It seems Austria and Switzerland are sharing quite a lot this year.  On Sunday and Monday, the 30th and 31st of March, there will be a great opportunity to taste some of the finest Austrian and Swiss wines at the Kongresshaus in Zürich.  The tasting is open both days from 1pm until 7pm.  Registration is free, but you have to fill out a form first and send it in to gain entrance.

This large Austrian wine tasting event takes place each year in Zürich, but this year there is the added bonus of tasting some of Switzerland’s premier wines from producers which are not easily found…but definitely worth trying.

We recommend adopting one of the following four strategies to optimize your time and experience:   More...

That’s right!  The first of the 2007 Swiss wines have been released!

Canton Neuchâtel in the western part of Switzerland always releases the year’s first wines, the Neuchâtel Blanc Non Filtré.  The non filtré is a white wine made from the Chasselas grape variety.  It is always released on the third Wednesday in January at an official tasting in the city’s town hall.  This unusual and surprisingly refreshing wine has only been commercialized for eleven years.  Earlier, the wine was something like an insider secret.  Today, the wine is increasing in stature and definitely worth a try.

The wine is bottled without filtering the yeast, which creates a noticeable white deposit on the bottom of the bottle.  The yeast plays an important role by maintaining the wine’s freshness.  Shaking the bottle before opening will turn the wine foggy and enhance the flavor of the wine – an act that is encouraged!  As the wine hits your mouth, you should notice a slight, but definite fizziness on the tip of your tongue.  The freshness is dominated by citrus fruits, and a pleasant flavor of yeast.  The wine’s acidity is rather pronounced for Swiss palates, meaning there is a bit more zing in this wine than a typical Chasselas.   More...

March can be a difficult month…especially at the beginning.  It is a transition month, moving us out of winter and into spring.  It is also the most difficult seasonal transition we experience during the year – at least from a food perspective.  Products from winter have been stored a long time, which means they are tired, woody, and withered by the time March rolls around.  Fresh springtime fruits and vegetables are limited – especially if the weather was cold during February.  Furthermore, our desires instinctively search for fresh new flavors, and we can easily be driven toward out-of-season products like strawberries and asparagus – perhaps one key reason some late-spring and early-summer fruits and vegetables are so popular in late winter.

The paradox of spring can often make us feel gloomy.  The weather is often changing rapidly during the early spring months.  Conditions can shift from hot to cold, and from sunny to rainy in very short periods.  It can be extreme and confusing, and we often feel the same way.  We feel the warmer weather and crave the increased sunlight as the days grow longer and the nights shorter.  We want to wake up from our sluggish winter mood filled with dark days and heavy diets.  We want to breathe in spring’s revitalizing air.  Instead, we feel lethargic.

Moving from winter to spring is also challenging to our physical needs.  We continue to have an excess of sleeping hormones,  while lacking in serotonin -  an amino acid which affects our emotional state…or better said, our happy hormone!  The chemical reaction needed to create serotonin increases with exposure to direct sunlight.  As the days grow longer, we develop more happy hormones!  Serotonin intake can also be influenced by our diet.  Increased amounts of vitamins, minerals, and proteins along with additional increases in sunlight will help our bodies shake off winter.  Fortunately, seasonal spring products are filled with exactly the right amounts of vitamins, minerals and proteins we need in order to fill our bodies with these happy hormones.  Artichokes and green leafy vegetables wake up and stimulate new life into our bodies.  New young vegetables – garlic, onions, carrots, radishes, wild greens – provide us with minerals and vitamins, while fresh legumes help our protein intake and an abundance of citrus fruits fill our vitamin reserves.

Here are a few items to look for when shopping at the market in March…   More...

Welcome to our fresh new blog/newsletter...

This blog will primarily focus on exploring the fascinating and evolving food & wine culture of Switzerland.  From time to time, we will also use this site to write about our main business - Laughing Lemon Food & Wine.  We have quite a few ideas on how we can utilize new technologies to communicate our message more efficiently to our customers and others who happen to share an interest in Switzerland...But, that will have to wait until we get this blog off the ground and complete our new design to the Laughing Lemon web site.

We hope you find the information we will be providing useful, educational, and of course, refreshing!  We welcome all relevant comments and suggestions...even if we do not share the same opinion.  Please use the contact form to communicate directly with us, and be sure to fill-in the necessary information prior to making a comment on any of our posts. You can find out more about our qualifications, experience, and our business by visiting our main web site.

Ok...that's about enough for our initial post.  Let's go ahead and see if we can get a fresh attitude on the food & wine culture of Switzerland!