Sweden

Sweden2022-09-11T13:00:46+02:00

Sweden

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I am a journalist in equestrian and wine, and a sommelier WSET Level 3.
I work part-time in a wine bar in Stockholm to keep in touch with reality and what's going on. I also organize tastings and do some consulting work.
I've done seven full harvests in France and have pruned and done green harvests in Italy. As a writer and sommelier, this helps me to understand and explain what wine really is.
For wine, my passion has always been on the natural side and putting wine in a context. This is where my interest in PIWI comes in – these grapes are the future. They are kind to the environment, economical, and interesting for the drinker; they deliver new flavors in an ever-changing world. Here in Sweden, they are an obvious part of viticulture.
I will help the local chapter for Sweden to promote the PIWI grapes, compile and present news and spread what's going on; be the spider in the web to connect experiences and organize gatherings in the future.

Lena Sarnholm

We are now launching a local chapter for Sweden to promote our wines on a larger scale and collaborate on home ground. Join us and become a member of PIWI International

Lena Sarnholm

News

Registration for the online general meeting of PIWI International on March 18, 2024 at 6:00 p.m

We warmly invite our members to our online general meeting in 2024.

On Monday March 18th at 6:00 p.m. via ZOOM

Please attend in large numbers as it concerns the new association statutes of PIWI International. All members have already received the link to the documents by email.

If you have any questions, please get in touch. We are looking forward to the general meeting so that we can finally vote on our statutes and begin the realignment as an international association with great enthusiasm.

We hope to meet you personally on our members' trip planned for August (Rattey Castle August 8th - 10th), which will also be a delegate meeting. Travel details will follow in the next member letter.

You will receive the ZOOM link for the conference shortly beforehand!

Best regards

Your board of PIWI International
represented by
Alexander Morandell
president

March 16, 2024|

Swedish wine industry goes international

This summer, Sweden will have its own 1976-style ”Paris tasting”, setting Swedish wines against international ones. The tasting is part of the effort to market Swedish wine internationally. All under the name The Swedish Wine Tasting 2024.

Sweden has been an official wine country since 2010 and development is rapid. The vineyard area has increased tenfold and the quality has kept pace. The vast majority are PIWI grapes, with Solaris clearly dominating. Now the industry believes it is time to showcase its successes on a larger scale. Swedish Wine Tasting 2024 consists of two parts: one national tasting in June and one international tasting in August, attended by some of the world's best wine tasters such as Andras Larsson and Arvid Rosengren, both world champion sommeliers, take part.

The international tasting will be held on 28 August at Koenigsegg's facility in Skåne. Here, Swedish wines will be placed in a strict blind tasting against international wines in the same style and price range. 
– It's time for Swedish wine to make the leap from fresh, daring entrepreneurship to high-quality artisan production of international calibre. To give the industry a boost along the way, we believe that an event of this kind is exactly what is needed, says Emma Serner, chairman of SBOV, Sweden’s trade organisation for oenology and wine culture.

The overall aim is to demonstrate the potential of the Swedish wine industry and create conditions for further development and export, as well as to attract foreign visitors.

– Swedish wine production is making great progress in expanding the area under cultivation and expanding the grape varieties and range. We see potential for Swedish food export, new jobs and a new primary industry for Sweden that is in line with local craftsmanship, know-how and quality,” says Maria Kärnerud, program manager of Try Swedish, Business Sweden’s food export program .

An important part is also to be able to showcase Sweden as a sustainable alternative wine growing country as wine production differs from other countries in the EU due to grapes – almost exclusively PIWI – and a generally more sustainable regulatory framework for cultivation.


– Foreign visitors want local food and drink, and restaurants in Skåne are generally good at using local ingredients. However, it is difficult to find local wine in restaurants, but there is great interest in learning more. This is a perfect initiative that we hope will lead to increased demand for local wine in restaurants, says Anna Ek-Gustavsson, Head of Gastronomy Tourism, Visit Skåne.

The national tasting will be held on 3 June in Stadshuset in Stockholm and is mainly aimed at the domestic market. About a hundred wines will be presented and judged. The result will give a general picture of the quality of Swedish wine – at the same time, the tasting is a qualification for the exclusive final tasting in August.

In Sweden, work is also continuing to obtain a geographical indication of origin (PGI) status.

– The idea is to divide the origin according to existing landscapes, says Emma Serner, stressing that the focus is on quality, not a specific taste profile.


– We will be liberal so as not to paint ourselves into a corner.
Documents have been submitted to the Swedish National Food Agency for further assessment.

Facts about Swedish wine

• There are currently around 200 wine producers with their own vineyards.


• Almost 8 out of 10 Swedish wines are produced in Skåne in the south.


• In total, there are about 150 hectares of vineyards with a production of about 300.000 litres.


• The industry directly employs about 50 full-time employees – plus several hundred people in the supply, maintenance and service industries.


• The most widely planted grapes are Solaris (about 50 hectares), followed by Cabernet cortis and Pinot Noir Précoce (Frühburgunder).

• Around 95% of the grapes are PIWI.

February 20, 2024|

Sweden is working to get PGI

Soon, Sweden will be able to print exactly where the wine comes from. The work to obtain PGI status is in full swing.
– The idea is to divide the origin according to existing landscapes, says Emma Serner, chairman of the winegrowers‘ trade association.
Since Sweden became an EU official wine country in 1999, development has gone at record speed. Today, there are nearly 200 hectares of vineyards and two years ago SBOV, Sweden’s Branch Organization for Oenology & Viticulture, was formed. Work is now underway with a PGI approval to be able to write, for example, Wine from Skåne instead of Wine from Sweden. Skåne is Sweden’s southernmost region where most of the vineyards are located.
Emma Serner, chairman of SBOV and founder of Långmyre Vinery on Gotland in the Baltic Sea, says:
– We hope to assert ourselves more internationally with a geographical designation of origin. PGI is a quality development.
Work is currently underway to define what distinguishes wines from the various landscapes. The intention is to target quality, not a specific flavor profile.
– We will be liberal so as not to paint ourselves into a corner. The focus is on quality, that the wine has no defects.
Regarding regional differences in terms of terroir, Emma Serner says as an example:
– Here on Gotland, we have calcareous soil, dry weather and a late spring, which leaves a certain mark on the wine. In Skåne, it is windier and more rain, with late, warm autumns.
The hope is to get the PGI system approved in a year or so. Proceeding with PDO may come at a later stage.
– The PDO is much narrower and then we end up on much smaller areas than today’s landscapes. We start with PGI as a way for Swedish wine to market itself.
As far as the assessment is concerned, the ambition is to form a sensory center in collaboration with, among others, the Swedish University of Agriculture.
In Sweden, around 95% of the grapes are PIWI, where Solaris still is the big player. However, more and more attention is directed towards the new generation of PIWI, where especially Kullabergs Vingård is very optimistic about Souvignier Gris, Cabernet Noir and Pinot Nova.
Feb. 2023 Lena Särnholm      lenasarnholm@hotmail.com
February 17, 2023|

Big investment at Kullaberg – new winery for 100,000 bottles

While the harvest was still in progress, Scandinavia's most serious investment in wine production was inaugurated - a new winery at Kullabergs Vingård with a capacity for 100,000 bottles per year.

– Beverage is an important part of Skånes gastronomy, and it is important that we have people who dare to invest and work hard, said governor Anneli Hulthén, who cut the blue and yellow ribbon.

The building, planned since 2017 with construction starting exactly two years ago, resembles a typical quadrilateral local farm and, like everything else in the business, has an environmental focus.

– With a frame made of glulam and walls made of solid wood, we live up to our requirements for sustainability, said architect Paulina Berglund, also part of the owner couple behind Kullabergs Vingård.

(more…)

November 18, 2022|

Medals are almost becoming commonplace for Fredholms Vingård in Sweden.

They have only 1800 vines and got 96 points at PIWI International Challenge 2022 for their Solaris ”Elsa” – one of ten wines awarded Top Gold. Fredholm Flasche TopGold

Medals are almost becoming commonplace for Fredholms Vingård in Sweden.

– It is the first time that we are submitting wine to a competition solely for PIWI. Previously we’ve wanted to compare ourselves to other wines, says Pär Fredholm at Fredholms Vingård.

The wine „Elsa“, a 100% Solaris that was first released in 2017, has previously been awarded four great golds, five golds and one silver at competitions in Spain, Germany and France. The wine has a couple of days of maceration with one third in French oak barrels before final aging for seven months in steel tanks.

– Internationally, „Elsa“ has always received over 90 points. It’s amazing that it can performs so well everywhere, all the time. Why? I think that part lies in the minerality, the saltiness and the high pH – the acid never becomes aggressive, says Pär Fredholm.

Fredholms Vingård is located, like most wineries in Sweden, in Skåne in the very south. The couple Jenny and Pär Fredholm started in typical Swedish manner on a small scale with red grapes. 25 Rondo cuttings were planted in 2002. Pär Fredholm shakes his head:

– Rondo is not our favorite grape, but at the time everyone here wanted to make red wine. However, it didn’t take long before people realized that the wine from Rondo was not that good, but that white was better suited.

However, he is much more fond of Siramé, which he hopes will get more attention in Sweden.

– It’s a fantastic grape that rarely gets sick. It’s a shame it isn’t more popular. We use it in our rosé together with Rondo, where the latter works better.

Fixed focus is Solaris. The first cuttings were planted in 2008, but it is only from vintage 2017 – the premiere vintage of the prize-winning wine „Elsa“ – that they think they have gotten to know the grape and know how to treat it.

– We prune hard for low yield, around 0.8–1 kilo per log. In the winery, we let the grape skins macerate for a couple of days before fermentation, partly to raise the pH value. Acid is indeed the backbone of all wines, but it can also be the winemaker’s worst enemy.

The 2022 harvest has just finished, and Pär and Jenny Fredholm are satisfied with the vintage, which, however, got off to a tentative start with a cold spring and early summer.

– Then came the heat – but no rain, so some here had problems with stress in their vines. Ours could handle it, so we got a normal maturity and about 13 degrees alcohol, says Pär Fredholm.

Though, he emphasizes the importance of not only looking at Oechsle. You have to look at the whole, not least the phenolic maturity.

To return to „Elsa“ and the structure behind the success. The typical saltiness and minerality – call it energy – which only seems to become more and more prominent, Pär Fredholm finds the answer in the soil. The vineyard has volcanic soil and is located near an old lime quarry.

– Now the roots are starting to dig deep and can reflect the terroir.

And why the name Elsa? After their beloved black labrador of course, always present in the vineyard to contribute positive energy to vines as well as followers on social media.

November 4, 2022|

Harvest report from Sweden: Late flowering – late harvest

The spring was late and cold, which means a later harvest and slightly less fruit. But the quality of the Swedish grapes is reported to be good.

The Swedish winegrowers are preparing for harvest. As in the rest of Europe, the summer was hot and dry (but without an extreme heatwave). However, a cold May and thus flowering means that the harvest takes place slightly later compared to last year, plus there will be a few fewer grapes.

At Kullabergs Vingård in southwestern Sweden, their harvest of PIWI is expected to begin in October.

– The cool and late flowering means that we have a slightly smaller amount of fruit this year. But the summer was hot and dry so it looks good, says winemaker K Felix G Åhrberg, who came to Kullaberg in 2017 after working abroad. He is a trained oenologist at Klosterneuburg in Austria.

Kullaberg grows six primary varieties – Solaris, Souvignier Gris, Muscaris, Donauriesling, Pinot Nova and Cabernet Noir – but also has experimental cultivation with around 20 varieties to see what works. Until now, the focus has been on the Swedish „national grape“ Solaris, but K Felix G Åhrberg strongly believes in the new PIWI generation of blue varieties.

– In my opinion, Rondo and Regent give a bit of foxy flavor – it’s kind of like running Windows 95 on your computer. Pinot Nova and Cabernet Noir I like a lot, he says.

Pinot Nova (Blauer Burgunder x Malverina) is related to Pinot Noir and comes from Austria; Cabernet Noir is an offspring of Cabernet Sauvignon and was cultivated by Valentin Blatter in Switzerland in 1991.

Kullaberg is Sweden’s largest investment winery with a total of 14 hectares. The soil is mostly sand-mixed clay with one of the country’s oldest rock types, the pink-toned diabase Kullait. The location right by the sea is also favorable:

– We are surrounded by three seas, Öresund, Skälderviken and Kattegatt. This means that we have a mild climate with a long growing season.

A new circular winery built of wood will be inaugurated at the end of October.

– We have solar cells and our own water which we reuse. It’s 2.000 square meters and the capacity will be 100,000 bottles. Last year we made 32,000.

Just outside Malmö in the south you’ll find Vingården i Klagshamn, founded in 2001 and one of the pioneers in Swedish viticulture. Murat Sofrakis and Lena Jörgensen have 1.8 hectares, 80 percent Solaris.

– For our part, it was a cold spring with a late flowering at the end of June, and beginning of July. When summer came, it became dry – the plants were stressed, so now we are a little behind compared to previous years. We usually harvest in mid-September but are still waiting to get started.

Lena Jörgensen confirms the increased interest in Swedish wine.

– Absolutely. There is greater demand and we sell out. We accept pre-booked groups and this year we have been full. It’s a new category of people coming now, wine geeks with a solid interest.

Photos:

• The new cellar at Kullabergs Vingård, with steel tanks from Ledinegg, Austria.

• Murat Sofrakis and Lena Jörgensen, Vingården i Klagshamn.

September 15, 2022|

Swedish viticulture with PIWI

In just over 20 years, Swedish viticulture has gone from being a hobby to a commercially recognized player with wines that win international prizes and reputation – thanks to the hardy PIWI grapes.

Sweden has around 50 commercial vineyards and nearly 200 hectare under vines. The main grape is Solaris – roughly 80% – followed by Rondo; both established PIWI varieties.

PIWI is a long-term sustainable solution not only for Sweden; even in established wine countries, they realize that climate change requires new ideas and an open mind.
The association PIWI International, founded in 1999 – incidentally, the same year that Sweden became an official wine country according to the EU – is a platform for the exchange of experience and discussions, which with joint forces and strength can market these wines. For Sweden, viticulture has become an experienced industry and business of the future that can create jobs in the countryside.
The PIWI International Wine Challenge has become an internationally recognized competition, where Swedish wines are starting to take off. We are now launching a local chapter for Sweden to promote our wines on a larger scale, and collaborate on home ground.
September 3, 2022|
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