Spiezer Alpine Weinkultur (Rebbau Spiez)

The Spiez wine is made by Rebbau Spiez Genossenschaft, a cooperative trading as Spiezer Alpine Weinkultur; the house keeps its cellar inside the walls of Schloss Spiez. Its Riesling-Sylvaner 2020 won its category at the Grand Prix du Vin Suisse 2021. It is the vineyard visit on this Alpine wine trail, and a signposted vineyard walk begins beside its door.

A booked tasting lasts about an hour: three wines in the Standard tasting or four in the VIP, served with grissini and water. The guided walk adds about an hour on foot from the Regez car park through the vineyard or into the castle cellar, depending on the weather. Groups can ride the Zügli, a tourist train along the vineyards, about 2.5 hours with a tasting at the end.

Come between May and October: walk-in tastings run on Friday from 17 to 19 and Saturday from 11 to 14, and the castle and its café are open from 1 May to 31 October. In mid-September the Spiezer Weinspaziergang, a ticketed walk of about 3.5 km with nine tasting stations, falls on the Saturday before the Läset-Sunntig. Outside the season the shop still sells bottles on weekday mornings, 8.00 to 11.30.

Walk-in tastings (May to October, Friday 17–19, Saturday 11–14) are listed at CHF 20. Booked tastings run Monday to Saturday, 10–19, in the Regez tasting room, closed on Sundays and public holidays: up to 14 people pay a flat CHF 350 for three wines; from 15 people it is CHF 25 each. The guided vineyard walk is sold only with a tasting or aperitif. Cancellation is free up to 7 days before; inside 48 hours the full price is due. Bookings: +41 33 654 63 94.

From Gstaad the train to Spiez takes about 1 hour 22 minutes, direct on the GoldenPass Express or changing at Zweisimmen; seat reservations are recommended on the GoldenPass Express. By car it is about 54 km, roughly an hour. From Spiez station, walk about 15 minutes along Seestrasse towards the castle; the cooperative is at Schlossstrasse 8, about 180 m from the castle.

Spiezer Alpine Weinkultur is the Rebbau Spiez cooperative's winery, shop and tasting room at Schlossstrasse 8 in Spiez, next to Schloss Spiez. The cooperative grows its own grapes and, the house says, makes the wine in a cellar inside the castle walls; the castle café pours it. Visitors taste in the Regez tasting room or follow the 12-panel vineyard trail. It sits in the Bernese Oberland.

Spiez's vineyards are first mentioned in 1338. Vine diseases ended viticulture around 1900; growers restarted it from 1927, and the association founded that year became a cooperative in 1942. The story goes that King Rudolf II of Burgundy built the castle in 933. The von Erlach family held it until 1875, and a foundation bought it in 1929. A beam in the castle cellar bears the year 1257.

The vines grow on steep slopes on the south shore of Lake Thun, in AOC Thunersee, whose rules recommend Blauburgunder (Pinot Noir) and Riesling-Silvaner, the Swiss name for Müller-Thurgau. Disease-resistant grapes such as Cabernet Jura and Sauvignac grow above the lake, and about 1.5 hectares of resistant varieties were planted in the Schlüsselmatte in 2020 and 2021.

For two people, the walk-in hours are the way in: booked tastings carry a flat price for up to 14 guests. The vineyard trail, a 958 m loop with 12 panels, starts on Rebbergweg just before the cooperative's door. Between 1 May and 31 October the castle café pours the cooperative's wines by the glass, so a castle visit and a glass fit into one afternoon. See the trail stop.