Swiss sommeliers on the front line

The situation of Swiss wine continues to worry the industry. Between falling consumption, competition from foreign wines and sales difficulties, the Swiss Association of Professional Sommeliers (ASSP) has announced the launch of a national awareness-raising and training program for restaurant and hotel professionals. The idea is to provide better training for those who recommend wine on a daily basis. For the ASSP, the future of Swiss wines lies not so much on the wine list as in the discourse of wait staff, sommeliers and wine merchants. “A Swiss bottle on a wine list does not automatically sell,” the association reminds us. These days will combine tastings, meetings with producers, training in recommendations and practical sales tools, in a deliberately accessible and pragmatic approach. President of the ASSP and Best Sommelier of the World 2013, Paolo Basso, for his part, emphasizes the richness of Switzerland’s winegrowing heritage, which is still too little known: “If a small country like Switzerland can offer such a high level of technical and cultural stimulation to a sommelier, it means that it possesses a winegrowing heritage of great value”. The association is now looking for institutional and private partners to support this nationwide initiative.