Exploring Swiss Wine Country

(WSJ) - SWITZERLAND HAS a number of claims to fame. Watches. Cheese. Roger Federer. The Matterhorn.

Every tourist wants to see the last two, in particular, but usually settles for the mountain. And the Matterhorn delivers—as long as you don't mind seeing it with the crowds.

But it's not the 14,692-foot-high behemoth in the rugged canton of Valais that most deserves attention these days. Nor is it the dozens of other massive peaks spread across Valais, or posh ski resorts like Zermatt and Verbier. It's what fills the region's overlooked valleys: Swiss wine country.

Most Swiss wines remain unknown abroad—understandably, since only 1% to 2% of production is exported. In fact, many wines never leave the villages where they're produced. But they're worth drinking. The Wine Advocate reviewer David Schildknecht, for instance, included four Swiss producers in his Best of 2012 collection, including one from Valais, Robert Taramarcaz at Domaine des Muses.

The alpine terroir is also ripe for exploring. The vertigo-inducing vineyards of Valais stretch for 50 miles, from Brig to Martigny, along the Rhône River. This is Switzerland's largest and oldest wine-producing region, with estates that date back to antiquity flanking both sides of the Rhône Valley. And fall, of course, is harvest time.

Trains are the preferred means of journeying around this steep region, but I decide to tackle it by bicycle—a battery-enhanced e-bike that helps me on the climbs yet is easy enough to carry on the train when I've had one too many glasses of Petite Arvine.

I arrive in Brig on a sunny morning to pick up my e-bike at the train station. I smile to the attendant and rattle off my best French, only to be answered in an unfamiliar Swiss German dialect, which quickly turns to English when my head tilts like that of a St. Bernard hearing a whistle. Valais is a divider, both physically and culturally. The line that separates the country's German- and French-speaking regions, theröstigraben ("rösti ditch," so named for the hash-brown dish beloved by German Swiss and scoffed at by French Swiss) cuts right through it. Valais also borders Italy to the south. Language here is a mashup of ciaos, dankes and adieus—but everyone speaks everything, including English.