Åsa Johansson is Swedish but lives in Italy. She is in charge of most of what BKWine does in Italy, she virtually is BKWine Italia, and she sometimes writes here on BKWine Magazine. But she also writes in numerous other publications, even in Italy. Here are a few examples: In Gambero Rosso: on the Swedish [...]
Tag Archives | Sweden
Our organic favourites, a selection of good wines
Our pick of organic wines in the range at Systembolaget, the Swedish alcohol monopoly At some journalist tastings the organic products sometimes receive quite a bit of a beating. Sometimes it seems as if organic wine start on the track with minus points from the outset. Yes, there are some dull wines among the organic. [...]
Högberga Wine Factory – Swedish wine from Italian grapes
Two crazy Swedes make Italian wine in Stockholm The strange story of how two Swedish wine enthusiasts began making wine on Lidingö, an island that is part of Stockholm. The truck the grapes home with a lorry from Tuscany in Italy. And it actually tastes good! Britt Karlsson tells the story. Sweden has a difficult [...]
South Africa wants to be recognized for its high-quality wines too, says PIWOSA
A new association to promote South African quality wines South Africa is probably most famous for its wines in the entry and middle price segment, often with “plenty of wine for the money”-aspects. Now a new association called Premium Independent Wineries of South Africa (PIWOSA) wants to make the world aware of their top class [...]
Biggest wine suppliers to Sweden: Italy and South Africa
Italian wines overtook South African in 2012 as most popular During four years South Africa has been the best selling wine supplier country to Sweden. In 2012 they had to hand over the top spot to Italy. Sales of Italian wines increased strongly in 2012. Swedes bought 20% more wine from Italy in 2012 than [...]
There were more wine bloggers around than what we thought!
We have made a list with all Swedish wine blogs. All that we could find. We thought that we would find perhaps 30 or 40 wine blogs in Sweden when we started. It turned out to be many more! In the first version we have 65 wine blogs. And then, with the help of others, [...]
Swedish wine making waves in Italy
It is not (yet) the wines made by Göran Amnegård at the Blaxta vineyard south of Stockholm (Sweden) that has reached Italy but it is his reputation. Blaxta is perhaps the Swedish vineyards that has achieved the most international attention, especially his sweet ice wines. That may have to do both with his talents as [...]
BKWine features (sort of) in a detective crime novel
It is actually the BKWine Scandinavian Wine Fair in Paris that is mentioned in the Swedish author Anna Jansson’s book “The Alchemy’s Eternal Fire”. We don’t have as prominent a role in the book as Gute Vineyard, a Swedish winery that is actually mentioned by name. Without revealing too many secrets we can say that [...]
The “wine media power list” of Swedish and international wine communicators
BKWine among WBI’s Major Wine Media Players WBI looks at Scandinavia, China, Russia, Germany, UK, US and Brazil Meininger’s Wine Business International (WBI) is an eminently readable magazine about … the business of wine. In their June issue they looked at wine media across the globe and attempted to identify which are the major players [...]
Modern era commerce and customer service arrives at the Swedish alcohol monopoly
The Systembolaget alcohol monopoly in Sweden has been given green light by the government to start a trial with home delivery of alcohol. There has been an intense debate in Swedish political circles on this issue for some time; not even the government coalition parties have been in agreement. Some say it would be a [...]
Murder in the vineyard? BKWine appears in a detective novel
Gute Winery’s gold medal winning grappa plays role in Swedish crime book I was sitting lazily reading a Swedish crime novel on the balcony the other day. The book was “The Alchemy’s Eternal Fire” by Anna Jansson (my translation). I read it in Swedish but I’m sure it is translated into English as most Scandinavian [...]
Sweden has a broad range of wines, or not?
How does the fact of having a monopoly on retail sales influence the range of products on sale in Sweden? A few years back a new range of wines was introduced, the so called “On Order” range which means that the wine lover can choose from thousands of wines in addition to the normal range [...]
Our “Best Wine Book” prize certificates
Bragging time? We have not shared the beautiful pictures of it before, but we have mentioned it (I think even several times). Our last book, The Creation of a Wine (Ett vin blir till, in Swedish) first won the prize (award?) in Sweden as Best Wine Book of the Year. Or if one should be [...]
Artist’s interpretation of Wine Personality of the Year
Britt had the honour to be named “Wine Personality of the Year” last year by the world’s biggest wine tasting association, the Munskankarna club. One of the things that “The Profile” is subject to is being depicted by the brilliant wine comics artist Ulf Jansson (who has published a book with his works on Bengt [...]
Independent Swedish internet wine merchants – a new sales channel for producers?
Internet wine shops can today sell directly to Swedish consumers and bypass the monopoly. The Swedish wine market is dominated by the monopoly retailer, Systembolaget (just like Alko in Finland and Vinmonopolet in Norway). Since a few years back there are a number of independent internet-based wine merchants selling directly to Swedish consumers. A interesting [...]
All (?) Swedish wine importers – The List
The Swedish wine trade is split in two parts: the importers and the retailer. Retail is a monopoly and it is the Systembolaget AB company who is the monopolist, operating some 400 shops around the country. Systembolaget is owned by the Swedish state. It exists because of claimed public health concerns. The import side is [...]
Independent Swedish internet wine merchants – a new sales channel
Internet wine shops can sell directly to Swedish consumers and bypass the monopoly The Swedish wine market is dominated by the monopoly retailer, Systembolaget (just like Alko in Finland and Vinmonopolet in Norway). Since a few years back there are a number of independent internet-based wine merchants selling directly to Swedish consumers. A interesting new [...]
Swedish Wine Importers
An extensive list of importers of wine to Sweden The Swedish wine (and alcohol) trade is split in two distinct parts: the importers and the retailer. Retail is a monopoly and it is the Systembolaget AB company who is the monopolist, operating some 400 shops around the country. Systembolaget is owned by the Swedish state. [...]
Britt Karlsson, BKWine, elected Wine Personality of the Year
Munskänkarna is the world’s biggest wine tasting club with almost 24 000 members (yes indeed!). Since a few years back they pick each year a person that they honour with the title “Wine Profile of the Year” (or Wine Personality of the Year). This year the honour was bestowed on Britt Karlsson, BKWine, when she, [...]
Restaurang GQ, Stockholm | BKWine Pick
Jürgen Grossmann is a bit of an eminence gris on the Stockholm restaurant scene. Or perhaps not so grey, he actually has quite a reputation. Today he runs GQ. We first encountered his cooking talents at Gässlingen, small restaurant on Söder in Stockholm. That was many years ago. Now he runs a much more sophisticated [...]
How to sidestep the law on moderation in alcohol advertising
In Sweden advertising for wine must be very restrained, as in many other countries (France for instance). In principle, you are only allowed to show the product in the ad i.e. the packaging. In recent years it seems that the rule may have been slightly relaxed so that you are allowed to show a glass. [...]
Canada and Sweden leads in demand for organic wines
Canada is seen as them most attractive growth market for organic wines in a new report from Letis. The demand for organic wines is expected to grow with 20% annually in Canada. The demand for organic wines in Europe is somewhat lower, but still healthy: between 5% and 15%. It comes as no surprise that [...]
Swedish-Spanish wine wins Gold Medal in the Concours Mondial
Being Swedish we have to write about this of course. Rickard Enkvist is from Sweden but lives in the small village of Gaucin in the mountains above Malaga on the Spanish south coast. Some years back he bought a vineyard and became winemaker under the scorching Andalusian sun. This year two of his wines won [...]
Catastrophe relief organisations refuse donations from wine importers
In the newsletter WoW News we read that several catastrophe relief organisations in Sweden have refused or returned donations from wine importers who have wanted to support the work in Haiti. SOS Children’s Villages is one of the (heartless?) organisations. “We don’t accept money from companies who works with guns, pornography, tobacco or alcohol”, says [...]
Record wine sales expected in Sweden
According to the forecast at the end of last year 2009 will be a record year for wine sales in Sweden. If December sales were as expected (as hoped for, is probably not the right expression in this country) sales for the full year would reach 174 million litres of wine, well above the last [...]
How to make gravlax – 10 easy steps
This is one of the very luxurious Scandinavian delicacies… Did you say luxurious? 1) It’s really easy to do, 2) salmon is not strikingly expensive… And it’s very good! Some call it gravlax salmon, which is a bit silly, since lax means salmon. It’s simply a marinated salmon (“grava” is a traditional way of marinating [...]
Three golden rules for drinking alcohol in Sweden
Sophe la Girafe is a young French woman exiled in Sweden. For some reason, we don’t know which, she has chosen to settle in Stockholm It does take some time to get to grips with Swedish society and customs – to make sure you behave, well, appropriately. But after some time (and practice) you get [...]
New CEO for Systembolaget, the Swedish monopoly
The Swedish government has appointed the successor to Anitra Steen, CEO of Systembolaget AB, the Swedish alcohol retail monopoly. The future CEO is Magdalena Gerger, currently Vice President at Arla Foods with a career history including Nestlé, Procter & Gamble, Diageo, Tampax. According to some press info she has also during a part of her [...]
Australia biggest exporter to Sweden
In dramatic contrast to Denmark, let’s take a look at Sweden and the sales statistics. The “old world” is struggling considerably more here, and in particular France. Here’s the top ten exporters of wine to Sweden in 2007: 1. Australia, 16.5% (an increase with +31.7%, i.e. in 2006 the market share was 13.3%) 2. South [...]
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