Lausanne Wine Trip

Me and Jace in Lausanne

We took a great trip on Saturday to Lausanne, all the way on the western side of Switzerland, with Michael, Jace's colleague, and his wife Asako. Michael got a letter in the mail, inviting him to a "Tag der offene Tur" or Open Day at one of his favorite wineries. We decided to tag along as we had not been to the French speaking part of Switzerland yet and who doesn't love a wine tasting?

The area we went to was just outside of Lausanne, where all the wineries are, on the slopes along Lake Geneva. Although the leaves had long since changed and most were gone, the area was still gorgeous and the slumbering grape plants were still a sight to behold.

It took us about 2 1/2 hours to get to Lausanne which was much quicker than I would have imagined, with a stop in Biel along the way. We used a Tageskarte for the day trip, and I would recommend that for anyone doing a day trip as it was relatively inexpensive (51 francs each) and included all transportation within Switzerland for the day, so our trams and subway trips were included. Nice and easy!

This is the wine growing region on the sunny side of Lake Geneva. There were so many little wineries on the hill and plenty of carefully tended plots on the hillside. Very picturesque territory!

Only a few grapes left on the wines... purely for show I am sure as the rest have already been long bottled this year!

Once we arrived at the winery, we took a short walk around the area, where most of these photos were taken, and then we went into the garage of the winery where the Open Day was held. For the next 3 hours we tried the winery's entire range of wines - white, reds, roses, dessert wines, and schnapps. They even had a complimentary lunch for the guests which was really enchanting and delicious - guyere and bree cheese and bacon bread for starters, followed by creamy homemade pumpkin soup and then a delicious local sausage with boiled leeks and potatoes. For dessert they served the most heavenly vanilla icecream with rum and raisins... which was too strong for Jace so I happily ate his as well!

On our way down to the winery door.

This is the winery we visited.

We got a great deal on some white wine that will be delivered soon and walked down the hill to the train at the bottom... all in all it was a very easy trip and one I would recommend to do again. Lucikly we also had great weather and great company!

Asako and Michael, thanks for a great trip!

We also staggered through Lausanne after the winery - photos and details tomorrow!