Walking to the vineyards and wineries...

Wettingen is in a small river valley, and the "North facing" side of the valley is home to 15 acres of vineyards. It makes a great place for our daily walks.

The predominant red wine varieties are Pinot Noir or Blauburgunder as it is more commonly known, and Dornfelder. Because it is such a small producing region, the wines are exciting, relatively inexpensive and very much "terroir" driven.

The main white wines are Reisling, Gwertztraminer and Pinot Blanc.

Grapes are not the only thing grown on the hill-sides.........., and not to waste any opportunity there is also a local cheese made with wine.

If I was staying longer, I could easily see myself integrating into the local industry one way or t'other.

Some of the slopes are not too horizontal which must present challenges at different phases of production, especially harvest!

When we get tired of our 5franc "supermarket" wines, we can easily walk no more than 500m to our local "wine cellar".

We are looking forward to May 1, when they open the "winery" for the first time for the year! A very old historic building. Wine has been produced in the valley since 1428, the winery looks like it has been around that long!