A vintage celebration for CERN


Maurice Dupraz, a winegrower from the Etat de Genève vineyards, explains the characteristics of the Vigne des Nations to Robert Aymar, CERN's Director-General, and Robert Cramer, Conseiller d'Etat.

As part of the fiftieth anniversary celebrations, CERN was the guest of honour at the Vigne des Nations ceremony organised by the Etat de Genève on 7 May.

My Organization is greatly honoured to have the Vigne des Nations dedicated to it, said Robert Aymar, CERN's Director-General, at the ceremony held on the slopes of the Lully vineyards at Bernex on 7 May. Invited by Robert Cramer, President of Geneva's Conseil d'Etat, he spoke of the special links that have been forged over the last fifty years between CERN and the Canton of Geneva, where the Organization has its headquarters. Both of them paid tribute to Maurice Bourquin, former rector of the University of Geneva and Swiss delegate to the CERN Council since 1994, who became the first Swiss President of the CERN Council in 2000.
The Vigne des Nations ceremony, at which the vines are pruned for the first time, was introduced in 1995, the year of the fiftieth anniversary of the United Nations. Every year since then, a vine from the vineyards owned by the Etat de Genève has been dedicated to an international organisation as a symbolic tribute to it.

As part of the fiftieth anniversary celebrations, special three-bottle packs of Chardonnay 2002, Chasselas 2003 and Gamaret 2002 bearing a commemorative label will be available for purchase by the personnel. The first orders will be taken at a tasting to be held in Restaurant No. 1 from 1 to 3 June.


Bottles of Chardonnay 2002, Chasselas 2003 and Gamaret 2002 will be available for purchase by the CERN personnel.