Switzerland

Federal definitions

The federal ordinance on beverages (Verordnung des EDI über Getränke, SR 817.022.12, here in the version of 1 July 2020) defines two sparkling categories:¹

Schaumwein releases carbon dioxide when the bottle is opened, and this gas may come only from fermentation (art. 70).¹ Its label must carry one sugar term: extra brut (0-6 g/L), brut (under 15 g/L), extra-trocken (12-20 g/L), trocken (17-35 g/L), halbtrocken (33-50 g/L) or süss (over 50 g/L) (art. 75).¹ The ordinance does not list "brut nature".¹ See the sugar scale for comparison.

A 2025 amendment added labelling rules for dealcoholised and partly dealcoholised wines, including sparkling and semi-sparkling wines, and repealed the chapter on alcohol-free wine and alcohol-free sparkling wine; these products now follow EU conditions.⁴

Cantonal appellations

AOC rules are found in cantonal texts. Vaud's regulation on Vaud wines (art. 21e, version in force from 1 February 2021) says:²

• vins mousseux may carry the Vaud AOC names if they meet the AOC requirements;
• vins perlés and pétillants are not entitled to an AOC;
• rectified concentrated must may be used for the liqueur de tirage and the liqueur d'expédition;
• enrichment may not exceed 2.5% vol, and added concentrated must may not raise the cuvée volume by more than 8%;
• sparkling wine made under these rules may not be reused in still AOC wine.

In Neuchâtel, the AOC decree of 2010 exempts vins mousseux from naming the grape variety on the label.⁵

Market

In 2025 Swiss retail chains sold 12 378 thousand litres of sparkling wine; 606 thousand litres of it were Swiss. Swiss sparkling held 4.9% of the segment by volume and 6.0% by value. By volume, Italian sparkling wine held 65.9%, French 14.6% and Spanish 11.1%.³ These figures come from the wine market observatory OSMV at Changins and cover eight retail chains, not total production.³