Wine Tasting in Interlaken: Where to Actually Go

Search for wine tasting in Interlaken and you get two kinds of answers. Booking platforms selling day trips to Lavaux, three hours away. Or directories listing a wine bar on Höheweg as a "winery."

Both miss what is actually here. Within 25 minutes of Interlaken, three working cooperatives grow wine on the shores of Lake Thun, and roughly 2% of Swiss wine ever leaves the country. You will not taste these bottles anywhere else.

The catch is that none of them behave like a Napa tasting room. One opens Wednesday evenings. One opens Thursday, for ninety minutes. One requires a phone call and a walk from a forest car park.

So here is the real map: six ways to taste wine in and around Interlaken, with the day each one actually opens, what it costs, and who it suits. Including the four we do not run.

Is there really a vineyard near Interlaken?

Yes, three of them. The shores of Lake Thun hold working wine cooperatives at Spiez, Oberhofen and Hilterfingen, all within about 25 minutes of Interlaken. Spiez is the largest, with 13 hectares across three sites, 14 grape varieties and roughly 80,000 bottles a year.

This is some of the highest viticulture north of the Alps, and it works because of the water. The lake reflects sunlight back onto the slopes, and the warm Föhn wind dropping off the mountains keeps the rows dry.

The wines are not what most visitors expect from Switzerland. Alongside Riesling-Sylvaner and Pinot Noir, the growers bottle Solaris, Diolinoir, Regent and newer fungus resistant varieties like Cabernet Jura.

None of it is exported in any real quantity. Tasting it here is the only practical way to try it.

Where can you taste wine without leaving town?

Two addresses, both walkable from Interlaken centre, both open without a tour or a train ticket.

Weinhandlung Ritschard, Aarmühlestrasse 17, sits two minutes from Interlaken West station and has traded wine here since 1840. Walk in and taste, Monday to Thursday 8am to 12pm and 1.30pm to 6pm, Friday until 5pm, in groups of up to six.

The tasting is free if you leave with a bottle. Taste and buy nothing, and expect CHF 20 to 50 depending on how many you opened. From six people, book a guided tasting instead: CHF 10 for four wines, up to CHF 25 for ten, including water, bread and tasting notes. Call +41 33 822 45 45.

WYVA, the apéro and wine bar at Höheweg 92, covers the evening. Swiss bottles by the glass, around 60 seats plus a terrace, open Monday, Thursday and Sunday 4pm to 11.30pm, Friday and Saturday until 12.30am. Closed Tuesday and Wednesday, which catches people out.

One correction, since several directories get this wrong: WYVA is an excellent wine bar, not a winery. The vines are on the other side of the lake.

Which lakeside vineyards can you visit, and when?

This is where most plans fall apart. These are cooperatives run by growers, not tasting rooms with staff waiting. Each opens a narrow window, and outside it the door is locked.

Spiezer Alpine Weinkultur, Schlossstrasse 8, below Spiez Castle. Wine sales Monday to Friday, 8am to 11.30am, year round. Tastings Wednesday 5pm to 7pm, May to December, plus Saturday 9am to 11.30am in May and June. Book ahead on +41 33 654 63 94.

Rebbaugenossenschaft Oberhofen, at the historic Heidenhaus, Alter Oberländerweg 1. Public wine sales run every Thursday, 5pm to 6.30pm. The cooperative has worked this terraced plot, called "I de Müüre," since 1933, and the Heidenhaus below it served Interlaken Monastery back in the 15th century. Bottles run from about CHF 16 to CHF 36. Groups need advance arrangement: +41 33 243 15 65.

Rebbaugenossenschaft Hilterfingen, on the slope above Hünibach. Regent, Divico and Riesling-Sylvaner, with guided tastings by arrangement only. There is no direct road access, so you park at Forsthaus Burech and walk up. Contact them before you go.

Three cellars, three different days. Check the calendar before you build an afternoon around one.

Can you walk through the vines for free?

Yes. The Rebbau-Erlebnisweg runs through the working rows above Spiez, with twelve information panels covering the winegrower's year, several carrying short videos. It costs nothing, needs no booking, and the vines start about 15 minutes on foot from Spiez station.

You get the view the coaches never stop for: terraced rows dropping to turquoise water, the castle on its point, the Niesen across the bay. You do not get a glass, since the trail is educational and the cellar keeps its own hours.

Pair the trail with the Wednesday tasting and you have the whole thing for the price of a train ticket. We covered the vineyard and the cooperative behind it in our piece on Alpine Weinkultur in Spiez.

What if you would rather not plan any of it?

That is what our Scenic Wine Tour exists for. We collect you in Interlaken at 3.30pm, drive to the Spiez vineyard, walk the rows, and pour four local wines with regional cheese, bread and Bernese specialities while the light goes gold over the lake. You are back about three hours later.

CHF 139 per person booking direct, CHF 129 each from six people, maximum eight guests, minimum age 18.

You are buying three things you cannot assemble yourself: transport both ways, vineyard access on an afternoon the cellar is not open to walk ins, and someone who can explain why Riesling-Sylvaner grown at this altitude tastes nothing like its German cousin. The full run of the afternoon is in our minute by minute wine tour itinerary.

If you have a car, a free Wednesday and patience with timetables, do it yourself. We would rather you drink good wine than book the wrong thing.

Which option fits your afternoon?

Is the Spiezer Wine Stroll worth planning around?

If your trip lands in mid September, yes. It is the single best wine day of the year on this lake.

The Spiezer Wine Stroll runs Saturday 12 September 2026 from 9.30am: a 3.5 kilometre panorama circuit through the vineyards, nine stops, each pairing regional wine with something to eat, music in the evening. CHF 65 from age 16.

The organisers are the Verein Spiezer Läset Sunntig, the association behind the Läset-Sunntig harvest parade on the Sunday, followed by the Spiez market on Monday. The weekend has run for more than 50 years. It is a village festival that tourists are welcome at, not a tourist event.

Nine stops and one date do not stretch. Book early.

Your Questions About Wine Tasting in Interlaken

Do I need a car to go wine tasting near Interlaken?

No. Spiez is a direct train from Interlaken West, roughly 20 minutes, and the vines start about 15 minutes on foot from Spiez station. Oberhofen and Hilterfingen sit on the Thun side of the lake and are reachable by boat or bus, which turns the trip into a half day. In Interlaken itself, Ritschard and WYVA are both in the centre. The only option that genuinely needs a car is Hilterfingen, where a locked forest road means you park at Forsthaus Burech and walk the last stretch. If you would rather skip the timetables, a guided tour with pickup solves all of it.

Why do my searches keep showing Finger Lakes wineries?

Because there are two Interlakens. Interlaken, New York sits in the Finger Lakes wine region, and several large directories mix the two, which is why you see reviews of tasting flights priced in dollars alongside Swiss results. If you are here for the Bernese Oberland, add "Switzerland" or "Lake Thun" to your search. It is also worth knowing that the Swiss cellars near Interlaken keep far shorter hours than an American tasting room, so the habits do not transfer.

Is Swiss wine expensive compared to French or Italian?

Usually, yes. Swiss labour costs and steep hand worked slopes push most bottles above an equivalent French wine, and local reds sit around CHF 21 to CHF 36 at the cooperative door. Scarcity is what changes the calculation: with roughly 2% of production exported, a Spiez Riesling-Sylvaner is something you can realistically only drink in Switzerland. Tasting is the cheap way in. Four wines in a group at Ritschard costs CHF 10, less than a cable car ticket.

What if my partner does not drink wine?

Pick the option honestly. The vineyard trail is free and works for anyone, and a wine bar always has something else behind the counter. A guided tasting is different, because the tasting is the experience and there is no parallel programme running alongside it. We answered this one properly in can a non drinker enjoy the Spiez wine tour.

Which wine should I actually ask for?

Riesling-Sylvaner, the Swiss name for Müller-Thurgau, which is neither a Riesling nor a blend. It is the white that defines these slopes: light, dry, faintly floral, and grown here because it ripens reliably at altitude. Then the local Pinot Noir, labelled Blauburgunder, and if you want to see where Swiss growing is heading, ask for a Piwi wine such as Solaris or Cabernet Jura. We took the grape apart in what Riesling-Sylvaner actually is.

Should I go to Lavaux instead?

Only if the UNESCO postcard matters more than the afternoon. Lavaux is roughly two hours each way from Interlaken, which turns a tasting into a full travel day, while Lake Thun gives you a working alpine vineyard in twenty minutes. If you want to weigh them properly, we ranked the whole country in the best wine regions in Switzerland.

The short version

Free hour and no plan, walk the Rebbau-Erlebnisweg. Wednesday evening, book the Spiez cellar. Thursday, drive to the Heidenhaus in Oberhofen. Raining, go to Ritschard. Late, go to WYVA. 12 September, do the Wine Stroll.

And if you want the vineyard, four wines, a cheese board and the driving handled, our Scenic Wine Tour leaves Interlaken at 3.30pm with a maximum of eight guests. If you want the tour explained first, start with our Spiez wine tour guide.

Whichever you pick, you will drink something you cannot buy at home. That is rarer than it sounds.

*Written by Olivia Lufman, your travel writer at Swiss Local Adventures

Source: 

repeated visits to the vineyards of Lake Thun, 2026.