A cyclist’s wine tales
Two wheels, endless bottles
Vinum itineris
Two excellent ways to understand the wines of a region are to walk the breadth and length of them, especially if you are a 19th century retired gentleman, or to cycle your way around them. For practical reasons, Swiss sommelier Dylan Osterino has chosen the bike option for a long-distance and long-term (a few years) project that will significantly deepen his knowledge of Europe’s wines. The rest of us, winelovers, especially around Crans-Montana, are the first winners of the project. Europe’s artisanal wine producers should benefit as well.
We met over a few bottles of prize-winning wines, he serving the 2023 winners of the Vins du Valais awards after a ceremony, I as a guest, sampling them with lunch at the Fondation Opal, an art centre near the resort of Crans-Montana. The Swiss Winery of the Year producer next to me told me that for him, Osterino is one of the best sommeliers around, and he insisted I ask about his cycling project, Vinum Itineris.
As a long-distance cyclist abroad a couple of times myself (China, 1985, three months, the perimeters of the British Isles and Denmark ages ago, Cuba 2015, three weeks), I wanted to know more. The wine side, but also the logistics. We met over a glass of wine one evening shortly before D for departure day. We spoke in English, one of his four languages. The plan, roughly, he said, was to ride for a few weeks, delivering bottles of Swiss wines to his hosts — wineries—as a kind of cross-cultural handshake that would spread their renown (despite their excellence, less than 2% of Swiss wines are exported; it’s complicated). And he would be a guest worker in vineyards and cellars, getting to know the grapes and the creators of their wines. “I’m not doing this for the sport but because it’s slow.”
Slow is an idea he was handed a decade earlier, when he studied intensively in London, cramming wine theory — until he was told, you need to go see for yourself.” First France, then Italy and Spain and Germany and Greece and so on.
Yes, he is already an accomplished distance cyclist (his partner trains ski professionals, so sports are part of his home life) and no, he isn’t planning to carry a lot of bottles in his bike paniers. There are better ways to move wine bottles, and he has experience with this. And yes, he would be returning to the mountains regularly to keep his retail wine business afloat, so this is not a months-long disappearing act (as I did in China in 1985). During the winter he drank all the wines he was planning to visit this spring and summer. All told, it appeared to be a well-planned and practical if daunting project. “It’s not really about tasting, it’s about going slow, about the moment with the winemakers, about the culture.” He’s creating his Carte de vin itinérant: spending 25 days a month on the road, he’ll select 10 wines to taste with 10 people, get that down to 3.
He has long worked with restaurants — his father runs one on the slopes above Aminona, part of Crans-Montana and the son has worked there but also with top restaurants in London, Basel and Crans-Montana. “The first year, I want to test the system, so I’ll keep a low profile.” Ten restaurants will receive the wines he is “visiting” for his itinerant Carte.
Osterino, who is 29, was true to his plan, and he left in early April after a sendoff from supporters, at Cave du Rhodan Mounir in Salgesch/Salquenen in Valais, heading down the Rhone to Vaud, Geneva, Annecy, Haute Savoie, Savoie and on to Burgundy. Since then he’s been posting photos and short reports on social media, and a newsletter is promised, to supporters. The project is self-financed with help from friends and supporters, many of them wine professionals. He is currently in Crozes Hermitages.
“I am going to take Swiss wines all over Europe,” he says, “and then I want to bring these winemakers together, from Switzerland, from these other countries. Maybe conferences? Maybe events?” Whatever the future holds, it is sure to encourage great little winemakers, who are open to meeting their counterparts across borders, to share what they know.
Bonne route, Dylan!
