WWG: How did you and your husband come up with the idea for your new brands, Avalanche and Alpine Roots?

LB: My husband, Olivier Roten, is the third generation to manage his family’s vineyard land and winery, which is located in the Valais, Switzerland’s largest grape-growing region in the heart of the Alps. We met through the O.I.V. master’s program, although we completed the degree at different times. We were introduced at a friend’s winery in

Oregon while he and his class were visiting the Willamette Valley. As an O.I.V. alumnae and NW native, I helped to meet and greet visiting students and organize certain logistics and presentations for their local classes. It was more or less love at first sight or, rather, first discussion. I was based in my hometown of Seattle at that time and facing some crucial decisions for my business, and he was returning to Switzerland and officially taking over his family’s winery, but we managed to find ways to cross the ocean to see each other.

 

Not long after we decided to marry, we began to dream up ways we could work together, while still keeping focused on our respective businesses. We decided to create a label that honored both our love story as well as the roots 

and heart of Swiss wine from the Alps. We started with two of our favorite Swiss varieties; Pinot Noir and Fendant, which is also called Chasselas. They both are particularly celebrated in my husband’s native Valais region, which also boasts the Matterhorn peak and Edelweiss, the Swiss national flower. We based the label on an old Swiss postage stamp and had it hand-drawn and re-crafted by my talented designer cousin (@castandcompany). The Avalanche wines represent the style of wines that we like to drink on a regular basis as well as the essence of my husband’s Alpine roots and what we love together in life. It says it all on our back label: Travel, Climb Mountains, Be Inspired,

Drink Good Wine, Drink Swiss Wine. Fall in Love. We also wanted people to identify with those most important, classic elements of Swiss culture and tradition, which include wine, perhaps more than anything else. 

 

WWG: What would you like to tell wine drinkers about Swiss wine?

LB: Go try Swiss wines! The Swiss have a history of grape growing for wine production that dates back to Roman times. Swiss wines are beautiful, refined and diverse. At the moment less than two percent of Swiss wine is exported, but that is slowly changing as the new generation of vignerons are more curious and motivated to explore the export

market. Most of the vineyard land in Switzerland is planted on steep slopes, whether above Lake Geneva or in the foothills of the Alps, which means that all vineyard work, including harvest, is done by hand. Given its vast span of mountainous terrain, Switzerland boasts the highest altitude vineyard (1150 meters) in all of Europe and in certain of its wine-growing regions, like the Valais where I spend a fair amount of time, the Alpine influence is notable in the character of the wines. They are fresh, pure, delineated, elegant and tend to have a notable backbone of acidity. The Swiss, like the French, classify their wines by AOC (appellation d’origine contrôlée),which defines wines by their geographical area, characterized by particular growing conditions called terroir.While the Swiss cultivate over 200 different grape varieties, the most popular wines are made from Pinot Noir and Chasselas) and together represent approximately 60% of their production. Wine is a major part of Swiss culture and is widely celebrated, particularly in the main wine-growing regions like Valais, Vaud, Grison and Ticino. Many families still take great

pride in tending their own small parcels of vineyard land which have been handed down and split up between family members over the generations.

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(MIKE DeSIMONE and JEFF JENSSEN, also known as the World Wine Guys, are wine, spirits, food and travel writers and educators. They are award-winning journalists as well as best-selling and award-winning authors. They have been contributing to Forbes for over five years and their work has also appeared in Wine Spectator, Wine Enthusiast and Robb Report. DeSimone and Jenssen are the authors of six books (so far) including: Wines Of California: The Comprehensive Guide, Wines Of California: Special Deluxe Edition, Wines Of The Southern Hemisphere, which won the Gourmand International Award for Best Wine Book in the USA, and Red Wine, which won the Gourmand International Award for Best Wine Book in the World in 2018 and Best Wine Book in the World in the last 25 Years in 2021—and was honored at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris and the Alfred NOBEL House in Sweden. Their latest book, White Wine, was released in May 2023.)