After many months of worrying about heatwaves and prospective drought, winemakers in Switzerland are now expecting the “wine of the century", according to a report by Blick. Despite the shortage of water, many vineyards are reporting the highest quality grapes seen in decades.
Two weeks ahead of when they should, almost all the grapes have been harvested in Ticino, according to Robin Garzoli. The vintner - who has won multiple Gault Millau prizes for his wine in the past - told Blick that the wines this year will be full-bodied: "It's going to be a good vintage."
This is in spite of the poor weather in Switzerland. According to Rudy Studer, a winemaker from Ticino, the heatwaves in the summer were unlike anything they had seen before. “If you didn't have a well, you hardly knew how to water your vines. The local council (Gemeinde) helped where it could with tankers,” he noted.
Luckily, the heat was finally broken in late August and September with a huge amount of rainfall, which actually caused flooding in some areas. This meant that “not only did the vines survive the drought, some of them also bore rich fruit. It's going to be the best wine I've ever had," Studer concluded. He said that the grape's sugar content is so high this year that no additives will be needed to make the wine.
Vintner Mirto Ferretti explained that while the Oechsle scale - a measurement of a grape's ripeness and sugar content, which is used to determine the overall quality of the wine - is typically around 75 to 80 degrees in Swiss cantons, the rating in Ticino is currently over 90 degrees, making it the highest quality Swiss wine seen in over a decade. This year's crop will likely pass the record set in 2003, to be named the best wine grown in the country in the 21st century so far.
The President Federviti winegrowers' association, Giuliano Maddalena, told Blick that "this year, we have a wine of excellent quality. Because of the lack of water." This was echoed by Ferretti, who said that the so-called “drought wine” could turn out to be the “drop of the century".