Davos: Where the World Meets Wine
Every January, the World Economic Forum transforms Davos into the planet's most powerful wine bar — heads of state and CEOs negotiate over Swiss wines at private chalets. But Davos was famous long before WEF.
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Thomas Mann set 'The Magic Mountain' at the Schatzalp sanatorium in 1924, turning a tuberculosis clinic into one of literature's most enduring settings. The Schatzalp is now a hotel — you can sleep where Hans Castorp philosophised, and the restaurant serves local wine in the dining room Mann described. The Kirchner Museum holds the largest collection of Ernst Ludwig Kirchner's expressionist paintings — he lived in Davos from 1918 until his death in 1938, painting the mountains that healed and haunted him.
The Parsenn ski area offers the longest descent in the region at 12km. Maienfeld — Heidi's village and home to cult Pinot Noir producer Gantenbein (200+ CHF per bottle, allocation only) — is a 30-minute drive for a day trip. The Jakobshorn après-ski scene is younger and wilder than St. Moritz, while the Sertig Valley walk offers solitude that the WEF crowd will never find. Wine and power have shared these streets since the 1970s. The rest of the year, Davos remembers it was a place of healing before it was a place of dealing.
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World Economic Forum wine culture - where Davos Man drinks Graubünden Pinot Noir
Every January, Davos hosts 3,000 of the world's most powerful people at the World Economic Forum. The town's wine bars stock up on Graubünden Pinot Noir and rare Swiss vintages for hedge fund managers and heads of state. Outside WEF week, the same bars serve the same wine to normal humans at normal prices. The intellectual capital of the Alps has serious wine taste year-round.
tasting $$$ - 2🗺️
Schatzalp Hotel - Thomas Mann wrote Magic Mountain here, drink where he drank
Thomas Mann stayed at the Schatzalp sanatorium in 1912 visiting his sick wife. The experience became Der Zauberberg (The Magic Mountain), one of the 20th century's greatest novels. The building is now a hotel with a funicular railway, botanical garden, and wine bar. Drink where Mann plotted Hans Castorp's seven-year confinement. The view over Davos hasn't changed since 1912.
tour $$ - 3⛰️
Parsenn descent - 12km longest ski run to Küblis, wine at the finish
The Parsenn descent from Weissfluhgipfel (2,844m) to Küblis is 12km of continuous skiing through changing landscapes - above the treeline, through pine forests, past mountain farms. At the bottom, the tiny village of Küblis has a Gasthof where Graubünden Pinot Noir tastes like victory. Take the train back to Davos (included in lift pass). One of the Alps' great descents.
adventure $$ - 4🍷
Jakobshorn Bolgenschanze - Davos's wildest après-ski turns into wine bar at dusk
The Bolgenschanze at Jakobshorn's base is Davos's legendary après-ski spot - DJs spinning, ski boots dancing, the whole circus. But as the crowd thins at dusk, it transforms into a wine bar with mountain views. The transition from party chaos to wine calm in the same seat is Davos in miniature: wild energy meets Swiss precision.
tasting $$ - 5🗺️
Kirchner Museum - expressionist genius painted Davos obsessively, then wine
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner - Berlin's leading expressionist - fled to Davos in 1917 to recover from WWI trauma and addiction. He painted these mountains obsessively for 20 years, creating some of expressionism's most vivid Alpine landscapes. The Kirchner Museum holds the world's largest collection. See the mountains through a genius's fractured lens, then find them outside, unchanged.
tour $ - 6🗺️
Maienfeld wine day trip - Heidi's village is actually Switzerland's best Pinot Noir
Maienfeld - the village that inspired Johanna Spyri's Heidi - produces some of Switzerland's finest Pinot Noir. The Foehn wind from the south creates a microclimate warm enough for Burgundian grapes. Drive 40 minutes from Davos, visit Schloss Brandis or Weingut Cottinelli, and taste why Swiss wine insiders call the Bündner Herrschaft 'Little Burgundy.' The Heidi tourists walk right past it.
tour $$ - 7⛰️
Rinerhorn night toboggan - 3.5km sled run ending with Glühwein by firelight
Every Thursday and Friday evening in winter, the Rinerhorn opens its 3.5km toboggan run under floodlights. Rent a wooden sled (CHF 10), ride the gondola up, and hurtle down through dark pine forests at insane speeds. At the bottom, a fire pit and Glühwein station awaits. The adrenaline-to-warm-wine pipeline is pure Swiss mountain genius.
adventure $ - 8⛰️
Sertig Valley walk - Kirchner's most painted valley, wine at Walserhuus
The Sertig Valley behind Davos is where Kirchner painted his most famous mountain scenes. Walk 7km through the narrow valley past Walser farmhouses, waterfalls, and wildflower meadows that look exactly like his expressionist paintings. At Sertig Dörfli, the Walserhuus restaurant serves Graubünden wines in a 300-year-old wooden building. Art history as hiking trail.
adventure $