Swiss Lausanne achieves Great Wine Capital status

By Lisa Riley

Published: 11 April, 2018

Lausanne, centre of the vineyards of the Swiss canton of Vaud, has been named as the latest member of the Great Wine Capitals Global Network.

Joining the network with immediate effect, Lausanne takes the number of network members to ten as it joins renowned wine regions from both the northern and southern hemisphere.

Built in hilly terrain overlooking Lake Geneva Lausanne’s wine region, Vaud, has a history of wine making dating back to the 11th century. Today it produces over 200 varieties of wine.

The region joins established wine capitals Adelaide (Australia); Bilbao, Rioja (Spain); Bordeaux (France); Mainz, Rheinhessen (Germany); Mendoza (Argentina); Porto (Portugal); San Francisco, Napa Valley (California), Valparaiso, Casablanca Valley (Chile) and Verona (Italy).

Lausanne’s wine, history, experience and wine tourism industry was “world-class”, said president of the Great Wine Capitals Global Network, Mario Agliati, adding all of the network would benefit from the knowledge sharing that would occur as a result of its membership.

The region, which comprises five wine estates, also hosts a unique 18-day long ‘Wine Growers Festival’ every 25 years, gathering 300,000 visitors to the city to celebrate the region’s wines, with the next festival taking place in 2019.

Founded in 1999, the Great Wine Capitals Global Network claims to be the only network encompassing the Old and New World of wine.

Since launch it has developed and introduced several initiatives, notably the ‘Best Of Wine Tourism’ awards, which serve as an industry benchmark for excellence and recognize leading wineries and wine-tourism related businesses within each ‘Great Wine Capital’ that have distinguished themselves in areas such as innovation, service and sustainable practices.

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