A taste of the country's vineyards: traditionally, spring open house days at Swiss wineries marked the launch of new wines made from the previous autumn's harvest, and were local in nature. but as their popularity has grown, they have developed into full-fledged tourism events. so, Swiss news has left no stone unturned or cave unexplored to help you know where to go, and what to look for.

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A taste of the country's vineyards: traditionally, spring open house days at Swiss wineries marked the launch of new wines made from the previous autumn's harvest, and were local in nature. but as their popularity has grown, they have developed into full-fledged tourism events. so, Swiss news has left no stone unturned or cave unexplored to help you know where to go, and what to look for.

The reason for Open House days in spring--now held in all six of Switzerland's official wine regions--has traditionally been to launch the latest wine vintage, which this year means the 2010 vintage. Spring is when the previous autumn's harvesting and pressing, the fermentation in vats during the late fall and winter months, and spring bottling (of all wine, except that which is destined for barrel-aging) come to a head--and it's time to start selling.

However, Ticinowine director Francesco Tettamanti finetunes the retail objective, saying that in his canton it's less about new wine and more about general outreach since, "85 per cent of Ticino production is Merlot that is aged longer--which means that in 2011, wines presented at the Open House days are more likely to be from ea...

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