Ticino is a relatively small wine region in the alpine south of Switzerland, located along its border with Italy. It is known as Tessin by French and German speakers (although pronounced quite differently in the two languages), for whom it is as much a picturesque holiday destination as a wine region. Centered around the lakes of northern Italy, which spill over the mountains into southern Switzerland, Ticino is divided in two by the Monte Ceneri, two peaks which tower above Lakes Maggiore and Lugano. Sopraceneri is the northern district and Sottoceneri the southern – Sopra meaning above, Sotto meaning below.
More than 2750 acres (1100 ha) of vineyards are now planted in the region, dominated almost entirely by Merlot. This Bordeaux variety, which may seem an unusual variety of preference for a Swiss wine region, was introduced to Ticino in the early 20th century. It has proved very successful and has come to make up almost 90% of the region's vine plantings. Merlot del Ticino can be relatively light or – when from the warmer, sunnier vineyards and carefully vinified using new oak – as fine and well structured as good red Bordeaux.
In climatic terms, Ticino stands out slightly from other Swiss wine regions thanks to its topography, altitude and latitude. As is fitting for the most-southerly region, it has the hottest average summer temperatures – although some areas of the Valais also have periods when the daytime temperature rises as high as 95F (35C).
In Ticino's vineyards, on both sides of the Monte Ceneri Pass, it is still possible to find vines trained in the tendone (pergola) style that is more often associated with Chile, Argentina and southern Italian regions such as Sicily and Calabria. This system, in which vines are trained overhead on wooden frames, is comparatively uneconomical – the structure typically being too low to allow vineyard machinery to pass beneath it. As a result, the more-modern cordon and guyot training systems are gradually becoming the norm here, as well as, on the steeper sites, gobelet, which is found in the vineyards of the northern Rhone.
Due to the alpine topography, Ticino's vineyards are somewhat fragmented, scattered here and there where the landscape permits. There are few large vineyards, as even the valleys are quite narrow – rarely broader than two miles (3km) from one side to the other. This limits the quantities that Ticino can generate as a wine region – a fact that will play an important part in the its future identity. Currently, the land is owned by a large number of independent growers who either sell their grapes to bigger companies or collaborate to form co-operative structures.
