My boutique wine tour — Scandinavian style
Basking in the midsummer sunshine, Daniella Lundh Egenas stands among the terraces of Thora Vinegard, which roll down to the inky blue sea in the distance. 'This is potato land,' she says, gesturing around to neighbouring farmland on the Bjare peninsula. 'We get a lot of people driving up to ask if we sell potatoes. They get a bit of a surprise when we tell them it's actually wine.'
In the southernmost Swedish region of Skane there's a new crop getting farmers excited: grapes. While each summer southern Europe bakes in record-breaking heatwaves that blister fields and devastate harvests, the wine scene in Sweden — which started as a niche movement in the 1990s — is quietly flourishing. At the Swedish Wine Tasting event last year, 12 local tipples went up against 12 from elsewhere in Europe — including England, France and Italy — in a blind tasting judged by 18 international tasters. The winner? A 2021 sparkling wine from Kullabergs Vingard — one of Skane's very own.
With this new wine country comes a new tourism model. Previously bottles of alcohol were available to buy in Sweden only via state-run Systembolaget stores, but as of June 1 microbreweries and vineyards can sell bottles directly to customers, thanks to the overturning of a century-old law. One week after this change I head to the country's west coast with my sister, Claire (who had jumped at the chance to to be driven around wineries by me for four days), to raise a glass and tour the region that hopes to one day give Champagne a run for its money.
Our first stop is Astad Vingard in Varberg, about two hours' drive north of Malmo. We pass wildflower meadows filled with lupins, grazing Friesians and perfectly symmetrical Falu barns painted in distinctive rust red. The farm here produced organic milk until 2010, when it pivoted to wine and now has ten acres of vines.
Astad has been run by the Carlsson family for three generations, since 1946. Claes Bartoldsson heads the winemaking on the estate, having worked with the family for 17 years. 'We always have a shovel in the ground,' he says, showing me the new winery to be completed next month where guests will be able to book tastings and vineyard tours. He explains that Astad produces 20,000 bottles of sparkling wine a year, but in the next seven years capacity will increase to 200,000. 'People drink a lot of wine here, we're not making enough,' he says.
Swedish wine is a brand new terroir, Bartoldsson says. 'In Burgundy they have their styles for chardonnay, they have their styles for pinot and they only need to do the best version of that. There's no place for experimentation: there's a set style, a set goal, and that's it; whereas in Sweden there are no rules — that's what makes it exciting.'
The temperature in winter can fall to minus 25C here, so Swedish wine mainly comprises the solaris grape, which is often grown in cold climates to make still and sparkling white wine because it is hardy in frost and disease-resistant. 'You really need to love acidity to understand these wines,' Bartoldsson says as we sip his namesake cuvée, the Ang x Claes, which I can imagine enjoying on a long summer day (£65).
Despite it being delicious, wine isn't (yet) the main draw at Astad. Most visitors come here either for the Michelin-starred restaurant Ang — which is part-giant greenhouse, part-contemporary art installation and serves a 20-course menu of dishes including white asparagus with lemon verbena and deep-sea Norwegian shrimp — or the spa, a sprawling Disneyland of lily-pad-strewn swimming lakes and eight saunas, including one at the edge of a lake with its windows below the water line.
The showstoppers, though, are the 28 villas that stand around a swimming pond. My sister and I have great fun cold-plunging straight from the sauna in our rooms and gliding alongside the ducks until the midnight sun sinks beneath the horizon (room-only doubles from £271; astadvingard.se).
• The best European city breaks
Reluctant to leave Astad but eager to taste more Swedish wine we drive an hour south to the Thora Vingard. Egenas explains that the warm sea air here acts as a buffer against winter cold snaps, and the soil is sandy and rich in limestone such as that of Burgundy and Champagne. Visitors can dine at the newly opened Flora restaurant, which serves Bjare chicken with cauliflower and rhubarb and white chocolate yoghurt with strawberries and camomile meringue, and has a window overlooking the winery (mains from £22, tour and tasting from £30; thoravingard.com).
Egenas explains that there is heavy investment in winemaking in the region. Each vineyard I visit has a restaurant, hotel or bar attached — many of which are brand new. Egenas says that unlike in Denmark, where vineyards have long been able to sell bottles directly to visitors or in shops, Swedish wines have to work harder to compete with other European wines in restaurants, so taste better as a result. 'We need to have good quality wines to compete on a menu.' she says.
We spend a morning at the dramatic rocky outcrop of Hovs Hallar Nature Reserve, where the Swedish director Ingmar Bergman shot the opening scenes of The Seventh Seal, in which a knight plays chess with Death.
The west coast is home to many pretty fishing villages, such as Torekov, where there are clusters of cafés and fish restaurants by the port, and Varehog, where lunch at the excellent Bjare Fisk & Skaldjur might consist of whole turbot and pickles (mains from £12; bjarefiskochskaldjur.se).
• Stockholm's best hotels
The Bjare peninsula's reputation as a 'potato land' certainly does it a disservice, as this is where Swedes snap up summer homes. The village of Bastad has some seriously swish yachts in the marina, and we check in to the historic Hotel Skansen, where Ludvig Nobel — Alfred's nephew — built a clay tennis court in 1907 that now hosts the Nordea Open on the ATP Tour. But the highlights for us are a morning dip at the wooden bathhouse and watching the sun set from the rooftop infinity pool and a colony of seals lolling on the rocks (B&B doubles from £206; hotelskansen.se).
In the afternoon we pop into Vejby Vingard, run by the eccentric, beret-wearing Jeppe Appelin, who has constructed Georgian-style wine cellar, complete with choral music. He makes smooth, organic orange wine in qvevris — 10ft-high, egg-shaped earthenware vessels that each weigh a ton — and at the courtyard bar a glass can easily lead to three, so you might have to book a taxi (tour and tasting from £46; vejbyvingaard.com). 'Here in Sweden we don't have a wine culture,' Appelin says. 'We need to invent one.'
Appelin tells me that despite the economic downturn in Sweden, farmers on Bjare — some of whom have owned their land for generations — are reluctant to sell and make room for new vineyards. 'They want me to grow potatoes,' he says. 'Suddenly I'm a threat to their history, their culture, their future.' Appelin has erected a billboard as you drive onto the Bjare peninsula proclaiming: 'Welcome to Bjare wine country.' You can understand why it might have ruffled some feathers.
Our final stop is another hour's drive away, on the spectacular Kullaberg peninsula, where we are staying stay at the family-run Villa Brunnby (B&B doubles from £155; villabrunnby.se). We spend a morning hiking the Kullaberg Nature Reserve, dipping into pebble bays for a swim in the sea. Lunch is on a terrace overlooking the sea at the idyllic Ransvik restaurant, near the town of Molle — a summery herring with salt-boiled beets and dill potatoes (mains from £14; ransvik.se). Molle became notorious in the late 1800s for being the only place in Europe where men and women bathed together, in distinctive striped swimming costumes, in what was referred to as 'the sin of Molle'.
A ten-minute drive down away is the Kullabergs Vingard, where the staff are still recovering from the party they threw on the day that the new law came into effect, when 200 people turned up to buy £16 bottles. The law still has some stipulations: visitors must take a 30-minute tour of the vineyard and cannot buy any more than four bottles each (tour and tasting from £34). There's also a wine bar in a pretty greenhouse and a restaurant with views of the vines that serves simple food such as rillettes, cheese and charcuterie to complement the wine (dishes from £7; kullabergs.se).
• Great wine-tasting holidays in France
'This could be a revolution for the region,' Viktor Dahl, the chief executive of Kullabergs, says of the vineyard as we sip the aromatic, award-winning 2021 Immelen in its new shop. 'It's going to be the start of a big change in tourism.'
Sweden may have only a fledgling wine scene, but the green shoots are there. As champagne houses muscle in on land in Kent and East Sussex and English sparkling wine scoops up international awards, many Swedish winemakers are looking on with a dash of envy — and excitement. 'We look up to England a lot — what they have done there with wine is a very recent success story,' Egenas says. 'I think there are a lot of things that we can do the same, but we are still about 20 years behind.'
I'm keeping hold of the few bottles that I took home in my suitcase — they may be worth a bit one day. Katie Gatens was a guest of Visit Sweden (visitsweden.com). Fly to Copenhagen then take a train to Malmo (from £13; omio.co.uk)
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The Guardian
13 hours ago
- The Guardian
‘We danced and sang songs to pagan gods': readers' favourite midsummer trips
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It's inclusive, joyous, community-filled and fabulous. From the Moffat chippy queue to the midnight rave to the toasting of the sunrise on Cramond beach, it's the best way to spend the shortest We stumbled upon the midsummer Noche de San Juan in Cudillero in Asturias. Religious processions gave way to paganistic bonfires where people tossed mementoes of their year to forget. Next up were fireworks and a Brazilian samba troupe. Locals explained that the mayor could justify the expense because it was a prerequisite of getting re-elected. After midnight we headed to the beach for a party fuelled by calimocho (red wine and cola, don't ask). 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Times
13 hours ago
- Times
My boutique wine tour — Scandinavian style
Basking in the midsummer sunshine, Daniella Lundh Egenas stands among the terraces of Thora Vinegard, which roll down to the inky blue sea in the distance. 'This is potato land,' she says, gesturing around to neighbouring farmland on the Bjare peninsula. 'We get a lot of people driving up to ask if we sell potatoes. They get a bit of a surprise when we tell them it's actually wine.' In the southernmost Swedish region of Skane there's a new crop getting farmers excited: grapes. While each summer southern Europe bakes in record-breaking heatwaves that blister fields and devastate harvests, the wine scene in Sweden — which started as a niche movement in the 1990s — is quietly flourishing. At the Swedish Wine Tasting event last year, 12 local tipples went up against 12 from elsewhere in Europe — including England, France and Italy — in a blind tasting judged by 18 international tasters. The winner? A 2021 sparkling wine from Kullabergs Vingard — one of Skane's very own. With this new wine country comes a new tourism model. Previously bottles of alcohol were available to buy in Sweden only via state-run Systembolaget stores, but as of June 1 microbreweries and vineyards can sell bottles directly to customers, thanks to the overturning of a century-old law. One week after this change I head to the country's west coast with my sister, Claire (who had jumped at the chance to to be driven around wineries by me for four days), to raise a glass and tour the region that hopes to one day give Champagne a run for its money. Our first stop is Astad Vingard in Varberg, about two hours' drive north of Malmo. We pass wildflower meadows filled with lupins, grazing Friesians and perfectly symmetrical Falu barns painted in distinctive rust red. The farm here produced organic milk until 2010, when it pivoted to wine and now has ten acres of vines. Astad has been run by the Carlsson family for three generations, since 1946. Claes Bartoldsson heads the winemaking on the estate, having worked with the family for 17 years. 'We always have a shovel in the ground,' he says, showing me the new winery to be completed next month where guests will be able to book tastings and vineyard tours. He explains that Astad produces 20,000 bottles of sparkling wine a year, but in the next seven years capacity will increase to 200,000. 'People drink a lot of wine here, we're not making enough,' he says. Swedish wine is a brand new terroir, Bartoldsson says. 'In Burgundy they have their styles for chardonnay, they have their styles for pinot and they only need to do the best version of that. There's no place for experimentation: there's a set style, a set goal, and that's it; whereas in Sweden there are no rules — that's what makes it exciting.' The temperature in winter can fall to minus 25C here, so Swedish wine mainly comprises the solaris grape, which is often grown in cold climates to make still and sparkling white wine because it is hardy in frost and disease-resistant. 'You really need to love acidity to understand these wines,' Bartoldsson says as we sip his namesake cuvée, the Ang x Claes, which I can imagine enjoying on a long summer day (£65). Despite it being delicious, wine isn't (yet) the main draw at Astad. Most visitors come here either for the Michelin-starred restaurant Ang — which is part-giant greenhouse, part-contemporary art installation and serves a 20-course menu of dishes including white asparagus with lemon verbena and deep-sea Norwegian shrimp — or the spa, a sprawling Disneyland of lily-pad-strewn swimming lakes and eight saunas, including one at the edge of a lake with its windows below the water line. The showstoppers, though, are the 28 villas that stand around a swimming pond. My sister and I have great fun cold-plunging straight from the sauna in our rooms and gliding alongside the ducks until the midnight sun sinks beneath the horizon (room-only doubles from £271; • The best European city breaks Reluctant to leave Astad but eager to taste more Swedish wine we drive an hour south to the Thora Vingard. Egenas explains that the warm sea air here acts as a buffer against winter cold snaps, and the soil is sandy and rich in limestone such as that of Burgundy and Champagne. Visitors can dine at the newly opened Flora restaurant, which serves Bjare chicken with cauliflower and rhubarb and white chocolate yoghurt with strawberries and camomile meringue, and has a window overlooking the winery (mains from £22, tour and tasting from £30; Egenas explains that there is heavy investment in winemaking in the region. Each vineyard I visit has a restaurant, hotel or bar attached — many of which are brand new. Egenas says that unlike in Denmark, where vineyards have long been able to sell bottles directly to visitors or in shops, Swedish wines have to work harder to compete with other European wines in restaurants, so taste better as a result. 'We need to have good quality wines to compete on a menu.' she says. We spend a morning at the dramatic rocky outcrop of Hovs Hallar Nature Reserve, where the Swedish director Ingmar Bergman shot the opening scenes of The Seventh Seal, in which a knight plays chess with Death. The west coast is home to many pretty fishing villages, such as Torekov, where there are clusters of cafés and fish restaurants by the port, and Varehog, where lunch at the excellent Bjare Fisk & Skaldjur might consist of whole turbot and pickles (mains from £12; • Stockholm's best hotels The Bjare peninsula's reputation as a 'potato land' certainly does it a disservice, as this is where Swedes snap up summer homes. The village of Bastad has some seriously swish yachts in the marina, and we check in to the historic Hotel Skansen, where Ludvig Nobel — Alfred's nephew — built a clay tennis court in 1907 that now hosts the Nordea Open on the ATP Tour. But the highlights for us are a morning dip at the wooden bathhouse and watching the sun set from the rooftop infinity pool and a colony of seals lolling on the rocks (B&B doubles from £206; In the afternoon we pop into Vejby Vingard, run by the eccentric, beret-wearing Jeppe Appelin, who has constructed Georgian-style wine cellar, complete with choral music. He makes smooth, organic orange wine in qvevris — 10ft-high, egg-shaped earthenware vessels that each weigh a ton — and at the courtyard bar a glass can easily lead to three, so you might have to book a taxi (tour and tasting from £46; 'Here in Sweden we don't have a wine culture,' Appelin says. 'We need to invent one.' Appelin tells me that despite the economic downturn in Sweden, farmers on Bjare — some of whom have owned their land for generations — are reluctant to sell and make room for new vineyards. 'They want me to grow potatoes,' he says. 'Suddenly I'm a threat to their history, their culture, their future.' Appelin has erected a billboard as you drive onto the Bjare peninsula proclaiming: 'Welcome to Bjare wine country.' You can understand why it might have ruffled some feathers. Our final stop is another hour's drive away, on the spectacular Kullaberg peninsula, where we are staying stay at the family-run Villa Brunnby (B&B doubles from £155; We spend a morning hiking the Kullaberg Nature Reserve, dipping into pebble bays for a swim in the sea. Lunch is on a terrace overlooking the sea at the idyllic Ransvik restaurant, near the town of Molle — a summery herring with salt-boiled beets and dill potatoes (mains from £14; Molle became notorious in the late 1800s for being the only place in Europe where men and women bathed together, in distinctive striped swimming costumes, in what was referred to as 'the sin of Molle'. A ten-minute drive down away is the Kullabergs Vingard, where the staff are still recovering from the party they threw on the day that the new law came into effect, when 200 people turned up to buy £16 bottles. The law still has some stipulations: visitors must take a 30-minute tour of the vineyard and cannot buy any more than four bottles each (tour and tasting from £34). There's also a wine bar in a pretty greenhouse and a restaurant with views of the vines that serves simple food such as rillettes, cheese and charcuterie to complement the wine (dishes from £7; • Great wine-tasting holidays in France 'This could be a revolution for the region,' Viktor Dahl, the chief executive of Kullabergs, says of the vineyard as we sip the aromatic, award-winning 2021 Immelen in its new shop. 'It's going to be the start of a big change in tourism.' Sweden may have only a fledgling wine scene, but the green shoots are there. As champagne houses muscle in on land in Kent and East Sussex and English sparkling wine scoops up international awards, many Swedish winemakers are looking on with a dash of envy — and excitement. 'We look up to England a lot — what they have done there with wine is a very recent success story,' Egenas says. 'I think there are a lot of things that we can do the same, but we are still about 20 years behind.' I'm keeping hold of the few bottles that I took home in my suitcase — they may be worth a bit one day. Katie Gatens was a guest of Visit Sweden ( Fly to Copenhagen then take a train to Malmo (from £13;
The Independent
5 days ago
- The Independent
How ‘boring Bordeaux' is having a wine renaissance
Bordeaux is undoubtedly the most famous wine-producing region in the world, but I have to admit: I've had a slightly complicated relationship with their wines, and I wonder if that's the same for you, too? While it has delivered some of my most memorable drinking experiences, there have been moments over the years when I've found it dated and fusty. It seemed as though it was the preserve of a 'certain sort' of person – and I am definitely not that person. But that's all changing. Bordeaux and wine conjure images of being a bastion of tradition, and to an extent it is. Its winemaking history dates back over 2,000 years, but it was the marriage of Henry II to the brilliant Eleanor of Aquitaine that saw the UK develop close links with Bordeaux, as the marriage brought the Duchy of Aquitaine – including the Bordeaux region – under English rule. While territories and lines on the maps moved, the valuable trading remained intact (give or take a few little mishaps). It's an incredibly difficult region to characterise as it produces both the world's most expensive wines and, at the same time, some of the cheapest wines available. But despite the tradition, I really see Bordeaux as one of the most innovative and proactive wine regions when it comes to responding to the challenges that it faces – namely the evolution of customer preferences, climate change and a push for greater sustainability. It's a region that's adapting – and it needs to. In 2024, the French government proposed a scheme costing £100m that would potentially remove up to 30,000 hectares of vines to tackle the pressing issue of oversupply in Bordeaux. It mirrors the overall global trend where production outstrips demand – with that figure being as high as 10 per cent, according to figures relating to 2023 released by the International Organisation of Vine and Wine. But Bordeaux's proactive spirit is likely to be the essence that allows this region to thrive once again. It's a region that is leading the way in viticultural sustainability – over 75 per cent of Bordeaux's vineyards are certified by some form of environmental approach, including organic, biodynamic and High Environmental Value certifications. The department of Gironde, the area where Bordeaux is located, is the leading area in France for organically cultivated vines. There is a greater drive for biodiversity in the vineyard through increased plantings in hedges and woodlands, too. There's also a dynamic approach to the variety of vines that are allowed to be planted, including those that are likely to be more resistant to the pressures of climate change. And it's not just the viticultural side of wine. The CIVB ( Bordeaux Wine Council) is driving conversations and actions, not just around environmental protection, but also on the human sustainability of wine production. The regional diversity in the styles available is staggering; the growing trend towards fresher, more approachable wines being a testament to this. It seems I'm not alone in my opinion on Bordeaux: Richard Bamfield MW, a regional expert on Bordeaux, told me, 'It makes no sense to me that Bordeaux is finding it so hard to sell its wines at present. Most of its production sells for well under £20, the reds have never been better, the dry whites are perfect by-the-glass material, the crémants look great value and, in Clairet, I think they have a rosé/light red that offers an excellent alternative to Provence. What's more, Bordeaux itself has become one of the best cities in Europe to visit. Those not drinking or visiting Bordeaux are missing out!' And that's not even mentioning the outstanding sweet wines, traditional rosés and orange wines too. And this is exactly what I felt on a visit to a wine fair recently in the charming town of Monsegur, located on the edge of the Bordeaux region. It was brimming with excitement. The joy in tasting a stunning range of wines produced by energetic and engaged producers felt a world away from the hushed clinks of claret in 'society' gentlemen's clubs. And so, like all good love stories, I think Bordeaux and I are finding our beautiful happily-ever-after – one that evolves over time through the range of styles and the stories that they tell. So, if you think you're a little like me, I think it's time you gave them a second chance as well. Here's just a tiny selection of Bordeaux, which represents this new and exciting energy: No Lemon No Melon White Merlot, Chateau Picoron, France, 2023 Available nationwide, including Thorne Wines, £18.95, 13 per cent ABV Think of Bordeaux and you might think of deep reds – but what about their whites? While the region makes outstanding sauvignon blanc/semillon blends, this is 100 per cent merlot (yes, you read that right). Made by some merlot-mad Australians who work outside of the appellation c ontrôlée, the grapes were pressed and whisked away from their skins, leaving a beautiful rose-gold tinged white wine. It's a gorgeous glass of soft white peaches, creamy butter, slices of ripe pineapple with a lick of vanilla on top – good acidity keeps this wine fresh and very fun. Le Benjamin, Chateau Des Annereaux, France, 2021 Available nationwide, including Forest Wines, £15.00, 13 per cent ABV Made in Lalande-de-Pomerol, a right bank region neighbouring the famed area of Pomerol, this offers great value for money. Benjamin Hessel is a wonderful example of the 'new generation' of Bordeaux; he's deeply passionate both about his role as custodian of the land and the relationships with the people he works with. It's a medium-bodied merlot with a drop of petit verdot, delivering a palate of deep black cherries, ripe blackcurrants, and a black-pepper crack of spiciness. The tannins give just the right amount of grip to support this fruit-forward drop. Hégoa Rouge, Domaine Des 4 Vents, France, 2022 Available nationwide, including Les Caves De Pyrene, £20.80, 13 per cent ABV A great example of some of the natural wines that are emerging in this long-standing 'traditional' region. Domaine Des 4 Vents was established in 2020 and is making wines at the wilder end of the spectrum – they're life-full and energetic. It's 100 per cent merlot, and is full of hedgerow fruit such as wild blackberries, rosehips and blackcurrants – it finishes with an autumnal earthy note and a fresh herbaceous edge, too. This is an 'open up and drink with friends in one go' kind of wine, as it doesn't have the stability to last beyond the first day. Bordeaux Rouge, Clos de la Molenie, France, 2021 Available from Jeroboams, £19.95, 12 per cent ABV A wine I want to drink over and over again. Clos de la Molenie are located in the Entre-deux-mers, the largest wine-producing area in Bordeaux, and is a great example of the evolution in the region. It's a contrast to the historic wines of Bordeaux, which relied on the passage of time before they were anywhere near approachable. This is fruit-driven merlot at its finest – you'll be greeted with layers of bright red cherries, soft raspberries, late-summer plums and deep-red stained rose petals supported by gentle, supple tannins. It's easy to understand why this producer is gaining such a great reputation for their innovative, small-scale production.
