WINE
MUSEUM & TRAIL - CHATEAU
DE VILLA - SIERRE
Museum, Tasting Bar, and Valais Wine Trail
The
town of Sierre is in the heart of the wine region of the Valais of
Switzerland, surrounded by the vineyards below the Crans-Montana,
on the southern facing slopes across the Rhone River valley from where
the high Alps peaks separate Switzerland from Italy. The Wine and Vine
Museum of Valais is actually divided into two locations, one in Sierre
at the Chateau de Villa and the other in Salgesh at the Maison Zumofen.
They are connected by a 4 mile wine path through the vineyards. Walking
the trail between them takes about two and half hours, with 80 explanatory
signs along the marked route of panoramic vineyard vistas. From Salgesh
there are other trails if you want to keep the feet going. If hiking
isn't first on your mind, try the wines in Sierre.
Chateau de Villa
The
Chateau de Villa of Sierre is more wine complex, celebrating the products
of the vineyards, with a wine bar, a restaurant, and wine tasting
institute and the Sierre branch of the Valais Wine Museum. The
villa chateau as it stands today was first laid out in the 16th Century
by
the Preux family who took over an earlier
castle in 1497. The oldest part is the east wing with the wine bar, topped
by a distinctive octagonal tower. The entrance gates and rest of the
mansion were added in the 17th Century when the castle became the principal
residence of the family and embellished over generations. The last of
the direct Preux line died in 1923 and seventeen distant heirs fought
over the property. A wealthy Vaudois bought the mansion with the intention
of using it for a Swiss costume museum but was bankrupted by a scammer.
The castle was eventually acquired and restored by a foundation.
Enoteca Wine Bar
The Wine Bar, called the Enoteca offers a very impressive selection
of 550 local Valais wines from 102 vintners situated in a bright modern
setting in the old villa around a circular bar and flanked by a gigantic
ancient wooden wine press. The Wine Bar offers wine tastings which each
week, offering a choice of at least 8 different wines by the glass chosen
from four Valais vintners, and every two weeks a special Mystery Tasting
from a selection of 18 wines and vintners, with a prize offered if you
can name the wine. The wines are obviously for sale. The wine bar has
an outdoor patio in the former courtyard of the villa now a small garden
with slightly incongruous cactus.
Museum of Valaiser Wine and Vines
The
Wine and Vine Museum (Le Musee de la Vigne et du Vin) has a new location
just outside the courtyard of the chateau with permanent exhibits of
the
long history
of wine
growing
and vitaculture in the Valais region up to the present. Bottles and labels
of local vineyards, wine making equipment, presses and barrels, photographs
and text exhibits illuminate the secrets of tradition ancestral wine-making.
It a smallish
museum of a couple of rooms, with the other half of the collection in
the Salgesh branch. The wine museum is open from March to November -
Tuesday to Sunday from 2 to 5 pm.
Restaurant at the Chateau de Villa - Squeegee
The restaurant
offers a warm and convivial dining room within in the castle featuring
the
local dishes, various choices of fondue, local meats,
the steak of Herens, asparagus in the spring and roasted chestnuts in
the fall, dried aromatic brisolée, and Valais sauerkraut. But
the specialty is Raclette. You'll find this dish of cheese melted and
scraped from the cheese wheel represented in Swiss restaurants around
the country and the world, but it is traditionally from the Valais. The
restaurant is open for snacks from 10am to 11pm. Hot meals are served
from 12-2pm and 6-9:30pm.
The Sensorama
A range of courses and seminars in wines and wine tasting is offered for amateurs and professionals through workshops exploring the sensory bouquets, colors and flavors of varietals for various terroirs.
Pipe Collection
Also
at the Chateau de Ville, in the hall of the manor near the restaurant
entrance is a curious collection of pipes, gathered by a Dr de Wella,
from local
briars to
Calabashes, Mirchschams to ancient smoking instruments with carved figures,
primatives, famous faces, gods and historic characters. It only takes
up a about a closet of space, but despite the pipes,
the rest of the place is non-smoking.
Getting There
The Chateau de Villa and the Wine and Vine Museum on the Rue Sainte-Catherine can be reached by foot from the Sierre train station, about a 15 minute walk up the hill above town, past the funicular station to Crans-Montana. Get a map from the tourist office in the rail station. There is some limited parking if driving. Sierre is about 30 minutes by train west of Brig and 20 minutes east of Sion, on the main rail line from Geneva and Lausanne. © Bargain Travel Europe
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Chateau
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SEE
ALSO:
FONDATION PIERRE GIANADDA - MARTIGNY
