When the Vineyards Are a Work of Art... Lavaux, Switzerland

A morning train stops with screaming of brakes at a deserted village platform. Behind its windows, tens of sleepy eyes are looking indifferently into the dark. A figure of an early wanderer hurriedly steps from the train door into the unknown. Even after the rustle of the leaving train has died out, he is still looking for any clue in the surrounding darkness, dazzled by the sharp light of the board of departures on the paint peeling concrete waiting hall. One can hear a menacing roar of water. It hurtles in a powerful stream through the gutter in the tunnel under the trackage – where the narrow stairs lead to the only exit... The wanderer's steps falter. Then he carefully descends lower and looks into the scarcely lit underground, the roof of which supplies the sound with almost a demonic strength. However, desire makes him overcome his fear; instead of walking he begins to run. As if the tunnel led into another world... An old world of our ancestors, whose time has stopped. The concrete turns into stone, cold light of the discharge lamp into a yellowish light of a rusty lantern, iron railing is replaced by narrow stone walls of a steep lane. He climbs up its cracked stairs, icy mountain wind blows into his face, he smells the strange humidity of the shattering water born from a small waterfall in the depth of the night, which he more senses than sees. Little wicker tables and chairs are set out under garlands on the terrace of a picturesque bar behind a wall – but there are no guests, as if they suddenly disappeared in the middle of a celebration... A little spring of a fountain burbles in the corner, the fountain's water surface enjoys its freedom, but everything around is bound by an icy shell. A little village is still sleeping, only few lighted windows reveal life hidden in the walls of enchantingly beautiful houses. The path is suddenly leaving the village, like a decorative ribbon, it lines the slope toward the remote horizon. Surface of the transparently clear lake below glistens with first rays, by means of which the sun copies the silhouettes of snow-covered Alpine ridges and, from the dark along the sides of the path, like some mysterious natural creatures, aged convoluted trunks of grapevine appear. Aligned on stone terraces in thousand-head rows, they resemble an artful gigantic embroidery. The sun overcomes mountain tops at last, it reveals that unique natural beauty in its whole and the wanderer stares in quiet wonder under its enchanting impression...

A dream? Nope – my unforgettable trip to the winemaking area Lavaux in February 2009. The board of that deserted station read „Epesses“, the train stopped at it at 6:49 a.m., the lake is called Geneva and that enchanting vineyard? That was Calamin, one of two most famous Grand Cru of Switzerland...

None of my so-far realized wine journeys was decided and planned in such a short time as this one, almost in a feverish pace. It was quarter after nine in the evening, when – after the concert of the Czech Philharmonic in Montreux – I sat down to the computer in the hotel reception to check my email box. After that thought of a new wine journey occurred to me, I entered „vineyards Lavaux“ into the browser. I wanted at least to read something about them, when, because of the lack of time on the day of my arrival and of the concert, I couldn't go to see these not so far situated vineyard terraces (since 2007 recorded among the UNESCO sights) as I had hoped in Prague. I will surely enjoy all the more the wine born there and bought by me, which was awaiting me in the fridge! I sent one promisingly looking Czech text to the printer and prepared to go to my room. When I was taking out the papers, I caught the sight of internet addresses listed at the end of the document under the caption „How to get here“. I thought sadly to myself: „How not to get there...“. There was obviously no chance – the departure for the last city of the tour, Bern, was planned exactly for the noon of the following day. But something told me, what if... – the Montreux station was directly below my windows and trains from there along the lake bank were leaving in both directions in quite promising intervals. I found the given address of the Swiss railways and also satellite maps. The distance to the suitable entrance point into the most beautiful and high-quality part of Lavaux, the village Epesses, was mere 18 minutes by train! I was spurred by hope... I hurriedly traced the return connection and according to the satellite pictures, indicating existence of two paths running horizontally through the whole 20km vineyard zone of Lavaux, I decided that I would try to walk from Epesses through Grand Cru vineyards Calamin and Dézaley as far as the village Rivaz, coming under Saint – Saphorin, or maybe even farther, directly to the village, which gave its name to this AOC. All this in three hours (to be able to prepare comfortably for the departure of the orchestra), four hours at the worst. The satellite map did not state the scale, so I had to take a little risk in my planning on the basis of a mere guess of the distance. My lucky star was shining and it did not disappear from the sky even at the moment when I climbed up the slope to the village Epesses...

The Grand Cru vineyard Calamin, situated along both sides of the village, still does not lye in such steep angle as the more westward oriented Dézaley, but already here you realize that labeling it a work of art is no exaggeration at all. Hundreds of stone terraces supporting each free piece of soil, where mere three bushes of grapevine can fit, are a real miracle of human creativity. Access paths through which the grapes are transported to be processed (it can be only done by a helicopter on the steepest places) are from concrete today and the feeling of vertigo, which can come easily on the hundred-meter high slope, is alleviated by an iron railing, but the breathtaking view of the whole area was, in its essence, born already in the Middle Ages, by hard work of cistercians from Dézaley. This may be the reason why the vineyards surrounded by stone walls look truly burgundy-like... The local grapevine is also French and it is harvested from the proverbial and repeatedly, somewhat monotonously, mentioned three Suns – the one at the sky, the one reflected in the lake and the one captured in the stones. Chasselas, Gutedel in German and Chrupka in Czech, is usually considered suitable only for simple table wines, if not only for grapes for direct consumption; it is quite underestimated especially in its country of origin. However, it is very popular in Switzerland, where it is planted in abundance. Above all in Lavaux, it has achieved an amazing symbiosis with the terroir of vineyards routes, to the footwall of which it responds by a whole range of mineral notes. Although it usually is somewhat neutral in fruitiness and lighter in the body, it produces a wine with high finesse, which is never cheap (which is quite justifiable with regard to the inconceivable costs on its cultivation), but it's worth tasting.

I myself had an opportunity, during my stay in Switzerland, to taste the following products of the Lavaux region: (names below include the evaluation on the hundred-point scale):

87  Dézaley Grand Cru AOC 2007 „L´ Arbaléte“, Vaud, Jean et Pierre Testuz

86  Saint – Saphorin Grand Cru AOC 2007, Domaine de Burignon, Vaud, Hotel de la Ville de Lausanne

86  Calamin Grand Cru AOC 2007 „La Beguine“, Vaud, J. & M. Dizerens

Individual terraces of the whole vineyard system are accessible from main paths only due to an ingenious labyrinth of little bridges and narrow stone stairways, the walk on which is not only difficult but also quite dangerous. I had first-hand experience of this when hunting for a better photographic view... At the time of harvest, both summer workers and winemakers themselves hurry through this labyrinth with their backs loaded down with baskets full of grapes. I wouldn't be surprised to hear that accidents happen here from time to time. Only rarely can you see some kind of mechanization in the vineyards, either a hanged cableway with a cable car, slope cable railway, or some kind of a modified minitractor, which runs on a thin toothed girder winding above the slope like a snake. The terraces have a perfectly elaborated ameliorative system. Water does not stop to flow through the gutters even in winter and the walls are full of thousands of drilled-out little draining channels. Judging by the fact that a plastic tube is inserted in them, they probable do not always come from the cistercians:-)

The continuous vineyard zone is interrupted only at several places by some building area – usually an old domaine, which cannot deny its medieval origin. Those photogenic objects, small castles in fact, guarding the wine cellars, often appear on the labels. Grand cru appellations pass one into another on the spot without any distinctive marking or separation – it seems that the individual owners of the plots of land live here in an admirable symbiosis...

I met three winemakers in the vineyards during their early morning work – it was the time of winter trimming of old annual wood shoots. They didn't pay me great attention, they are used to visitors in their vineyards but they oblige them with a nature trail and various events in their cellars. I didn't get this opportunity so early in the morning of course ... In spite of this I treated myself a souvenir – on one of the terraces of the probably most famous Swiss vineyard Dézaley, I found a pile of old pulled-out stubs of bushes usually suitable only for burning (or for a transformation into an artifact, see the article “Soul of vine bound by a spell...”. I chose the souvenir for my wine cellar, although it was not easy to stuff it into my small bag. In about two hours of fast walking against the sharp icy Alpine air, I arrived above the town of Rivaz. The steepest slope of Dézaley suddenly ends above this town and the visitor can enjoy the view of the open amphitheater of vineyards, slightly aside from the lake and more interspersed by built-up areas. This is the region of Saint–Saphorin Grand Cru appellation (probably established recently, as not even few-year old publications mention any other Grand Cru next to Calamin and Dézaley). Even though these are still beautiful vineyards, you will not experience that feeling of full intimacy as in the previous one. No pleasant feelings whatsoever evoked the busy road, along which I had to walk part of the way, before I managed to find a new access to the path leading through the vineyards. After a while, this path led me directly to the heart of Saint–Saphorin – a splendid, sleepy village laying on the slope with picturesque tiny streets, little squares, little church and graceful vineyards. If I was free to choose where to live, I would like to live here and to work in Geneva:-) Hardly anywhere in Europe can you find such a magically preserved old world. Even here a great wine is born, which the local people are very proud of, judging by some kind of a little exhibition of bottles placed behind rusty iron bars in one of the many high stone walls of the village, similar to some kind of a chapel. The time for departure of the train back to Montreux was approaching. I hesitated for a while whether to follow the advice of the notice on the garage door of one of the houses serving simultaneously as a winery and museum of firefighting: “if we are not in the cellar, please call at us through the half-opened door around the corner!” and to gain a bottle of an interesting wine or possibility of a tour of the cellar. In the end I chose to leave, to be able to come to the train platform without a souvenir but in time. The last sight of the expedition, although already viewed only through the window glass of the train, was Vevey, Swiss capital of chocolate and the birthplace of the present-day supranational concern Nestlé. When I was entering the hotel in Montreux in a good mood, I was thanking myself in my thoughts for having been able to exchange once again the comfort of warm bed sheets for such extraordinary experiences ...