New Swedish wines ...

Sounds delightful! A must buy! I did recently try an icewine made from Blaufränkisch, and while it certainly wasn't deep red, it did retain a bit of a blush. I shall take from your post that the vintner must be very proud of that fact. It was actually quite good, and thankfully cost nowhere even in the neighborhood of the Chateau.

Do the Swedes make wine with Chasselas?

So how many cases did you order, Nils? :P

Mark Lipton

"winemonger" skrev i meddelandet news: snipped-for-privacy@posting.google.com...

;)))

Not that I know. The Blaxta Ice I already tasted (ugh!) was made from Vidal; some optimists are trying Chardonnay but has not gone on market yet; one vintner on Gotland uses some obscure grapes suited for colder climates, from Germany I believe- they are introduced today with their first commercial offering, 129 SEK for 500 ml, and the description in the Tastevins member journal is, frankly, 'don´t buy - do, very definitely, NOT buy this wine'. Terms best translated as 'humbug' and 'shame' are used in other reports.

Our optimist neighbour brothers and sisters, the Norwegians, grow Chardonnay on the banks of the Oslo fiord and have produced a 'Cuvée Edvard Munch' at a price comparable to a Meursault village, but it appears to be a one off - haven´t heard of any new vintages, and haven´t tasted it.

Perhaps one shouldn´t overestimate the effects of global warming - one thing it does not inevitably lead to, at least, not just yet, is Scanidnaivan quality wine production (wine made from grapes, that is, because a few 'wines' made from fruit _have_ bbeen produced - or at least, one).

HTH

Cheers

Nils Gustaf

All fruit and berry "wines" are not totally unpalatable (even though I agree that most that I've tried are just that, at least here in Finland).

The one outstanding exception to substandard berry wines I know of is the red wine made in the Valamo Orthodox monastery. It's made both as a semi-dry and sweet versions and it's quite wine-like; in fact, it even tastes like grape wine. In my opinion it is a bit like port, but without the hotness of the brandy.

Cheers,

-Topi Kuusinen, Finland

"Nils Gustaf Lindgren" skrev i melding news:SKklc.57853$ snipped-for-privacy@newsb.telia.net...

I don't really know whether they did a Chardonnay, but they did make red wine with, in fact some acclaim in spite of a hefty price tag, something like 150USD a bottle. That winery on the west side of the fiord is now defunct, however. On the east side rumours are that a guy is planting vines. That farm has a solid basis in hand made cheeses and vegetables, so they might just make it. Future will show. Anders

That's interesting. Could be the near ultimate cool climate region. Give global warming a few years and that might turn out to be one of the new Côte d'Ors...

I'm also thinking coastal Alaska, Maine or Nova Scotia - possibly within my lifetime. No joke. They may end up planting Oregon to Rhone varietals and Napa to raisins. :^(

Tom S

So, what they gonna plant in Rhone or Bordeaux in near future ?? African or Sahara Desert varieties ?? By the way, know any good African (not S African) varieties ?

"Tom S" skrev i melding news:JTElc.59911$ snipped-for-privacy@newssvr25.news.prodigy.com...

Coincidentally, reports are that this April was the warmest on record... BTW, today's temperatures in Paris 54F, Rome 60F, Oslo 65F and Trondheim,

I'm going through temperature shock. Last sunday I was around San Diego, with 100F.

Yesterday morning in coastal Provence, it was 46F.

Mike

Mike Tommasi, Six Fours, France email link

Lucky you!

] Yesterday morning in coastal Provence, it was 46F. ]

Indeed, frost last 2 nights. I'm off to chop wood, not something I usually spend a lot of time at this time of year... Me grape vine thinks it's spring, though.

-E