Montreaux Riviera: wine country!

Ryan and I are big fans of everything wine, especially when it involves wine tastings, beautiful scenery, and cute little wineries/towns.  Therefore you can imagine our delight when we decided to check out a local wine festival this weekend. The Montreaux Riviera, which is also known as the Lavaux wine region, is a 45 minute train ride north of Geneva. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site because of the scenery and the thousands of years that it took local winery owners to create the terraced vineyards that cascade down into Lake Geneva. The nature of the terraced vineyards and the climate creates a special wine that is only produced in this region, called Chasselas. Lutry is one of the eight little towns within the Lavaux region and every year for the past 60+ years they host an annual harvest season wine festival where local wine lovers come and enjoy tastings of wine produced by local wineries and lots of yummy food. The local children also put on a really cute parade. Although the weather wasn't spectacular, we had a great time exploring our local Swiss wine country and we're excited to explore it further in the future! Aparently there are some great hikes through the vineyards that have spectacular views.
In parting, I will leave you with a fun wine fact that I recently learned - the Swiss actually produce a significant amount of wine (the countryside around us is covered in vineyards); however, you won't often see it sold in the US or other countries, because almost all Swiss wine is domestically consumed. Translation: trying the "rare" Swiss wine is just another reason why you should come visit us :)

Program for the wine festival or 'Fetes de Vendanges'

On one of the many cute little streets in the town of Lutry

Pretty flowers all around town

Part of the parade

Trying some 2002 wine with the owner

I didn't take this picture - the weather was really cloudy, but these are the terraces on a clear day -- can't wait to return when the weather is nice!

A wine 'cave', literally!

I don't normally take pictures of trash cans :) but I thought this view of all of the different bottles was pretty neat