A Trip Back and Some New Discoveries

Many years ago when Hal Taussig and his wife were running Idyll Untours off a dining room table in their home, one of his aims was to have people interact culturally. Some of of these interactions were done on purpose, but others came about through serendipity. The blog today results from both kinds.

In 1993, I met a man in a San Francisco wine shop who guided me to a "Swiss brother" of his, whose father had a winery in what I now choose to call the Napa Valley of Switzerland. The next year, I moved to CH. I then sought out this Swiss wine maker in a small village called Salgesch in Canton Valais. Salgesch has about 1400 people with 40 wineries over about 500 acres of land. Yvo was the man I sought and found. He knew I was coming, so he was there to greet me. His parents and two older brothers all were in the business of wine making. He had done an internship in California with Robert Mondavi and had befriended a USA wine student (who later became a winemaker in Oregon).

The connection established, I then went back to Salgesch nearly every autumn to buy wine at his location. I rarely saw Yvo again but did meet his mother and his two older brothers. All the children had their own vineyards and labels. As is the norm, the oldest brother, Diego, took over the parents' business on a daily basis. I lost track of Yvo and his middle brother, Pierre Allain. I continued to buy wines from the company with nice trips to Salgesch, stays in the nearby Hotel Rhone, and magnificent dinners in the hotel's "stuebli". This year's trip was to be an epiphany and awakened a new experience in serendipity.

The hotel remains, but we were sorely disappointed to learn that the stuebli was no longer in operation. The weather was rainy and dark, but we were there. Barbara immediately got on her iPhone and set about finding a new restaurant for dinner. The good news was that there was a place that sounded good about a kilometer away. We had taken the train, but we had umbrellas. After a rainy and dismal walk we arrived at Restaurant Soleil. This was to be a real highlight of the trip. As I entered the warm and cozy dining room, a pleasant woman opened the kitchen door and said "good evening" in German. Our waitress, another Barbara, was an equally nice Swiss lady from Solothurn who lived in a nearby village. Both she and the lady in the kitchen have USA connections and spoke good English. Our German was good enough for communication, and the remainder of the evening was spent speaking in "Dinglish", a combo of the two.

The meal and the wines were exceptional, and thoughts of being disappointed because of the former Stuebli's demise became a thing of the past. This is "Wild Saison" in CH now, so were both looking for game dishes. Barbara had Hirsche Entrecote, and I had Rehschnitzl. We shared both with Spatzle, pears, pineapple, and chestnuts. Mine had a carrot sauce. Barbara's sauce was from figs. No dessert was needed, but we did have a digestif of local apricot liqueur. The clear was a young version, and the older had been barrel aged. The older had a smooth touch, while the younger was a bit sharp. The pictures are below.

About this time, the fun began. The chef came out to greet all the patrons. Gaby was the lady who greeted me as I entered. She turns out to be a USA aficionado who has been from east to west, loves to ride behind her husband on a rental Harley Davidson between Seattle and Florida, loves Route 66, and has a cousin who owns the Zollhaus in Sachseln! Small world, eh?

The real serendipity began when I mentioned how I came to like Salgesch. I told her about Yvo and his family of wine makers. She broke into a big smile and ran to the next room. Momentarily, she was back and handed me her phone. She had called Yvo who was in the next village! Here we were almost twenty years later catching up. He remembered my history with San Francisco and his USA "brother" there. Yvo has his own vineyard now, and a family of two kids and a wife. The next time I go to Valais and Salgesch, I now have a new restaurant to visit and a new winemaker to sample. To end a perfect experience, there was no way Gaby would let us walk back to the hotel. She piled us in her car and delivered us to the door.

Hal and his serendipity ideas are once again confirmed.

Rehschnitzl

Casked Abricotine

Gaby's USA Maps

Young Abricotine

Hirch Entrecote