A toast to Switzerland

The country is adopting a sip-and-stay approach to spread the word on its best-kept secret – wines

- Kenneth S.Z. Goh

I am panting in a verdant vineyard in Mont-Vully, a municipality in west Switzerland, where bunches of grapes peek out from canopies of leaves in the manicured rows of vines sprawled across the hills.

It is the thick of harvest season in late September 2024, so I have been handed a pair of harvesting shears. The task? Snip off as many pinot gris grapes as possible from the vines that stretch dauntingly ahead.

After 30 minutes of squatting and shuffling - with a couple of juicy grapes popped into my mouth - I am ready to call it a day with my box that is a quarter filled with grapes.

My defeated spirit is inadvertently lifted as I shift my focus from the grapes to the magnificent hilltop view - a sea of greenery dotted with villages along the banks of a shimmering Lake Murten set against the alpine mountains.

Soaking up this sun-drenched scenery are vines of traminer and chasselas, among the 45 types of grapes grown in Mont-Vully, where the estate of Cave Guillod resides in Three Lakes - one of the country's six wine-growing regions.

Cave Guillod is one of the 23 family-run wine enterprises in a 15ha plot in Mont-Vully, a short drive from Avenches, the former capital of Roman Helvetia, where wines were first introduced to Switzerland in the second century AD.

The 93-year-old organic winery produces seven types of wines from 12 grape varieties, including the Celeste, a crisp and citrusy blend of pinot gris and chasselas, the emblematic Swiss white grape that is grown mainly in Vaud, Valais and Geneva.

After harvesting, I join Cave Guillod's fourth-generation owner, Mr Cedric Guillod, for a tavolata at the heart of his vineyard. Over a wind-swept outdoor lunch of filet mignon, spaghetti, salad and Gateau du Vully, a focaccia-like flatbread made with turmeric and bacon, I learn about the workings of the wine estate.