Moitié-moitié, and what goes in the glass

The oldest known fondue recipe appears in a Zurich cookbook from 1699, under the title «Käss mit Wein zu kochen», cheese cooked with wine. Cheese, wine and a pot over the fire: a fondue still needs little more than that. We read up on where the dish comes from and what belongs in the caquelon, the glazed pot it is served in. Then we put the wines from our range next to it.

From recipe to national dish

Until the Second World War, fondue was known mainly in French-speaking Switzerland and in Savoy. That it now turns up on winter tables in Basel, Lucerne and St. Gallen has a lot to do with the Swiss Cheese Union. From 1914 to 1999 this body regulated the cheese market, and from the 1930s it promoted fondue as the national dish to sell more cheese. After the war the dish caught on in German-speaking Switzerland as well.

The Cheese Union also gave the country a slogan many Swiss can still recite: FIGUGEGL. The seven letters stand for a sentence in Swiss German.

What goes into the pot

The best-known blend is moitié-moitié: half Gruyère AOP, half Vacherin Fribourgeois AOP, melted in dry white wine. Both cheeses come from the canton of Fribourg, which also has a second version. The fondue fribourgeoise uses only Vacherin, is made with water instead of wine and is kept warm rather than brought to a simmer.

Neuchâtel has its own fondue too. Sources disagree on exactly which cheeses go into it, so we leave the blend open here.

At the end, a brown cheese crust stays stuck to the bottom of the caquelon. In Romandy and Savoy it is called «la religieuse», the nun. Nobody knows for sure where the name comes from. For us it is the best bite of the evening.

Why acidity matters, in the pot and in the glass

The wine in the pot does a job. Its tartaric acid stops casein, the main protein in cheese, from clumping. That is why a fondue with enough acidity stays smooth.

Acidity matters in the glass as well. Fondue is rich and salty, and a wine with fresh acidity resets your mouth after every bite. Heavy oak, high alcohol and firm tannin work against the cheese, and the wine soon tastes bitter.

That leaves the old argument about tea or wine. University Hospital Zurich tested it in 2010: 20 adults ate cheese fondue, once with white wine and once with black tea, followed by kirsch or water. With wine and kirsch their stomachs emptied more slowly. They did not report more discomfort. The study appeared in the British Medical Journal.

Fendant first, then further afield

In Valais, Chasselas is called Fendant, and with fondue it is the obvious bottle. Ours comes from Kaléidoscope in Savièse above Sion. The Fendant ferments with wild yeast, goes into bottle unfiltered and has just 11.1 percent alcohol, with more texture than you would expect from Chasselas.

Here is a recommendation you may disagree with: with moitié-moitié we would rather pour the Balsa Blanco from Viña de Eufemia. It is Xarel·lo, Tardana and Macabeo from one limestone plot near Casas de Eufemia in Utiel-Requena, 12.5 percent, with four months on the fine lees. The limestone keeps it fresh, and the lees give it enough weight to stand up to Gruyère.

From Galicia, unoaked Godello works well. Algueira's Brandán grows on slate terraces in the Ribeira Sacra and sees neither oak nor lees ageing. It finishes with the slight bitterness Godello often has, and next to salty cheese that bitterness is exactly what we like.

From Piedmont comes the Arneis San Michele by Battaglino, from Canale in the Roero. It ferments for 15 days in steel at 18 °C and skips malolactic fermentation, so it keeps all of its malic acid.

The least expected white on our list is an Albariño, the grape of the Galician Atlantic coast, grown inland in Requena. Pago de Tharsys planted the vines in 1985 from Galician cuttings, on white limestone at 700 metres. The 2024 was picked during the night of 8 to 9 September, hence the name Vendimia Nocturna, night harvest.

Red with raclette, bubbles before

Raclette is a separate chapter. Raclette du Valais has been a protected designation of origin (AOP) since 2007. With melted cheese, boiled potatoes and air-dried meat, a red works too, as long as the tannin is fine. We then reach for an unoaked Mencía: Sangarida's from bush vines over 50 years old near San Lorenzo del Bierzo, or Guímaro's from the Ribeira Sacra, fermented with about 20 percent whole bunches. If you want to stay in Valais, open Kaléidoscope's Pinot Noir at 13 percent. The same reds suit fondue chinoise. There is more in our story Raclette and wine.

Before the caquelon arrives, we like a glass of sparkling wine. El Pino Mariano from Viña de Eufemia is pure Macabeo from bush vines around 25 years old near Requena. It spent twelve months on its lees and has no dosage, so it sharpens your appetite without filling you up.

One last word on temperature: white and sparkling wine at 8 to 10 °C, light reds at 14 to 16 °C. Next to hot cheese, a white served too warm quickly tastes flat. You will find every wine from this story, and a few more, on our page Wine for fondue and raclette.