När skörden är på väg i många olika länder i Europa så har vi i Sverige börjat sjunka in i mörker och köld. Tid för att öppna lite kraftigare flaskor och återbesöka klassiska druvor. Som Cabernet Sauvignon, den så kallade kungen av druvor som kan växa lite överallt utan att tappa sin identitet. Cabernet Sauvignon vinifieras ensam eller blandat. Det är inte bara i Bordeaux som han regerar utan också i Napa, Kalifornien, samt i Stellenbosch, Sydafrika. […]
(Pianotage – French, from pianoter meaning ‘to play the piano with no skill’) South Africa always seems to be in the limelight these days. A few weeks ago Kanonkop’s winemaker Abrie Beeslaar, and marketing manager Deirdre Taylor paid a visit to Stockholm. A non-central destination for them to travel to, but a commercially important one: Sweden and Denmark are their big export markets. It is quite a privilege to have winemakers talk about their wines: there is invariably interesting information to glean from them and they really make their wines come to life. Fourteen bottles were on show. Amongst them just under half were from the Pinotage grape variety and the remainder from Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Sauvignon blends. To my surprise there were no white wines whatsoever. Not one Chenin Blanc in sight… I confess that I have reservations regarding Pinotage. I will never forget the first time I tried a Pinotage wine. It was rough, it was bitter, it smelled of Band-Aid plaster and tasted of burnt tar. An “Edith Piaf, Mon Légionnaire” moment gone wrong… …
Austria conjures up Riesling and Grüner Veltliner but the wines Austrian wine producer Dorli Muhr presented us with were from the red varietals Syrah and Blaufränkisch. Her path to becoming a wine producer is an interesting one. Born in Carnuntum in Austria to parents who are farmers, she is an entrepreneur and set up her own PR business whilst still studying. Her field of expertise is the good things in life but most specifically food and wine. When she met her husband Dirk van der Niepoort of Douro fame they decided to produce wine together. But Dorli was very particular about what kind of wines she wanted to make. No jammy notes, the wines had to be fresh and elegant. Austria seemed to be the ideal place to produce Dorli’s style of wine. She thus left Portugal where she had been living and with Dirk she set up her winemaking venture where she was born, in Carnuntum. Carnuntum is today one of the eight wine regions in Niederösterreich (Lower Austria). During Roman times, Carnuntum was …
Nordic Wine Blog 