchs in Münchenbuchsee, 20 November. You can choose white truffles as part of this traditional meal with Slow Food.

Gruyère and the Pay d’Enhaut as well as several villages with museums in the centre of Switzerland will open their doors 17:00-23:00 Saturday night, 8 November for the Swiss Museums’ Night.

Lugano is the place to go 28-29 November, Vini in Villa, to taste some 200 wines from canton Ticino, at the Villa Ciani.

Planning ahead, the Beyeler in Basel will have its first ever major showing of artist Paul Cezanne’s work, focusing on his later years, 25 January 2026 to May 25.

Here & there

Swiss PostBus is testing driverless taxis in eastern Switzerland, mainly to better serve rural areas. If all goes well, the company could expand the service within three years.

First it was reading (books, not screens) and now it’s writing: what your parents thought was good for you, is, it turns out. Handwriting has a lot to be said for it (do a search for “is handwriting good for you” and you’ll never ask again). But to get the message clearly you’ll have to watch (and read) a droll little short video on your scroll machine.

Where’d all the Captcha’s go—and did you know the term stands for Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart? Wired. Whohoo, a night train to Mälmo, Sweden from Basel starting in April 2026. There’s probably more there than Swedish noir TV, but if you dream of a city awash in fictive crime, this is it (this is not an invitation to the president of the USA). Swissinfo. Dead tired of work and wondering if it’s really good for you? or thinking it’s what life is all about? If you’re not sure, The Humanities Library is right there with you, asking if we should love it or lump it, and it turns out the world’s greatest thinkers struggled with this as well. Quick, what’s that cloud? Ha, if you aren’t sure, consider getting the Cloud Appreciation Society’s app, CloudSpotter.

Ellen’s world view

Early morning communal breakfast next to my garden, cowbells at work.

Share Ellen’s World

An extract from a longer work, just published, part of The jardin intime essays that I’m writing on Medium/paywalled. If you’re a paying subscriber here, contact me for a gift link to the full essay.

The kitchen is ahumming today. Lyrics from a nursery rhyme flit around in my head while visions of kings boogie in and out of the room, old kings ‘ stolen crowns in France and new kings’ lack of hats in Washington, Moscow and Jerusalem — the hats of dignity once worn by leaders. Kings in their counting houses, counting out their ballroom seats.

Kitchens are places for joy, no room for kings here, so I brush them aside. Star-shaped small blue flowers, borage, are slowly drying in the oven while tomatoes are lined up like soldiers (the kind that respect and serve the people) next to the cutting board, chicken bones have joined forces with carrots and celery and onions and garlic in a heavy pan of water for a few hours of gentle palaver. Simmering, drying, chopping, baking, sterilizing — more harvesting, of kale and apples before sundown. It’s an October gardener’s day, the kind that offers the comfortable illusion of orderliness, of life under control…

…Chaos is noisy and theatrical and intrusive: it takes centre stage and easily overwhelms whatever is happening around it. The only way past it is to look for the good that it hides, the quieter good that is always there.

A permaculture garden like mine is chaotic. To the eye of anyone who believes soldiers and plants should march in tidy rows, it looks all wrong, inefficient surely. Peppers weave through tomato vines, vividly orange nasturtium flowers are intertwined with beans and leeks, Chinese mustard spins out yellow flowers but it also has seeds on spindly stalks that spill over straggly potatoes when bumped. More mustard next year, guaranteed.

For orderly-minded people, such a garden is disconcerting unless viewed from a safe, slightly blurred distance. It’s sometimes a solace to be near-sighted. We might love the luscious massed flowers in a painting from Monet’s garden, but I when I look more closely at his densely floral art, knowing that he was myopic but also was passionate about plants, I’m sure there was a lot going on under those plants, 100 years ago…

…Gardens that sit on the wild side of orderliness offer another way to look at chaos. When the future seems unknowable and therefore unmanageable, they hand us lessons on how to develop a tolerance, an appreciation even, for ambiguity. No outcomes are certain in this garden and one small change can tip the scales (or not), what’s called the butterfly effect in Chaos Theory. And yet these gardens are beautiful and often produce well above expectations.

(continue to the complete essay, with more on living with ambiguity, on Medium)

Swiss wine tomorrow, ups and downs

There is a season for everything under heaven and in business that means growth and a decline in growth, the rise and fall of products. The wine industry is no exception. The first shudders of a drop in consumption worldwide in 2016 have given way to a confirmed picture of a steady decline.

This is the background to what we’re likely to see in coming months in the world of Swiss wine. Market loss means scrambling to face new challenges and getting creative.

Who are the newest, best, brightest?

Wine producers in Switzerland face several challenges, some of which they are already managing well. A fairly stable group of reliably good family wineries was created in the 1970s-1980s, or a younger generation took over then after studying in the Changins national university wine programme. Their products gained a reputation for technical excellence and an ability to reflect the country’s many varied terroirs. In the process they made a name for Swiss wines in today’s market.

Over the past 5-10 years a new generation has taken over in these wineries. The good news is that they are well-educated, experienced thanks to their parents, they have traveled—often training in several countries and they are now showing they can produce top-quality wines. A striking development that makes this clear is the number of new faces winning cantonal and national wine awards.

I was startled to realize, when the Grand Prix du Vin Suisse awards were announced in mid-October, that while I know and have great respect for the winners of the four top awards I am unfamiliar with many of the other winning wineries in 15 categories, a first for me. The same is true for official regional awards. Given that more than 3,000 wines from around the country were entered in the GPVS, the largest number in half a decade, this tells me Swiss wine’s vital signs are strong. And for those of us who love to explore new and promising wines, let’s go! because the change underway is rapid. Most of the old familiars who made good wine still do, but if you stop there, you’re missing a lot.

Climate change, marketing, consumer habits

There is more sobering news. Deny climate change or not, it’s hard to find wine producers who don’t say they are struggling with it, from changes to what areas are now able to grow which grapes to shifting needs for new treatments. I regularly see scores of newsletters explaining how much they’re learning. The problem is that while the need for change may be pressing, change naturally comes slowly in vineyards—a vine doesn’t produce usable grapes until its third year and it takes yet longer to produce quality and quantity—so replanting is a long haul solution. Vineyards are very often rented and the contracts cover several years. These are relatively small businesses, virtually all privately owned plus some cooperatives, and it’s crucial to ensure a return on investment to stay in business.

Add to this the need to market differently from in the past, starting with web sites and newsletters, which people who work in the vines and cellars are hard pressed to find the time to maintain. And yet most of them are doing it well, educating consumers in a way that wasn’t necessary in the past. For several years wine fairs meant that a winery had a limited number of days they needed to be outside selling, but as competition steps up and the number of wine buyers falls, the number of events and smaller fairs and wines on tour have grown. There’s a need to stand out from the crowd, but there’s also a need not to stretch one’s resources too far.

Most of the educational information is in a Swiss language so forgive me for turning to the Spanish for help here. One of the best winery newsletters around is from Mas Doix in Priorat whose photos and texts about the seasons and climate change and more provide an excellent ongoing education for anyone who loves wine, especially organic, biodynamic and natural wines. If you read French, German or Italian, the best Swiss wineries want to teach you what they do.

Which brings us to the shift in consumer habits. Consumption in Switzerland has been falling—down 8% in 2024, a drop that shocked—and while the worst harvest in 50 years might be seen as a blessing because there were large stocks from the excellent 2023 harvest, few winemakers see it that way. The reasons for the falloff are debated everywhere, but it’s clear that anti-alcohol groups promoting research that shows the harmful effects of alcohol has had an impact. Whether that is a pendulum swing and whether or not new research will provide more balance remains to be seen.

A younger group entering the market has been pushing for more natural and better environmental approaches to making wine. Winemakers are now providing a good range of these, but they don’t replace older wines for most cellars; they’re an additional product. This means a larger, diversified group of products because, for now, it’s not clear if this is a long-term trend or a lingering fad, and wineries can’t make these changes overnight.

Wine pick: Pinot Noir, Varen, Weine Vouilloz

Varen is not far from me in Valais, I’ve written about hiking there, and I have been a member of their Pfyfoltru wines commission more than once, but I don’t know all of the wineries. This bottle was a gift from visiting friends, a very good example of the classic Pinots for which the village is known. It’s smaller and less well known than Salgesch, just below it, a famous Swiss Pinot village. The vineyards are neighbours and it shows. Michel Vouilloz’s wine is elegant yet uncomplicated, with beautiful balance and fresh fruit, providing all the lightness and class of a good Pinot.

We had fun with this wine over a winter soup (cabbage, tomato, onion, lentils) lunch by serving it with frozen flowers, nasturtium and blue borage (see the Chaos story above). Unlike ice cubes they don’t melt water into your wine. They are edible and didn’t stay in the glasses long enough to have an impact on the wine. They made for some interesting photo effects, with everyone’s cameras out.

Out & about

Wine events: Expovina, major annual international expo in Zurich, 30 October-13 November. Divines, Rolle in Vaud, 7-8 November, special guests—Changin graduates who are making wine outside Switzerland. Foire aux Vins, Vevey in Vaud is a good example of the growing number of smaller fairs with an interesting mix of 20 Swiss wineries.

Gastronomy: Cheese, glorious cheese, 250 kinds from around the world competing at the world cheese awards, 12-15 November in Bern. Food writer Heddi Nieuwsma, who publishes Cuisine Helvetica, has all the reasons you should go (but if you love cheese you’re probably already buying your ticket) and all the details. Bern again: you must, at least once in your life in Switzerland, go to Bern’s historic and very lively onion market—and go very early! 24 November, Bern. ,

And for hikers: the Bisse Museum in Anzère, Valais celebrates the 20th anniversary of the Museums at Night project with a programme that includes a guided night hike along a bisse and much more, 8 November, Anzère in Valais and VS wine museum

Here & there

Two new books on Swiss wine and beer: Passeport Bières Léman is a fun concept, a mix of guidebook (in French) to breweries around Lake Geneva with a pass for 30 of them for a free tasting, valid until October 2026. Author, David Genillard, publisher Helvetic, available in Swiss bookstores.

The Smart Traveller’s Wine Guide, a series of pocket guides published by the Académie du Vin Library, has added Switzerland to Rhone, Bordeaux, Rioja, etc. It’s well-designed and attractively illustrated and co-authors Simon Hardy and Marc Checkley, who have been involved with Swiss wine for several years, write knowledgeably. Packets of useful tips make it a good gift for travellers who are new to Swiss wine; for connoisseurs, it’s light on new information and wineries that are not known names, but that’s the nature of pocket guides. Available in Swiss bookstores.

Elsewhere, online: Wine from China is finer than Western snobs imagine, The Economist (and I agree, having had some superb bottles). Hiking accidents in Switzerland double in 15 years, Jérémy Desbraux from Maison Wenger in Noirmont, Jura is Gault&Millau’s chef of the year 2026. Highest wildfire emissions in at least 23 years in Europe, Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring service.

A 2,000 year old Pompeii garden springs back to life, Smithsonian (imagine training your nose here). The zipper is getting its first major upgrade in 100 years, Wired (No tape, Ma!)

Ellen’s world view

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Hiking tourism is having a moment in Switzerland. I mentioned several new trail makers in the last newsletter. Here’s another good resource, Swiss Post’s pages on hikes for families (and other themes), with a free map that is worth ordering. Swiss Post is a main partner of RandoSuisse, so this might not be surprising, but the real key here is that Swiss postal cars are often the best way to get to hiking trails. Leave your car at home.

Another very good source for hiking ideas is Terre & Nature magazine. It currently lists nearly 250 hikes, with photos, details about fauna and flora, where to eat. Note that both of these are available only in Swiss languages, not in English.

If you’re considering hiking in the Swiss mountains, keep in mind that it has been unseasonably cold, more like November than early October, for several days. Some passes were closed briefly last week due to snow. Check the forecast and local conditions. Especially if you’re new to hiking, these checklists for what to pack and how to behave are helpful. This time of year you can be like the Swiss: tuck some chocolate in your backpack and it won’t melt!

The many faces of chocolate

Chocolate, never really out of fashion, is also having a moment.I did my bit by taking several slabs (bars) of some of Switzerland’s best, from David l’Instant Chocolat in Crans-Montana (also Sierre, Sion and Vevey), on my recent trip to Beijing because I needed several small gifts. They make great gifts and don’t take up much space in a suitcase. With Lindt sold everywhere these days, artisanal chocolate is a better bet, especially as some of these are now part of projects to help cocoa growers benefit more. You can of course splash out for larger, fancier chocolates. Switzerland has too many good artisanal chocolate makers to name, but in canton Vaud a favourite of mine has long been Tristan in Perroy, who lists the provenance of all his ingredients, always interesting to see.

Good news for anyone on a dairy-free diet: artisanal dark chocolate and some from manufacturers rarely contains milk. Check the labels, ask if you’re unsure but if you have a serious allergy note that most labels say it is manufactured in areas where milk products and nuts are handled. I have an allergy but I have no trouble eating handcrafted dark chocolate.

Also in chocolate news is the trendiness of Dubai chocolate bars and an ongoing shortage of cocoa that is driving up the price. The Economist, writing that

An unholy combination of disease, climate change and poor farming practices in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, where about 70% of the world’s cocoa is grown, has caused a severe shortage

notes that with the price tripling in just three years, major chocolate-makers are looking to lab-grown cocoa to ease the price pain. Lindt was an early tester, partnering with Planet A Foods for a limited edition snack bar. The Economist reports in the same article that

Barry Callebaut, another Swiss chocolate-maker, entered into a partnership with the Zurich University of Applied Sciences to develop cell-culture technology for cocoa.

Should we call it chawclet, to avoid confusion? I hear the marketers groaning no.

Fermented, please!

The bottom line is that while startups are coming up with interesting alternatives, products made with them will probably simply supplement, not replace traditional chocolate. Wine-lovers, you’ll like this one—it turns out that fermentation is what makes chocolate taste so good. Nature in late August published research that shows

The production of fermented foods, such as chocolate, relies on the metabolic activities of microbial communities. Members of these communities transform the raw substrate, cocoa (Theobroma cacao L.) beans, into the precursor for chocolate production. Although after harvest, cocoa beans undergo several processing steps to produce the final chocolate, the fermentation step, however, is a spontaneous process … Unfermented cocoa beans develop little flavour potential when roasted and tend to be bitter and astringent. In contrast, well-fermented beans can exhibit complex flavour notes with reduced bitterness and astringency. Consequently, the fermentation process is crucial for enhancing the aroma and flavour of the chocolate.

SwissInfo says of Zurich startup Food Brewer, which is developing lab-grown chocolate from cells taken from the real thing, that it already is “surprisingly good”. As a non-dairy eater who doesn’t think much of lab-made cheese alternatives, I can only hope they are right.

Tasty, more sustainable, better for the farmers

We’ve been eating chocolate for at least 300 years, but we’re not done tinkering with it. One of the most exciting developments came out of Zurich in 2024, where researchers at the Federal Institute of Technology have found a way to use the whole cocoa plant and not just the beans—with no sugar added. We can go on loving the stuff, it seems.

And just as I wrote this a fun-spoiling article arrived from The Economist, which likes to write about chocolate (I’m convinced they’re buying office chocolates as tax deductions). Dark chocolate has not been proven to be good for you, they declare. Please note that there don’t appear to be any research studies that measure the value of the pleasure brought on by a nightly square of the good stuff. The jury is still out.

Hiking Beijing

Muscle loss from illness can be serious

I need to be fit by November for a week-long desert hike with a small group. When you’re sick for several weeks, as I was during the first half of this year, your fitness level drops dramatically. It turns out it’s not just inconvenient, but can cause other serious health problems. There are some arguments that “a person’s muscle mass is a far better predictor of health than BMI, or body mass index.”

Time to hit the trails—sensibly. Part of my recovery plan was to walk at least two hours every day during a September vacation in Beijing. The city is wonderfully flat, great news for someone gearing up to hike, who needs to work on distance before climbing too much. I live on a mountainside.

You can read, in an essay I just published on Medium/paywall, about how electric cars have transformed Beijing. The noise level has dropped remarkably and it’s now pleasant to take a walk next to 10-lane boulevards, with blue skies overhead (pollution has dropped significantly). I’m writing a memoir about a bicycle trip I took across China in 1985, when much of the country was technically closed to foreigners. Beijing, a city of 8 million, was noisy, dirty and poor, although richer than most of the country.

The greening of a city

Today it is turning into one of the most liveable cities in the world, despite a population of 22 million, down from a pre-Covid high of 25 m. I’ve been back several times over the years, often enough to see the city descend into a pollution-clogged urban nightmare with goofy new architecture, and rise out of it to this wonder. Two of the key changes are transport, with a massive and good public transport network and virtually all vehicles now electric, but another is the city’s greening. Parks are increasing in number, with more than 1,000 today, and greenbelt walks are appearing rapidly, with more than 5,000 km by 2035 in the plans, in the greater Beijing district. Rivers and streams are being cleaned up, albeit more slowly. Corporate architecture is getting more elegant. Apartment buildings are still boxes, continually under repair or being renovated. Everyone complains about high rent; you could be in New York or London.

In practical terms, it’s possible to walk 10-15 km a day almost entirely through parks and along rivers and without being bothered much by city noise. Construction work is never-ending, so it’s not quite peaceful but the only real exception I had was a shopping trip to an older area where the din was overpowering. Barkers, music, loudspeakers blaring; for anyone longing for the good old Beijing days, you can still find it.

Here’s a sample from my walks. A photo album is here.

Wine picks: the beauty of half bottles

A friend recently gave me some half bottles of wine. It was a great gift. She knows that like anyone who lives alone and who likes to cook I find 75 cl bottles a problem. With a half bottle, even a white, I can have a glass or two with dinner, re-cork it and drink the rest before it loses its zip. As more people reduce their alcohol consumption, more wineries seem willing to sell 37.5 cl bottles.

I’ve been buying more, and here are some of my favourites, from Valais for now because they were easily accessible. Maurice and Adrien Zuffery, Muraz-sur-Sierre, Cornalin/Rouge du Pays, deep and richly fruity yet fresh, black cherry notes, a classic. Mathilde Roux, Cave de l’Orlaya, Fully, Petite Arvine, real character with delightful minerality and notes of mango and grapefruit. Domaine La Rodeline, Fully, another Petite Arvine for contrast, La Murgère, a fine example of terroir wine (they make several from this grape).

Out & about (events)

Geneva’s 12th annual Rallye Gourmand, one of the best wine tourism events, this year with a 13 km hike in the countryside, starting in Corsier. 11-12 October and places sell out quickly.

Fully, home to Petite Arvine, heavenly smelling Fête de la Châtaigne, with 300 stands. 11-12 October.

Here & there (reading)

Web reading—Le Temps has a long, excellent article in French on Swiss “heroic viticulture”. Bats are in the belfry and everywhere else—Smithsonian talks about spectral bats with a metre-wide wingspan who like to cuddle, while the NY Times Animal podcast will either terrify or reassure you about bats. Cuisine Helvetica put together a great list of 7 must-visit cafés in Neuchatel. Rising beer consumption and craft brewery innovations are behind strong “advances in AI brewing”, reports Drinks Business. Back to animals: coyotes, missing cats and a cat detective to take your mind off politics.

My writings: I had a wild ride this week on Medium, with a post from May suddenly going viral after it was named a staff pick and was included in the Medium newsletter. Thousands of readers and lots of great comments followed. You read it here first! How to slice a pie, pie as meditation on peace, Medium edited version.

I posted two new essays on Medium (paywall, but access to all its writers) this week:

• A moving tale about what going electric has done for Beijing, observations from my 40th anniversary trip to China, mentioned above

• Thinking about drinking, jardin intime part 3, notes from my permaculture gardening world

Ellen’s world view

White as a colour even though it isn’t. Ask if white is a colour and you’ll go down a rabbit hole. I like this answer: “White is not defined as a color because it is the sum of all possible colors. Black is not defined as a colour because it is the absence of light.” (JL Caivano, Wiley Library). White is the sum of all possible—what an upbeat colour that makes it!

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This has not been an easy summer to have a garden in the Swiss Alps, with temperatures zigzagging from 33C down to 6C in 24 hours, heavy rain, more heat, more cold, surprising mildew in this drought-prone area. Plants are simply confused, which seems to reflect the state of the world for many people. While I’ve been unable to hike much due to a badly pulled muscle, I’ve managed to train pumpkin vines, photograph many types of bees, harvest my first-ever fennel and make tea from the seeds. Steward of the land, respectful consumer of its products.

Valais summer rainstorm, the music of rain, Japanese golden plum tree

The garden began the season awash in green, from salads and herbs to my first crop of wild gooseberries, naturally green and grown in memory of my father, who picked them along roadsides in Iowa as a child. They’ve mostly disappeared there. If you ever have a chance to taste a pie from berries this tart but full of flavour, hold out your plate for a slice, fast.

Read more: The garden is a writer’s palette, 24 August, from The jardin intime series on Medium/paywall.

No, I haven’t missed hiking on too-hot days or in sudden downpours, but now the perfect balance of September days draws near and the beauty of the Alps and Swiss lakes beckons. The garden, like children leaving home, doesn’t appear to consider me essential to its success. The hiking boots are humming a familiar tune.

Wine or beer, birds, lakes or plain old hiking

People used to go for long walks, as we called them when I was a child and the family would spend Sunday afternoon walking the length of unused railroad tracks. Trails became a thing and walking was replaced by hiking and for the more determined, trekking. Apps appeared and hikers could follow traditional marked trails or create their own and record them. When I wrote the now bestseller Wine Hiking Switzerland (2022) it was a pioneering approach, modelled after publisher Helvetica’s successful Beer Hiking Switzerland—but finding breweries that are open when you’re hiking is easier than wineries, so the approach had to be re-thought. Suddenly there was an explosion of wine tourism projects created by wineries or regional wine bodies and then by tourism offices. The tourism offices have taken this another step further and they’re creating a host of themed hikes.

People are getting out and walking. Hiking is helping bring seasonal balance to mountain resorts like Crans-Montana that used to bank on the ski season, before climate change made this more complicated. And now the hiking traditionalists are adding to the fun by creating their own themed hikes, such as Switzerland Mobility on family hikes. Suisse Rando’s (Fr, Ge, It) August newsletter has a slew of great suggestions for hiking and eating, from a list of where to find official grilling spots and picnic ideas to an ice cream stop at 1800m altitude after a three-hour climb.

Staying fit enough to get back on the trail has meant a couple of short hikes a week, close to home, for me and I’ve seen that easier, flat terrain can always be found near rivers and lakes, often with a chance to watch the vineyard season unfold. In Venthône, Valais, while out walking with a visitor from Paris, we watched workers in the vineyard, cutting back the exuberant vines of late July. Mid-July in Vaud, near the wine and mixed farming village of Denens, a pleasing tiered landscape was formed by nearly blinding sunflower blooms, a hamlet behind them and misty Jura hills.

Wine picks: Chasselas, South African blend

Chasselas has made several appearances at my house this summer, in various guises and with varying success.

I’ve been waiting for guests so I could share a bottle of French Chasselas, from Haute Savoie. It makes sense to grow it there, since the grape’s birthplace is the Lake Geneva region, and Dominique Lucas is an excellent biodynamic winemaker with three versions from the grape. While I found the citrus fruit in C de Marrin pleasing I felt the wine lacked the zip I was expecting. The colour of the 2020 is a lovely gold. If you’re in that area, it’s worth exploring the work Lucas does at Les Vignes de Paradis.

My favourite Chasselas so far this summer was Philippe Bovet’s Les Perruets from Givrins in Vaud, a surprise because he suggests drinking it in 1-4 years and this one had slipped to the back in the cellar and was well beyond that timeframe. It had all its youthful freshness and fruit, but with added depth that helped it work well with some relatively spicy food.

I wouldn’t normally drink Chasselas in a cocktail because the wine’s delicacy is lost, which seems a waste, but I will admit I very much enjoyed the Chasselas air I had on the terrace by the lake on a hot evening in Vevey at Ma Cocotte restaurant. So much for my rules.

South Africa, centuries of wine

It seems only fair to let a wine age a bit when it comes in a bottle saying “Founded 1699”. A nephew who lives in Stellenbosch brought me a local wine he loves when he came to Switzerland. I’ve been saving DeMorgenzon’s Mastro White 2017 for a rainy day and on the cooled-down evening of the rain storm in the video clip above, this was perfect. Tangy, a mix of citrus and golden plum (like my tree in the rainstorm), a long pleasing finish that complemented an easy supper of fresh beetroot soup with coconut milk, black tahini on toast and cold chicken with olives. This is the kind of blend we rarely find in Switzerland, and the change was a treat (Roussane, Marsanne, Grenache Blanc, Chenin Blanc). Wine as a form of summer travel.

Here and there

Are we seeing the end of handwriting? Wired makes a good argument for teaching kids to write. And mentions in passing that the famous little blue books for writing exams might be making a return. “Handwriting, in person, may soon become one of the few things a student can do to prove they’re not a bot.” I vote yes!

More on words. Publishers Weekly reports on the most recent major study about how much Americans read (more accurately: don’t read). It

found that only 16% of adults read for pleasure on a given day in 2023, the lowest rate of any year in the survey and down roughly 40% from 2003. The study also found that reading for pleasure fell about 3% annually between 2003 and 2023.

If you’re still reading, my favourite bit of writing on the Internet this week is EB White’s republished paragraph in The New Yorker to announce that man had landed on the moon, July 1969. This should inspire another generation of great writing.

Swiss cheese, a potential victim of bird flu. Emphasis on potential, while the US researches the impact of the rapid spread of H5N1 among American cow herds. Most traditional Swiss cheeses are made from unpasteurized milk and while for now, the herds are safe and initial tests in the US show cheeses don’t necessarily transmit the disease, Swiss farmers are watching this latest agricultural disease saga as it unfolds.

Food and wine notes from Switzerland: Cuisine Helvetica offers a tantalising list of charming cafés in Neuchatel, while Artisanswiss shares a visit to the tiny vineyards of Zeneggen (Visp) in Valais, which he explored via a remarkable footpath.

Out and about, wine

Swiss Wine Tasting at the Kunsthaus in Zurich Monday 25 August, 11-19:00, discounted tickets as of 17:00. Most of the country’s best producers (130).

Wine club Divo continues its series of wine tastings around the country with a free evening 4 September in Bern, 16:00-20:00

Yvorne Grandeur Nature, 30 August 10:00-17:00 is a chance to see what the Vaud wine village means in practical terms when it says it is the first Swiss wine appellation in the country to be fully committed to sustainable development. This year’s theme is water. The project, born in 2019, is admirable for its goals but also for the energy going into realizing it—and Yvorne is always a wonderful wine and hiking village to visit, near Aigle.

Note to subscribers

You might have noticed a shift in this newsletter. For a start, you’ve received it less often than promised because I’ve had to reduce my writing time. I’ve had to scale down from randonées (hikes) to promenades (walks) this summer. I’ve also had to scale back on tasting and drinking wine significantly. The reason is the lingering after-effects of ocular shingles last November with Covid in the middle of that. I’ve been making a slow if steady recovery but I have stopped almost all of my wine work as a result, to help strengthen my immune system. You’re thus now receiving Ellen’s World, not Ellen’s Wine World.

While this has been hard for me to take in stride, it’s opened new perspectives. In addition to writing fiction (I’ve completed a novel this year and am now revising it), I’m writing essays on gardening (The jardin intime on Medium) and a new essay project that explores what it means to be alone, called To the power of one. It’s not a journal, exactly, nor is it a self-help source but a way to share notes on how being alone (even in a crowd or a family or marriage) can be enriching. Ironically, taking care of ourselves and growing into the best we can be is a first step to contributing to the common good, a worthy goal, especially in these politically distressing times. I will provide links and occasionally republish notes here. Comments are open to all, but I screen them and accept only remarks pertinent to a post.

As my focus shifts, the content of this newsletter will gradually change, but I want to continue to provide readers with useful resources. I hope you’ll stay with me and to encourage this, I will no longer pepper the newsletter with requests to subscribe/upgrade and pay, which is what Substack would like all of us publishers to do. I’d like everyone to be able to read it for free. If you’re one of the paying subscribers, though, please know that I do appreciate your contributions! No one gets rich doing this but having a month’s worth of groceries covered helps, so thank you for that.

Ellen’s world view

The summer of 2025 has been one for spectacular sky views, night and day. Here are two of my favourites of the Rhone Valley in Switzerland.

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Swiss summer hiking

Heading to a Swiss forest for a cool-type hike? Good news from canton Valais, where warnings have finally been lifted two months after the massive 17 April snowstorm that brought down trees and large branches. Valais Promotion reports that virtually all hiking trails have reopened, even in areas particularly hard hit such as Evolène, where residents say the loud, continual cracking of trees breaking after the storm, night and day, was an oppressive sound they’d never heard before. Communes, experts and volunteers spent eight weeks removing the dead wood and ensuring that hiking and VTT trails are safe (the cantonal tourist site is a good source of information and ideas in English for outdoor enthusiasts).

Alerts, hikes with kids

If you’re thinking of using trails in the Verbier/Val de Bagne area, be sure to check first, as recent mudslides have prompted alerts and recommendations to stay away from some areas. The forecast is for hot days that will build up to thunderstorms, which can mean flash floods. The situation around Val de Bagne appears to be improving but hikers are still warned not to go near waterways. Alert Swiss (there is an English version) also flags a landslide in Sonvico, Ticino and “danger of a debris flow” in Brienz in Graubünden/Grisons, and notes that access remains closed to the Lötschental area that was evacuated just before a massive landslide last month.

Migros offers suggestions (Fr, Ger) for family hikes with kids. The site gives details about scores of family-friendly hiking areas, including where to hike with a stroller. For a start, plan short hikes, build in time for little people to meander, and consider distractions. Lenzerheide and La Tzoumaz have well-designed hiking trails for children. La Tzoumaz, in Valais, has just announced that you can rent an all-terrain wheelchair, as part of their drive to make sure everyone can get out on the trails.

Tick, tock, tick tick tick

Ticks are making the news—the New York Times just published “How bad are ticks this year? don’t ask” because this is a bonanza year for them in New York State, it turns out. My nemesis, the Rocky Mountain tick, whose European cousin gave me the Alpha-gal allergy to meat and dairy three years ago, has a nasty specialty, the NYT reports: while most other ticks fall off their perches to latch onto you, this one comes running after you.

Protect yourself! Get vaccinated against tick-borne encephalitis, learn to recognize ticks and be very sure to use insect repellent that is marked specially for ticks (Switzerland: look for the yellow bottle). Note that it has to be reapplied every two hours. Check for ticks as soon as you come in from a grassy or forest area, shower within two hours if possible, and get a tick remover at the pharmacy to remove them correctly. Switzerland has a useful phone app called Zecke, which includes a hyper-local map. I see that the woods just above my house are a red spot—time to spray before going out to the garden. These guys are heading up the mountainsides, so don’t assume you’re safe at higher altitudes. A Swiss health campaign called Tick Bites, in French and German, will help you identify local varieties. If your phone has a magnifying glass, use it

What to do if you come across a wolf

ProNatura lays it out for you. Additional suggestion, from a young man who met one in the Swiss Alps: play loud metal music on your phone. My edited Google translation of ProNatura’s advice to hikers:

Adopt a confident attitude and stand tall, clap your hands, shout. If the wolf does not run away or if you are not comfortable, you can slowly retreat without taking your eyes off it. Don't run! If the animal (for example a curious young wolf) follows you, be firm: speak in a loud voice, shout, wave an umbrella or a stick. If you are comfortable, you can take the time to observe it but be careful not to corner it.

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Summer sips: 2009 Sauvignon Blanc, 2016 Syrah

Nicely aged can be a good switch from rosés

Hot days bring on a desire for cool rosés, crisp young whites and sparkling wines for most of us. But summer doesn’t have to be about young or even light wines—when you sit down to a meal late at night on the veranda, solar lamps giving off shadows, you might want something with more depth. If you have a cellar with older wines, this is the time to look for a lighter aged wine.

Sweet to eat by

I made an oven sheet baked vegetable dish with a lot of fresh garden herbs and plenty of spices for a one-dish 10 pm supper after a long day of gardening, getting plants into the ground, staking tomatoes, setting out beer traps to tempt slugs and revising my budget to cover the cost of cutting back my storm-damaged oldest cherry tree. Roasted eggplant, fennel and radishes require a wine that can stand up to them and I tried an unusual pairing that worked surprisingly well: a sweet, beautifully aged Sauvignon Blanc 2009 from Chamoson, John & Mike Favre winery. I had almost forgotten this wine in my cellar because I rarely drink sweet wines and almost never with a meal. My mistake!

The good acidity of this grape helps it to age well, but it also keeps the high sugar level from creating a syrupy wine. Well chilled, it was perfect for slow sipping. I originally bought the wine when I bought two others, Red Truck and Blue Bike, to share with our my son, who had just finished making a film about crossing China on a motorcycle.

A Syrah that knows how to dance

Valais again, for another night, a 2016 Syrah from Alexandre Délétraz at Cave des Amandiers in Saillon. He’s a fanatic for holding onto his wines, saying they are made to be allowed to mature, so I bought this one some years ago and let it sleep in the cellar. What a surprise! Despite chocolate notes, which to me would normally imply a lot of barrel influence, this is a relatively light red Syrah that manages to be both exuberant and elegant. I can’t eat meat or cheese because of an Alpha-gal allergy from ticks, so it’s not always easy to find a meal that will do justice to an older red wine. Lentils with rice and well-flavoured baked vegetables were lovely with this, to my relief.

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Un jardin intime …

(Published on Medium, where I post longer articles, stories, essays.)

Gardens are people whisperers, skilled at calming us, getting us focused. This garden could be anywhere, but it’s in the Swiss Alps, snowy peaks above, icy swirling Rhone river below, ancient rock deep deep under our feet and, in the skies we raise our eyes to and beyond where we can see, there is too much to describe. So we’ll stay in this jardin in a village that speaks French but which overlooks vineyards where German is common, on a road that, if pulled taut into a line, would land you in Italy.

In French, intime means intimate, just as it does in English, and my garden is not a park, it’s more intimate than that, and we its inhabitants all spend time at close quarters getting to know each other. But intime in French also means to teach, to share, to impart, and the garden does all of that. Like any student, though, I learn only if I pay attention to my minder-whisperer.

There is yet another sense, the intime of a person or a thing is the essence of it, which often remains deeply hidden. The greatest gift in life may well be to share this, and here, gardens are generous setters of the example.

A writer’s most intimate friend is often a garden. Jamaica Kinkaid came to me first as a writer and then as a gardener. Virginia Woolf as well. A garden accepts all the love and labour you wish to heap on it, it gives you joy (and fair enough, some orneriness and huffiness) in return, and with gracious authority it reminds you daily that you are not the centre of the universe…(Read more on Medium - paywall, but first articles are free).

I’ve begun posting occasional long notes from Un jardin intime, with photos on Medium. Please join me in listening to this place of pure magic that reminds me to try to view life this way, too. Gardens, it turns out, are also wine lovers’ friends.

Short story

The secret loves of Eleanor Whitby

Published on Medium. Copyright 2025 Ellen Wallace

My sister stole her first car at age eighty-five. She imagined it would be the last time she would steal one, as she didn’t believe in driving after the age of eighty-eight.

The event that triggered the theft was simply stupid from her point of view, although some of the rest of us were incensed for her sake. She spent hours putting together the papers to get license plates for the new car her husband had just bought. She agreed reluctantly to the purchase only because he was younger, eighty-two, and she reasoned in the end that he could have six good years with that car. Her fear was that at eighty-eight he would think he was still young enough to drive. He was already semi-deaf and tended to forget that his reading glasses were not suitable for the road. He had no sense of direction, but refused to admit it, and he had never learned to read maps.

Eleanor’s father — our father — was adamant that we know how to navigate, and she was the best of us. She used to sit up front in the car with him and map out trips. She carried a number two lead pencil and a sharpener to etch the planned route and an eraser in the unikely event of a last-minute change. Roads for cars hadn’t been around long enough for people to think of repairing them. (More…and if you enjoy it, please clap for it on Medium, which helps increase distribution)

Here and there

Wine - And the winner is:

• Mondial des Pinots, the great gold top prize went to Brunner Weinmanufaktur AG winery in Eich, canton Lucerne. Its Pinot Noir rated 94.6/100. Complete list of winners.

• Mondial du Chasselas, top prize went to Les Terreaux 2024, Cave des Rois, Marco & François Grognuz, Villeneuve.

• PIWI disease-resistant Swiss wines are improving, reports Vinum. Winner of its recent PIWI competition: Wägwieser Rot 2022, Weingut Burkhart, Weinfelden (96/100). Swiss PIWI Association

• Geneva awards: the top wine, named 18 June, is a Merlot, 2023 Albertine 1er cru from Domaine de Miolan in Choulex. Genève Terroir now has a fine web page on the competition, how it works, all the winners—a good resource for Genevans.

• In other Swiss wine news, canton Valais, the largest production region, 24 June announced production limits for the 2025 harvest: 1.1-1.3 kg/m2 for whites, specific to each variety, and 1-1.1 kg/m2 for reds. Vin de pays whites: 1.8 kg/m2 and reds 1.6 kg/m2. Limiting production is crucial for making quality wines, but also for keeping overall production in check at a time when wine markets in Europe are shrinking. Also in Valais: the Maison de la petite arvine had its grand opening 16 June, a showcase for one of the country’s finest indigenous wines.

and elsewhere -

Autism is on the rise, or at least diagnoses—definitely yes, and definitely you can’t ignore the newsworthiness of this, especially when it’s muddled and mixed with anti-vaccine politics. I have an adult daughter with severe autism; it’s a topic I’ve researched for more than 30 years. Recent reliable stories: One paper, 20 years of damage, SwissInfo; Are there more autistic people now? BBC; An overdiagnosis epidemic is harming patients’ mental health, Wired; and the must-read that makes sense of the rest, a New York Times Opinion piece: Autism rates have increased 60-fold. I played a role in that.

Why is the sky blue and why should we love Rayleigh scattering? And less happily, why are the high temperatures of coming days hurting the highest peaks and glaciers (Fr), Meteoswiss

Out and about

• Valais Tavolata reservations, 1-31 August, are now open. Don’t wait—many are booked out quickly.

• Learn how popular organic seeds company, Zollinger Bio, produces their seeds and plants. Visit to the fields and open house 12 July.

• Pro Natura’s sustainability-example vineyard in Loeche, Valais, offers volunteer opportunities—a firsthand lesson in organic wines. Register now to join their Pinot Noir harvest above the town of Loeche in Valais, 20 September.

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Ellen’s world view

Switzerland is notable for longevity, with life expectancy of 84.1 years on average. The USA, by comparison, is about 79. Aging longer is part of the reason that Switzerland is number two in the Human Development Index (HDI) compiled by the UN: it measures life expectancy, education and income. It’s also referred to as part of the living standard index, with GDP (report and graph, The Economist). Norwegians are tied for second for the HDI; they spend more time being educated and Icelanders even more, but the Swiss live longer than either.

How will we spend our longer lives? In Switzerland we’ll keep hiking and eating relatively sensibly, it appears. We’ll worry about our melting glaciers and continue our concern for the environment and the quality of what we eat and drink. We’ll negotiate political issues and find compromises we can live with at home, and we’ll continue to discreetly provide neutral diplomacy in the form of “good offices”, making it possible for two belligerent nations to speak—for example the US and China, creating a space to talk (rather than shout) about tariffs.

How we eat

Maybe the diet and the wine help although the Swiss diet has room for improvement. The new Swiss food pyramid encourages us to reduce cheese and meat. Thirty-one percent of the population is overweight and another 12% obese, although the upward trend began to level off in 2012. In 1992 overweight plus obese equaled 30% of the population. A report in January 2025 by the Swiss Nutrition Atlas study shows:

The estimated daily energy intake per capita per day for the adult population in 2024 is 2,278 kilocalories. Various findings show that too much saturated fatty acids, salt and added sugar are consumed. An analysis with regard to the Planetary Health Diet also shows an excessive consumption of animal products such as meat, dairy products and eggs. we might do what the French who can afford it do: buy their children birth-year bottles of wine and put them away. There’s a catch, though, if they’re going to live eight decades or more—most wines won’t last that long.

For more on the future of eating, starting with your next meal, the EAT-Lancet Commission planetary health diet is an intelligent resource.

How we drink

Wine consumption fell significantly in 2024 in Switzerland, show figures published 25 April. It also fell markedly in neighbouring countries. Overall, consumption was down by 8%, although some reports, based on retail sales only, show a 5% drop. Worse news for local producers: the decline was 16% for Swiss wine, and the country’s share of all wine consumed fell from 38 to 35%. Last year was a low production year, normally a reason to sell older stock—but with consumption falling, little stock left the cellars. The most popular wines, in order: Pinot Noir, Chasselas, Merlot.

The reasons for the decline are multiple, but in general, Europeans are drinking less alcohol, wine and beer in particular. Growing awareness that alcohol intake should be limited for health reasons is one factor. Budgets are another. Swiss wines are still very good value for money, but because most are artisanal and not recipe-style mass-produced wines, they will never be the least expensive.

Something that I hope never changes is sharing good wine to celebrate life’s events. My suggestion is to buy a nice bottle of Swiss wine with aging potential when a child is born, and put it away, if you have a good cellaring place, until a day when you want to remind yourself how glad you are to have that child in this world. You might live to be 100, but don’t wait that long to celebrate.

Wine picks: Gewürz(Traminer) 2015, Orange 2020

A Swiss wine that often ages well is Traminer (Savagnin Blanc). In 2021 I had a beautiful 2012 Traminer from Le Petit Chateau. This particular 2015 wine is from nearby winery Cru de l’Hôpital and while it is called Traminer it’s actually a Gewürztraminer, close kin but not the same as Traminer wines from the Vully area. Ignore the confusion and drink the wine! The winery also makes a Traminer called Naturé, an interesting wine made quite differently, in line with the cellar’s move towards natural wines. Its highly unusual third fermentation promises a very long life.

I loved the Traminer (Mémoire wine) 2015 when it was young, a wild mix of exotic fruits and roses, a very complex wine, I found a 2015 bottle in my cellar recently and discovered that what it lost in fresh fruit it more than made up for in depth. I had it with fresh (well marinated) pan-cooked tuna, served with a pile of sliced peppers cooked in olive oil. I use a lot of herbs and spices with tuna and a touch of harissa oil, so the wine has to be a white big enough hold its own. It was a visually pleasing meal that tasted superb..

The hamlet of Twann, where Anne-Claire Schott produces her unusual collection of wines, is not far north of Vully, on the northern edge of Lake Biel/Bienne. She’s become known for her orange wines, with eight of them currently on her cellar list, as well as natural wines. This one is both. For the uninitiated, orange wines are white wines fermented with longer skin contact, vinified like red wines. They often taste more like dry reds than white wines. I’m not a huge fan of these, but this one, made from Pinot Gris, I found very pleasing, both as an aperitif and with a simple baked fish dinner. Mouth and nose resemble a Pinot Noir, with pepper notes, but it’s more floral. And the colour is simply stupendous.

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Highbrows and lowbrows

Do you know that “Neanderthals … did not possess a hair arch above the eye” so were unable to give the same kind of emotional performances as Homo sapiens? And that “eyebrows contain the largest number of nerve bundles in the entire face”? Italian architect Michele de Lucchi sent out a curious newsletter about eyebrows, the result of coming down with ocular shingles. I feel enormous sympathy for him, having suffered through the same this winter. You’re suddenly aware of your eyebrows in a way that even fashionistas are not, because your eyelid and your eyebrow on one side itch like crazy for weeks.

De Lucchi reminded me that 8th to 12th century Japanese women used to shave their eyebrows in order to redraw them higher. Ironically, while doing research into Chicago opera in 1921 for the novel I’m completing, I came across this photo of diva and Lyric director Mary Garden, under what looks like a Japanese influence. And then I realized that a photo of me at age 10 gave me wonderful long eyebrows because it was Halloween! Mom’s eyebrow pencil? If you want to see what kind of eyebrows are hot in 2025 … (hint: bushy is back, but not Frida’s)

Europeans’ privacy and the USA

If you’ve read my recent newsletters you’ll know I moved off of Facebook, Instagram and What’sApp, a move that surprised few Americans but baffled many Europeans, especially those who happily use these to market their wine or other businesses. One reason was political, but another is shhhhhh, growing concerns over privacy and data protection. A recent New York Times opinion piece on Elon Musk’s DOGE data sweeps is just one of many articles that should alert Europeans to the need for greater care. The US passed a Federal Privacy Act in 1974, but as the NYT points out, the law has no teeth and Congress has not managed in the 50 years since then to reach an agreement on a new law. In other words: several band-aid fixes but no new law that takes into account the era of the internet and data collection.

That makes the United States the only country in the 38-member Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development without a data protection agency to enforce comprehensive privacy laws. In the European Union, each country has a dedicated data protection authority that can conduct investigations, write rules, issue fines and even demand a halt to data processing.

Wired noted 14 May that “Many people are unaware that data brokers even exist, let alone that their personal information is being traded” in an article, CFPB quietly kills rule to shield Americans from data brokers.

“Data brokers operate within a multibillion-dollar industry built on the collection and sale of detailed personal information—often without individuals’ knowledge or consent. These companies create extensive profiles on nearly every American, including highly sensitive data such as precise location history, political affiliations, and religious beliefs. This information is frequently resold for purposes ranging from marketing to law enforcement surveillance.”

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Hiking Yvorne, canton Vaud

Just published separately: Yvorne hike. Description, map and photos of a basic 6 km loop hike (up/down 370m) in Yvorne, suggested wineries and wines, plus suggestions for extending it for a longer hike.

Out and about …

… is taking a short break from events.

Here and there

Potable water Did you know that we pay on average a mere 30 centimes a day in Switzerland to drink some of the world’s best water? And that our water, 80% of which comes from underground sources, is the most strictly controlled food product in the country? No need to buy bottled water here.

Travel to Britain If you are heading to the UK with a European non-British passport, Irish excepted, remember that as of 2 April 2025 you need an ETA, electronic travel authorisation.

Swiss, the airline, has run into a pilot shortage due to a mix of factors, reports SwissInfo, and 1,400 summer flights have been canceled. “The cancelations will affect long-haul flights—for example to Chicago, where services will be halved in September and October—and various short and medium-haul services.”

Hiking All Trails is introducing a useful new feature for its Plus membership, called Offline Area, with offline access to larger areas and all the trails there. A third level, Peak, will be rolled out to members outside the US in June. Plus is approximately US$40 a year and Peak is currently $80, but it’s unclear if that will be the international fee.

Memoir How to slice a pie (pie as a meditation on peace), which I sent via email to Ellen’s World subscribers, was promoted as a “Boosted” article on the publishing platform Medium (paywall, although your first visits are free). The version I published there is longer, a 27-minute read, than the Substack one you received. I’m chuffed, especially as some very positive feedback came my way as a result, and encouragement to submit it to magazines. Thanks for being such supportive readers.

Ellen’s World View

Last weekend’s unexpected metre of snow gave me time to reflect on my hiking plans for the rest of 2025. I’ll still be writing about one hike, one winery, one wine as an extension of my 2022 book Wine Hiking Switzerland. But I’ve been inspired to take a new approach. Normally, I plan my hike, record it and I share it.

I was perusing the new summer hikes for 2025 published by Switzerland Mobility (SM), ranging from 7 to 38 km and from easy to difficult. I use their SM Plus app to record my hikes and I’ve always been impressed by the quality of their work. I realize now how few of these beautiful well-planned hikes I’ve done, so I’m going to concentrate on covering as many as possible before the end of 2025—but only those that have a good winery nearby.

Ordnance and snakes alert

Hikers, take a guess, are you more likely to get a snake bite in the Alps or trip over unexploded ordnance? Keep an eye out for both: the army “neutralised” 237 munitions in 2024, often in hiking areas, following tips from the public. As for snakes, there are two venomous snakes in Switzerland, so learn to recognise them and what to do if you’re bitten. Over 22 years, 243 snake bites due to native venomous snakes were reported in Switzerland. The Swiss toxinfo office points out that “humans are not tempting prey for snakes.” Whew.

Chenin wines: African kissin’ kin

Say Chenin Blanc to me and I have flashbacks to wonderful times learning about South Africa’s Chenin in the hills around Elgin and the Paarl and Franschoek wine regions, often sampling a glass of Chenin. So it was a surprise to me to find a bottle of French Chenin from just over the border in Haute Savoie, France, at Cave SA in Gland, Vaud, until I remembered some stellar late harvest Vouvrays—dessert wines. I also found a couple more Chenins in my cellar, a surprising one from Valais and a Loire classic.

The Haute-Savoie version. In short: I liked it very much. Great acidity is the grape’s hallmark, but it can be much more, and this one, a wine from young vines, has a nose that is both fresh and lightly fruity (Cave SA say minty, but I didn’t find that) and a mouth that is very straight and clean and dry yet crunchy. It’s not particularly complex, but despite that it is an interesting wine, well above the “just pleasant” mark. I tried it with two homemade soups, an odd meal that allowed me to test it with different textures and flavours. Great with avocado, harissa olive oil and lime juice, black pepper. Great with leek and potato soup made with Thai coconut cream, topped with chives. And especially good with the seafood and algae/bone broth soup (homemade, bone dense) with fresh tarragon shoots from my garden. Versatile!

Why we should memorise

Garth Green is a writer whose latest book, Small Rain, just won the prestigious 2025 Pen/Faulkner award for fiction. He lives in Iowa, near where I grew up, so that’s two points in his favour. He recently wrote about the value of memorising poems, for writers but really, for everyone.

He wasn’t taught to do this as a child, so he offers tips for learning the skill as an adult. There’s a popular rationale that memorising is like cerebral pushups and will help keep aging at bay, but I think his arguments are more convincing. Here’s one:

Reading a poem, memorizing a poem, reciting (silently or aloud) a poem you’ve memorized: all of these give me the feeling of my consciousness, my concentration, being gathered, knitted up; an expansion of the self but also a drawing of the self to a point. (These apparently contradictory things do in fact go together.) It’s the exact opposite of the experience of social media, which scatters consciousness and so diminishes it, leaving one glassy-eyed, zombified.

Food, how we love it

Everyone seems to be writing about food all of a sudden. Days of discomfort call for comfort food?

Asparagus: I’ll jump in with a reminder that this is asparagus season. One of the biggest regions for this in Switzerland is Valais, especially around Saillon. The vegetable is so popular that some places, for example Duval near Sierre, tell you to reserve. I discovered, after buying too many of the earliest white ones this year, that they freeze well. Be sure to peel the lower part, then parboil for 4-5 minutes, allow to cool and dry thoroughly. Place gently in a freezer bag. Use them frozen, as they go soggy if thawed. Place on a baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil, add salt and pepper, bake for 10-12 minutes at 200C or 15 minutes at 180C. The classic wine pairing is a slightly sweet Johannisberg (Riesling Sylvaner) but I prefer a dry and slightly salty Petite Arvine.

Good fish/bad fish: WWF has some advice about eating good fish in a helpful new little guide. We’re not talking about the taste or nutrition value, but the impact on world reserves of fish. In Switzerland we import 97% of the fish we eat. “To feed the 29’000 tons of farmed seafood we import annually into Switzerland, an estimated 37’800 to 95’700 tons of wild fish were caught for the production of fishmeal and oil.” Salmon is one of our favourites—we import nine times more than 30 years ago.

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Diet of the future: There’s a lot of talk about changing our eating habits, starting with reducing the amount of meat and considering the diet of the future. Disgust is possibly an under-studied aspect. Consider the cockroach, and how it could help save the planet. “Disgust is a gut reaction, but it’s also highly sensitive to our beliefs about the food in question. Recall the sterilised cockroach: even when we know a food is clean and safe to eat, it can still elicit a strong disgust reaction.” Definitely food for thought.

Out and about

Wine tastings—Vino Veritas is a collective of Swiss wineries with a focus on the “living” aspects of wine (so expect a lot of natural, biodynamic, etc.). Their fourth itinerant event of the year is 5 May in Zurich: register here. Swiss regional winery open days are starting soon, the big annual wine tastings (details). German-speaking areas: 1, 3, 4 May. Neuchatel: 9-10 May. Ticino: 17-18 May. Geneva: 24 May. Valais: 29-31 May. Vaud: 7-8 June. Small breweries (not exactly wine) beer hiking trail day in Loc, near Sierre, Valais 3 May—very fun outing.

Art — The much-touted Northern Lights paintings show at the Beyeler runs until 28 May. Swiss artist Hodler is featured at the Pully art museum in Vaud: ends 25 May.

Here and there

• If you missed it, here are explanations to help you understand how Substack works for readers.

• Switzerland-USA trade, good to know, should you be debating tariffs. A snippet: “Although Switzerland is less than 1% the size of the United States, Switzerland is the 7th most important foreign investor, with cumulative investments of $307 billion.”

• Food again. The world’s first barbecue museum in a city worth traveling to, to eat it.

• Not comforting: lions and gladiators. Not for those with toothache: George Washington’s hippo and walrus teeth; a book you can sink your teeth into.

Ellen’s World image

Wine hiking Switzerland: the landscape of Swiss wines

The perfect spring hike to start getting fit for summer: a manageable 4.6 km with a steep 286 m climb, fine Rhone views, historical markers and interesting, good wines. An alternative loop, just under 10 km, takes you to Salgesch/Salquenen—details and winery suggestions are included. Did you know Gouais blanc is the papa of Chardonnay? More: Varen-bisse loop hike details, map.

A word on birds

Birds are in the news at the moment, in oh so many ways. Let’s start with chickens and their eggs (see: A word or two on food, below) and bird flu concerns. Some good news from Nebraska where the Sandhill cranes are putting on their annual show, and for now they appear to be free of the bird flu that is killing their cousins further east in the US.

For bird-watching amateurs, here are exercises and quizzes to learn the calls and songs of birds in Switzerland, suitable for all ages. Last week provided a magical day in Valais, when hundreds if not thousands of red kites (Merlin royal) played out their aerial acrobatics over the Pfyn/Finges regional park and the Rhone valley as part of the mating season. With wing spans up to 165cm they can sail for hours, a beautiful sight. By the next day the party was over and the sky relatively empty of birds while the newlyweds flew low looking for nesting places. My two-minute video clip of the red kites mating day

A word or two on food

Did you know that most coffee is grown in the sun but that growing coffee in shade is an excellent option? There are good reasons for companies to do it and for us to buy it. Shaded coffee plants have twice the lifespan of those in the sun and the quality of the beans is often better, reports the Smithsonian Global in the US, which created the international Bird Friendly Coffee Program to help save birds, possibly now at risk with the Smithsonian’s new orders to focus on the US, not a big coffee bean source.

In Switzerland, we will all have to eat less meat to reach our Climate 2050 goals. Thus, we are producing less—but importing more, reports SwissInfo. The Swiss consume about 50kg per person of meat a year, lower than in neighbouring countries, but twice the world average. When it’s not about the climate, meat consumption concerns are about health. The new (revised in 2024) Swiss food pyramid recommends:

The future of food: in the immediate near future the rapid rise in consumption of chickens, in part to replace beef as people move away from red meat is creating some problems. Worldwide, we’ve tripled the amount of chicken we eat in the past 30 years according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation.

In many areas, including Switzerland, farmers are having trouble expanding rapidly enough. The Swiss Migros supermarket chain warns there might be a shortage of Easter eggs this year for this reason, and, as elsewhere, the price of eggs is climbing. All this just adds to the egg worries of the US in particular, where bird flu has decimated the chicken population. The country has a plan to import hundreds of millions of egg from Turkey and South Korea; it is in talks with other countries including Denmark, despite taut relations over Greenland.

There has been no mention of tariffs on eggs (yet), and Canada continues to serenely eat its own eggs, in the face of no requests from the US (perhaps there is egg on their face? as the CBC in Canada suggests). In fairness, Canada is not known for having a surplus.

For those of you who love hot pepper anything and everything, a great little Swiss mail order company based in St. Gallen, Pepper.ch, will spice up your day: more than 100 hot pepper based products and good explanations about degrees of heat and more.

Last but definitely not least, even if they’re tiny, give a thought to microplastics, which are starting to spook even skeptics like Derek Flanzraich, who offers a beginner’s guide to understanding them. We ingest them daily: “Think drinking from plastic bottles, eating from plastic-wrapped foods (e.g., your pre-packaged salad or plastic-wrapped meat), drinking from a plastic straw, eating from takeout containers, and sprinkling your table salt.” (note: most Swiss table salt is mined in the country, so it’s not from the sea)

Wine pick: Chardonnay, Schott, Lake Biel/Bienne

Purity is what makes or breaks a Chardonnay for me: no or very light oak, no blending, just the grape grown well and the wine made well. Anne-Claire Schott’s Chardonnay is exactly this. The limestone soil brings Chardonnays from Burgundy to mind and the very light oaking leaves the grape’s beautiful aromas intact while adding just enough smoothness. This is a wine that feels remarkably fresh. It can be paired with many foods but I had it on a night when the day had been too long and difficult (daughter in the hospital) to consider cooking, so I gave in to one of my favourites for nights home alone: rereading a good book, eating organic heritage popcorn from Iowa, perfect with a Swiss biodynamic winery’s classic wine. The acidity is high enough that I was able to slip the cork back into the bottle to save what I didn’t drink, and find a still-good wine two days later.

Out and about

Wine tastings — Divinum in Morges is still open Monday 31 March, 16:00-21:00, a great place for tasting Swiss wines and those of the guest of honour, Piedmont, just over the border in Italy. Combine it with a visit to the Morges tulip festival. Sunshine and a high of 14C expected. Nice! If you’re closer to Zurich, Expovina Primavera opened this weekend and runs to 4 April: 2,100 wines from 30 countries. Put this one on your calendar: 26 April, the delightful Salgesch/Salquenen barrel race in Valais, a day and evening of crazy barrel rolling in the street, wine tasting and more.

Switzerland’s Best Sommelier will be chosen 5 April during the finals of a very tough competition, and the public is invited to watch the final test. Swiss wine tasting (free, but registration required) from 10:00-13:00, followed by the sommeliers’ final performance at13:30. This is your golden opportunity to find out what a sommelier really does and what makes a great one.

The Combat des Reines season, arena cow fighting with Val d’Herens short-legged black cows, has begun. If you’re worried about the cows, please know that they do this on their own, as part of the process of picking the leader of each herd for the summer ahead. In mid-June most of them head up to pastures in the high Alps where they need a smart mama (the queen, or reine) to lead them to safe and tasty fields. And if you’re worried that they’re ruining the planet with gas emissions, keep in mind that they are also stewards of the land in the mountains, grazing on fields where crops can’t be grown. It’s a bit of Swiss culture no one should miss. The national finals are in early May.

Here and there

Reading about: Lake Geneva is not “brewing” as it should (this is not a party joke). How the moon became a place—has it occurred to you it used to be something else?

Ellen’s World view

MeteoSuisse blog

This is the first of a series of Switzerland hikes I plan to do in 2025, near or through vineyards, with mentions of nearby wineries. It’s an extension of my (Swiss bestseller!) book Wine Hiking Switzerland, which is sold in French and German as Randos vin en Suisse and Weinwandern Schweiz. I record my hikes and I’ll share the digital tour these as GPX files each time, see link below (please contact me if you want a GPX file and I’ll email it). Most if not all will be accessible using public transport and, like the book, they will vary in length from 8km to 20km.

Leuk-Varen loop hike: map, photos, description

Chamois and sure-footedness

Chamois is a soft rag you might use to polish your car. The original chamois is a fine creature native to our Swiss and French and Italian Alps, the European mountain goat. Today’s car rags are mostly made from sheepskin lining. On one of my evening walks some small rocks tumbled onto the road next to a cliff. I looked up and had to study the high rock and shale wall for a few minutes before I spotted a small herd of silent, nearly unmoving chamois. We watched each other for several minutes. They weren’t afraid because these animals are extraordinarily sure-footed and they know I am not, and I was at a safe distance for them.

These are difficult days for many, everywhere in the world, thanks to the dramatic changes driven by the current US government. Maybe chamois can help us remember that it’s important to stay the course, hold steady and know that if you believe you’re on the right path, it’s worth following—a moral and ethical path that will have to overcome narcissism and unworthy claims to power. The human race can do better. We must.

Tick season is starting

Hikers and gardeners: once it’s 7C for five extended days, nasty little ticks are up and about. By the time it’s 10C out, they are active. Their season peaks in June and July in Switzerland, and they can be found up to 1,500 m altitude. That said, the season is growing longer and it’s warmer at higher altitudes, so the tick season is expanding.

The main health concerns are Lyme’s disease (1,000 cases in 2023) and meningitis. There is no vaccination against Lyme’s but there is for meningitis and it’s recommended for all adults and children over age 2 who spend time outdoors in tick areas. Map of where (most of the country), European tick fact sheet, Information in English on Swiss ticks

There are several types of ticks in Europe and not every tick bite will make you sick, but prevention is important.

The Swissticks microbiology center recommends:

Behavioral measures for protection against tick bites are:

• Avoid staying in high grass and undergrowth

• Wear tight-fitting clothes with long sleeves and trouser legs

• Wear light-colored clothing on which ticks can be detected easier and more quickly

• After each walk and stay outdoors, thoroughly examine the body for ticks

In addition to behavioral measures, repellents can also be used to protect against tick bites.

Note that repellents need to be re-applied more often than sun cream, usually every two hours. The Mayo Clinic in the US gives these instructions for removing ticks (and no, they don’t jump, they are most likely to step onto you from a long grass or bush that you brush against.

Remove a tick with tweezers as soon as possible. Gently grasp the tick near its head or mouth. Don't squeeze or crush the tick. Pull it off with a careful, steady grip. Once you've removed the entire tick, throw it out. Put on an antiseptic where it bit you. That can help prevent an illness.

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Wine picks - Valais gold: Humagne, Syrah

Two more 2024 gold medal winners from the annual Sélection des Vins du Valais, recently opened at home (they’re always better six months after the awards are announced): Humagne from Le Bosset in Leytron and Syrah from Cave de la Madeleine in Vétroz. The Syrah is beautifully rich and deep, an excellent example of the north of the Northern Rhone wines, where Swiss Syrah excels. La Madeleine notes a nose of white pepper, spicy, and violets and, in mouth: full-bodied, fruity (blackcurrant) and spicy (pepper), with beautiful complexity and silky tannins. Indeed, exactly what I found. I had this with an oven-baked duck steak. It will pair well with any flavourful red meat or vegetarian substitute.

The Humagne went on to be handed a Swiss Wine gold medal, which means it represents Valais this year in tastings of Swiss wines abroad by the national promotion body. This is a very old indigenous grape that has been revived and is now famously found everywhere in Switzerland in September-November, for the game meat season. One of the people behind this renaissance was the grandfather of Le Bosset’s current owners, who grafted old vines. It’s always cheering to find good bottles of it, and this is one.

My first impression was of a rather austere wine. It needs time to open and I thought to carafe it only too late. It is elegant for a wine that’s often called wild or rustic, with good body and notes and flavours of violets, cloves and almonds. I can’t eat red meat because of my alpha-gal allergy, and a meat pairing would be my first choice, but it worked well with a meal of spicy vegetables and pan-fried tuna steak.

Out and about

Wine tastings

Another Swiss wine lover on Substack has put together a list of upcoming wine tasting events, to simplify your planning. I would add, for anyone in or near Vaud, Divinum, which always has a very good collection of wineries: in Morges 26-31 March. And a Roadshow through five German-speaking cities of 19 wineries from Neuchatel, organised by the magazine Vinum to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the canton’s popular “non-filtré” (unfiltered) wines. Roadshow dates and cities

Swiss parks

If you aren’t yet familiar with the Swiss Parks—where they are, their programmes and activities—this is the time to learn about them, with warmer weather opening up trails and promoting local events. The Finges/Pfyn park which I live on the edge of, for example, has bicycle repair and small appliance repair days coming up, and a volunteer day to help clean up the forest. Many of the parks are relatively new Swiss jewels with cycling, running and hiking paths, some of which are in my book Wine Hiking Switzerland. Overview of the park system

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Here and there

For pencil-lovers only, The Golden Age of Japanese Pencils, 1952-1967 (thank you The Browser). Did you know that the modern pencil was invented in the late 18th century? Another from The Browser, and I blush to admit that like the author, I had no idea what the name is for the pointing hand symbol that guides us everywhere.

In case you missed it, my long read article, On this day, duck (or better yet, ducks!). Please note that it’s always helpful to me if you give an article a bit of love by liking it, and feel free to comment. These options are at the top of each newsletter or article. And if you read Ducks, you’ll be happy to hear that Tara’s knock-out trip to the university hospital dentist went well and she has more adult teeth than we thought. She seems to have secretly swallowed her baby teeth over the years.

The anaesthetist was extraordinary—three cheers to the CHUV outpatient surgery staff. When he saw that Tara was panicking and sitting down in the hallway near the operating room in protest, he folded his very tall body into a squat and held her hand and talked with her, then took her hand and led her, walking, straight into the operating room. When she refused to climb onto the narrow table, he told me I could hug her, standing up, and he put her to sleep in that position, so she wouldn’t be afraid. The staff lifted her onto the operating table and I went off for a peaceful cup of coffee. Remarkable!

Ellen’s world view

I have a regular late afternoon hour-long hike, to build strength after three months of illness and enforced inactivity. One of my special spots is along the top edge of the vines in Venthône. Here’s to dusk in winter and vines that have snuggled down to rest. If you go earlier in the day, you’re likely to see the vignerons pruning right now, in most of the country. If you’re keen to try something new, SwitzerlandMobility has added 15 new winter routes for this season, throughout the country—snowshoe, hiking and skiing trails. They all look wonderful!

Social media and responsibility

For those of you who follow me on Facebook and Instagram, please note that I’m developing a plan to move off of there as soon as possible, and to develop a more complete Substack site for my non-wine work. I will also stop using What’s App, all of them part of Meta. Like many of you, I use these for work, and the decision was not easy to make—I’ll lose contacts, most likely some business and it takes time and energy to find workable alternatives. For others who are tempted to do the same: I’ll post my roadmap for how to do it, once I’m ready to move. I own an electric car but it isn’t a Tesla and I won’t be buying one.

I don’t want to add politics to the mix here, but I have decided that I need to take responsibility for my share of money going to Donald Trump through the owners of these companies. Every sponsored ad or click on them puts money directly in his coffers, thanks to contributions from Meta’s boss, and I think it’s naive to pretend that staying on these social media platforms doesn’t support Trump. I’m appalled by the US president’s personal and business practices and I don’t respect his politics, but I’ve disagreed with people before on theirs, and still carried on doing business with them. This is different: the man is unpredictable and completely unprincipled, a combination that is too dangerous to overlook and morally unacceptable to me. Rather than just complain, I believe it’s important to ensure Meta and Tesla don’t receive any money from me, to the extent I can.

My small gesture will inconvenience me and it won’t change the kamikaze course the president has put us all on, but I can live with myself, which is critical in order to start putting the brakes on this madness.

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Wine picks - Muscat, Geneva; Petite Arvine gold

I’ve been severely handicapped for sampling wines for you, with three months of shingles and a two-week bout of Covid on top of that. No alcohol for me in December and January and it had nothing to do with dry months or depressing new research, both of which I think call for remembering that balance is the key to enjoying wine. Here are two white wines I have enjoyed recently, from Geneva and Valais:

Jean-Michel Novelle’s Iconique is the exception that reminds you why Muscat can be a delight to drink. Too often this aromatic grape is handled heavily and you end up with a wine that is like an over-perfumed guest. This Muscat, from Satigny in Geneva, is sharp and complex, aromatic but with an underlying dry tension that holds the aromas taut. The description on the back of the bottle is spot on: all lemon, lime, ginger and mandarine. I opened it the night an American politician decided to rename the Gulf of Mexico, and in protest I sat down with this fine wine and the Times Atlas of the World to make geography a little more concrete. Great companions.

Petite Arvine, native to Valais and rarely grown elsewhere, is one of my favourite Swiss wines, as you’ve probably guessed. Mont d’Or, which celebrated its 150th year in 2023, has produced its first certified organic version of Aphrodite. The nose is both floral and fruity, the mouth lively but it’s the finish I really love, with a classic slightly salty touch. The winery is on the main road from Sion to Vétroz (plenty of good hiking on the hillside above) and the vineyard is across the road, on the south side, Crête des Maladaires.

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Out & about

This is a big weekend in Crans-Montana, with World Cup ski races on, featuring the re-opening of the legendary Nationale for speed runs. The pc7-team of airplanes doing aerial acrobatics is training in my backyard for their thrilling weekend show. The event itself is sold out, but the ski slopes are open, and bars and restaurants will be buzzing.

Wine tastings

The high season for tasting wine in Switzerland is underway, with wine road shows and classic events. The Memoire des Vins Suisses tastings are, for me, top of the list. The group is at the Lausanne Palace, Monday 10 March, 15-18:00 and the best news is that it’s free, if you register ahead. On your calendar: the related Swiss Wine Connection tastings are a chance to sample some of Switzerland’s best wines, 24 August for vintage tasting and 25 August for the Grand Tasting, in Zurich.

This is the 50th anniversary of Neuchatel’s delightful unfiltered Chasselas wine, with the bottles sporting a special upside down label. These wines now account for 15% of the canton’s wine output. You can sample them and learn about them at the Road Show 24-28 March. It’s an early wine, like Beaujolais Nouveau, but it doesn’t have to be drunk young. To prove the point, some vintage wines will be part of the August Swiss Wine Connection tasting.

Also coming up: Salon des Vins Vaudois, 3 March in Zurich, featuring a Masterclass (G) on alcohol-free wine. A wine challenge for you and your friends: see how well you can do with a series of blind wine tastings at Changins, the wine university in Vaud, 27 March, 17:30-20:00 (Swiss Association of Professional Sommeliers).

Here and there

It’s honeymoon season for frogs. They are currently crossing roads and byways to get back to the places where they lay their eggs. My own garden has a pond which will soon be home to frog spawn and by May, tadpoles. If you’re lucky enough to have some of these useful little (not noisy) creatures, and you wonder about feeding tadpoles, here’s a useful guide.

Winter has been so mild in January and February that it’s easy to forget we are likely to soon have icy conditions again. Axa has some good tips for drivers (E).

Now that the holidays are over, you might find it fun to scrap the romance about sparkling wines and take a look at the science behind bubbles.

Salt and iodine (how much you need, depending on age). Did you know that 88% of households around the world get their salt through iodised salt? But with fancier salts that are often not iodised, an increase in processed foods (most of which are not iodised), and people trying to reduce their salt intake, iodine deficiency is on the rise in North America. If you live in Switzerland you should be aware that iodine is not mandatory in salt: look for it on the label.

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Ellen’s World View

Wine - Think Chasselas this weekend

Yesterday was World Chasselas Day, so let’s focus for a moment on this very Swiss wine. First, the basics: delicate white Chasselas is what I consider a Swiss handshake, at least in Canton Vaud, the only canton that makes more white (70%) than red wine, the lake Geneva region that likes to call itself the birthplace of this grape. Cave de la Côte, a Vaud cooperative that is one of Switzerland’s best wineries, puts paid to five clichés about this wine:

• it’s only made in Switzerland (no: try Alsace and Germany, where it’s called Gutedel)

• It’s mainly for raclette and fondue (heavens no! great as an aperitif, and the must-wine with perch filets, trout and lake fera fish—also grilled foods, poultry, risotto

• you can only drink it young (silly you: a well-aged Chasselas is gorgeous, taking on a gold colour and with notes of ripe fruits, safran and honey, ahhhh)

• this is a simple wine with no real character (wrong again: it is a subtle wine, notable for its ability to reflect terroirs with great precision—each region gives it a unique flavour, whether it’s floral, fruity, mineral). I hear this from people who are used to more acidic whites, for example from France or Austria, and my advice is always: be patient, give it time, pay more attention to it

• Fendant and Chasselas are 2 different varieties (no, same grape, but it’s called Fendant in Valais and Chasselas elsewhere—EW note: but varieties of varieties (clones) of Chasselas may vary from place to place).

It is usually made dry, in stainless steel tanks, but there are a growing number of variations on how it is made, such with or without malolactic fermentation for more acidity or a creamier texture, occasionally with some time in large oak tanks or cement eggs, filtered or unfiltered, as a natural wine. Several wineries make a number of Chasselas wines, often from different vine parcels. Cave Mermetus, the Chollet family, above Epesses in Lavaux, makes seven, for example. The winner of the best Chasselas in Switzerland this year is Chasselas Légende from the Kursner winery in Féchy—where you will find other wines from this grape. Kursner began to collaborate with Cave de la Côte in 2019 and two years later it was named Swiss Winery of the Year. There is a growing interest in making not just organic but "natural wine” Chasselas, one of the recent wines from this grape at Cave de La Côte.

Another place you’ll find plenty of Chasselas, of course, is Geneva, where 13-15 December the lively celebrations of the historical Escalade event will see a certain number of glasses served. A good quick sip on a cold wintry day. Happily, Chasselas tends to be relatively low in alcohol.

Wine hiking—Lavaux for winter sunshine

The walking trails between the vineyards in Lavaux, home to the terraced vineyards above Lake Geneva that are a Unesco World Heritage site, can be busy in summer, but December is a wonderful, peaceful time to hike here. These are good family hikes: you’re above the lake, with wonderful views, but if you walk mostly parallel to the lake you won’t have too much up and down. Two of my favourite walks are from Vevey to Cully and from Vevey to St Saphorin and up to Burignon. The first, detailed in my book Wine Hiking Switzerland (available in English, French and German in Swiss bookstores or online), is a bit over 12 km with some climbing, but if you start at the Vevey train station and walk to Rivaz, you can follow the lakefront, which passes by Le Corbusier’s Villa Le Lac, next to the charming wine village of St Saphorin and on to the World Chasselas Conservatoire, an outdoor history and collection of 19 varieties of this grape. From there walk along the lakefront to the Vinorama for a wine tasting, then walk or take the train back to Vevey. One way, without a visit to the Conservatoire, is about 5.5 km and will take you 1.25 hours.

In the same area, you can walk from Vevey to Burignon, a fine old Vaud chateau owned by the city of Lausanne, which has just expanded its wine tourism offer to include some wonderful rooms and cellar visits. If you’re not ready for an overnight, the walk will take you an hour. Monday to Friday they offer wine tasting on the terrace (call if you want to buy wine on the weekend). Walk back to the train via St. Saphorin, a steep but beautiful walk to the village and down to the lakefront train stop. Allow 1.5 hours for the return.

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Wine pick—Les Roches plates, Domaine Burignon

Les Roches plates is called an aristocratic Chasselas by the domain, a good description. The domain, perched above the lake in Lavaux, canton Vaud, is one of several owned by the Ville de Lausanne, which is widely recognized for its high quality wines. This particular Chasselas shows how a fine terroir and winemaking skills can give a wine with real character. It is yellow-gold in colour, with a nose of dried fruits and citrus with intense minerality. Mouth-filling, elegant.

Out & about

Hurry! The Ville de Lausanne is holding its annual wine auction Saturday 14 December, at the city’s Hotel de Ville, starting at 8:45. This is the 222nd auction!

Geneva: this is the Escalade parades weekend, festivities throughout the old town.

Crans-Montana: walk the Lanterns Trail at dusk for a bit of magic between your ski day and evening out. Down the hill, in Sierre, wine-tasting just got livelier, with a new tasting game, Les Six Couronnes, at Chateau de Villa, the non-profit Valais centre for wine and cheese. A foie gras evening, where you learn to make your own as well as share an agape tasting of several foie gras with breads, chutneys and local wines, was sold out so the Chateau de Villa has just organised a second night, 19 December, for CHF85.

Neuchatel: Maison Mauler, known for its sparking wines, is holding open house Saturday 14 December.

Here & There

Strange what scientists learn, from the world’s oldest cheese to drunk worms. In the case of the worms, “The somewhat surprising result was that drunk worms take longer to get out of the maze than sober ones,” reports the University of Amsterdam, whose researchers won an IgNobel for their work. They were surprised by the result?

The holiday season is often one of excess, especially with food, but Wired points out that year-round we are excessively wasteful with our food, worldwide. The modern food system “claims close to 20% of the world’s fuels and primary electricity and we waste as much as 40% of all produced food.” Let’s do better.

Reminder: special 10th anniversary offer until 31 December

To celebrate the 10th anniversary of Vineglorious! Switzerland’s Wondrous World of Wines, I’m offering the book for CHF10 (standard price: CHF24) plus shipping, until 31 December 2024, or as long as supplies last. See more …

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Ellen’s world view

The key to future wines is just maybe old grapes

Ellen’s World newsletter

The world of wines is scrambling to find solutions to the impact of climate change, from a greater emphasis on white wines in famously red Rioja to a £12 million annual investment in research in Bordeaux. “The future of wine”, the title of an experts panel presentation linked to a book and exhibit by the Valais Vine and Wine Museum, seems like a massive subject to tackle. But I came away from a recent presentation with a clearer idea of where we’re headed. Read more

Shingles

I’m not talking rooftops

You really don’t want this. I’d always heard that shingles (zona in French, Gürtelrose in German) is painful but I can now tell you firsthand that’s only part of the story. I had planned to publish this newsletter three weeks ago but I’ve been down and out with a nasty case of this virus, which waits to ambush you for decades after you’ve had chicken pox. It is not the same disease and it is not contagious (although initially, the blisters can be, so it’s best to self-isolate—remember that term?), but it is debilitating, exhausting and it takes weeks and sometimes months to recover. There can be side effects, some of them very serious. In my case, which is just starting to come under control after a month, one eye was swollen completely shut for days but so far my vision is okay. No computer time for two weeks. Please tell anyone you know over age 60, the group most at risk, to get vaccinated. Years ago there was a live vaccine, and people were wary of it. Today’s vaccine is much easier. Go for it.

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Wine is art

Can you look at a painting for an hour? Immerse yourself slowly in a glass of wine?

Forget canonised wines - this holiday, be seduced by a wine you like

Ellen’s World long read — Before the holidays, consider your wines. I don’t mean: start your shopping list. I mean: think about What you might drink and Why and in particular How. Ask if you can give one wine more time than usual. Consider forgetting that you want to impress others or yourself with that very special very expensive very old vintage bottle lurking in a dark corner. Give yourself the gift of knowing wine as art.

Tip: Opt for moderation instead of trendy abstinence or its extreme opposite, high-intensity drinking.

The What, at my house

At my house in the Swiss Alps on Christmas Eve we will open a bottle of 2018 Vin de Constance from winery Klein Constantia in South Africa … read more

Hike and wine: Finges/Pfyn park, Valais

It’s early December, the in-between season where hiking is chilly and skiing is limited. Skiers from many corners of Switzerland will head for Valais where the slopes have begun opening in higher resorts after a heavy dose of snow followed by compacting rain and with fresh snow forecast for the weekend. Verbier and Crans-Montana are open with some limitations, Zermatt has 55km of runs and half of its lifts operating, Vercorin and Anzère have partially opened, the latter with a beginner run and more advanced one with shuttle service.

For those keen to get in a last hike, SwitzerlandMobility has 21 suggestions for hikes in parks, most of which offer winter hiking. The list doesn’t include the Pfyn/Finges regional park next to Sierre in Valais. You’ll find a long version hike, 22km, 6 hours, labelled “Salgesch” in Wine Hiking Switzerland (my book, a best-seller, available at most Swiss bookstores in English, French or German). It loops through the lower park on the left bank of the Rhone, up through the vines near Leuk and Varen, then back to Salgesch, an important wine-producing village. Pfyn/Finges Nature Park

But there’s a shorter alternative from Sierre to Susten/Leuk, through the park, about 10 km. It parallels the Rhone, so is almost entirely flat, and it includes the impressive Bhutan bridge. If you’re using public transport, start at the Sierre train station and either take the Vissoie bus to the Sierre Parc Finges bus stop, 13 minutes, or walk (35 minutes) to the stop. If you’re driving, there are parking places near the bus stop. You end up at the Leuk-stadt train station.

Details of my short-version hike, using SwissMobility Plus mapping (a must-have app if you hike in Switzerland). Dress warmly, for the shine doesn’t shine for long now on the valley floor, but the icy beauty makes up for any chill you feel.

Wineries: You might visit the Swiss winery of the year two years in a row, Leukersonne, in Susten, open Saturday 9-14h. Or Cave de la Pinède, a one-man operation (and he grows rye, as well) in the middle of the park, where you can sample the gold medal Fendant. Call first. Or Vin d’oeuvre 20-21 December Advent tasting if you’re tempted to climb a bit to the fascinating old village of Leuk-stadt.

A very special offer!

To celebrate the 10th anniversary of Vineglorious! Switzerland’s Wondrous World of Wines, I’m offering the book for CHF10 (standard price: CHF24) plus shipping, until 31 December 2024, or as long as supplies last. See more …

Wine pick: Anchettes Rèze, Favre

Twenty years ago you had to know where to find the rare bottle of Rèze, one of the grapes mentioned Forward to the past. It was once widely grown, but fell into disfavour when easier grapes arrived in the mid-20th century—by 1986 there was only 0.6 hectares in Valais. The Anchettes Rèze made by Favre Chippis winery next to Sierre is from 20-year-old vines. The grapes are grown just down the hill from my home, on fine sunny slopes overlooking Sierre at 730 m, limestone and very pebbly soil from an ancient Sierre landslide. This is one of the best areas for the grape, which is known for its classic alpine aromas of sap and pine. It’s a very dry wine, made here with some time in oak barrels to soften it slightly. This is a fine example, with a typical slightly bitter finish that gives it class.

Here & there

The OIV has just come up with its official definition of an old vine. There’s been growing interest in old vines in recent years, in part because of the role they can play in making great wines, but increasingly because they are seen as an important heritage that will help preserve sustainability and diversity—and they may offer clues that help growers cope with climate change. The Old Vine Registry, a database that was launched in October 2023, now has more than 3,500 vines listed and expects to have 10,000 by 2027.

Do we tip in Switzerland? Now there’s a question to fire up a crowd! Switzerland abolished tipping in the 1970s in favour of paying a decent wage. It worked for some years. Migros seems to think we are all be tipping again (Migros on tipping etiquette). Tamedia recently polled a few thousand Swiss and the results showed that more than half don’t want to abolish tipping (FR), so clearly, people tip. But they also don’t want it obligatory, as suggested by the Swiss government, which wants to tax tips, now mostly added on credit cards.

Are you allergic to alcohol? Or is it just a rosy flush. Could be either, but give it some thought.

You’ll read this only if you’re worried someone is trying to poison you with a fine vintage from your cellar, or if you’ve never got the hang of binary. Still, if you’re one of those: 100 expensive bottles of wine as a gift, from 100 people, and just one is poisoned—what to do?

Out & about

Martigny Bourg hosts the first-ever Martigny and region wine tasting 6-7 December with concerts and a great collection of wineries. La Grange des Vins

Hats off! Cave de Genève just won two gold medals, the only Swiss winery to win gold at the world sparkling wine competition in France, for two Baccarats, a Pinot Noir rosé Brut and Blanc de Blanc. If you stop by to taste them, also try the Esprit de Genève, one of the canton’s wine treasures, a high-quality blend made by several wineries following a strict charter.

Consider visiting the just-opened Maison des Vins La Côte in Mont-sur-Rolle, Vaud, a joint project by wineries in the region. If you’re near Neuchatel you might want to try the new grappa from the excellent Pinot Noir grapes at Domaine de Chambleau, Vieux Marc 2012.

Santé!

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You’ll find me on Instagram (re-posted to Ellen Wine on Facebook): stories as mini-photo reels with music. Also on Medium (paywall after three free): longer essays and occasional fiction, poetry.

Ellen’s world view

The long and the short of it

When wine labels follow food, the first of Ellen’s World long reads, was sent to you Friday 25 October. This new feature will allow me to keep the newsletter shorter while more precisely targeting readers’ interests. If you subscribe to Ellen’s Wine World, you’ll receive occasional long reads as separate articles. I’ll label them wine, hiking, travel, garden, Alpha-gal (allergy to meat and dairy), or miscellany at the top, so you can quickly decide if the content interests you.

The newsletter, which I’m aiming to send every two to three weeks, will generally offer you

• a link to a long read

• a very short feature

• one or two wine picks

• Here & there—curated links I think might interest you

• Out & about—limited list of upcoming, usually Swiss events

• Ellen’s world view—one beautiful photo for the sheer joy of it.

This newsletter and the first two long reads (see links below) are a test. I would love to have your reactions, as well as suggestions. I’ve had some very positive emails about the labeling article (thank you!) ; more are welcome, privately by message or publicly here:

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The new wine labels in the EU

OCT 25, 2024, Ellen’s World long read - Wine nutrition labels are the next bend in the road (updated 27 October with a list of sources and further reading links)

The European Union has mandated it and wineries are starting to grapple with it: nutrition labeling for wine became the law in the EU in early 2024, although some delays in implementing it are allowed. The 2024 harvest is the first vintage that is affected. Hold on, you say, we eat to nourish ourselves, but we don’t drink for nutrients, so why does anyone think we need this? …

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Just wine, please

OCT 27, 2024, Ellen’s World long read - In case you’re having trouble working out what’s in the bottle because of what’s written on the outside, here’s Ellen’s guide to Swiss wine certificates. To reproduce this, please contact me. Prost Wine, a wine club in the US that sells Swiss wines, carries a version of this on its membership web pages, for example.

Wine pick: Chardonnay, Weingut Hermann

Simply exquisite, a virtuoso of a Chardonnay from Graubünden’s wilder side, from vineyards devoted to biodiversity that I visited before these grapes were harvested. Roman Hermann, who had fairly recently taken over from his parents, gave me a tour of the cellar, excited about new containers, new sizes of them for maturing wines, that he was trying, and new labels. We walked through the vineyards, where he enthusiastically showed me snakes’ nests and natural water sources. His training (Oregon, South Africa, New Zealand, Germany) is impressive, and combined with these beautiful vineyards in Fläsch, the resulting wine is outstanding. Citrus, wild honey, mocha and tobacco notes, with the fruit unfolding in waves, notable acidity but also minimality, followed by a slightly salty finish. Fresh, great structure. 13%. Eleven months in Swiss and French oak barrels, light filtering. The fruit dominates and the oaking is very subtle. You might want it with a Saturday night meal that is more sophisticated than my (very good!) bean and kale and wild rice soup with Taillens bakery bread laced with nuts and pumpkin, but it was the perfect partner for that.

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Here & there

Reading -

Books Two new wine books: Jura Ten Years On by French Jura and Alps specialist (wine, food and travel) Wink Lorch. She is a dedicated researcher, very knowledgeable and her writing always offers a good read—this is a must for anyone who wants to explore the region, just over the border from Switzerland and perfect for day or weekend trips. It follows her excellent guide published 10 years ago. Wine Witch on Fire: Rising from the Ashes of Divorce, Defamation, and Drinking Too Much, an award-winning book by Natalie MacLean, wine professional and educator, recounts her journey from life imploding to getting it back together while continuing to work in the wine business—dating again after 20 years, mid-life career change, glamour and sexism in wine, and why moms turned to the bottle during Covid. Lively and encouraging.

Various Old but not smelly, the world’s oldest cheese, aged 3,600 years, its DNA sequenced. Hint: think kefir). Even by SBB/CFF Swiss train standards, this is a fun outing, the Churchill Red Arrow train for lunch or dinner. Carving or peeling pumpkins safely—thank you, Migros (Fr)! My brother-in-law once went to the emergency room with a nicked artery he gave himself while carving a Jack-o-lantern for my 10-year-old son, so take heed. If you’re a fan of Yotam Ottolenghi, like me, you’ll be happy to hear that his group will be working at the Mandarin Oriental kitchens in Geneva, reportedly starting in 2025.

You’ll find me on Instagram (re-posted to Ellen Wine on Facebook): stories as mini-photo reels with music. Also on Medium (paywall after three free): longer essays and occasional fiction, poetry.

Out & about

DiVINes, Swiss wine weekend featuring women who make wine: 1-2 November 2024 in Rolle, canton Vaud—this is one of my favourite wine-tasting events, featuring women from around the country. With 45 cellars from six regions, it’s manageable and you have a chance to talk to the producers. This year’s special guest is Mayra Saillen, a Swiss oenologist who with her husband runs Jas de L’Agachet in Provence. She is also bringing her olive oil. Two ateliers, advance registration for these.

The harvests are in, except for patches of late harvest sweet grapes, and that means it’s time for Expovina, a major wine fair 31 October to 14 November on the boats in Zurich, the colourful Fête de St-Martin in Peissy, Geneva 9 November from 10-18:30. Also coming up: an excellent collection of 70 wines in a private (open to public) wine-tasting in Lausanne 28 October, 17-20:00 at the Palace Hotel. It’s organized by Master of Wine Paul Liversedge of Real Wines in Vico Morcote, Ticino. My experience with him is excellent; this is the first time he’s showing his wines in French-speaking Switzerland. For a more intellectual approach to wine, the Valais wine museum is hosting a presentation with top speakers 30 October in Sierre at the Hôtel de Ville, on the future of wine, in French, 18:30. Registration by 28 October required. Five wines to be tasted at the end.

Santé!

Ellen’s world view

A highlight of wine tastings in Switzerland is the vintage wines, 10 years old and 20 years, at Swiss Wine Tasting, an event held in Zurich every August. The group behind it is the Memoire des Vins Suisses, which was formed to create a bank of the best wines of various grape varieties and review them at regular intervals to see how well they age. This year I tasted the 2004 vintage and 2014. My main takeaway was that you can’t make assumptions about how well a wine will age based on one year. In other words, there were good surprises and less good ones. Medinette, a Vaud white that has long been one of the country’s most popular as a young wine, impressed me two years ago when I tasted the 2002; this year’s 2004 was drinkable but nothing special.

Several were beautiful, including the wines shown here. While most are very different from their younger siblings, these wines were remarkable for their overall elegance, and their still-great acidity, which is the secret to their youthfulness. These are not so much before dinner quick sip wines as drinks to accompany good food or to be nurtured and enjoyed slowly with good conversation and simple nibbles such as roasted nuts. My personal favourite among the whites was the Vieilles Vignes Maître de Chais Provins, which in a previous tasting was almost considered for removal by the Mémoire because it was not holding up well! It turned a wine corner and it’s a gem now. I also loved Le Brez, which seems hardly older than the most recent vintage bottle. For the reds, I loved the Pinot Noir Stadtberg Eglisau.

Balance is everything — cycling the Rhone

Balance is what good wine is all about, and it’s also the recipe for a good life. My personal balancing act involves writing fiction, writing about wine and therefore tasting quite a lot of wine, but also hiking, swimming and cycling, with healthy and attractive meals as a nice break from the writing and a way to fuel the sports. A favourite outing is cycling along the Rhone river in Valais, with vineyards on both sides. It’s not entirely flat — rivers that head to the sea run downhill — but nearly, so it’s possible to wheel along 30 to 50 miles at the end of a workday. I highly recommend the stretch between Martigny and Sierre in canton Valais, especially now with the harvest underway and autumn colours starting to arrive.

Here & there

Reading -

We have sure been drinking for a very long time, we humans—and even our predecessors. Swissinfo picks up a nicely condensed history of our boozing, from the Swiss National Museum blog. My favourite photo is the Swiss postman being offered a glass of schnapps on his rounds.

If you’ve wondered how a year with far more rain in some regions, such as Valais, has affected organic and biodynamic growers, Gault&Millau has a short interview with Miège winemaker Sandrine Caloz about exactly this. Twenty percent more labour is the short answer.

Alpha-gal syndrome/allergy from a tick bite (no dairy, no meat) update. Recent travel makes it clear how little most people understand the differences between these: food intolerances like gluten and lactose, lifestyle choices like vegan and vegetarian, food allergies. If you have guests — and the numbers are growing — of people with any of these and you’re serving them food, just ask for a specific list of things they can’t eat. If you don’t get the difference between an allergy and intolerance, here’s a handy description. I tell people no meat from mammals, and I’ve discovered that most of us would flunk biology. Yes, a rabbit is a mammal and no, a chicken is not. If they drop eggs? Not a mammal. Mayonnaise does not have cream in it; to my surprise, most people seem to think it does, never having made it themselves. Egg yolks, oil and flavourings, that’s it, folks. Eggs are not dairy — dairy is defined as “dairy products are foods or beverages made from the milk of mammals, such as cows, goats, and sheep. Common dairy products include milk, cheese, yogurt, butter, and cream.”

My diet has been transformed completely by that one tick bite in 2022, probably for the better, partly because I continually research the best ways to eat for overall health. On a cheering food note, I’ve been diving into The Blue Zones Solution, published in 2015 and a NY Times bestseller, with several spinoffs: the subtitle is eating and living like the world’s healthiest people.

Out and about, events

A favourite wine hike that has become very popular in canton Valais, the Marche des cépages, heads off in new directions this year. September 14, 8km, family-friendly. Tickets online.

Serious wine-lovers ready to splurge on serious wine fun, here it is at last: Battle of the Wines has been putting together an extraordinary collection of wines from around the world, each one nominated by pros (I’m one, with Jean Novelle’s Point Final 1, Geneva). They will battle to the presumably not bitter end to declare the best, repeating (scaled up) an event from 800 years ago. Colourful, very lively, great fun and wines to die for. Tickets from €50 to €1000 depending on how much you want to indulge. October 10-14, Paris and Chinon, France. I’ll be there! Tickets.

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The water

Great gin deserves a better pal than supermarket tonics. With weeks to go yet for the G&T season, here’s a tip: Sembrancher, the award-winning bottled water company near Verbier, which uses elegant tall bottles, also makes a tonic water that is a game-changer. It has a lower sugar content—about half—than Fever Tree or Schweppes, the giants in this game, but it also uses local Swiss Alps herbs. The 2598 has orange and citrus notes.

The hike, Sentier des Mines and the Col des Planches

A beautiful Val de Bagne (Valais) hike reached via Martigny or Sembrancher. Limited Car Postal service, so a car is much easier. The Sentier des Mines, or Mines Trail, offers spectacular mountain views but also some rich history of mining for lead, marble, asbestos and fluoride.

Note that while the mine itself is marked as no entry, you can indeed walk 50 m inside, for an excellent view of the rocks over the ages. The local tourism office provides information in English and an online SwissMobil map. The listed hike is moderate level, 1h45, but I did this as a four-hour small group hike by starting at Les Plans and climbing up through meadows on small trails, exploring side paths at the top.

How to record a hike in Switzerland

I record most of my hikes on apps, partly to remember details in order to share them, but also to be able to include the photos I take along the way, as part of the recording. If you’re tempted to do the same, here are my tips, after trying various apps.

My preferred options are SwitzerlandMobility Plus, available in German, French and Italian, and Swiss Topo. SuisseMobil, as the French version is called, makes it easy to record your hike and to add photos that you take as you go along. It has all the national and regional official hiking trails, so you can simply select one of those and adjust it to suit you. Swiss Topo is the wonderfully rich official Swiss mapping system, but what you gain in a wealth of useful and fascinating information you lose in complexity and slowness. Two strong points: you can access all of the maps offline with its award-winning app, so no worries about Internet connections, and it is available in English. Both are well worth exploring.

Jardin Ra, how to love bugs

After drought comes rain and in the wake of rain, dry spells and then comes—yikes! bugs and more bugs, aka insects. Aphids, cabbage caterpillars, slugs, leaf-eaters, thrips. As a newly enthusiastic polyculture gardener who is supposed to love all these creatures in the interest of diversity and thus sustainability, I confess to a) not knowing what most of these critters are and b) harbouring thoughts of murder.

It takes some effort to garden morally, it seems, so here’s what I’m doing. Learning to identify good insect eggs vs. bad ones. Learning to recognize their parents. Learning their names, but sadly at the rate of only two a summer, ditto for plant names, on a par with my capacity for learning Spanish and German irregular verbs. So far: the not-dangerous thread-waisted solitary wasp (Sphecidae), thrips (thysanoptera) and wild carrot aka Queen Anne’s lace (Daucus carota) and kale (Brassica oleracea).

Latin names were something I always thought I could do without but if you live and buy plants in a multilingual environment, in my case English, French and German, it’s useful to know them. Here’s how to pronounce them. It turns out there’s no official right way.

The good fellows: ladybugs, we famously want, one of our best insects in a garden, so I now know they lay eggs in groups, the eggs stand upright and are yellow, like a marching band in tight formation. When I’m getting rid of other eggs on the back sides of leaves, I now look for these and leave my pals’ babies. Their ability to rid a plant of killer aphids is a miracle, but sometimes they seem to arrive late for work. While waiting I shoot water at the aphids lined up and pressed together on plant stems like pop star crowds. Did you know that Swiss farmers now use drones to deliver some beneficial insects to problem fields, for example corn fields where corn borers can quickly destroy an entire crop. Thread-waisted wasps are good pollinators, just like our bees. Both are more interested in flowers than us.

The bad fellows: The despicable cabbage caterpillar which is demolishing my kale and Chinese cabbage (the leafy greens we’re supposed to eat every day) and all their kin, lays eggs individually. They also have a disgusting habit of pooping brown gunk on the leaves, but at least when you see it you know the enemy is in your own backyard. I’m losing my dislike for handling them, as well as slugs, for the only clean solution is to pick them up and get rid of them. Fast. I’m a fan of Windhager beer traps, little jars you bury, for slugs. Andermatt Biogarten (French, German) has a good page on slugs; I see I have a lot of work to do yet. Thrips and earwigs are destroying my lovely daisy, which share their white flowers with the Zinal glacier in my photos if I’m lucky. Zollinger Bio, a family nursery near Villeneuve in canton Vaud offers advice in English. They counsel good garden hygiene to start (get rid of dead leaves, stems, flowers) and spraying the plants at dusk with a water/soap mixture.

Wine pick: Etna Rosso, Calmarossa

Summertime usually means whites and rosés for me, but I recently felt like a glass of red wine as the sun slipped away on a cool evening and I planned to relax with a good book. Looking in my cellar I found the perfect answer, from Sicily, to accompany my roast chicken, couscous, hummus and olives, while rereading an old Patricia Highsmith novel that I thought took place in Italy. Wrong, it was France, but by then the Etna wine was open and I didn’t regret a drop of it. Calmarossa, an Etna Rosso DOC from Santa Maria La Nave is lighter than many Sicilian reds, in part because it’s grown at 850 m altitude on very steep slopes in black volcanic sandy soil and in part because of the grapes (Nerello mascalese with a bit of Nerello Cappucci). Wild yeasts, minimal intervention in the cellar. Harvested in 2017, bottled in 2020. A real beauty of a wine and an “extreme wines” producer worth knowing.

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Here & there

Reading -

Covid You travel and you’re reading about the summer surge in Covid in the US and elsewhere; here’s the official Swiss infectious diseases page, with updates on monitoring, for example. For now, yes, KP.2 and KP.3 are in Switzerland, but the situation is still considered “calm”.

Fires from electric vehicles I’m doing an EV road trip soon across a great swath of the US, assuming tornadoes and forest fires don’t get in my way. I’m relieved to see I should worry more about fires in petrol-powered cars. Still, it’s good to know how to react, what to do. Here’s my new and rather tiny electric car at home in Switzerland.

Cloudy glasses? I own some very nice wine glasses, but I also own a host of lesser, let’s say cheap, glassware. These tips from Migros are quite useful if your dishwasher has suddenly left you with some unattractive glasses.

Out & about

Swiss Wine Tasting One of the top wine-tasting events of the year takes place in Zurich Sunday and Monday, Swiss Wine Tasting, from the Mémoire des Vins Suisses association of producers and wine professionals (note: I am a member, an invitation-only professional). Tickets

Sunday: the annual tasting of vintage wines, 99 wines from 2014. The group was founded to create a bank of the best Swiss wines that could age well and the tradition of tasting these after 10 years continues. There’s also a masterclass with vintage Räuschling from the Schwarzenbach winery near Zurich (sold out). Monday: the annual Grand Tasting, 149 producers, featuring a sparkling wines bar, favourites from the Swiss Young Winemakers, best Chasselas in the world and Premiers Grands Crus du Pays de Vaud.

Tavolatas This is the last week to enjoy these wonderful long-table tavolatas, summer wine and food events, organized in canton Valais, but you’ll find them elsewhere, too. Grab the last places before it’s too late!

Santé!