I n s p I r a t I o n a l w I n e k n o w l e d g e a n d t h e p e o p l e b e h I n d t h e d r I n k

November2011I N T E R N A T I O N A L

priorat delivers page 6 the best ice wine in the world comes from sweden page 13

in the heart ofsouthern bourgogne page 31

page 6 priorat delivers page 13 the best ice wine in the world comes from sweden page 18 the schengen agreement page 22 auction in stockholm 16/11 2011 page 27 champagner på dryckesauktionen page 30 in the heart of southern bourgogne page 33 competition for the systembolaget this is a good thing page 35 something nice to go with your wine over the holidays page 38 what’s happening in southafrica page 41 the new internet auctionsare a success

WebAuction specialI N T E R N A T I O N A L

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Welcome to A neW edition of fine Wine. Your on-line magazine in a glass of its own

what’s santa got in his sack this Year welcome to a new edition of fine wine international, even if this issue is a little earlier than usual.we’re going on a trip to priorat in spain with Johan franco cereceda; stuart george investigates what luxembourg’s like as a wine country right in the middle of europe. and what´s up at the “dryckesauktionen” in stockholm? were you aware that sweden has the best ice wine in the world? how did it go for the state-owned off-license chain, the systembolaget´s investment in internet auctions? what’s up in bourgogne? read christopher Jarnvall´s highlypersonal account of the scene in south africa.

in other words it’s time to crack some nuts, lean back, pour yourself a little port and sip your way through the holidays. there’ll be a little extra about christmas food - you can read elke Jung’s article on ham that’s produced high in the alps.

happy christmas to all fine wine readers, and don’t forget that yuletide is the time for children.

ove canemyreditor in chief fine wine international

it is perfectly acceptable to send fine wine international to good friends and acquaintances who are 20 years and older and are interested in fine wines. please tip us off about interesting events and occurrences, get together etc. ove.canemyr@trendsetter.se we cannot take responsibility to unsolicited material. please quote freely from fine wine but always reveal your sources.

editoral office:Ove Canemyr: Editor in Chief , Fine Wine Magazine/Trendsetter Box 24013, 104 50 Stockholm. Layout : Sophie L Slettengren, By Design AB, English texts: Roger Brett, Broadcasting Arts. Broadart@tele2.se Proofreading: Kris Bibby Omslagsfoto: Anne-Marie Canemyr

human contact with the wine is VerY important frederico carletti, founder of “producers of the vino noble” in italy has opened his doors to a win-ery in montepulciano , where he produces a fine poliziano. it is open all year round for visitors who are interested in tasting wine together with excel-lent locally produced tuscan food. more than 5000 visitors a year is an impressive figure. most of them take a guided tour, following the birth of this year’s new vintage. of course not everyone has been around the 27 hectares of vineyard that frederico owns today. “i will always make wine from my own grapes!the quality of the wine is of the utmost importance and i always only produce red wines. all the moves are very gentle in our fermentation and with the open top, you can feel with your bare hands the exact condition of the juice. that gives style. the human contact is very important and we are working with gravity fermentation” (Please note that the above is a direct quote.)the first vintage was produced back in 1987 and from its inception poliziano was highly regarded. “super tuscany.” poliziano improves with long storage, especially the mandrone di lohsa which should be laid down for 15 years or more. those who have managed to keep the wine for between 10 and 15 years will reap the benefits! exports have grown in recent years and nowadays 45% is consumed in italy and 55% is exported, mostly to germany, austria and swit-zerland. the latest acquisition of land is lohsa a little to the south and along the coast. they expect to produce very fine wine in about ten years. well worth waiting for!

marcello papa presented his new wines at grappe

marcelo papa has worked as a wine maker at casillero del diablo since 1998 and has become something of a legend here in sweden for the personal and expressive

style he imparts to his wines.the launch of three new wines at the systembolaget, sweden’s chain of state-owned off-licenses, the castillero del diab-lo pinot noir, malbec and the late harvest sauvignon blanc means that castillero del diablo now has seven wines on the swed-ish market. marcel papa, has run the may-cas del limari vineyard in northwest chile since 2005. this is a cold climate region with a mineral-rich terroir, which affords him the environment to create premium wines. there are three wines from this vineyard available at the systembolaget: the maycas del limari reserva chardon-nay, maycas del limari reserva pinot noir and the maycas del limari reserva syrah.if you wish to know more then go to www.conchaytoro.com

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the oak should not be allowed to influence the wine“the oak shouldn’t be allowed to influence the wine - it should just be there in the background.” these words be-long to giorgio fragiocomo from Querciabella, or as it’s known in italian, “the pretty oak tree mountain”.

“our wines should mirror a blend of quality and terroir. it’s all thanks to our soil, that is a mixture of truffles and mush-rooms, which is to be found on the rocky slopes, just to the south of firenze (florence) 600 metres above sea level. it is

here that we can reach our highly elevated targets. a relatively low yield plays an important part in this. it was first back in the 1970´s that they began to talk about super tuscany wines and already in 1988 Querciabella became classified as organic. back then it wasn’t anything one sought after especially but through that way of harvesting and producing wines and a steady eye on the calendar, even back then we were able to meet the highly demanding criteria.” read more about this at www.querciabella.com

F I N E W I N E o n yo u r R e a d e r Pa dN ow ’s t h e t i m e t o f i l l u p yo u r re a d e r p a d w i t h s o m e co n t e n t .

Yo u c a n d ow n l o a d Fi n e Wi n e a s a Pd f f i l e a n d re a d i t o n t h e re a d e r.

P l e a s e p a s s t h i s o n t o f r i e n d s a n d a cq u a i n t e n ce s.

champagne de saint gall 2003 magnum

“2003 was a hard year for us,” says georges monnet from de saint gall. “the spring was c at a s t ro p h i c a l l y cold, then came the heat, which is just

about the only thing that people re-member from that year.“the cold snap started in february between minus 14-15 degrees centi-grade. it lasted for a whole week, fol-lowed by another 10 days below zero. march was mild. but it was the frost that began on the 11th april that de-stroyed 43% of the buds in the cóte des blancs region. Just to be on the safe side we had hailstorms in June and July which destroyed another 2% of the grapes. but then came the heat wave that we all remember. twenty three days above 30 degrees centi-grade in the shade. the harvest began on the 2nd august. it was the earli-est ever recorded. by the 31st august it was all over. what kind of vintage would you get from a year like that?”well - a magnum of orpale 100% chardonnay grand cru, 8% cramant, 60% oger, 32% mesnil sur oger. please read more at www.de-saint-gall.com

penedés to be diVided into 6 districts it’s been on the agenda for a long time, for wine producers in penedés,to split the area up into many sub-districts. and now it’s go-ing to become a reality.

Joseph maria albet, from the wine company albet in noya, has been one of the strongest advocates for the change. since he has taken over as head of the authorities in do penedés., the catalonian wine map has been back on the drawing board . the reason for this is to create greater individual exposure for all of the producers. the 26000 hectare district has a greater variation when it comes to wine cultivation, particu-larly with its climate and types of soil. some of the vineyards lie just a stone’s throw from the mediterra-nean, while others are situated a fair way inland at almost 1000 metres altitude. the new map should be im-plemented in 2012.

Jfc

a brilliant launching of penfolds iconic winesin the middle of october, peter gago, head winemaker at penfolds , was in stockholm to launch some wine. not just ‘any old wine’, but rather the so called iconic wines, including grange. it was indeed a fine collection of wines that was poured out at frantzen/lind-berg in stockholm. peter gago himself was very pleased with the grange 2006 vintage (which was tasted against the 1996 vintage) and made the comment that the even numbered years from 2000 in australia were the best. the wines that were tasted were, amongst others: penfolds grange shiraz 2006, penfolds bin 707 cabernet sauvignon 2008, penfolds st henri shiraz 2007, penfolds rwt 2008, penfolds magill es-tate shiraz 2008, as well as the whites - penfolds yattarna chardonnay 2008 and penfolds reserve bin 09a char-donnay 2009. at the time of writing all of the above wines are available at the systembolaget off-licenses.

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our wines haVe strong traditions and stYle ” “we like to make our wines for an extremely long ageing time.”

these words come from klaus gasser of terlan who put in a guest appearance at the prime wine bar in stockholm, to talk about his classic, fine white wines, which were enjoyed togeth-er with some good food at the venue. terlan is a co-operative from northern italy on the border with austria about 250-900 metres above sea level. they have long tradition in growing

wine here, and their white wines are to be found in most of the 2 star restaurants all over the whole of europe. the most well known of those wines is perhaps Quartz. the wine’s made from sauvignon blanc and is a mature, mineral-rich wine with a well-balanced complexity and full body. Quartz is available today in a number of vintages and 2006 as a magnum.you can find out more at: www.cantina-terlano.com

sYstem bolaget launches non-alcoholic schnapps how many of us are there that can´t or won´t drink the traditional “short” to christmas lunch? well now there is help from an unexpected quarter.

the systembolaget is a launching a 4-pack of flavoured “shots” which are made by saturnus and cost approxi-mately 4 euros. they are available in the stores now. the flavours are:wormwood and bitter lemoncaraway and dilllemon, aniseed and gingerbitter sweet herbs

please note: do not deep freeze, they are kept best in the refrigerator.

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Yeast cultures from wine reVeals a fascinating historY yeast has a fascinating historyand now researchers from lund’s university can explain to us how 100 million years ago yeast cells learned to produce alcohol. the research-ers have studied two types of yeast and out of the yeast cultures’ own genetic cell change they’ve been able to reconstruct what the environment looked like when the yeast developed the ability to convert sugar into alcohol.

the two types of yeast culture - the saccharomyces cerevisiae and the dekkera bruxellensis - went their separate ways 200 million years ago. then a 100 million years later flowering plants, and the resultant fruit produced a surfeit of sugar. to be able to compete for the sugar, different species developed the ability to produce and withstand alcohol. in this way the yeast culture could poison its competition, while it survived and had access to good nourishment. because the two yeasts have been separated for tens of millions of years, this ability was developed completely independently of each other. this knowledge can help the wine industry to develop even more new yeast types to make wine fermentation easier.

Jfc

V i s i t u s a t F a c e b o o kI N T E R N A T I O N A L

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france’s most sold champagne celebrates 35 Years

champagne house nicolas feuillatte cel-ebrates 35 years, and in conjunction with this nicolas feuillatte is changing the name from blanc de blancs to brut chardonnay.

nicolas feuillate is in his fourth decade, and despite his young age, he is the most sold champagne producer in france and england as well as the third big-gest producer in the world. centre vinicole- champagne nicolas feuillate consists of 82 small wine co-opera-tives and represents no less than 5000 vintners. with his personal en-gagement and access to such a large group of

vineyards, together with the latest technol-ogy he produces a commodity that is best described as ‘champagne for the people by the people’.you can read more at: www.feuillatte.com http://fr.twitter.com/#!/feuillatte_inthttps://www.facebook.com/feuillatte.

God News for Connoisseurs

It is time for the next Selected Wine and Spirits Auctions.

Auctions.The auction takes place

on November the 16th, at 12 o´clock at Stockholms

Auktionsverk, Nybrogatan 32, Stockholm.

PreviewAll objects are on view in Frihamnen, Magasin 5,

Stockholm on November 14th, between 3 and 7 pm. For a

private viewing please contact Stockholms Auktionsverk, telephone +46 8 453 67 15.

You will fi nd all objects at www.auktionsverket.se as well as

in the printed catalogue.

Read more about the auction at www.systembolaget.se och

www.auktionsverket.se

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Suddenly the district just popped up like a cat amongst the ermine. Those in the know called it a “flash in the pan”, but they couldn’t have been more wrong. Today Priorat is established and recognized all over the world.

priorat delivers Photo & text JohAn frAnco cerecedA /miguel torres

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I REmEmbER hoW it used to be. The first time i came here was in the mid -90´s. it was the region that god had forgotten, an insane drive two hours from Barcelona, which was practically unheard of, at least internationally. But there was a bit of a murmur going around the spanish wine journalist corps that there was a remarkable wine dis-trict somewhere up in the moun-tains, inland from the town of reus and which surrounded the village of gratallops.

i took a train first, then a bus and lastly i found a taxi which helped me find it in the end. And what i had found was a little wine para-dise! A few days later i hired a car for the rest of the time i was in Bar-celona and wound my way along the serpentine backroads until i lit-erally drove into costers del siura-nas vineyard. of course the rest is history. nowadays the district is spain´s second doc, except that in catalan it’s called doQ, recog-nised and established as one of the

most prominent wine districts in the world. of course they have the natural environment to thank for that. The biggest trick was to find the place. The ones who did are usually called the “gang of five” - José luis Pérez, daphne glorian, rené Barbiér, charles Pastrana, and Alvaro Palaciois.

ThEY WEREN’T acTuallY the first though. monks have been making wine in the district since the 12th century. But it was the ‘gang of five’ who realised they had found a goldmine And they collaborated right from the beginning. They learned from each other’s mistakes, they discussed the condition of the soil, grapes, cloning, climate and infrastructure. it took off, on all fronts. That which only 25 years earlier had been a sparsely populat-ed region, one of many hundreds in spain, is today a thriving wine mecca with many fine restaurants in the little mountain village of gratallops.

ThERE aRE alSo several hotels. The wine has gone from strength to strength and the infrastructure has improved from late 19th century to state of the art 2011 -wider roads, painted lines, guard-rails and traf-fic lights make things easier for the vertigo-prone drivers. There’s not a lot you can do about altitude otherwise. The idea behind Priorat initially was do something that no-body else had done for a very, very long time. namely to go back to the “days of the craftsmen, away from industrial concepts and ex-port curves and, down in the earth, find a sense of feeling with the ter-roir”, as Pere rovira said on one of

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the many times i was down there. even charles Pastrana at costers del siurana was on about the same thing. Workmanship, small scale, personal. his vision could not have been more accurate, when once, after a long lunch at gratal-lops , he brought out a bottle of his sweet dolc de l´obac, an al-most magical complex wine that that we enjoyed with blue cheese and hazel nuts.

buT WhEN WE come to Priorat nowa-days there’s possibly a whole lot to complain about. Wine prices have gone through the roof, too many adventurers have tried their luck here, there is no continuity, exploi-tation is moving things along too fast. having said that, there is still an original authenticity here and a love of the soil which is the biggest attraction. As a presumptive sceptic it renders you speechless.

NoT lEaST WhEN you meet a heavily pregnant sara Perez outside the Bodega. she is José Perez’s daugh-ter, but more than that - she is one of the most respected oenologists in spain, with her own Bodega in montsant. she is also consultant to several wine company Bodegas around the country and she makes her own wine in Priorat, one of the best. sara Perez is a second genera-tion winemaker and grower with a third on the way! Apart from all that she is woman of enormous integrity. “i thought we might take a ‘spin’ up in the mountains,” she said. “i’ll drive.”This is where the ad-venture begins; we’re already 600 metres above sea level when we set off. We’re going further up

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to a vineyard that’s situated at the 900 metre mark. That’s not so im-pressive in itself, but the way that we got up there would probably make the most hardened war cor-respondent fear for his life!The road is so narrow that that you can hardly see anything other than behind and what’s directly in front of you. on one side you have the mountain sticking straight up to heaven, while on the other you have the abyss that falls several hundred metres straight down. somewhere in the middle of these two there’s supposed to be a road, or more to the point a ’goat track’. i’m thinking that she will hardly risk her own life and the life of her unborn child just for a guided tour of the shale-covered mountain.i change my mind though when the car only has three wheels still connected to terra firma. once there though, we look out over a fantastic valley that reaches as far as the montsant wine dis-trict, which 10 years ago received its own do status. it used to be called Baja Priorat and belonged to do tarragona.

uP hERE aT abouT 1000 metres alti-tude the Perez family have found excellent ground for cultivat-

ing grapes. excellent in the sense of the typical ‘licorella’ soil that makes it so unique. The licorella (catalan for liquorice), a granite-like soil of shale intermixed with bands of reddish-brown earth gives the wine its inimitable char-acter and its obvious mineral con-tent. not all of the soil is licorella, but a whole lot of it is. it’s all about finding it and putting it to good use. “About two thirds of the the soil here is slate. The wine is grown in the rest,” sara explains to me. When she stands there and shows us that fantastic vista out over the valley, you get the feeling that something really big is happening here in this little wine district that

isn’t even 2000 hectares. something really unique is happening slowly and surely, not like a forest fire, but with care and a labour of love. WE RETuRN To the winery to taste a few vintages of the family’s wines “for us it’s all about taking care of what we’ve got. to go care-fully forwards when we make our wines, to actually do as little as possible. let time do the work for us,” she explains. one of the big dangers in this district’s march towards the big time is the num-ber of ‘get rich quick’ companies, which more often than not are large wine concerns, that bask in the shade of the great producers

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att beställa vin från wineoclock är helt lagligt och bekymmers-fritt. sedan juni 2007 kan svenskar beställa vin från utlandet och få det hemlevererat så länge svensk moms och alkohol-skatt betalas. beställer du vin genom wineoclock behöver du inte bekymra dig om detta, det sköter vi. svensk alkoholskatt och moms är redan inkluderat i priset.

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and their ‘new but ancient’ way of making wine. There are many that are critical. Where were they when Priorat was a humble and poor re-lation and almost rubbed off of the wine map? “The big danger is that many big producers will come here and try and improve their image by having something that says Priorat on the label. Which is a danger for our quality development. it must not become trendy to make wine in this area. it’s still all about hard work and a vision, not just pumping money into production,” say sara Pérez.”

buT ThIS FEaR has been laid to rest. miguel torres, a prophet interna-tionally but not in his own home-land, bought up land and built a giant terraced area. many people shook their heads saying “Priorat has sold its soul” but instinctively

torres has managed to improve the image by making really good wines here. i remember the first time i came into contact with his prestigious wines from doQ Pri-orat, Perpetual.

WE WERE a WholE gang of interna-tional journalists, invited to lunch with him. he slipped a bottle of wine onto the table alongside the grilled lamb chops.he poured the wine and nobody realised it was a world premier. After a while it suddenly became silent at the table. We were all looking at each other wondering in unison, what it was we were drinking?

“ThIS IS a WINE from my latest project in Priorat,” he said and shrugged his shoulders. We were dumb-founded but at the same time all

in agreement on the excellence of the wine. There are many produc-ers that have come to the region and almost all of them have, from the start, understood the extent of the complexity that is in the dis-trict. consequently that’s what the wines taste like. many of the wines have ended up below the 20 euro per bottle at the off-licence without losing any of the quality or typical originality. however, if you wish to drink some of the best that’s available in the world, then you’ll have to cough up 4 times as much and more.

IN oThER WoRdS Priorat has a diver-sity when it comes to prices that might compare to champagne which has the world’s highestand lowest pricing level. You must not lose sight of the fact that the dis-trict has been delivering wine for

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20 years. in other words, there’s more to come.

the gang of fiVe

alvaRo PalacIoS is the youngest of the group, and comes from rioja, where he rebelled against his fa-ther who wanted to make wine in a way that had always been done. he was educated in Bordeaux and california. he also set the highest price ever for a spanish wine. to-day he is the undisputed brightest star in the region.

cloS mogadoR. rené Barbier, the owner, has very little in common with the wine producer of the same name. one of his forefathers gave his name to a big produc-tion firm. no, we’re talking about small quantities of the most excel-lent quality, some say that it might be the best wine that is produced in the whole of spain.

coSTERS dEl SIuRaNa. charles Pas-trana is the one who experiments the most; he consistently makes fantastic white wines. he has a sweet red wine, dolc de l´obac, which is one of the best there is and he makes the clos de l´obac from exactly the same recipe every time – a percentage of this and that grape.

maS maRTINET. The company was started by José luis Pérez, who is perhaps the most well known of the ’gang’. earlier he used to teach oenology (the study of win-emaking) and was a widely trust-ed consultant. today, together with his daughter sara he runs a model vineyard. sara is married to rené Barbier´s son, and manages her father´s vineyards across the country and makes excellent wine

too. she also runs a very exciting project on Åland (sweden) to-gether with Alexander horn.

cloS ERaSmuS. The only woman in the original gang of five. But what a woman! daphne glorian. she is completely uncompromis-ing when it comes to excellence

in wine making. The results are outstanding. The American wine guru, robert Parker, goes into orbit every time a new vintage is released! Apart from that senhora glorian is married to the biggest importer of spanish quality wines in the usA.

facts about prioratsoil: licorella, red shale and limestone, which gives the wine its unique char-acter. location: most of the vineyards are situated from 450- 700 metres above sea level.grapes blue: garnacha tinta, garnacha peluda, carinena, cabernet sauvi-gnon, syrah, merlot, tempranillo. about 95% of the acreage is planted with blue grapes. green: garnacha blanca, macabeo, pedro Ximenez, chenin blanc.climate: continental climate with certain elements of the mediterranean as well as dry northerly winds. hard winters and warm summers which are made easier by the mediterranean breezes. rainfall is about 200-400 mm per annum.

harvest: starts normally in september. the yield is perhaps the lowest in the world, about 1500 kilo grapes per hectare. (6000 kilo is allowed) in some plac-es it is so steep that you have to tie the basket to your leg to be able to harvest and keep a grip at the same time. the best form of transport is donkeys, cross country motor bikes and 4 wheel drive jeeps.

acreage: 1800 hectares with the possibility to expand up to 2000. but the price of land is sky-high.

other local specialities: hazel nuts, olive oil. priorat is considered to be one of the best areas in spain for cultivating olives and as a result is one of spain’s do regions for olive oil production.

gastronomy: rich stews, often made from wild pig;sausages, rustic cuisine, changing over to more elegant, innovative spanish fare.

history: sometime during the 12th century a young shepherd had a vision and reported it to the local priest. in 1163 carthusian monks built a monas-tery where the vision is supposed to have taken place and christened it scala dei (god´s ladder).

wine history: became origin-denoted in 1932. in 2001 the district was el-evated to the second district in spain’s doc. it was first in 2009 that priorat received national doc status.

earlier the district was known and recognized for its rancio, a wine with an obvious oxidised character. rancio in spanish means rancid in english. today the production of rancio is just a vague memory within the doQ priorat.

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Att börja dricka i tidig ålder ökar risken för alkoholproblem.

Peter Lehmann Barossa shirazartnr 16381. Pris 119 kr. 14,5% vol. 750 ml

Ett vin är summan av jordmån, klimat, druva och i vårt fall, en genialisk vinmakare.

Peter Lehmann, 2003 & 2006 International Winemaker of the Year. International Wine and Spirit Competition.

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Peter Lehmann

Taste a work of art

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the best ice wine in the world comes from sweden

Photo: Anne-mArie cAnemYr

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It is breathtakingly beautiful as we slowly make our way down the winding road between the open fields that finally come to rest at the lake we’ve been searching for and the sign pointing to the 11th century church in blaxsta. The vineyard is included on the sign and we drive slowly into the courtyard. It has just stopped raining and the fields and grass are wet while the mist dances lightly over the meadows and water. We park next to what turns out to be newly planted vines from last year that are now starting to lose their leaves at the beginning of autumn.

blaxSTa vINEYaRd is owned and managed by a firebrand called göran Amnegård who moved to sweden after a sojourn in cana-da where he was, amongst other things, a restaurant owner. since

then he has more or less bought up all of the houses, farms and property in Blaxsta, with the ex-ception of perhaps the church and the school, with the intention of gaining more land to accommo-

date his wine production and his own grape variety that he planted back in 2000.

abouT 90% is Vidal, a little bit of cabernet franc and the rest

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chardonnay and merlot. The lat-ter refers to the 2008 vintage - it turns out that the merlot Prestige is quite brilliant. many are of the same opinion, amongst them noma* in copenhagen where the lion’s share of this little 2008 vin-tage has ended up. it goes particu-larly well with lamb and poultry.

You mIghT wonder about this high quality and where the tones of honey, berries and flowers come from? Well grapes that are allowed

to over-ripen on the vine in a cool climate, that also receive 25% more daylight during the growing season and finally are allowed to mature in a stainless steel tank, at-tain a fine, harmonious and well balanced taste.

buT ThIS aRTIclE is not about the Blaxsta Prestige merlot, but rather about the best ice Wine in the world. Vidal ice Wine 2007 took the gold in the World Wine championships 2011 at the inter-

national Winemakers challenge in Portugal and with Vidal ice Wine 2008also won gold in the chal-lenge du Vin in france 2010.

WhaT lIES bEhINd these interna-tional successes? Apart from a lot of very hard work of course! The Vidal grape is considered the best of its type for the production of ice wine because the harvest doesn’t take place until well into december. it’s frost that ‘dries out’ the grapes and gives them a

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concentration that creates depth of flavour and aroma as well as an increased sugar content. When the temperature drops to minus 7 degrees centigrade or more, the grapes are harvested and crushed. The juice is then allowed to ma-ture slowly in cold fermentation. it is during this process that the perfect ice Wine aroma begins to emerge. At this point the fermentation is halted, when the taste and aroma

are at their peak. The sugar residue lies normally around 15-20%.

ThE NExT quESTIoN to göran is: “Why Blaxta?”“here we have the perfect micro-climate for cultivating this vari-ety, as well as the perfect ‘terroir’ which appears to be a kind of very old sea bed.

WE TakE a look around the vineyard,

where new vines have even been planted on the other side of the road. The Vidal grapes have been planted on a slope behind the huge barn – it’s a perfect location. inside the barn is the production facility with its presses, stainless steel tanks, as well as oak barrels. They even use barrels made from chestnut and lime wood. göran explains to us the importance of the right yeast and the method of

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filtering. This is a man who is really passionate about the goals he has set for himself - to be the producer of sweden’s, and at the present time the World’s best ice Wine. he has been aided in this by the gradual rise in temperature due to global warming. it’s not easy to run a restaurant and a hotel with con-ference potential while at the same time trying to achieve ambitious goals. göran spent the years 1984-2000 in canada and was a member of the canadian national cooks team 1997-1999.

bEFoRE WE lEavE Blaxta we taste the third chardonnay vintage (2008) and it is worth noting it is stored in french oak casks. unfortunately the availability is strictly limited for the time being.

other blaxta products we noted were:

caberbet franc icewine 2006. which goes well with goose or duck liver, or alternatively tart desserts

apple ice wine Åkerö 2009. made with frozen apples and cold yeast and matured in a stainless steel tank. a delicious dessert wine that tastes like calvados. what else?

framboise reserve 2009 made from wild raspberries that have been fermented in the summer warmth. a soft sweetness, goes well as a dessert wine together with chocolate.

päronvin petite corneille 2004august’s pears which are fermented and matured in wooden casks. a table wine with a faint sweetness and a mild aroma of summer fruit. goes with cheese, shellfish and salad dishes.

harvest apple cuvée 2004demi-sec, a wine that goes with fish, shellfish, cheese and salads.

rosehip icewine 2009. warm, rich wine with a strong rosehip, dried fruit and caramel flavour. goes well with terrines like duck liver, or dessert cheeses.

*Noma voted best restaurant in Europe & the world in 2011

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www.johanlidbyvinhandel.se

Klipp ut och tag med

Belguardo Rosé Art. nr: 99148 Pris: 89:- Alkoholhalt: 13%

Allt om V

in

Åre

ts VinhusBrons

2010

Hälften av alla som drunknar har alkohol i blodet.

I N T E R N A T I O N A L

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Tiny luxembourg is home to 150 banks, 13,000 Eu employees and 150,000 cross border workers. It has more michelin stars per head than anywhere else, with a total of 14 stars awarded to 13 restaurants. Wine consumption in luxembourg is 53.9 litres per head, which, according to some sources, is the highest in the world. With such a thirsty local market there is little incentive for luxem-bourg wine producers to export. but the wines are worth seeking out.

tread marques

vINES havE bEEN grown in luxem-bourg since roman times but the wine industry here is young.

Vineyard ownership is fragment-ed, with very few independent es-tates producing wine from their own grapes. Just 52 grower-pro-ducers (“wënzers”) make 23% of all wine in luxembourg. Winemaking is dominated by co-ops, with the domaines Vinsmoselle cooperative making 61.7% of luxembourg’s total production. members of the fédération des Producteurs-négo-ciants make the remaining 15%.

ThE luxEmbouRgEoIS equivalent of Appellation d’origine contrôlée is “marque nationale”, which was established in 1935 – the same year that the institut national des Ap-pellations d’origine was created in france.

to achieve marque nationale ac-creditation, wines are tasted blind by a suitably qualified jury and scored on a 20-point scale. marque nationale is achieved at a mini-mum 12 points. Below 12 con-

>>>

the schengen agreement text & Photo: stuArt george

text Britt KArlsson foto Per KArlsson, BKWine.com

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demns a wine to humble Vin de table status.

SINcE 1959, three higher designa-tions have been permissible. Vin classé is awarded for wines that score 14-15.9; Premier cru at 16-17.9; and grand Premier cru at 18-20. unlike the french equiva-lents, which generally refer to clas-sified vineyards or estates, Premier cru and grand Premier cru re-fer only to a wine that has scored highly enough to merit such sta-tus. There is no fixed classification of luxembourg wines, à la les grands crus classés en 1855. The high yielding, less distin-guished rivaner (also known as müller-Thurgau) and elbling va-rieties can only achieve as high as Vin classé status. red wines – even Pinot noir – can only merit marque nationale, never Premier cru or grand Premier cru.

the qualitY of mercier is not strained

SPaRklINg WINES have long been made in luxembourg. mercier

used to produce “champagne” here from 1886 until the 1930s.crémant de luxembourg has been a sub-appellation of marque nationale since 1991. The charter for this specifies that crémant de luxembourg can be made from any permitted variety and must be aged for a minimum of nine months. it invariably uses the champagne method but, like everywhere else, is not allowed to use “méthode champenoise” on the label. A mere “crémant” (as opposed to crémant de luxem-bourg) is at least partially made from imported grapes. tiny quantities of sweet wines – labelled as Vendange tardive, Vin de glace (ice wine) or Vin de Paille – are also made. feat of claY

luxEmbouRg haS 1,270 hectares of vineyards along 42 kilometres (26 miles) of the moselle between schengen and Wasserbillig.most of the vineyards face east-southeast to south and are on steep hillsides up to 200-metres

in height, cheek by jowl with the moselle.

soil varies between cantons. At grevenmacher, the soil is shell limestone, which encourages acid-ity. remich to the south has more marl and clay, which produces softer wines.

luxEmbouRg haS an oceanic cli-mate – which means plenty of rain. According to guy Krier, an affable and capable winemaker at domaine viticole Krier-Welbes at ellange, peronespera (downy mildew), which is caused by dampness and humidity, is often a problem. But Krier believes, “lux-embourg’s vineyards have benefit-ed greatly from climate change. for example, we have harvested Pinot noir with 13.5-14° alcohol. riesling, a late-ripening variety, is becoming more mature and it also makes highly concentrated Ven-dange tardive wines.” The most recent figures cite 1,270 hectares of vines planted with the 15 approved varieties. Auxerrois, Pinot Blanc and Pinot gris ac-

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I N T E R N A T I O N A L

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count for about 40% of plantings. riesling covers 12.3%. elbling and rivaner grapes cover 35% but, according to the “einkaufs-führer” (shopping guide) 2011, “are declining”. tiny amounts of chardonnay and gewürztraminer are cultivated. The only red grape of significance is Pinot noir, with just 88 hectares planted.

Yield to me

IN 2010, guy Krier made 43,000 li-tres of wine from his 7.9 hectares of vineyards, which equates to 5,443 litres per hectare (54 hecto-litres per hectare). his 2011 yield was 53,000 litres from 8.2 hec-tares, or 6,463 ltr/ha (64.63 hl/ha). he admits that elbling and rivaner give an average of 8,000-

9,000 litres per hectare. By most standards these would be generous if typical yields. in luxembourg, though, these are frugal. crémant de luxembourg, for ex-ample, has a maximum yield of 120 hl/ha. “The control of yields is certainly the biggest challenge” says Krier, “and only the vign-erons who have understood this will make the best wines. But i think this is the case for all the wine regions of the world.”

chaptalisation is widely prac-tised. guy Krier chaptalises his el-bling and rivaner but other varie-ties don’t need it, reaching 11.5°-14° alcohol without assistance.

drift VelocitY

uNdETERREd bY the climatic chal-

lenges, Krier began converting his vineyards to biodynamic status in november 2009. certification will have been achieved by the 2012 harvest.

hIS vINES aRE adjacent to non-biodynamic / organic vineyards. “We have very few problems with drift”, explains Krier. “either we’re a bit isolated by a path, our neigh-bours are also working in bio or we have neighbours who treat their vines themselves. for parcels that are directly adjacent to a non-bio parcel we mark the first and the last line with a red-white band to visualize the border. The heli-copter must stop its spraying three rows before and can recommence three rows after. moreover they are responsible if there are abuses and i can claim compensation if residues are found.”

hE Would, however, rather make his wines without litigation. Walking through his vineyards that look across the moselle towards ger-many, he says, “so far the results are excellent and the wines devel-op beautifully.”

I N T E R N A T I O N A L

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Auction in stockholm 16/11 2011BY stuArt george

mousserande4001heidsieck monopol goût americain 1907heidsieck, champagnebottle from the wreck “Jönköping”, which was sunk 1916 and salvaged 1998stored in private cellarnumber 2153, with certificate1 bt (owc)14.000 - 16.000eur 1.600 - 1.800

the Jönköping, a small swedish schooner, was sunk by a german submarine off the coast of finland on 3 november 1916. the ship was carrying goods destined for the russian imperial army at saint petersburg, via rauma in finland. the wreck was discovered in 1997 and not just a glass but over 2,000 bottles of champagne were raised, including heidsieck monopol (sic) goût americain 1907.

the water pressure 64 metres below the baltic is about the same as that inside the champagne bottles. hence most of the 3,000 bottles had survived intact, as did 21 barrels of cognac. the 17 barrels of burgundy were not so fortunate. analysis showed that the wine had a high dosage of 42.55 grams of sugar and alcohol of 12.35°. long ageing had re-duced the sugar content, which might have been 100g/ltr + at the time of bottling. nowadays the dry styles of cham-pagne have a dosage of about 10g/ltr. since december 1999, 131 bottles of this wine have been sold at auctions, most recently in november 2007, at an average price of us$1,415 / €1,030. the highest ever price was us$5,410 / €3,940 in december 2005. it might not be as old or rare as the shipwrecked 19th cen-tury “clicquot” bottle that was sold in June 2011 – and cer-tainly not as expensive – but, at €1,600-1,800, goût ameri-cain 1907 remains good value for an historic wine.

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4048bollinger rdbollinger, champagneJust released from the cellars of bollinger1952 (1bt) 1959 (1bt) 1961 (1bt) 1966 (1bt) 1976 (1bt) 1979 (1bt) 1985 (1bt) 1988 (1bt) 1990 (1bt) 1995 (1bt) 1996 (1bt) 1997 (1bt) all vintages disgorged on march 7th, 2011 except 1952 which is disgorged 1969labels of all vintages have the same design12 bts50.000 - 60.000eur 5.600 - 6.800

this 12-bottle vertical of bollinger rd includes great and very good vin-tages, though 1997 is not a particularly renowned year for vintage cham-pagne. no 1952 has been sold at a wine auction before but the 1959 made up to $550 / €400 in 2006. the ’61 fetched $520 / €380 in 2009. prices for subsequent vintages are less vaunted. in 2002, the 1966 and 1976 rd averaged $80 / €60 and $75 / €55 re-spectively. only three bottles of the 1985 have been sold so far this year, averaging $250 / €180. there has been better liquidity for the ’79, with 21 bottles sold at $240 / €175, and the 1990, which averages $185 / €135 from 52 bottles sold in 2011. no 1988 has been sold since 2009, when it was making

$100+ / €75+. three-dozen 1995 were auctioned in 2010, making $120 / €90 per bottle. the most widely traded of these bollinger rd vintages is 1996: 133 bottles were sold in 2010 at $140 / €100. the 1997 typically makes $100 / €75, though none has been seen in an auction room since 2009. the total of these historic prices comes to $2,360 / €1,720, far below the €5,600-6,800 estimate here. but these wines in this lot will be very different to others that have been disgorged at different dates, so pricing is difficult to ascertain.

4052château suduiraut 1890sauternes, 1er cru classéstored in private cellaru. usstained labelvintage written on cork1 bt4.000 - 5.000eur 450 – 560

this was not a great bordeaux vintage for red or white wines, though in 1890 suduiraut won the gold medal at the meeting of podensac. this vintage has never been sold at auction before. for its rarity and its senescence – if not for its quality – €450-560 is a good price. 4053château d’Yquem 1899sauternes, 1er cru supérieurf h brown, bordeauxstored in private cellaru. ts1 bt15.000 - 20.000eur 1.700 - 2.250

one of the renowned fin de siècle vintages, 1899 was a great vintage for red bordeaux but slightly less so for sau-ternes. yquem 1899 was harvested between 19 september and 21 october. by comparison, the 2010 was picked from 3 september to 26 october – a longer and more selective harvest. only eight bottles have been sold at auctions since 2000, most recently in 2007 for $8,000 / €5,820 – but that was a rather inflated price.

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4058château d’Yquem 1967sauternes, 1er cru supérieuru. ingood appearance1 bt6.000 - 7.000eur 680 – 790

a great yquem vintage that was harvested from 26 septem-ber to 25 october. in 2011, the market average was $1,135 / €825, just above the high estimate here.

4081moulin touchais 1887coteaux du layon, loirestored in private cellar1 bt4.000 - 5.000eur 450 – 560

there is no record of this vintage being sold at an auction but a bottle of the 1885 made $380 / €275 in 2003. the winery apparently still has some bottles of 1823 in its cellars!

4082moulin touchaiscoteaux du layon, loire1947 (1bt, personal handwriting on label)1949 (2bts)1959 (3bts)slightly stained labels6 bts6.000 - 7.000eur 680 – 790

these are arguably the three best loire vintages of the 20th century. the 1947 moulin touchais peaked at $270 / €200 in 2005, though only 14 bottles have been sold since 1999.

the ’49 reached $195 / €140 in 2006, with 23 bottles sold since 1999. the 1959 is highly-regarded among old moulin touchais vintages and has been relatively well traded at auctions, with 311 bottles traded since 1999. it reached $136 / €100 in 2004.

4103château latour 1945pauillac, 1er cru classéstored in private cellaru. vts1 bt20.000 - 25.000eur 2.250 - 2.800

château latour, which is arguably as great a wine and brand as lafite, maintains a dirigiste regime and keeps a tight rein on its sales. consequently it has had nowhere near as much impact in the asian market. latour, however, is owned by françois pinault – as is christie’s.a few gems, mostly but not exclusively of the 1961 vintage, were offered in hong kong on 27 may 2011. prices explod-ed like a chinese watermelon, with cases of the ’45 mak-ing $166,400 / €121,000, or $13,866 / €10,090 per bottle. in 2010, it averaged us$2,665 / €1,940, which is close to the estimates here.

château lafite rothschild 1948pauillac, 1er cru classéstored in private cellaru. hs1 bt4.000 - 5.000eur 450 – 560

isandwiched between the great 1947 and 1949, 1949 is a much-underrated bordeaux vintage. lafite ’48 peaked at $2,290 / €1,670 in december 2010 but the four bottles sold so far in 2011 have averaged only $620 / €450 – right at the low estimate here.

w w w.vinlusenab.se

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4123château latour 1960pauillac, 1er cru classéstored in private cellaru. 1ts, 1ussoiled labelsdanish tax labels2 bts6.000 - 7.000eur 680 – 790

an awful vintage! in 2008-2009, latour 1960 averaged $170 / €125 at auctions.

4140château lafite rothschild 1982pauillac, 1er cru classéstored in private cellaru. ts1 bt18.000 - 20.000eur 2.050 - 2.250

this is – or was – the most sought-after wine in the auction market and the wine that powered hong kong towards becoming the global capital of fine wine trading. in Janu-ary 2000, a 12-bottle case of lafite 1982 was worth $3,895 / €2,835. by december 2010, it was worth $60,151 / €43,770, an increase of 1,544%. in october 2010, the price had spiked to $107,248 / €78,040. lafite was valued by the lon-don-based fine wine exchange liv-ex at €4 billion, making it the most valuable drinks brand in the world.

the first quarter of 2011, though, saw it slow down like a formula one car entering a corner at the shanghai inter-national circuit – there is still a lot of momentum but the brakes have been applied. recent data points to slightly diminished demand. its average bottle price at auctions to november 2011 was $3,800 / €2,765, but 5% higher in hong kong at $4,000 / €2,910. hong kong continues to control the lafite market like glencore controls the zinc and copper markets.the boom could not last forever. even on hot summer days, there might be a rain cloud that can burst at any moment. but lafite, and specifically its 1982 vintage, remains the best thermometer of the market, though as the fine wine market has cooled in hong kong amidst global economic uncertainty, perhaps it became more of a barometer, a way of gauging pressure rather than temperature.

château latour 1997pauillac, 1er cru classéstored at vinkällaren grappe, stockholmslightly soiled labels3 bts4.800 - 5.400eur 540 – 610

1997 was a vintage of charming but overpriced wines. some can be found for less than their release price. latour 1997 was sold ex-château at the equivalent of €76.20 per bottle and is one of the relatively few wines to have increased in value. it averages $375 / €270 at auctions in 2011.

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Alkohol kanskada din hälsa.

JACOBSDAL PINOTAGE14%VOL, 750 ML

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NYTT PRIS!1 OKTOBER 2011

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champagner på dryckesauktionen

AV JAn netterBerg

4003moët & chandon 1921moët & chandon, champagnestored in private cellarsoiled label1 bt10.000 - 12.000eur 1.130 - 1.350 “1921 is one of the legendary vintages. also this is the first vintage of big brother dom perignon. so this in fact the same wine as the vintage. a good buy for anyone who wants something classic in their cellar.”

4007clos du mesnil 1979krug, champagnestored in private cellarslightly stained labels4 bts48.000 - 60.000eur 5.600 - 6.800

“this is the first vintage of this magical wine.krug bought clos de mesnil in 1971, and re-planted the vineyard successively throughout the 70´s.the vintage, the producer and wine are in a world class”

4014Jacques selosse blanc de blancs 1990Jacques selosse, champagnestored in private cellardisgorged July 29th, 1999damp affected labels5 bts15.000 - 18.000eur 1.700 - 2.050 “one of champagne’s legendary cultivators, selosse was crowned winemaker of the year in the beginning of the 90´s for his unbelievable 86 vintage. it’s all stored in oak casks and it’s not granted to many to be able to procure 5 bottles of the top 1990 vintage”.

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ine dining

DINING

I N T E R N A T I O N A L

I N T E R N A T I O N A L

I N T E R N A T I O N A L

I N T E R N A T I O N A L

Fine Dining DINING

DINING

wine

Fine Dining

september 2011

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4048bollinger rdbollinger, champagneJust released from the cellars of bollinger1952 (1bt)1959 (1bt)1961 (1bt)1966 (1bt)1976 (1bt)1979 (1bt)1985 (1bt)1988 (1bt)1990 (1bt)1995 (1bt)1996 (1bt)1997 (1bt)

all vintages disgorged on march 7th, 2011 except 1952 which is disgorged 1969labels of all vintages have the same design12 bts50.000 - 60.000eur 5.600 - 6.800

“even the wonderful bollinger has come with a sumptuous presentation of old vintages.of course presentation doesn’t mean very much when the wines speak for themselves. here you’ll find a few of bol-linger’s rd absolute best years: 1959, 1961, 1979 & 1996”.

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Las Moras Reserve Shiraz89 kr

14% volnr 6574

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in the heart of southern bourgogne

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IT WaS FRédRíc´S FaThER, george, who founded domaine georges Burrier back in 1945. The main market place back then was in lyon, which at that time was france’s gastronomical capital. his guests eventually became his friends and during the 60´s Paul Bocuse, the renowned french chef, was often in fuissé as a guest.

a FEW dEcadES later, sales of the domaine georges Burrier wine was negotiated in Paris with the help of his son guy and in 2003 fréderíc took over completely and has been at the helm ever since. right now we are in southern Bourgogne, in the máconnais region. Pouilly-fuissé is situated where the landscape becomes ac-centuated by the rocky cliffs at Vergisson and solutré-Pouilly and two other villages, namely fuissé and chaintré. The vineyards lie on the steep slopes facing the south west,The soil is a mixture of clay and limestone from the Jura peri-od and we are about 250-300 me-

tres above sea level. The total acre-age of the Pouilly-fuissé appella-tion is not very big - 760 hectares planted with 100% chardonnay.

hERE aT ThE georges Burrier do-maine it is the ‘trinity’ that is im-portant. The vines are planted in three areas of 3.6 hectares in total, and each has a completely differ-ent terroir.

“la cóTTE” has vines on steep lime-stone slopes, facing east, which means that the grapes that are produced here are well-balanced and render a deep and elegant wine.

“lES chamPS” and “Vers cras” grow in a very chalky soil on top of the plateau, Beauregard, and are therefore richer in minerals.

“vERS cháNES” has a deep and cool soil and lies between the two vil-lages fuissé and chaintre. The wine from here is rather scented and fruity.

Right in the heart of southern bourgogne lies the village of Fuissé. That’s where you’ll find domaine georges burrier, which today is owned by the oenologist Fréderíc burrier, who is also chairman of the Pouilly-Fuissé growers’ association. Wine was initially grown here around 1469 by denis burrier and for the last six generations has been owned and run by the burrier family. The family has lived in this area for about 500 years. You can feel the his-tory all around.

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facts:domaine georges burrier, 250-300 metres above sea level. produces 17 000 bottles a year. character has subtle nuances of citrus and minerals, an elegantblend of melon and honey, repeated on the nose with hints of oak and vanilla. a long finish leaves one with a per-fect reminder of a delicious wine. pouilly-fuissé is stored in burgundian oak casks for 12 months.it is perfect served between 12-15 degrees celsius together with shellfish, fish and goats cheese from máconnais. read more at www.joseph-burrier.com

hERE aT domaine georges Burrier, the grapes are handpicked from approximately 30 year old vines. The harvest yield is moderate but of a very high quality. The grapes are sorted and passed over a vi-brating table before the long and slow mechanical crushing process begins. The grape juice is then al-lowed between 25 and 38 hours to settle (debour-bage).

aFTER ThIS ThE wine is allowed to ferment; the ac-tual clarification process happens very slowly and naturally. in this way the wine develops the perfect qualities that expresses its unique terroir. This in turn allows it to age with dignity. it’s at its best after two to five years in the bottle.

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competition for the systembolaget this is a good thing

BY christoPher JArnVAll

When I write things about the Swedish state-owned off-license chain, the Systembolaget, I usually begin by stating that: I like the Systembolaget. I think they have a very good selec-tion, particularly in mid-priced wines. The prices could have been even more reasonable if the beverage taxes were lower! (Sweden has the Eu´s fourth highest duty on wine.) but it still works out in the end because the Systembolaget is a very big customer and able to keep

IT IS vERY SEldom that i miss some-thing when i’m browsing through my local branches. But things can always be better and the selection can always be a bit bigger so that consumers have more variety to choose from. recently the sales of fortified drinks through farm shops where they are produced has caused an outcry throughout the majority of alcohol political sweden.

You caN havE aNY opinion you wish about farm shop sales and there is even a section of the alcohol industry that is critical. But one point is important - this will wake up the state-owned off-license re-tail outlets somewhat now they’ve got some competition from the locally produced beverages. The systemBolaget recently declared that they would be increasing the

amount of local products in the branch stores. great! now the farm shops have competition! congratulations consumer! At the same time you can’t ignore the systemBolaget’s manoeuvre as a way of ousting small farm shop operations to show us that we don’t need anything other than the systemBolaget.When a state-owned alcohol giant feels threatened it reaches for the big sledgehammer, and because it has bigger muscles than the little farm shop on gotland suddenly we have a distorted competitive situation. Well, that’s only to be expected in a free market.

NEvERThElESS IT’S so very funny when the little people have to give way to the big ones. But it’s still the same products and produce being sold out of the farm shop,

that is now available at the off-li-cense instead. it’s true that for the consumer it doesn’t really matter that much but one or two job op-portunities in the farm shops will be lost which will contribute to the unemployment rate. As long as the farm shops take care of their commitments in the way they are supposed to then it’s much more fun to drive around the little farm shops trying out their local spe-cialities. if the systemBolaget’s way of marketing local products is a way of increasing service to the consumers, then that’s good. otherwise the whole business smells of too much monopoly and trying to get rid of weaker competition. With a sledgeham-mer!

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www.vinamaipo.com /Båda vinerna hittar du i systembolagets beställningssortiment.

CHILE Gran Medalla de Oro

201

0Art nr: 88873149krAlk 14,5%

Art nr: 7342099kr

Alk 14%

Alkohol i samband med arbeteökar risken för olyckor.

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do you want have something nice

to go with your wine over the holidays?

BY elKe Jung, VinBAnKen

high up on a mountain top, while the winter rages at its worst outside, The Jambon de boss-es S.R.l´s workers are completely cut off from the outside world.It’s completely understandable that you need to be a real firebrand to over-winter in this lit-tle village on the top of the world.

ThESE WEaThER bitten “cossacks” work efficiently, juggling the new-ly delivered ham hocks as if they weighed less than a pile of swan’s down. naturally the meat comes from the vicinity and has to be salted and then cured in a cold loft area. it already smells delicious in the doorway of the salting room. The hams are cured with spices and herbs, some of which are lo-

cal, while others are well known, for example cinnamon. most of the curing is done through the winter months in the loft of the old wooden house. The storage time is at least 12 months. dur-

ing this period the hams loose 60% of their size. The loft floor is strewn with dried grass harvested from the embankment, and the fragrance spreads over the whole area. The air is very dry and crisp

and it is the altitude above sea lev-el that makes the hams so unique. Another reason for the delicious taste of the Jambon de Bosses is the low temperature and the long storage time.

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ThE aTmoSPhERE in which the Jam-bon de Bosses is produced is very special. The place is 1600 metres above sea level. The tiny village saint-rhemy en Bosses consists of four houses and a few barns; one of the houses is used in the production and as a ware-house. since 1996 Jambon de Bosses has a protected designation of origin classification..

ThE hamlET has only one resident. he is a middle-aged bachelor who seldom goes out. The view from up there is magnificent - on one side the Aostas most famous val-leys, The gran san Bernado, and switzerland on the other.

ThE ham IS TENdER and supple and tastes simply wonderful. it liter-ally melts on the palate and leaves you with a lovely after-taste of herbs and spices.it is quite fantastic and cannot be compared with any other cured hams. it was first documented back in 1379 in the writings of contess de l´hospice du grand-saint Bernard who said that the pig’s leg tasted excellent! during the ensuing centuries the Jambon de Bosses was often written about and described as a genuine hand-craft. The air-cured ham from the top of the mountain demands a professional to prepare it, a salt master who in turn has inherited the craft from his father.

I FEEl a bIT Sad when my visit comes to an end. to see a craft performed as if it were sacred, that became an institution, was inspiring. tthe incessant talking and gesticulating managing director, the salt master Bruno fegatelli who showed me around the operation and spoke of every ham as if it had a person-ality of its own – i’ll never forget them. The contrast between him and the little ‘sleeping beauty vil-lage’ doesn’t need to be spoken out loud. The way that Bruno made me understand the whole chain of contented pig to ham, and later contented, peaceful food to contented consumers like myself

and others. And the two season-ally employed cossacks who never uttered a word of greeting, i hon-estly don’t think i’ll ever forget my visit!

ThE bEST TImE to taste this ham is during the summer. every second year, in July, they hold the festival in Aosta in honour of Jambon de Bosse.

REad moRE about Aosta´s delicacies and the feast of Jambon de Bosse at http://www.regione.vda.it/turis-mo/enogastronomia/default_i.asp

Vinbanken

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“Det här är Stockholms motsvarighet till Osteria Verona på Piazza Erbe fast listan på Primewinebar är bättre.”www.amaroneguiden.se

PrimewinebarÖstermalmstorg 5, Stockholmwwww.primewinebar.se

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what’s happening in southafrica

BY christoPher JArnVAll

I’m worried about developments in South africa. actually it’s been like that for many years. I started coming here about 10 years ago and back then eve-rything looked pretty positive until criminality literally exploded like an av-alanche in the middle of the 90´s which made cities like Johannesburg and durban very dangerous places to visit. The security situation seemed to get

worse if you’re prepared to believe the statistics. It’s very difficult to entice tourists with the promise of fine wines and safaris when it’s in one of the world’s most dangerous places.

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IT WaS STaRTINg to look good, i thought; the economy was start-ing to hum and there was a cer-tain willingness to get the country going , regardless of skin colour. Things got off to a good start with nelson mandela, but then the re-cent years of bad governing and black empowerment has caused enormous problems, not only for the white and coloured minori-ties, but also for the black people who don’t belong to the Anc or groups of people that traditionally are included in this. The country is suf-fering a brain-drain, with well-educated people emigrating, often enticed to neighbouring Afri-can countries to help build up the infra-structure which has been more or less frozen. An example of this is in the ag-riculture or mining sectors - south Af-rica is slowing down. The Anc and its militant youth off-shoots blame others, particularly the white Af-ricans the so-called ‘b’ (which actually means farmer in dutch) and frequently couched in very threatening terms. This would never have been accepted between political parties in civilised coun-tries. it has been agreed that the Afrikaners were very cruel to the blacks during apartheid, but for the sake of the country it would be best to be reconciled.

IT’S NoT aN EaSY SITuaTIoN. There is a lot of hatred and revenge smoul-

dering under the surface in spite of earlier talk of reconciliation. one day it might explode and the conflict will not be restricted to just black and white. The Western cape, where the majority of white and coloured people live, have voted the Anc out of office. The Anc are threatening to re-locate people in the country to try and secure their political dominance, even in the Western cape where the white helen Zille from the former opposition is in charge.

she is constantly being libeled and threatened by the Anc´s storm troopers. The republic of south African has 11 official languages and appears more and more to be a powder keg. i expected it to ex-plode 5 or 6 years ago. But what will happen then, will there be a civil war, will there be boycotts and sanctions? Well, hardly from sweden. We’ve sold them a load of aeroplanes - god forbid that they’ll be used against their own people. i’m ashamed to say that we can’t even keep our distance from the Zimbabwe regime’s mis-

use of power by oppressing its own people. how will we manage with south Africa, where we’ve invested so much? What will hap-pen to the wine? since the elimi-nation of apartheid 20 years ago, we’ve seen an immense upswing in south African wine produc-tion and exports. And rightly so. The wines are fantastic. But what’s going to happen now, when new owners without any tradition and knowledge take over? Black empowerment doesn’t mean that

normal black people who have an interest in educa-tion and hard work will get the chance to take over. no, it is often the upper echelons of the Anc that seize the chance to make their own fortunes and have their fingers in every pie in town. The normal population exists in the same dismal, meagre con-ditions they did before. if you belong to the ‘wrong’ party or indeed the wrong ‘tribe’ then you don’t stand a chance.

I WoNdER WhaT south Africa will look like in 10-20 years? i doubt very much that they will be able to retain their status as an economic force in Africa. i doubt that they’ll regain their loss of skilled work-ers caused by emmigration. in the same way i am quite certain that chinese influence will grow stronger and stronger, just like everywhere else in Africa. so the question is, who will be calling the shots in the vineyards of the West-ern cape in 10 years?

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TERREDORA

KLICKA HÄRFÖR ATTBESTÄLLA

SPÄNNANDE VINERFRÅN SÖDRA ITALIEN

89 KRAGLIANICO2009

MER ÄN PRISVÄRT!VIN&BARJOURNALEN NR 3 2011

PRISVÄRT! ALLT OM MAT NR 17 2011

89 KRFIANO DI AVELLINO2009

BÄSTA KÖP! ALLT OM VIN NR 9 2010

FAVORIT! GOURMET NR 7/8 2011

PRISVÄRT! ALLT OM MAT NR 17 2011

SVD FRE 14 OKT 2011

DI WEEKEND 17 JUNI 2011

Alkohol kan skada din hälsa

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WebAuction specialI N T E R N A T I O N A L

When did the SystemBolaget first enter tain the idea of in-ternet auctions?At the same time as the stock-holm’s “Auctionsverk” decided to work with some of its opera-tion on the internet. it was obvi-ous to us that the so called “lit-tle drinks Auction” would go to the online auction. it’s what’s happening now. A survey that

we carried out amongst our online customers showed us that they had a positive attitude towards change. Which of course assured us that we were on the right track.

What was it that made your Online Auctions such a success?of course they were many factors that played a part. Amongst others is the fact the actual procedure is easier for the customer. You’re not tied to a time and place when you make purchases online. The success of our first auction is additional proof of swedish consumers’ interest in quality beverages. Can tell us about some of the memorable things that went under the hammer?There were many bids that are worth mentioning:for example an unbroached case of 6 Vieux château certain from the 2000 vintage , with an estimate of

300 euros which went for the remarkable price of 1450 euros, or a bottle of grange 1981, estimate 250 euros which went down for 420 euros.

How do you see a continuation of Online Auctions after this initial success?We are very positive towards online Auctions in the fu-ture. As i mentioned before it’s what’s happening now. We believe that once the word is out that it’s so easily available it will become very popular. online auctions also gives us increased opportunity to regulate the num-ber of auction days according to requirements, and we can also offer thematic auctions. for example we’re go-ing to have a Whisky Auction on the 15th december.

How Many Online auctions are planning for the Spring of 2012?At the present time we’re looking at four dates for the spring. But if we receive enough bids to fulfill the crite-ria then we can increase the number of dates.

In your opinion, do you think the online auctions will beat the “Drinks Auction?”We’ll have to see how our upcoming auctions work out and how much interest our customers show going for-wards. At the present time we’re working with both the online and the hammer auctions. The next important drinks auction will be on the 16th of november.

the new internet auctions are a success

an Interview with Therese Eck, Systembolaget

Världspremiär för En Värld av Vin på nätetAll världens vinländer, regioner, viner och producenter i en dator nära dig. Registrera dig gratis på www.envarldavvin.se. Välkommen hälsar Mikael Mölstad.