Lavaux

View of St-Saphorin

Winter landscape near Rivaz VD

Lavaux vineyards seen from the lake

The Lavaux (formerly German Ryf , including Ryfwyn, matured wine, 'Wein vom Lavaux') is a wine-growing region in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland on the northeastern shore of Lake Geneva . The most common grape variety in Lavaux is the Gutedel , here called "Chasselas".

location

The wine-growing region extends over 805 hectares between Lausanne and Vevey , on which steep terraces have been laid out since the 12th century . The Lavaux borders the La Côte wine-growing region to the west and the Chablais wine-growing region to the east .

Communities

Lavaux is made up of 10 municipalities in the Lavaux-Oron and Riviera-Pays-d'Enhaut districts:

Bourg-en-Lavaux
- Cully VD
- Epesses
- Grandvaux VD
- Riex
- Villette
Chardonne
Chexbres

protection

Thanks to a popular initiative launched by the environmentalist Franz Weber , Lavaux has been protected by the Vaudois Constitution since 1977.

In December 2005, the Swiss Federal Office for Culture nominated Lavaux as a UNESCO World Heritage Site . The International Council on Monuments and Sites , a sub-organization of UNESCO, recommended in a report published in May 2007 that Lavaux should be added to the list after a representative of the organization visited the region in August 2006. On June 28, 2007, it was decided to include the Lavaux vineyards with a view of the lake and the Alps .

Since, in his opinion, too much is being built in Lavaux and in order to curb further building speculation , Franz Weber collected signatures for a new popular initiative. The required number of signatures was reached in July 2009, but in the referendum on May 17, 2014, his initiative was rejected by 68% and a moderate counter-proposal was accepted with the same percentage.