The Best Swiss Wines to Try: Four Bottles, Winemakers and Regions

White Merlot is not a Post Malone song. It is a real, and delicious, white wine made from red Merlot grapes. Fresh, dry and slightly mineral, it comes almost exclusively from Ticino and the surrounding Italian-speaking corner of Switzerland.

If you haven't heard of White Merlot before, don't be surprised. Switzerland produces roughly 100 million litres of wine a year, yet only about 1% leaves the country.

It is a real, and delicious, white wine made from red Merlot grapes.

Partly, I suspect, because, like everything here, it’s expensive. But mostly because the Swiss are perfectly happy drinking it themselves. Why ship your wine around the world when people are thirsty right here?

I’ve lived in Geneva for five years and have been slowly drinking my way through it. I am not an expert, and my reach is mostly limited to Geneva and the surrounding regions. Still, I’ve tried wines from across this beautiful little country. These are four of my favourites.

1. White Merlot from Ticino

Ticino is a strange corner of Switzerland where palm trees grow beside Alpine lakes, everyone speaks Italian and Merlot dominates the vineyards.

By limiting contact with the red grape skins, winemakers turn Merlot into a crisp white wine. If you see Bianco di Merlot Ticino DOC on a wine list or in a shop, get a bottle. It is more or less the perfect white wine.

2. Paul-Henri Soler in Geneva

Paul-Henri Soler is a French winemaker based in Meyrin, just outside Geneva. He sources grapes from growers around the region and transforms them in a small cellar on his partner’s family property.

I visited once and was nipped by an extremely large dog. I also left with a case of wine, so it was worth it.

Paul-Henri is some kind of magician. His wines are playful, unpredictable and almost always banging. They are exactly the kind of juicy, chillable reds you open with friends and accidentally finish much too quickly.

The wines are always changing, so I can’t recommend one specific bottle. If you find anything made by Paul-Henri Soler, buy it. You can often find him at the Carouge market on Saturdays.

3. Château d’Auvernier in Neuchatel.

Neuchâtel is a French-speaking city north of Geneva, close to the Jura Mountains. The region grows a lot of Pinot Noir and is famous for a wine I had never heard of before moving to Switzerland: Œil de Perdrix, or “eye of the partridge.”

It is technically a rosé made from Pinot Noir, with a distinctive pale salmon colour. To me, though, it drinks more like a verrrrry light red wine that belongs in the fridge.

It is fresh without being flimsy, fruity without being sweet, and equally good in summer or winter. It works with salmon, cheese, snacks or no proper meal whatsoever.

Plenty of producers make Œil de Perdrix, but the most reliable bottle I’ve found is from Château d’Auvernier. Get that one.

4. Chasselas in Lavaux

My final recommendation is more about a place than a particular bottle. You have to visit the Lavaux vineyards at least once in your life.

Lavaux is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. Its UNESCO-listed vineyard terraces tumble towards Lake Geneva, with the French Alps staring back from across the water.

The region is best known for Chasselas, a light, mineral white wine that tastes like the exact hillside where it was grown.

Walk through the vineyards between Grandvaux, Cully, Riex and Epesses. Bring bread and cheese, then stop at the self-service kiosk at Domaine Saint-Amour, where you can pick up a bottle and pay on the honour system.

Sit among the vines, have a picnic and look out over the lake. Life is good.

I think what I enjoy most about Swiss wine is knowing how little distance it has travelled between the vineyard and my glass. Much of it comes from small growers working on tiny plots, often only a short drive from where the wine is sold and drunk.

The wine has basically hopped off the vine and into your glass.

Enjoy