🗺️ Swiss wine

Swiss wine is the wine and winemaking of Switzerland, a small mountain country in the centre of Europe. According to the Federal Office for Agriculture (OFAG), in 2025 vineyards covered 14,431 ha. Red grapes took up 55% of the area and white ones 45%.

The country's most widely planted grape is the red Pinot noir (3,594 ha), and the leading white is Chasselas (3,416 ha). Next come Merlot (1,192 ha) and Gamay (1,021 ha). Local and new grapes are growing noticeably: Petite Arvine covered 280 ha, and Divico 109 ha.

Most of the vineyards lie in the French-speaking part — 10,646 ha. The leading cantons are Valais (4,578 ha), Vaud (3,749 ha) and Geneva (1,361 ha). German-speaking Switzerland has 2,642 ha, and the Italian-speaking part, that is Ticino with the Mesolcina valley, 1,143 ha. In the canton of Vaud lies Lavaux — vineyard terraces stretching about 30 km along Lake Geneva, on the UNESCO list since 2007. Today's terraces date from the eleventh century, when Benedictine and Cistercian monasteries looked after these lands.

In 2025 the country produced 82 million litres of wine — less than the ten-year average of 90 million litres. Very little is exported, about 10 thousand hl, so Swiss wine is mostly drunk at home. Yet even there it holds only 37.5% of the market: the rest comes from imports, 155 million litres a year.

Why it matters to you. Swiss wines are divided into three classes — AOC, vin de pays and vin de table — and over 95% of the harvest goes to AOC. The name of a canton or an AOC on the label shows the origin. Whites are served at 4–10 °C, reds at 15–18 °C.