T is for Too Much Wine. Said No One. Ever.

Travel Day: 16 May 2014
Jolly Old Winemakers Drank With: 2
Cities: Geneva, Anieres, Hermance 
Author: James Lloyd



This was probably my favorite day of the trip so far! Those of you who understand my passion for wine consumption will not find that surprising at all.

We started our day by buying out train tickets then hopped on a bus for the outskirts of Geneva - the wine area around Hermance. We first stopped by a winery in the town of Anieres named La Cote D'or around noon and had a nice conversation with an older man who sold us a bottle of his wine and told us to come back at 5.

With our bottle of wine in tow, we then went on a 5km walking tour through the vineyards. We learned a lot about the Swiss varietals while on our walk and also saw some amazing landscapes.

That's a horse in the background.

Group Selfie!

The walking tour ended in the quaint, small, old town of Hermance. Directly on the lake and right on the border with France. We took a tour around the town, watched some windsurfers along the lake, then had a nice lunch at a cafe.

After lunch we walked across the bridge into France, but about 100 feet in we felt too weirded out to keep going, so we turned around. One of the best decisions of the day - you know what they say about France...

We then made our way back to Anieres, opened the bottle of wine we bought earlier in the day and enjoyed it at a cafe. The woman running the cafe was initially very disturbed by us showing up at her shop and drinking our own wine but she eventually warmed up to us and even brought us a wine bottle cooler. 

Around 5 in the afternoon, the wine tastings started. We first went to the winery Domaine des Monades where we tried around 10 different wines that were made there from grapes in the area.

Next we went back to La Cote D'or for several more wines with our new best friend, Jean-Jacques Gavillet ("Jacques"). It was a chaotic, multilingual conversation with Jacques - he spoke German with me, a little French with Luke and English with Kelsey and Nick. We basically had a private tasting with him, and went through a long list of wines that were pre-planned to build on one another.

After all this wine, we took the bus back to Geneva in order to make our fondue reservations. Nick tried to take a "Micronap" but it was closer to a centinap. 

After we woke Nick up, we made our way to the fondue restaurant for a crazy cheese-filled dinner.

Then after our excessive cheese indulgence we went back to the hotel to drink a bunch of the wine we purchased earlier in the day. We also had a great set of Euchre games, where Luke consistently cheated, but Kelsey and I beat Nick and him in the last game despite his shenanigans...