Switzerland

Switzerland

With its towering mountains, deep valleys, lakes and picturesque mountain villages and the splendor of its landscapes , Switzerland is a spectacularly .

The Alpine region has the most diverse and influential landscapes of Switzerland. Their scope is also close to two-thirds of the country ( 62.5 % of the territory ) . Topography, including the barrier formed by the Alps, is also the source of a wide variety of climates. Some major townships are completely or almost within the alpine area , it is the Valais , Ticino and Graubünden.

Aside from a few floodplains of the Rhine and the Rhone in particular , each region has a relief more or less marked , the hills of the plateau and Jura ( 1000 - 1 600 m ) to the peaks of the Alps ( 2000-4 600 m ) .

Switzerland, in official terminology the Swiss Confederation, is a country in Western Europe, without direct access to the sea and is surrounded by Germany, France , Italy, Austria and Liechtenstein. The country consists of 26 cantons, is constitutionally depuis1848 a federal state. Its capital is Bern. Switzerland recognizes four cultural variations based on the four national languages ​​: German, French , Italian and Romansh. While the first three are official languages ​​, Romansh is so only partially . The country has a long tradition of political and military neutrality and home to many international organizations.

The Alps are an extreme environment. The canton Valais alone contains most alpine peaks over 4000 meters.

The main mountain chains , including above 4000 meters peaks are located in the regions in the cantons of Bern , Valais, Graubünden and the Bernina Massif , which are strings containing most glaciers in Switzerland, including it is covered up to about 3%

Viticulture in Switzerland

Covers a total area of ​​150 km2 ( 15,000 acres ) and is mainly concentrated in the west and south of the country, in the cantons of Geneva , Neuchâtel , Ticino , Valais and Vaud.

The Swiss wine lover , keeps him on the authenticity of the Swiss soil and a very happy combination of soil, location and grapes are all characteristic of these wines

The Swiss do not produce white wines that those who taste these wines with objectively find interesting and classy, there are even Swiss white wine quite remarkable

The wine tradition in Switzerland is very old, going back at least to Roman times . Archaeological evidence to suggest that the culture of the vine was in Valais well before Roman times between 1989 and 1999 , during an excavation in Brig , it was found grape seeds dating back to the Iron Age . So there were bunches of grapes in Valais long before the Romans arrived . It remains to prove that they are from an indigenous vine cultivation.

Near Sembrancher in a Celtic tomb was found the oldest index of wine consumption in Valais, a ceramic bottle . She accompanied the remains of a woman buried in the second century BC. BC These bottles , vases named trottola were produced in Celtic pharmacies in northern Italy. We learned that they contained wine with an inscription found on one of them. Around 150 BC. BC, the Celtic era, the Valais wine then offered to the dead and probably drank. A century later, Roman amphorae made ​​their appearances

In the twelfth century , the vineyards were already organized , as evidenced by the first written documents . Research from elsewhere destroy the legend: the vine was not among the exclusive hands of monasteries and monks but in those of many homeowners. Historians strip, currently, all documents relating to the vineyards in public and private archives. The analysis of the deeds of the time is very rewarding, especially those relating to recognition: in these documents, tenants agree to keep their land property of a lord (owner) . Historians also trying to draw the establishment of the vineyard and the changing wine landscape.

20 of 23 cantons grow vines on a total area of ​​15,000 hectares. The vineyards flourish along lakes and rivers through micro -climates they induce. Generally white wines dominate. The Canton of Geneva has established a precise mapping of soil, climate and grape varieties of the vineyard, essential components of the soil.