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Swedish Press N Y A
S V E N S K A
www.SwedishPress.com
P R E S S E N
E S T . 1 9 2 9
July/August 2018 Vol 89:06 $5.95
06 2018
FROM VIKINGS AND VINDRAGARE TO
WINE GROWING SWEDES
Swedish Vineyards Interview with SACC-NY President Svenskt Tenn
Herring, Meatballs and… Wine? By Peter Berlin
T
hinking about European wine evokes images of sun-drenched vineyards adorning rolling hills in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Greece. If we exercise our imagination some more, we might also include Switzerland, Austria, Hungary and Bulgaria – and even England and Denmark at a stretch. So what about Sweden? Sweden… surely not! Well, this may come as a surprise to most people, including the Swedes themselves. Look up Svenska viner on Swedish Wikipedia (www.wikipedia.se), and you will find that wine production began in earnest in the late 1990s. Dig deeper – which means consulting the Systembolaget catalog – and one discovers six Swedish red wines and 28 white wines from as many major vineyards, most of them located in the provinces of Skåne, Öland and Gotland. Other information sources indicate nearly 4,000 vineyards in Sweden, including experimental and hobby enterprises.
Having done the basic research, the next step is to buy a few bottles to see how the wine tastes. Chances are that a small-town Systembolaget has none at all in stock. Go to one of the bigger outlets, and you may be lucky to find two or even three bottles of the elusive
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elixir, usually priced in the SEK 150 – 300 range ($17 – $35). Small volumes, low yields and high costs explain why Swedish wines retail at three times the price of French or Italian.
The moment of truth arrives when one pulls the cork, pours a sample and lets one’s taste buds loose. Surprise! The result is a perfectly respectable continental European table wine.
Swedish vineyards typically occupy a half-dozen acres of land and yield a few thousand bottles of wine per year. Many of the larger vineyards offer guided tours, during which the process of wine-making and the challenges in doing so in the Swedish context are explained. A few vineyards even offer luxury hotel accommodation, first-class dinners and relaxing bubble-baths, allowing visitors to turn the experience into a romantic escape. Other vineyards invite the general public to come along and lend a hand during the harvesting season.
If you are in Sweden and are interested in learning more about Swedish wine-growing, you might be interested in joining a guided bus tour to selected vineyards in Skåne. The price of just under SEK 2000 ($230) per person includes transport, guided tours by professional sommeliers, wine-tasting, and lunch. For more details visit www.gavelinwine.com.
Sweden is the only E.U. member country that maintains a strict State monopoly when it comes to the sale of alcoholic beverages to the general public. Hence the Systembolaget. The stated aim is to keep alcohol consumption under control. By a remarkable coincidence, the monopoly also guarantees the State a handsome steady income. Swedish wine producers have long been lobbying for a change in the law, so that they are at least allowed to sell their own alcohol over the farm counter. That battle has yet to be won, because the teetotaller lobby is even more influential in the government.
The dominant green grape variety in Swedish white wines is the Solaris, which prefers cooler climates. Like most modern grape varieties, it has a sprawling family tree. Its immediate parents are the Mertzling and Geisenheim 6493 grapes. Mertzling resulted from crossing Seyve-Villard with a Riesling/Pinot gris hybrid, while the Greisenheim is derived from Zarya Severa (Russian for Northern Lights) and Muscat Ottonel. Solaris is a hardy grape variety that ripens early in the fall and resists fungus diseases and winter frost. In cool climates it yields a dry white wine which is particularly well suited as a seafood complement.
Other green grapes sometimes used to make Swedish wine include Phönix, Souvignier Gris, Orion and Seyval Blanc. These are typically blended with Solaris to achieve a degree of fruitiness or sweetness. On the red wine side of the business, the grape varieties Rondo, Siramé, Léon Millot and Regent predominate. Rondo is a cross between Zarya Severa and St Laurent, while Siramé is a relatively recent Swiss hybrid. Léon Millot’s parents have the noble-sounding names Millardet et Grasset and Goldriesling. Lastly, Regent boasts European and American ancestors. All of them resist winter frost and downy mildew, and are therefore well suited for wine-making at northern latitudes.
Not all Swedish wine uses Swedish grapes. Imported raw materials usually come not in the form of grapes, but as grape juice which is fermented in Sweden in the normal fashion. When buying “Swedish” wine at the Systembolaget, it is worth paying close attention to the label to detect the actual origin of the grape juice. By international convention, the true origin of a wine should refer to the country where the vines are grown and the grapes are harvested, rather than to the country where the juice is processed and bottled.
Perhaps one of the few benefits of global warming is that, over time, a wider range of grape varieties will find its way to Northern Europe. Who knows – perhaps some day Sweden will rise above the table wine class and become a serious contender in the race to excite connoisseurs around the world.
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Hemma hos
The Winery Hotel is the first of its kind in Sweden
[Design]
By Kristi Robinson
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n unassuming building lot, vacant for 20 years, in Solna on the outskirts of Stockholm provided the perfect location for designer and owner Jan Söder to conceive and construct his dream of Sweden’s first wine hotel. The Winery Hotel opened in early 2016 and has been embraced by local and international wine enthusiasts. Swedish Press had the pleasure of chatting with Jan who shared that, out of all the projects he has worked on, this one just felt truly right.
Front desk at The Winery Hotel with a view into the hotel’s wine factory.
As lead designer at interior design firm Redbarn, and owner of the Nordic Light Hotel as well as the renowned Icebar in Stockholm, Jan was in the unique position to follow his intuition and really see his vision for The Winery Hotel through. From the beginning he had a strong sense that the hotel should function as an urban winery and was able to create an aesthetic in line with that. Motivated by his trips to New York, he found
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The rooftop patio overlooks Brunnsviken and Haga Park. Photo © TWH & Jan Malmström.
inspiration in the brick façades and interiors of the wineries, breweries, and bars, and also in Brooklyn’s 100-year-old factory converted to a boutique hotel, the Whythe Hotel, with its floor-to-ceiling windows. Jan took this industrial aesthetic and fused it with a pure Scandinavian style to create what he calls ‘industrial elegance’. From the moment you walk into the spacious lobby – which also serves as a lounge and wine bar – to the front desk sitting in front of oak barrels visible through a glass wall, it is evident that you are in the heart of a winery. In fact the Winery Hotel is the only hotel in the world with a winery inside the lobby. In the entrance the walls are 8 meters high and meet the exposed ceiling, where beams and pipes are painted a warm dark gray. The floor is made of solid concrete that may crack a little over time, but Jan admits this is what he wants; he feels it all adds to the character of the hotel. The elegant industrial ambiance permeates the hotel through all its 184 rooms. Concrete is visible in the ceiling. Steel, stone, wood, and leather can be found in elements of each room. The robustness of these materials is complemented by the warm grape green colour of the accent wall, a
reflection of the Terreno vineyard in Tuscany that is also owned by The Winery Hotel, and from where the inspiration and knowledge of winemaking derives. The hotel makes 8,000 bottles of “The Winery Red’’ on site each year from Sangiovese with a dash of Cab ernet Sauvignon. They also produce 900 bottles of rosé that Jan says may not last the summer months because of its popularity on the year-round rooftop patio – another design highlight of the hotel with a heated pool, sun loungers, and a panoramic view. If you enjoy wine and are near Stockholm, a visit to The Winery Hotel is a must. http://www.thewineryhotel.se/
The rooms feature a combination of industrial modern and warm & cozy. All Photos © The Winery Hotel (TWH) & Jason Strong, unless otherwise noted.
Hemma hos
A Swedish Winemaker on the World Stage By Göran Amnegård Blaxsta Vineyard is a small, romantic vineyard facing south along the shores of Lake Långhalsen at the heart of the idyllic province of Södermanland. This 7-acre domain is situated among ancient rune stones and Viking graves. The facility offers visitors various activities, including guided tours, wine-tasting, cooking classes, hunting, fishing and golf. The Hotel Kung Blacke has facilities for conferences, weddings and various celebrations. Göran Amnegård, the owner and operator of the vineyard, gives us an insight into his wine-making business in the following.
[Treats]
attracts over 14,000 wines from more than 50 countries. As a member of the jury at the World Champagne and Sparkling Wine Challenge, I am quite familiar with the competition. Our wine is completely natural, which means that we use no sulphite, bisphenol, myriac acid, gelatine, flavours, colours, etc., and all filtering is also natural. This is the new trend in the wine industry. Note that the Systembolaget has no natural wines available. Also, all our wines are cold fermented, a process that requires 5 – 6 months of fermentation. It matures in steel tanks in 12 – 24 months depending on the vintage and
A
s a former Assistant Trade Commissioner to Canada way back in the 1980s, and as a friend of the then Swedish Press Editor-in-Chief Anders Neumuller, I helped him with information, text, suggestions for articles, new Swedish ventures for advertising, etc., over a four – five year period. So I know Swedish Press very well! As of the summer of 2000, we are the first Swedish winery in modern time and the only producer of Vitis Vinifera, the best vines for the Swedish climate. The other growers cultivate a variety called Vitis Labrusca that have a Russian genetic background. We grow Merlot, Chardonnay and Vidal Blanc, the latter being made into ice wine. We are the only producer in Sweden who competes in the Wine World Challenge, and are the first ever Swedish winery to earn gold medals there (gold 2010, 2011 and 2012, silver 2016, and bronze 2007). The Wine World Challenge
à l’Amnegård
Lobster Ravioli
Ingredients: • 1 cup Durum flour • 8 eggs • 1 lobster • 4 tbsp Philadelphia cream cheese • 1 tbsp finely chopped spinach • Pinch of salt • A few drops of lemon juice • ½ cup cream • ¼ cup grated parmesan cheese
Göran Amnegård. Photos © Blaxsta vingård.
grape variety. We also make ice wine from rose hips and Åkerö apples, as well as a 100% wild raspberry dessert wine. As for grapes, we grow Merlot (see Merlot Prestige Vintage), Chardonnay (see Chardonnay Barrique Grande) and Vidal (see Vidal Ice Wine Vintage Reserve). Over 80 % of our wine is exported. The most recent shipment was to a wine collector in Toronto. We also sell to the UK, Brazil, Hong Kong, Holland and Germany on a regular basis. We would like to make our wine available to Swedes/Scandinavians in North America. Call me on +46 70 48 34 690, or email me on goran.amnegard@blaxstawine.se.
Preparation: 1) Pasta dough: Mix the flour and four egg yolks and blend to a smooth dough. Cover in plastic wrap and put in fridge for minimum 5 hours. 2) Lobster filling: Blanch the lobster in boiling water for 3 minutes. Take 175-200 gram of the partly raw lobster meat. In a mixer add 1 tbsp of cream cheese, finely chopped spinach, pinch of salt, drops of lemon juice. Mix all into a smooth blend. Put mixture in a piping bag. 3) Parmesan sauce: Mix cream, 3 tbsp cream cheese and grated parmesan. Heat and stir until melted. 4) Assemble. Separate four egg yolks without breaking the yolk. Set aside. With a pasta machine (or rolling pin) make pasta dough into ultra-thin sheet and cut out four circles 10 cm diameter. Make another four circles of 12 cm in diameter. About 1 cm from edge of smaller circles, pipe lobster mix. Put one egg yolk gently in the center. Take larger pasta circle and cover. Use a fork to seal the edge around. Do the remaining three ravioli the same way. 5) Put the ravioli in a large pot with simmering water for between 1 minute 45 seconds and 2 minutes depending on size of egg yolk. Don’t boil the water! 6) Keep sauce warm and put 1 spoon of sauce on the bottom of the plate. Put the ravioli on top and cover with an extra spoon of sauce. Garnish with herb or edible flower. Serves 4 persons.
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