Articles by dryckesbutiken.se

Alessandro grew up drinking his grandfather’s wines, and they were as wines always have been before the time of conventional or natural. So, in 1996 when he started working full time with his father at the age of 21 he knew that he wanted to continue to make the wines as they always had been. This style of wines wasn’t fancy at all in Sardinia, when he tried to sell them to restaurants the people just told him to take his ’old school wines’ and go home. So he started to sell to the mainland and to export. He never talked about natural, he just talked about wine, and this worked fine outside Sardinia.

So, he had been drinking wine since he was much younger than what they recommend here in Sweden (and if you think about the fairly high alcohol they get in these hot climate wines, you would guess he was a jolly kid..) and started to work already when he was 12.

He’s been to winemaking school in Verona twice, dropping out both times – ’they didn’t speak about real stuff’. But something that he got hooked on in 2001 was biodynamic farming and when he was working in Italy to gain more experience, he met his ’master’ Alex Podolinsky from Tenuta Valgiano.

By that time, he already had 9 years of experience because he started to help out in the vinery already when he was 12. In 1998 his father let him take the full control, this was when Alessandro proclaimed that he wanted to sell their entire production in bottles (his father was selling a lot in bulk earlier) and this was when they started for real to sell all over Italy and to export.

Soils are chalk and sand, and all the vineyards are surrounding their estate, that lays on an altitude of 250 meters of altitude, overlooking the ocean in the north part of Sardinia. The fresh winds from the ocean, the altitude and the soils helps the wines to maintain a very good freshness, even though they have a really warm climate with loads of sun.

All fermentation and ageing are on concrete and steel and often during a longer period. You need to be patient to be able to make stable, good wines with no added sulphur, especially here with the sugar level is high.

The wines are really deep and expressive. Massive, red sweet fruit, but always with a good acidity, integrated fine tannin structure and a fresh mineral finish.

Guillaume Vrignaud showing the few grapes he has left after this springs frost damage in his Fourchaume ’Les Clos de Fontenay’ vineyard. These 63 year old vines planted by his grand grandfather is ready to be harvested next week, and the very few grapes tastes fantastic!
High ripeness but kept acidity As with many places this vintage it is an unusually early harvest, a normal year the harvest takes place the last days of September. 

A few weeks ago we went out in the Swedish archipelago to a beautiful island called Möja. This island is full of life and stories from people that lives here. One of them is Joakim Khilberg who runs Långviks Krydderi. Already in the fall of 2016 we started talking about making a signature gin for Sprithyllan. Joakim had never made a gin before but has a long experience of making snaps, vodka and his most famous creation, Möja taffel.

Joakim came to Möja over 20 years ago and met someone that came to change his life completely. That someone was the mysteries and adventurous Karl Ivan ’Jeppe’ Lindfors. An old sailor that spent most of his adult life on the seven seas but later in life settled down on his favourite island – Möja. It only took ten minutes after their first meeting until it was decided that Jocke was going to rent an old house owned by Jeppes family situated on a cliff overlooking the beautiful little harbour that is Möja. This was not only a start of a close friendship but also the start of a business focused on Swedish traditional spirits. Långviks Krydderi was borned.

Jeppe taught Joakim everything about the island and especially about an herb that was well established on the island, Spanish runaway, also called the green gold. The herb was frequently used for a long time, in everything from cooking to medical purposes, but today it’s mostly considered a well spread weed. The flavour reminds us of anis and has a natural sweetness to it.

The choice of using Spanish runaway in our gin was obvious but it’s not the only thing growing on Möja. You can find all sorts of things. Berries, various herbs and flowers – which makes it the perfect place to make a gin. The main ingredients are also juniper (obviously) and peppermint – all of it growing just outside the distillery.

We spent the day harvesting Spanish runaway, picking junipers and learning how to extract flavours through soaking herbs in high ABV alcohol. After a year of tasting different batches and extracts, the gin is finally done. The result is a dry gin with prominent juniper flavour, deep herby flavours and citrusy notes, we hope you’ll love it as much as we do!

Met up with Francois Dumas in Saint-Pierre-de-Boeuf where he has his 0,9 ha of Condrieu planted.

When he bought this parcel in 2010 it was cherry trees and bush planted on this little hill overlooking the village.

So, there was quite a big chunk of work for him to take out the trees and replant with selection massale Viogner in 2010 and 2011.

Since that day there has been few days he hasen’t spent working in the vineyards or in the vinery-this is a one man show and he has in total 2,9 ha today. 1 ha in St Joseph that he also bought 2010, and same as with the Condrieu parcel, it wasn’t planted before (he couldn’t afford planted vineyards in those famous appelations). In 2013 he purchased tha last piece of what today is his domaine, 1 ha of already planted Gamay and Syrah on a spot between his St Jo and Condrieu vineyards that he makes Vin de Pays from.

We took a stroll over the hill, and talked about this vintage-which for him luckily looks good both for quality and quantity.

Then we drove up to his vinery in Varenne, situated 5 kilometers up the hill towards Saint Joseph. This is where Francois grew up, and it’s in the basement of the restaurant that his mother runs(Francois Dumas spent his childhood in that restaurant, and this is where his interest of wine first started) that he has his vinery.

This is least to say a cellar of the smaller scale, and everything here is made by hand. (To pick up our first pallet here in 2016 took more than 5 weeks because Francois never exported before and didn’t have the equipment to load a pallet on a truck, but eventually we sorted that out.) We also needed to go here to get the hand printed invoice for the last shipment that just came in to Sweden.

The labelling machine is one of the older ones-but Francois doesn’t want to have the horrible noice of a bottling line close to him or his wines.

He also hopes that his mother, that soon will retire, will be restless and help him out with this pretty time absorbing work..

We tasted 2016 from the barrels, and like this vintage in general there is a lot of accessible fruit well balanced with fine acidity and freshness. And as all wines he makes they has such a pure and true taste of the northern Rhône, that really moves us.

He will bottle his 2016 in May 2018, our allocation of 2015 that we just got in to Sweden, is already more or less sold out unfortunantely.

 So, we already long to receive our third vintage from this secret guy in the mountains.

Are you more curious about this guy and his wines, check him out under ’producers’.

The day started with me meeting Paul and Chrystelle, Domaine Miquettes in Cheminas.
They are happy, 2017 is a year which gave them a good yields on the Syrah from all their plots, only the Viogner next to their house got lost in springfrost (and for this year and being in France, that’s really a luxury..)

We hit the road, and drove over to their 1 ha of vineyard just above the Village of Arlebosc, Ardeche – a few kilometers from their home in Cheminas. This plot is 400 meters above sea-level, the soil’s composed of sand, mica schist and granit. Planting was done by Paul, now 13 years ago, and they make their Vin de France Syrah from there, which we got our first vintage of to Sweden.

Then we went to see the cellar they bought in the beginning of 2017, to enable them to vinify all reds on amphora they needed more space. To bury these 5000 liter amphora’s in the ground wasn’t at all the less challenging, work-to clean them in the future will also be quite a task. There is also a dozen of 600 litre amphoras buried.
One really interesting thing with this place is that’s there is a house just across the yard from the cellar that Paul and Chrystelle plan to transform to a restaurant and wine-bar within a year or two. They are tired of that there is no decent place to eat or drink if you don’t want to spend an hour in the car. I’m more than excited about this of course, one more good thing with the northern Rhône, to be able to eat well some where.

We went back to their house and looked at the newly plantations of different whites. One plot with various indigenous varieties from Georgia (yes, Paul and Chrystelle loves Georgia, natural born hippies as they are – read the Madloba story under our producer page if you are curious). Paul smuggled these vines on a plane when he went back from one of his trips to that magical country, really excited to try the wine in the future.
They also planted Chenin Blanc, Gewürtztraminer, Marsanne, Rousanne, Gamay and Reyondor (an old hybrid that’s local here and apparently very good) – the result of this cocktail we will probably see within 2-3 years.

We finished off with barrel samples of 2016 Madloba and Saint Joseph that will be bottled this autumn-delicious, direct fruit, with elegance, freshness and that ’true’ northern Rhône feeling I have with their Syrah which is easier to feel than to express in words.
After that, a lovely lunch made from their garden and their lamb, thanks a lot Paul and Chrystelle-you are really unique!!

This guy, I’ve said it before, is a brave one. Here in full action to secure the fence around Zuccucaro vineyard to prevent the shepherds to steal the chestnut wood piles that he uses to support the Alberello trained vines from the wind (Alberello=traditional free-standing vines). The shepherds believe they have the right to all land, so there is a lot of bribing and negotiation going on for everybody that wants to grow stuff on Etna and elsewhere on Sicily. But especially if you are a strange foreigner they don’t really care to much about you. Edo is born and raised in Tenerife and moved here, at own risk, to learn to make wine in 2012.

Edo is now looking in to his 3:d vintage making his own wines on Etna, and for this year he’s managed to rent 5 different plots with old Nerello Mascalese plants which he finds suitable to make really good wines. (Or mainly Nerello Mascalese, there is always some other reds and whites co-planted in the old vineyards, such as Carricante, Cataratto, Albanello, Minella, Nerello Cappucho, ). Allt the vineyards are on 700-1300 meters of altitude, northfacing and stretching up on the hill towards the vulcano.

After the sunny morning in the vineyards we drove down to Vittoria, where Edo is making his wines in the vinery of Arianna Occhipini, one of the coolest winemakers I know and also the girlfriend of Edo. The reds from 2016 are still in barrels, and are of course young right now, but has a really good balance. 2016 was the first vintage where Edo made a white wine, and that’s just been bottled. The white grapes comes from all Edo’s vineyards, and are a mix of the local white varieties. It’s amazing, a tasty mix of intense fruit, volcanic minerality and freshness. Funny enough I just asked him earlier that day if he ever thought he could get close to making something similar to the amazing whites that can spring from Tenerife on Sicily, and he said that he didn’t know, and that it was a really hard task. But honestly, he’s not far away with this wine.

Very happy that we’ll get some of this whites together with his 2015 Versante Nord and 2015 Pirrera this autumn! Thanks Edo for the wines, and Sicily for the sun!

A couple of weeks ago we visited Mr Vermouth – Mauro Vergano in Asti. He showed us around in his least to say tiny production rooms where he makes his 4 different Vermouths: Bianco, Americano, Nebbiolo Chinato and Lulí (the white Chinato which he is the only one who makes) . We smelled loads of different spices and herbs and learned about everything from the difference between wormwood-species, drying technics for his citruses and what ingredients he carefully picks himself around northern Italy after seasons. He also showed us his small pots where he does the infusions. It’s a science to make the maceration of different spices, herbs and fruits for certain amounts of time dependent on their caractheristics and of course what you want to achive with the end result.

But Mauro has it all under controll and have as far as I tasted been a head of this game ever since he started now a few years ago. The production is tiny, and we always think ask for too much.. but he agreed to send us 90 bottles of each vermouth and we are very greatful and happy for that.
Thank you Mauro!

First time with Ramiro and we all realised that all we previously learnt about sherry wasn’t close to all there is to know.
Before 2012 Ramiro worked for the big bodegas, and made fortified sherrys in what’s todays ‘normal’ style.
But, he’s always been very interested in history-and during the years at the other bodegas he collected knowledge about how it used to be, before the English’s custom of fortification.

So, here’s a small history lesson about stuff you don’t learn in sommelier school:
At the time before phylloxera, there were 43 different indigenous grape varieties grown here, of which we see very few of in this more or less polyculture of Palomino Fino/Listan Blanco land.
Another thing that isn’t widely known is that before 1784 it was illegal to mature and store wines in the region (reason a bit unclear) so the wines where shipped over to England in barrels while still fermenting.
Before 1830 there were more or less only sweet wines produced in the Jerez region. The biggest market for these wines where the English people. The taste of the English population changed during the 1830:s and 1840:s and they started to demand dry wines, and the farmers/winemakers of Jerez adapted.

There was a big crise in late 1800 that led to overproduction of wine, which later led to the solution of this problem to lower the prices, and increased quantities of lower quality wines (what we can call a bad spiral hard to stop..). High volumes of low quality wines that didn’t get sold led to a trend of fortification, to ensure the wines would last even though if they got sold much later.

So between 1830 to the beginning of 1900, the people in the region had been making dry, unfortified wines in the oxidative or ‘biological way’(what they call it when the wines are aged under flor and gets protection from oxidation), so the fortified style of sherry we see today is a fairly new thing.

Next big crise came 1970, and that really changed the size of the bodegas, where more or less all the small bodegas got bought up by the bigger bodegas. There where around 170 bodegas in Sanlúcar before that, today you find around 40.
So, back to 2012: Ramiro felt he needed to try this old, traditional style of making wines out, and started his small winery.

This winery is situated right on the beach of the Qualadivir river that connects Sanlúcar de Barrameda with the ocean.
He is making single vineyard wines from a handful of the 18 excisting ‘pagos’ of Sanlúcar (pago=the Spanish name for single vineyard, divided according to their soil and exposition).

The main variety he’s using is Listan Blanc/Palomino Fino, but also have some old vines of Uva Rey and Perruno, 2 of the other old indigenous varieties you could find here before phylloxera.
Listan Blanco is the old clone of Palomino Fino, that’s also often seen planted in the Canary Islands, but actually origins from here. The ships passed here on their way out to the islands and they brought vines with them to plant back in the days.
So, the taste: whites: elegant, salty, fruity, mineral and fresh, with or without oxidative notes. Like a mix between the best Listan Blanco’s I’ve tried from the canary island and refined, oxidative wines from the Jura. Exciting is the least to say, and soon to be found in Sweden.

Tasting 2016 in ’between-land’ – Colline des Rhodaniennes

Last week I had the opportunity to visit Anne and Pierré-André Déplaude at their Domaine in the small village of Tartaras, just west of Lyon.
This appellation had before phylloxera 20 000 hectares planted but today there is only 20 hectares in total.
Because of economic reasons it was not replanted. The farmers focused on growing other stuff and many people in this area are dairy farmers.

In the late 90’s Anne and Pierré-André decided to change their focus from cows to wine.
Today they have 5,7 hectares planted and work with the indiginous grapes that was originally here.
They make a lot of reserach and keep finding more and more varieties I’ve never heard about before.

For example I got to try their 1 small fiberglass-egg with Morvien Noir, which they planted half a hectar of only 3 years ago.
It was floral, light and dreamy-more of that in the future!

Other varieties they work with is for whites are
Ravat, Jaquerre, Viogner, Chardonnay, Chasselas, Roussanne, Clariette and Choucillon.
For the reds for reds they work with Pinot Noir, Syrah, Gamay, and now also Morvien Noir.

2016 for them was good, they where not affected of the shitty weather that more or less hit all regions in France in one way or another.
Like all other 2016 I’ve tried so far the wines taste great.

More elegant than 2015, with fine aromas, pure, open fruitiness, nice deph and good acidity.
Looking forward to drink these wines after summer when they arrive!