Where to buy Natural Wine in Switzerland
For sure you will not find natural wine in the supermarket and perhaps not at your "normal" local wine shop, although you can always ask for it.
As it can be difficult to know which wine is natural if you are not very well informed. Usually, there is no labelling or clear sign what is natural and what is not. There are natural wines available in other regular wine shops and online retailers but you almost need to know the wines to find them.
Therefore, if looking for natural wine, it is best to go to a dedicated natural wine shop.
I have listed the ones I know in Switzerland:
These are shops that I have bought from:
A natural wine only online shop and a retail store in Zürich. The offer is extensive, offering producers from many countries and regions. The online store works well and has fast delivery. You can filter for styles, countries, producers etc. For each wine there are facts on producer, region, grape variety, alcohol and sulfites. There is a short tasting note for each wine. There is also a term called funkyness for each wine, and it can be clean, mild or funky. This is basically an indication how different it tastes from a conventional wine. This can be very useful when introducing natural wine to people not familiar with it.
For buying, there is definitely a focus on the online shop as the retail store has limited opening times and doesn't have everything on stock. However, it is very nice to visit and discuss the wines and most of the time there are some open bottles of newly arrived wines you can taste. Studio Wino also arranges some workshops on natural wines and also offers a montly subscription plan to have a number of current wines automatically delivered.
Very similar setup as Studio Wino as a natural wine only shop. Also here everything worked smoothly when ordered online. Online shop has the focus but with a shop in Zürich you can visit. The bottle shop has also filter for categories and provide facts for each wine. Slightly less information than on Studio Wino as there is no information if sulfites are added or not. In a similar manner to the funkiness at Studio Wino, The bottle shop has three categories: "For each & everone", "For the open-minded" and "For the insiders" to indicate the difference from conventional wine.
For the store in Zürich, also limited opening hous but good discussion and consultation when you go there. When I visited, there were no open bottles to try out.
A good natural wine only online shop with all the filtering options as in the online shops above. Here you can see if the wine is organic, biodynamic, natural (which all of them are anyway) and if there are sulfites added already at the picture of the wine without clicking on the wine. The selection comprises mostly French producers but run some Swiss and some Italians. Similar to the aboveones, Naturaliste have a "crazyness" indicator from niveau 1 - 3.
Ordering and delivery worked well.
The retail shop is located in Fribourg which I have not (yet) visited.
Naturaliste offers le club which is montly wine subscription similar to Studio Wino.
A natural wine shop focusing on selected italian prododucers. The person behind Viticolo has a relationship to and has visited all the producers. Viticolo has compared to the other shops above a very limited selection of only Italian wines.
There is no retail shop (as far as I know). The ordering and delivery worked as well as for the others above.
At a natural wine fair in France I was asking producers if they sell in Switzerland, and I was pointed to the Les Amis du Chateau online shop. This is a natural wine only shop and it has an online shop as well as a retail shop with degustation in Geneva.
The site is only in French and the majority of the wine selection is from france. There is a desciption of each producer, but quite limited information about each wine.
The order and delivery was fast and worked well.
Searching for a specific wine led me to the dicovery of this site. A natural wine online shop with a good selection with a short description of the wines. There is a filter option freak-factor from 1-3. Ordering and delivery was smooth and as expected. Trallala also offers a wine subscription delivered quarterly with seasonal bottles.
There is a retail store in Bern which is still on my to-visit list.
The shop owner Shigeru was kind enough to message me directly via my blog, to introduce me. This is a natural online shop in Ticino. A good selection of wines but slightly more focus on Italian producers, given the closeness to Italy. Shigeru also offered some good recommendations and tips per e-mail. In the same manner as most other natural wine shops, In vino sitis names the funkyness categories "Mr and Mrs", "Universal deliciousness"and "Zero zero". The shopping experience worked smoothly.
Contrary to all the other above, this is not an online shop. This is a retail natural wine store in Dübendorf. The friendly shop owner Andreas only have producers he knows and stand behind. Andreas shop is a real hobby-turned-into-business and he can personally and professionally explain and guide you on every single bottle. I was offered som samples from open bottles when I visited There were some open bottles to sample.
Andreas is very proud of and promote Envinate, a group of four Spanish producers, from which I could taste one. Pleasent experience. Vini viva is also a wine bar and he arranges tastings and events in the shop.
Even though not a dedicated natural wine shop, they do have a good selection.
Claim to have 95% of the selection at least organic.
I was visiting them in the store where they had a small natural wine event with a handfull of producers in store displaying and discussing their wine.
Good and competent consultation on natural wine from the shop personnel.
Not a dedicated natural wine only shop, but they have a good selection. In the online shop you can filter for natural wine. Good service and delivery. I even once returned a bottle I claimed bad and I got it refunded.
There are retail stores in Bern and in Zermatt, I yet have to visit one of them.
Others I have yet to try:
Searching after a certain orange wine, I stumbled upon this site. It seems to focus on orange wine, although they run some red ones. From the listed producers, the majority is Slovenian, but also some italian and Austrian ones.
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