Swiss wine: Collection Chandra Kurt Heida 2010

I attended a tasting of Swiss wine writer Chandra Kurt’s wines last year, reported here, and recently enjoyed tasting the follow up (2010) vintage of one of my stand outs, made from the Heida variety (Savagnin Blanc).

It seemed richer than the 2009.  If you can imagine it, a Swiss wine which is an Alsace take on Condrieu – i.e. aromatic, with fresh acidity, but lovely richness. Though perhaps I was influenced by watching Raymond Blanc catching up with Leon Beyer in Alsace on BBC2’s The Very hungry Frenchman!

At any rate, I followed through with my food match – a hearty bake of fine sliced potatoes, mushrooms, garlic and onions topped with a Clarence Court Old Cotswold Legbar egg (my favourite).  It came off beautifully, really picking up on the natural sweetness of the baked onions and potatoes.

Here’s my note:

Collection Chandra Kurt Heida 2010 (Valais)

Though unoaked, this is a weighty, attractively textured wine with honeysuckle-scented ripe citrus (sweet mandarin) and nectarine fruit with a hint of greengage for balance and bite.  Mineral acidity cleanses the palate.  Fruity but a great food wine.  14% abv.

Incidentally, in case you missed it, Swiss wine specialist Nick Dobson Wines has been saved from clousre by Swiss-born e-commerce entrepreneur Joelle Nebbe-Mornod.  Nebbe-Mornod plans to build on Nick Dobson’s success introducing new wines to the UK market so Swiss wine lovers can rest easy.