Wine: Reaching a higher state in the Alps

As climate change begins to alter the known wine landscape, the ancient wines of the high Alpine regions will become more readily accessible to wine drinkers

Vineyards in the Lavaux area by Lake Geneva in Switzerland. The wines of the Alps are hard to make and are made in small quantities. Picture: Getty

There is a secret nation at the heart of Europe, high in the cloud and snow-covered mountains that run from Slovenia, across Austria, southern Germany, France's eastern flank from Jura, to Savoie and down to Provence and north of Italy's great lakes.

It is not Switzerland. Rather it is the entirety of the Alps themselves, which includes all of Switzerland, plus all the crests, valleys and slopes of the Alps that spill into modern France, ...