I heard the bad sex for 7 years was if you did your cheers, did not look them in the eye but were still daft enough to marry them.

Separation and divorce happens at 7 years to lift the curse.

Taking wine for the host and flowers for the hostess is pretty much de rigueur. It is not expected that the host would open the bottle you had taken with you, with the meal, although once in a while we have had friends who did that. But that was their choice.

I can sympathise with that - not crosseyed myself but I do have poor depth perception and if I don't concentrate on the glass there's every chance of missing.

How many times have you seen Swiss people bring wine? I have never seen this while living here 22 years. Ex-Pats yes, but Swiss - never.

Where are you Wolli, I need a referee!

Honestly, all the time. Then there are some friends who have known us for a long time and know some of our likes and dislikes better and bring other stuff accordingly. But we do keep getting wines from our Swiss friends, may be be because we are not Swiss (and hence are expats).

i thought this was a german superstition?

Yes Sky I agree. The subtelty may well be lost.

Well i beat you with 29 years and i know mainly Swiss people, very few expats. My Swiss friends always bring a bottle if not 2 and it's never some crap fromn Denner at Chf 2.50 per bottle. It's usualy Swiss wine or sometimes French, rarely New World wines.

The Swiss are extremely proud of their wine (and speaking personally) why shouldn't they be?

Actually, Ittigen said the same, didn't he? The host composes the entire meal including drinks. That's an art, and the guest cannot expect the host to open the wine kindly brought along, because it might clash with the concept of the meal and will not have the right temperature anyway (which, again, is an art). Depending on the wine, it may also need decanting or quite a bit of rest at the right temperature. Expecting a freshly brought bottle to be opened on the spot doesn't show a great level of oe/enological knowledge.
Do I qualify too? I've spent just as many years as Wolli in this country. And I must say bringing wine is pretty common. BUT, as mentioned above, if you do so, never ever expect it to be opened during that get-together. It is a present, not a part of the meal, unless the host calls you twenty minutes before the meeting, asking you to bring a bottle of a specific wine after having noticed that the one in store for that purpose has gone bad. However, that may happen between close friends, but even then it's very rare. It shows a certain degree of negligence that is acceptable only in pretty laid-back circles, student or spontaneous après-ski party o suchlike. Never happened to me.

The bottle you brought may be opened on another occasion, which may involve you too, but that's not mandatory.

__________________

"This is AMAZING! I have the exact amount of money Joe Biden has cost us playing golf in my sweatpants pocket!" — Kona Lowell

Where is the fun then?

Denner sell some very good quality wines .... if one knows anything about wine quality and are able to discern.

They buy up batches of very good qaulity wines - when Vinters are making space for their newer wines ...... and these wines are offered at discount prices.

Their buying power is large, and hence the affordable prices - okay not Chr2.50 ... more like the Chf7 - 10 per bottle.

Denner do sell some very crap South African wines.

You clearly are not very much into wine, don't you?

Today I got a bottle of wine from my Swiss friend, she bought a box with 6 and said I should try this one, too. (it happened that we met in the shop)
The Swiss come in different shapes, sizes, colours and temperaments, like the rest of us, I guess?

Seriously, the best advice I got: be modest, talk to people, smile at them, be nice. It goes everywhere, as far as I noticed.

Relax, as it is just as in English. You should not tackle names with "rules" but try to listen how they are pronounced locally. A majority of names however are quite easy to pronounce as soon as you got some basics. And do not hesitate to ask. I for example when making a phone-call to Yeovilton asked the lady on the phone how the name of their place is pronounced.

It depends on circumstances and how well you know the host. I once on a hot 1st August when visiting my sister-in-law brought a cheap bottle of good French Rosé with me, knowing that she usually has some heavy RED wines around, and suggested that we would take the Rosé (she knows the kind) while at the barbecue, and some Red later on.

I abstain from bringing anything with me when going to a family reunion at the home of aunt R... as the affluent wife of a passed away millionaire does not need presents but people who appreciate her hospitality and to be with here.

So that everything depends on circumstances and persons.

A difficult question. But I have often seen CH people bringing a bottle of wine to a visit to CH people. It however may even be the other way round. You get a visitor from Geneva (actually Coppet/VD) of Stein-am-Rhein origin who mentions a particular excellent wine from near Andelfingen in northern Zurich Canton. You go to purchase a bottle of this superb wine, and so the visitor gets a present ! On our visits to Geneva for the birthdays of an aunt who got 95 in the end, he assured that we on his bill could enjoy some of the best wines of the Lake of Geneva region (both F + CH) and when later being around at the burial of his stepmother in Stein-am-Rhein was to assure that we could sample three or four of the best wines of the region (including neighbouring Germany).

Bern btw. conquered what later became the Canton Vaud, and jokers say, possibly quite correctly because they wanted to get some decent vineyards Beyond jokes and doubts is the fact that "les Vins Vaudois" are, beside those from the Bielersee (Lake of Biel) and from Neuenburg/Neuchâtel, still in a top leading position in both Bernese households and restaurants

You have to see that Nyon is in the "Pays Vaudois", which of course is THE "wine country" par-excellence. And so, yes, on a visit to anybody in the Vaud, I would always take a bottle of wine with me. You CAN open the bottle if it is red or rosé wine, but white wine needs to get cooled down first.

Ok thanks I don't really tackle things by rules anyway (this may be part of my problem) - I find it difficult to convert new English words and names from text into speech without hearing them. Sometimes I have to hear unusual words several times and German words are even more difficult I think learning another language will help with this anyway.

Price and quality is not related. You can buy cheap wines of really good quality. And expensive stuff does not mean that it is so very much better. If you buy cheap but good wine, be sure that the price-labels or prints are OFF once you arrive And Denner HAS excellent wines indeed. And let's be clear, COOP and Aldi and Lidl offer quite good stuff as well.