Touring & Tasting At The Country’s Oldest Commercial Winery
Wine tasting in Switzerland wasn’t something I expected to remember long after the trip. Then I visited Domaine du Daley, a family-run winery overlooking Lake Geneva, and discovered one of the country’s most memorable travel experiences.
By Kevin Wilkerson, PubClub.com Travel Blogger
Your first thought when arriving at the Domaine du Daley winery in Switzerland is likely to be this: “I hope the wine is as good as this view!”
It is, so not to worry.
Still, the sparkle comes not from the wine – it doesn’t make champagne – but from the look on your face when you’re at the winery. Domaine du Daley is one of a dozen or so wineries perched on the side of a hill in a wine growing area called Lavaux, and that view is a sweeping one of Lake Geneva.
It is between two towns the size of a bottle label, Cully and Lutry.
Once you peel your eyes away from that view, then the winery will give you a tour, taking you through a room with huge barrels. The whites rest in these barrels for 11 months, and the reds for 11-22 months. This is no mass-producing winery.
Another interesting room is a sipping room that was used by monks; Domaine du Daley dates back to 1392, making it Switzerland’s oldest commercial winery.
The tour includes the fermentation room but since the winery, like all the ones in this area, are fairly small, it takes less than a half an hour. And that leaves more time for tasting the wines.
Domaine du Daley makes 22 varieties of wines, about 60% red, 40% white and one rose. Its biggest seller is a smooth-tasting white called La Chasselas. Other whites are pretty light, as is the case with many Swiss wines. If you like reds, you can’t go wrong – or do much better anywhere – with its Le Pinot Noir.
The wines are served in Swiss restaurants and exported to a few countries, primarily Japan, China and Russia.
Domaine du Daly is located on a hill overlooking Lake Geneva in Lutry.
Tastings are by appointment and that’s a good idea because the Lavaux area isn’t exactly crawling with tourists like California’s Napa Valley or other wine tasting areas so it may not be open for tastings if you just show up there. It also hosts a lot of weddings, something that should not come as a surprise considering its scenic location.
Getting to Domaine du Daley and the other wineries in the area is almost as much fun as being there. There are no organized tours, so it’s up to you to get there, and that can be by train, bike or even boat or foot. The closest major city is Lausanne, about 20 minutes away by train.
PubClub.com’s guide to the Lavaux, Switzerland wine country has all that information. See also this first-person blog about how easy it is to travel across Switzerland to get to this wine country and also a observant post about how Swiss wines are like Swiss women.
Domaine du Daley Winery
Chemin des Moines
1095 Lutry
Phone: 41 21 791 15 94
Website: www.daley.ch
Kevin Wilkerson is the founder of PubClub.com, an award-winning journalist and nightlife expert who has covered destinations, food & wine and nightlife for more than two decades. While working as a newspaper reporter, he received an Associated Press award for investigative journalism.
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