Swiss Name, Oregon’s Gain

Read about the American Association of Wine Economists Conference and Pinot Noir's Wädenswil clone

By Neal D. Hulkower

Fill in the blank with a common companion food: Swiss ____. Cheese and chocolate immediately come to mind. But what about wine? After all, one of the earliest Pinot Noir clones planted in the Willamette Valley, Wädenswil, is named after a Swiss town, although originally from Burgundy. (See sidebar.) Also, the most frequently planted white grape in Switzerland, Chasselas, found its way to David Hill Vineyards & Winery, as well as The Eyrie Vineyards and Laurel Ridge (with bottles labeled Chasselas Doré).

Still, you’d be forgiven for not selecting it as an option. Less than one percent of Switzerland’s wine production leaves its border, merely a pinhole view of the more than 250 varieties grown on the steep slopes of the Alps. Since the mountains can’t come to us, we traveled to the mountains to sample them.

The 16th annual American Association of Wine Economists conference, held this summer in Lausanne, Switzerland, supplied the opportunity. Hosted by the EHL Hospitality Business School (ranked the world’s finest in its field), the meeting began with an afternoon reception, followed by two days of presentations. The conference concluded with two-day winery tours. Local wine flowed during the lunches, dinners and in between. If that wasn’t enough, I was invited to sit on three tasting panels.

Pre-Conference Activities

Before the conference, we spent two days each in Geneva, Zürich and Vaduz, Liechtenstein. We enjoyed a brilliantly conceived, gorgeously presented seafood feast at Michelin-starred Fiskebar accompanied by Domaine Dugerdil Dardagny 2020 Pinot Blanc from a vineyard near Geneva. This was my first Swiss wine in decades and a prelude of many more in the future. Another day we embarked on a three-hour walking chocolate tour, visiting several shops to sample and buy their products. Dinner at a fondue restaurant involved a pot of bubbling cheese teeming with morels and matched with a bottle of simple, yet suitable Domaine Du Centaure 2021 Pinot Noir. Raclette, the other Helvetian melted cheese specialty, coated the toast garnishing the salad.

In Zürich, also near a wine-growing area, we drank a Weingut Schwarzenbach 2022 Räuschling, a fresh, fruity white, along with the innovative cuisine served at the Old Inn. In Old Town, at the more formal Zunfthaus Zur Waag, we dined outdoors on fish and lentils with a bottle of Staatskellerei Zürich 2023 Sauvignon Blanc.

Vaduz, Liechtenstein, is the tourist-friendly capitol of the tiny principality. From our hotel in the center of the pedestrian zone, we walked to a winery and vineyard owned by the country’s Prince Hans-Adam II. The small vineyard grows primarily Pinot Noir and some Chardonnay only sold to a few customers. The winery also has vineyards in neighboring Austria which supply a wider range of varieties. The compact area where we stayed contains three museums that kept us entertained between meals and sips.

On our final night in Vaduz, we hiked to Restaurant Marée to savor a multicourse dinner. While the cuisine was certainly exquisite, the revelation was the half bottle of Histoire d’Enfer 2021 Petite Arvine Reserve. This grape, indigenous to Switzerland, also grows in the Aosta Valley, a small neighboring part of Italy. Think white Rhône blend meets a richer Chablis across a bridge of complex, evolving flavors and aromas. Why isn’t it planted anywhere else?

Bonding with Marée’s sommelier yielded a benefit, first a taste, then a glass, of 2018 Pinot Noir Rotes Haus from Harry Zech Weinbau, a micro producer. The grapes were grown a short distance from the restaurant. Aged in new French oak for 36 months, the Pinot was on the bigger side, yet still complex and well-balanced.

The Conference, Panel Tastings and Tours

One advantage of holding the conference at a hospitality school with an outstanding culinary program is wonderful food. This became immediately evident during the opening reception. Varied hors d’oeuvres, abundant enough to constitute dinner, accompanied Swiss wines. Even the lunches from the Food Court were excellent along with a few of the wines poured on the periphery. On the evening of the third day, the Gala Dinner, hosted by the school, showcased its masterful cooking and service.

The two days of sessions included a generous number of wine, beer and spirits topics directly or tangentially economic in nature. On the second day, I chaired one of the final sessions on niche markets. In it, I presented the conference’s sole presentation on Oregon wines. “A Quality Price Ratio Comparison of Willamette Valley Chardonnay and White Burgundy” used data collected from wine-searcher.com to address the question: Does Willamette Valley Chardonnay represent a better value than White Burgundy? In short– and not surprisingly, based on the ratio of average rating and price, the answer is yes for wines more than $21.

Before the meeting, Phillipe Masset, an associate professor at EHL and the conference convenor, invited me to join three panels with fifteen others to sample and evaluate Swiss Pinot Noirs, along with Indigenous whites and reds in a tasting lab. For each panel, we were seated in small cubicles with a sink and 15-17 numbered glasses. We had about 45 minutes to score each and record our impressions. Two glasses contained the same wine.

It was hectic. Although I am philosophically opposed to scoring wines, I use scores as a proxy for quality (as in the presentation I gave), for lack of anything more quantitative. I tended to score the wines low. I gave the 17 Pinots, two of which were the same, 83 to 93 points. My top-rating was the elegant Histoire d’Enfer 2018 L’Enfer du Calcaire. While my descriptions differed, I awarded 85 and 87 to the duplicates.

The next day felt even more frantic. We had two panels in different labs. I rated the Indigenous whites between 79 and 94, with the complex Valentina Andrei 2023 Petite Arvine Calcaire the highest. I scored the duplicates 84 and 85.

My range of scores for the Indigenous reds was 84 to 94, with the Magliocco 2022 Humagne Rouge earning top marks. Despite the duplicates being placed side by side, I assigned them 90 and 92 points. Hopefully, the organizers collected useful data for their analyses for an upcoming article.

With the serious aspect of the conference behind us, it was time to visit wine country. Fortunately, the weather cooperated. The first tour day was spent in Canton Vaud. Two Chasselas and a Chenin Blanc from Domaine Bovard were standouts.

The next day we traveled to Canton Valais. Cave Ardévaz shared their 2023 Petite Arvine Sélection. (I had to take a bottle home.) Our lunch at Château de Villa consisted of five servings of raclette, each representing a different dairy in the canton, accompanied by boiled potatoes, cornichons, pickled onions and three wines. The property also housed a large wine shop with bottles from 120 area producers. A Cave La Romaine 2022 Petite Arvine joined my collection.

While a few were elegant and understated, many of the Swiss Pinot Noirs I tasted were more extracted and heavily oaked, a style becoming less prevalent in Oregon. Nevertheless, we owe the Swiss a debt of gratitude for sharing the Wädenswil clone that spurred Pinot production in our challenging cool climate. Perhaps they would be willing to part with some Petite Arvine cuttings, as well.

Wädenswil Becomes Willamette

While there was no discussion about Pinot Noir clones, because Switzerland focuses on massale selections, the subject was critical during the early days of winegrowing in the Willamette Valley. In his 2004 essay, Pinot Noir Clones in Oregon - A History, Jason Lett explained: “When the American wine renaissance began in the early 1960s, there was only one non-virused, university-certified clone of Pinot Noir available – the Wädenswil (sic) clone. It had been brought to the University of Davis by Dr. Harold Olmo from the Swiss Federal Research Station for Fruit Growing, Viticulture and Horticulture in the town of Wädenswil, outside Zurich.” His father, David, brought it to Oregon in 1965, eventually planting it in the Dundee Hills. Though the vines are now phylloxerated, resulting in smaller yields, they can produce stunning wines. My notes on The Eyrie Vineyards 2017 South Block read: “Intensely perfumed and pretty as can be with an ethereal palate that seems weightless. Some tannin. A nascent beauty.”

The Wädenswil clone was planted in 1979 at the top of Hyland Estates in the McMinnville American Viticultural Area, or AVA, with additional vines added in 1987 for a total of 7.24 acres. All are own-rooted. As part of its Old Vine series, Hyland produces a single clone Wädenswil prized for its silky texture. This was certainly on display in the 2016, 2021 and 2022 vintages. On the nose, the oldest showed some pruniness and very slight oxidation with a base of creamy oatmeal. The palate was rich, expansive and dominated by stewed plums with silky texture, fully resolved tannins, lower acidity and a medium finish. The 2021 vintage had lush fruit on the nose, a richer, nicely balanced palate with silky texture and a long finish. The most recent bottling exuded a pronounced spicy floral aroma with oak notes and red fruit. The palate, delicate with a silky texture, high acidity, a bit of heat, had a medium finish.

Rebecca Moore is a second-generation winegrower in the Yamhill-Carlton AVA. In 1990, her parents, Ron and Linda Moore, planted MonksGate Vineyard. A decade later, they added half an acre of grafted Wädenswil, a heartier thick-skinned grape, to act as a wind and dust shield to protect the more delicate thin-skinned Pommard clone. The latter was the other popular clone during the early days of winegrowing in the Willamette Valley.

The 2021 vintage yielded the winery’s first single clone bottling named Wild Child after Wädenswil’s “contrary nature.” Of the 50 cases made. I sampled two bottles, one opened on the spot and the other the previous day. The former had a lovely, perfumed nose with spice and chewing gum mint. The palate, delicate with elusive flavors, featured creamy fruit, brisk acidity and a long finish. With a bit more air, the nose was slightly richer with some floral notes. The bottle more recently opened showed a hint of funk, red fruit and spice. The palate was nicely balanced and textured with slightly grippy tannins. The previously opened wine tasted noticeably softer.

MonksGate also uses Wädenswil in its 2021 Covenant Cuvée along with equal parts Pommard and 777. This produced a more complex number of aromas in a denser spicy nose. The nicely structured and excellently balanced palate was also bigger– yet still on the lighter end of the spectrum– with a lingering finish.

As one of the two OG clones of Pinot Noir in the Valley, Wädenswil is widely planted. In addition to the three above, other wineries produce single-clone versions. So, make sure to ask if you’d enjoy your own encounter with this wild child.

Neal D. Hulkower is an applied mathematician and freelance writer living in McMinnville. His first contributions to a wine publication appeared in the early 1970s. Since 2009, he has been writing regularly about wine-related topics for academic, trade and popular publications including Journal of Wine Research, Journal of Wine Economics, American Wine Society Wine Journal, Oregon Wine Press, Practical Winery & Vineyard, Wine Press Northwest, Slow Wine Guide USA and The World of Fine Wine as well as wine-searcher.com, trinkmag.com, and guildsomm.com. Neal is a member of the Circle of Wine Writers. His first book, Grape Explications, will be released in 2025.