Nobody should be surprised any more. Good wine is being produced in Denmark, Sweden and eve Norway.
On a trip to the Danish Riviera last year (highly recommended) we looked for local produce of course. Maybe we should have gone further afield, to the Rosnaes Peninsular for example or to Jutland, Funen or Bornholm because like the Netherlands, native bottles aren't finding their way into shops let alone restaurants in any numbers.
Time will tell. The EU officially recognised Denmark as a wine-producing country only in 2000. Despite our efforts, we only found one bottle of Danish wine for sale in Copenhagen.
That was in a nice wine shop in the Jagersborggade called Den Sidste Drabe.
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Opposite by the way is an absolutely lovely natural wine and food shop called Norrebro Kolonial.
Running it was a very well informed lady called Mirian Jensen who has some winemaking experience herself. There were no Danish wines in stock however.
So if you want to buy a bottle it sems you have to go to the winery.
They have what is now quite often to be found; a restaurant and venue for parties and weddings.
We bought a 100% Bolero; something we had never tried before, a Rondo/Leon Millot and Bolero blend and a Solaris.
After this, we were allowed to take a look at the vineyard. It is beautifully kept with not a blade of grass out of place.
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Souvignier Gris
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the ubiquitous Solaris
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the rare Bolero
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Rondo
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Varieties grown at Orby include Cabernet Cantor, Souvignier Gris and Pinot Noir.
The other Danish vineyard we would have liked to have seen was called Dyrehøj and is the largest in the country. It is on the Rosnaes Peninsula, also known as the Napa of Denmark. Their grape varieties are especially numerous;
Johanniter, Muscaris, Solaris and Souvignier Gris for the whites and Cabernet Cantor, Cabernet Cortis, Monarch, Pinot Noir and Regent for the reds.
Monarch is a true rarity. It is a cross between Merzling and Dornfelder and officially classed as a PIWI variety. Dyrehøj use it only to make a pink sparkling and still wine.
In North Zealand the most famous city is Elsinore, or Helsingor to be correct. From there it is only a matter of 20 minutes by ferry to be in Sweden (Helsingborg). We were totally excited to make this simple trip and can't imagine the bridge from Copenhagen to Malmo is any more thrilling. Although so close there is a complete change of atmosphere on landing in Sweden. Amazing really when you consider the shared history and now shared EU membership. On the other hand the money is different as well as the language of course.
So is the system for the sale of alcohol. In Sweden there is the famous monopoly, Systembolaget who have their own shops throughout the country. This works surprisingly well because Systembolaget is a great organisation and the shops are quite brilliant.
On the search for Swedish wines this time we found more than one Solaris (of course), one of which is called Lotima Bridget,
and a Rose from Cabernet Cortis - Lotima Roselyn. These two are from Lottenlund, a local vineyard but most Swedish wineries are further south.
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There were also Wines from the Kullaberg Vineyard described as 'A friendship wine with Austria.' The grapes are grown in Styria and vinified in Sweden. Here was a Souvignier Gris
and in this case a blend of the Styrian Souvignier Gris with Cabernet Noir grown at Kullabergs Vingard, Cape Kullaberg in southern Sweden. Why not?
At Copenhagen airport we were hoping for some more opportunities to buy Danish wine but as you see the choice was very limited; products from Andersen and Nordlund. Nordlund was Denmark's first commercial vineyard established near Copenhagen between 1999 and 2003. Their red grape is mainly Rondo and the white is Solaris. Andersen make sparkling fruit wines.
On the laft are also mostly fruit wines, one intriguingly from rhubarb.
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