The picturesque town of Cully sits on the north bank of Lake Geneva (Lac Leman) among the terraced vineyards of the Lavaux, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Every year in April, it hosts the Cully Jazz Festival, a more local and genuine jazz affair than the giant in neighbouring Montreux.

It is a really cool and somewhat quintessential local experience to sit on the banks of the lake with a bottle of wine, listening to live (and for the most part free!) jazz music, watching the sun set behind the Alps. There are rather too many teenagers with plastic bags of beer, but they’re easy to ignore if you focus on the stunning view in front of your.

We caught a Friday night performance and took the opportunity to stay overnight, mostly to have an excuse to lunch at l’Auberge du Raisin. In the centre of town, the institution oozes old world charm, very traditional French in setting and cuisine even though we are technically in Swissland. It has a massive dining room, attached to the hotel, with a lovely terrace but alas, no lake view. By all accounts the food is commendable, even though it was suspiciously empty on a fine Saturday during the festival. But apparently April is not peak season for Lavaux tourism so that might explain that.

On a crisp Spring day with abundant sunshine, we decided to start with two light starters: a beef tartare and shredded crab meat with avocado. The beef was not cut as fine as I would have liked, but the flavours were acceptable.

The crab was somewhat lacklustre. But maybe our fault for ordering Atlantic crab in landlocked Switzerland. Not an impressive start, but a timely wake-up call to manage our expectations.

For mains we decided on two specialities of the Auberge: “Le coquelet suisse rôti entier à la broche, sauce à la moutarde de Dijon” – a whole-roasted small chicken with mustard sauce, and “Travers de porc caramélisés à la broche” – caramelised pork ribs. In traditional style, they bring out your cooked meat, still in its pan, to the table to whet your appetite before whisking it away again to carve.

And this is where the Auberge du Raisin really began to live up to its reputation. Both cuts of meat were beautifully cooked, super tasty, with lovely accompaniments. Traditional dishes, traditional flavours but done really well and just delicious.

Reinvigorated, and by now a little bit tipsy, two desserts were called for! A chocolate mousse with raspberry ice cream, and strawberries macerated in sangria with pistachio ice cream. So. good. The richness of the chocolate mousse was cut through perfectly by the sharpness of the raspberries.

At first glance, the strawberries paled in excitement next to the mousse, but I was pleasantly surprised by the flavours. Refreshing, relatively light and pistachio is a perennial winner. Both dishes were demolished.

After a slightly rocky start, a marvelous finish. The wine list was not revolutionary but acceptable. There’s a number of options by the glass and wide array of choice by the bottle. A decent representation by local winemakers but overall, the selection was a little populist in my opinion. All in all, would definitely return!