The seasonal festivities are the perfect way to ring out the old year and ring in the new with family and friends. For many they also represent an opportunity to hit the pause button and take a well-deserved time-out. Good food and wine assume greater importance at this traditional time of year and add a […]
Cabernet Franc, Quintessence 2012, B Dorsaz Valais
Cabernet Franc, Quintessence 2012, B Dorsaz Valais Cabernet Sauvignon, as you probably know, is the offspring of Cabernet Franc. Cab Franc was crossed with Sauvignon Blanc to create Cabernet Sauvignon. It is one of the Bordeaux varieties and has been around for centuries. It is also grown throughout Europe, the United States, New Zealand and […]
A Most Wanted Man; Refroidis (In Order of Disappearance)
A Most Wanted Man **** Except for a few moments of greenery, an imposing private bank and a grand hotel bar, the elegant city of Hamburg has never looked so grim. But we are, after all, in the grey world of John le Carré, a universe of tired spies with few illusions of grandeur. Our […]
1 hour faster to Milan
The Gotthard Base Tunnel running under the Swiss Alps is one step closer to completion: all 290 km of track for the new flat rail link are now laid. The 57-km tunnel, which is the central component of the CHF 9.74 billion project, will surpass the current world record for the longest tunnel held by […]
Film reviews: Der Kreis (Le Circle); Strange
Der Kreis (Le Circle) **** (vo German) Switzerland’s selection for this year’s Foreign Film Oscar and winner of every festival it has entered, including the Teddy award at the Berlin film fest, this is a brilliant docudrama about the first gay men’s magazine and organization created in Zurich in the 1940s when it was extremely […]
Clos du Brûle-Fer Johannisberg AOC Valais 2013
Clos du Brûle-Fer Johannisberg AOC Valais 2013 In Valais Johannisberg is the second most widely planted white grape variety after Chasselas. It is also known as Sylvaner and Rhin in the French speaking part of Valais and Grüner Silvaner, in the German speaking part. Its origins however are somewhat of a mystery. Some say it […]
Interstellar
Interstellar ** This hugely-hyped, so-called “intellectual” blockbuster is being touted as the space film of the year, or decade. It was even on the cover of Time magazine! Yet it is an extremely loud (Hans Zimmer’s music has never been so over-blown) mishmash of incomprehensible physicist lingo, post-ecological nightmare and soppy father/daughter melodrama. And it […]
Swiss want yodelling on UNESCO heritage list
Argentina has Tango, Portugal has Fado, China has the Beijing Opera, and Austria has Viennese coffeehouse tradition recognized by UNESCO on the Intangible Cultural Heritage List. Switzerland announced last month that it wants the international body to give yodelling protective status as well. Yodelling started as a way of communicating from mountain to mountain, eventually […]
Magic in the Moonlight
Magic in the Moonlight **** It is often said that most Woody Allen films have the same look and feel, but I would say that his great ones are like diamonds, each one just a different facet of the diamond. He has been creating a film almost each year since 1966, many of them comedic […]
Syrah Prestige AOC Valais 2013 Cave Jean Maret, Fully
Syrah Prestige AOC Valais 2013 Cave Jean Maret, Fully Valais has many choices of wine – more than 70 different grape varieties. Even the Dalai Lama has a few vines in Saillon at Farinet’s trail. Farinet was the Robin Hood of the Alps and a master of forgery (do visit the intriguing museum of forgery […]
