The Swiss Air Force is facing what could be its toughest challenge yet – against Swiss winemakers.
In an unlikely turn of
events involving a celebration and some bottles of wine, the Swiss Air
Force has come under fire from its own side.
No, this story isn’t about a wedding gone wrong or even a minor European war. Instead the aerobatic team of the Swiss Air Force has drawn flak for celebrating its 50th anniversary by giving staff bottles of Italian wine.
"I don’t understand this attitude, it is unacceptable clumsiness," said the national councilor for the winegrowing Valais region, Yannick Buttet.
The Swiss are more famous for not going to war than for having a proud martial history. Their army is best known for providing the Pope with his bodyguards and for inventing knives with a host of handy attachments (including the indispensible one that gets stones out of horses' hooves).
The Swiss navy is best known for not existing and the Swiss Air Force has managed to avoid controversy until it decided to buy in bottles of the 2009 Sondraia Bolgheri Superiore to give to its Patrouille Suisse aerobatic display team.
The bottles feature images of the team on the label and carry the tagline "Patrouille Suisse 2014" on the label.
"This wine is not for sale to the public and these bottles are only offered to [members of] the Patrouille," responded Air Force spokesman Laurent Savary. "It is not accessible to the rest of the Air Force staff."
Buttet said that even if it wasn’t an "official" bottling, it was still galling for Swiss producers.
"It’s like if for a big event we would go and get the Patrouille de France [French aerobatics team] or the [Italian team] Frecce Tricolori. It’s a scandal."
Thierry Walz, the vice-president of the Swiss wine and grapegrowers' association, was less excitable about the issue.
"Well, they don’t just drink whatever – it’s good stuff," he said.
"The wine isn’t being served in an official capacity, so we don’t have much to say about it. Just that we regret that they haven’t chosen a Swiss wine; there is enough of it and very good ones, at that."
Source: http://www.wine-searcher.com/
No, this story isn’t about a wedding gone wrong or even a minor European war. Instead the aerobatic team of the Swiss Air Force has drawn flak for celebrating its 50th anniversary by giving staff bottles of Italian wine.
"I don’t understand this attitude, it is unacceptable clumsiness," said the national councilor for the winegrowing Valais region, Yannick Buttet.
The Swiss are more famous for not going to war than for having a proud martial history. Their army is best known for providing the Pope with his bodyguards and for inventing knives with a host of handy attachments (including the indispensible one that gets stones out of horses' hooves).
The Swiss navy is best known for not existing and the Swiss Air Force has managed to avoid controversy until it decided to buy in bottles of the 2009 Sondraia Bolgheri Superiore to give to its Patrouille Suisse aerobatic display team.
The bottles feature images of the team on the label and carry the tagline "Patrouille Suisse 2014" on the label.
"This wine is not for sale to the public and these bottles are only offered to [members of] the Patrouille," responded Air Force spokesman Laurent Savary. "It is not accessible to the rest of the Air Force staff."
Buttet said that even if it wasn’t an "official" bottling, it was still galling for Swiss producers.
"It’s like if for a big event we would go and get the Patrouille de France [French aerobatics team] or the [Italian team] Frecce Tricolori. It’s a scandal."
Thierry Walz, the vice-president of the Swiss wine and grapegrowers' association, was less excitable about the issue.
"Well, they don’t just drink whatever – it’s good stuff," he said.
"The wine isn’t being served in an official capacity, so we don’t have much to say about it. Just that we regret that they haven’t chosen a Swiss wine; there is enough of it and very good ones, at that."
Source: http://www.wine-searcher.com/
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