Lavaux Wine Tour

We slept in a bit, so we had to hustle to eat breakfast and get out the door for the day.

We caught the metro and train towards Montreux out in the countryside along the hills. Our wine tour guide met us at the station, and after applying some sunscreen we immediately embarked upon our tour.

We wound our way along the edge of various plots and service roads while learning the history of the region, the nature of the iconic Chasselas grape the area is known for, and the various responsibilities and growing styles the owners follow to tend their vines. We were grateful we had the late morning tour before it started to get too hot, though I was still suffering a bit walking down the steep slopes given the damage that my legs are still working to repair post-hike.

Some wine tasting quickly addressed those pains, as we finished our tour at a family's home / winemaking cellar. The woman we met was delightful, sharing her experience as the wife who married into the family's winemaking business and talking us through their seasonal task, harvest, and pressing. We tried two varieties of white wines in her shaded verdana, before she took us into the cellar to see where they press the grapes and store the wine in massive barrels called "foudres" (translates to lightning). We finished by sampling a red Pinot Noir, and concluded the tour. Probably our favorite wine tour we've done, beating out Bordeaux and Napa vineyards.

We had lunch at a very small restaurant down the road in town. The special of the day was parmigiana, which was right up my alley, and Laura had the lake perch.

We took a nap to sleep off the wine, and spent the afternoon at the hotel pool. In the evening we went out to the city center to see the cathedral, and then had dinner at an outdoor sushi restaurant.Read more