Article from Les Vins de Genève website.
A day in Geneva’s countryside to discover the 2011 vintage Caves Ouvertes, or the Open House Day of Geneva’s wineries, takes place canton-wide on Saturday, May 12 this year. Nearly all of the canton’s wineries will be open on the day.
The Open House Day known as Caves Ouvertes was first launched in 1987 by Geneva’s independent winegrowers. The idea was to invite the general public to come out and visit their wineries. It was the first event of the kind in Switzerland. Pierre Dupraz, who was president of the Geneva chapter of the winegrowers’ association at the time, recalls that ‘’several dozen’’ people showed up for that first Open House. Going on 25 years later, the number of visitors is in the thousands and Caves Ouvertes has become one of Geneva’s big annual events.
On Saturday, May 12, 2012, nearly all (some 90) of the canton’s wineries will be opening their doors to present the 2011 vintage – and oak2aged wines from the 2010 vintage.
Most of the wineries also sell food and many provide entertainment. In a new development this year, some wineries will be selling tasting glasses for 5 Swiss francs. ‘’This will facilitate organization,’’ says Jacques Bocquet, a winegrower in Sézenove (Bernex). ‘’The success of Caves Ouvertes, with its thousands of visitors, has been so huge that managing glasses was becoming an issue. This way, each customer has his or her own glass and we can focus our energy on presenting our wines.’’
Geneva’s Right Bank Mandement area (Satigny, Russin (http://www.molards.ch/caves-ouvertes) and Dardagny) is traditionally the most visited region on the day, although the past few years have seen sizable increases in the number of visitors to Bernex and surrounding villages like Lully or Sézenove, in the part of the canton located between the Rhône and the Arve rivers, and to Left Bank communes like Jussy, Anières and Gy in the area between the Arve and the lake.
In some areas, there are FREE TPG shuttle buses (navettes) that loop around wine villages. Some villages also have organized parking. www.tpg.ch
The promotion campaign for the day this year places the accent on discovering the diversity of Geneva’s wines while respecting the product. The opportunity to take part in the launch of the new vintage – fruit of a year’s hard work on the part of winegrowers – in the company of those same winegrowers remains the A list of wineries and their addresses can be found on www.lesvinsdegeneve.ch.
For more information, call the Office de Promotion des Produits Agricoles de Genève, Denis Beausoleil, 079 357 85 52.
Caves Ouvertes, 12 May, 2012
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Knowitall.ch suggests the following for a fun day out:
Check out the Museum of the winery at Russin http://www.molards.ch/caves-ouvertes from last century till today. The Domaine des Molards is the most child-friendly one on the route but since the whole day is outdoors then the children are happy (as long as the weather holds out). Make sure to bring sun screen and good walking shoes.
- Visit their vineyard boasting 26 varieties
- Farm animals will be present to keep the kids happy
- Playground
- Discover products and food baskets.
- Roasted chicken with gratin potatoes
Use public transport by train (RER Cornavin in Russin in under 20 minutes) or the free TPG shuttle bus running from 10h-18h:
- Shuttle 1: Noirettes - Russin - The Lindens - Dardagny - Essertines - Noirettes every 7 minutes, six buses.
- Shuttle 2: La Plaine-Gare - Russin - Noirettes - Le Châtelet - Taboret - Satigny - Satigny-gare - Peney-Dessus - Noirettes - Russin - La Plaine every 20 minutes, buses.
You can also come by car, bicycle or motorcycle.
