The secrets from the Chef & Sommelier

The Gramona history started more than 125 years ago and now it is the fifth generation who works for this famous house of wines. The grapes for the Gramona wines all come from own land of 150 hectares mainly in the La Plana, Mas Escorpi, El Serralet and La Solana sites with the main grapes to be Xarello, chardonnay, Pinot noir and Macabeo. The experimental vineyards of other known grape variety makes exiting wines with a modern twist. The Cava Argent is made of chardonnay grapes and aged for 34 months shows delicate expression of the grape with long lasting taste. III Lustros made of Xarello and Macabeo and aged for at least five years in the cellar with real cork is a true elegance and harmony in the bottle with great complexity and lingering taste. The best wine is the Celler Batlle that have been aged for seven years on cork and contains the best grapes of Xarello and Macabeo, this wine is fantastic and shows nice creamy texture with loads of white peach, apricots...

Culinary Olympics 2012 Results NATIONAL TEAM Rank Nation ABC Cold Platters Medal R Hot Kitchen Medal Total points 1 Sweden 95,08 Gold 94,32 Gold 94,70 2 Norway 89,3 Silver 93,14 Gold 91,22 3 Germany 87,45 Silver 91,2 Gold 89,33 4 Canada 85,49 Silver 92,8 Gold 89,15 5 Switzerland 88,01 Silver 87,37 Silver 87,69 6 USA 89,44 Silver 85,84 Silver 87,64 7 Finland 86,73 Silver 87,4 Silver 87,07 8 The Netherlands 81,97 Silver 84,57 Silver 83,27 9 Australia 82,57 Silver 83,85 Silver 83,21 10 Japan 85,97 Silver 79,39 Bronze 82,68 11 Hong Kong 82,44 Silver 81,25 Silver 81,85 12 Denmark 76,58 Bronze 86,38 Silver 81,48 13 South Korea 85,4 Silver 76,99 Bronze 81,20 14 Malaysia 82,69 Silver 79,1 Bronze 80,90 15 South Africa 76,05 Bronze 85,47 Silver 80,76 16 England 77,55 Bronze 83,65 Silver 80,60 17 Wales 78,88 Bronze 82,2 Silver 80,54 18 Czech Republic 79,64 Bronze 80,94 Silver 80,29 19 Italy 81,86 Silver 78,17 Bronze 80,02 20 Scotland 77,73 Bronze 81,2 Silver 79,47 2...

To visit Spain and especially Sant Sadurni d`Anoia is always nice and very rewarding. One of the great producers are Cava Recaredo and the great winemaker Ton Mata Moliner who is passionate about the product that he makes. Recaredo is all Biodynamic and makes only cavas without dosage, all bone dry that shows great complexity and depth from the terroir. Brut nature and brut de brut are all amazing wines that is some of the best produced cavas and you can buy them online at   http://www.invinitum.com/product.html/cava-recaredo-brut-d-brut-2003-gran-reserva-brut-nature?category_id=9 An great pleasure was also to meet his father who have so much history to tell and who is responsible for most of the plantings they use right now and also taste some barrel samples of Xarello that will be used for some experiments. Ton is the third generation of this house that was started by his grandfather in 1924 and who was a well known football player in the team Espaniol but...

Everybody knows how much passion and dedication I have for Sherry wines and I take every opportunity to teach people of Sherry. I hade some 25 people at DUÅ in Umeå fore some hours explaining the greatness of Sherry and especially the Food and Sherry combinations that are unbeatable. With all the goodies from Work (Gastro-Import) we did a great night and everybody was amazed of how well this wine pairs with different kind of food. I just love it and so would you, just give it a try.   //D

This have been a mind blowing day considering what the Swedish teams have done in the 2012 Olympics in Erfurt Germany . You have to understand one thing, never ever have a team won this competition with overwhelming points like the senior team did today and never ever have a single country won 5 gold and 3 silver medals at any time, and you have to remember that the competition started in 1905! What an outstanding achievement from this small country with great chefs, the teams did not only win, they also totally crushed the opponents in total humiliation. I am so proud to be a part of the Swedish chefs association and to see all the behind scenes and also all the hard work that everybody did put in to make this happen and we are all looking forward to the World Cup in 2014. Here are joyful pictures of all the Gold winning teams and here are the results.     Senior GOLD Junior GOLD Stockholm GOLD Sabis GOLD Fazer GOLD Skåne Kulinar SILV...

Here are some more pictures from the team, enjoy

The end of a fantastic journey is over and we god a well deserved silver medal on this years culinary Olympics in Erfurt . We are all tired but mostly the guys who have been in the kitchen all night to prepare all the cold table displays. I am so proud of all of the team for all the effort that they have put in over the past years to do the best ever table. Thank you guys and we are already aiming for the world cup in Luxembourg in two years time. Here are some pictures of out display, enjoy all of you out there and leave some comments or questions. PS: the Wi-Fi here are bad so more pictures are up tomorrow when I get back home...stay tuned and by the way...Its my birthday today :-)   // Dragan Unic

The heat is on in Erfurt and the Culinary Olympics 2012. Skåne Culinary team is starting up to produce the food for the cold display table that they we will show in a few hours and to judged by some of the best people in the business. I am proud of what they have done until now and we all hope for the best and that we can go home with the golden medals around the neck and celebrate my birthday. Here are some pictures from some other teams of today and also from the kitchen that we are using for the competition, enjoy and I will be back in a few hours. /Dragan

The winery of Marco Curto is the traditional family-run winery, and has been handed down from father to son for three generations. The winery consists of 4 hectares in the heart of the Barolo production area. Marco Curto with his wife Adele and their daughter Nadia, cultivate the vineyards themselves, taking care of each step of the winemaking – from the cure of the plants to the manual harvest and to the cellar. The family gives a lot of attention to the winemaking with great respect for tradition. The production includes the typical wines of the area and the most renowned product is the Barolo Arborina docg (Arborina is the name of a restricted hilly area famous for the cru Barolos), with the name “La Foia” which means “leaf” in the Piedmont dialect. Dolcetto d'Alba Gattera La Foia entirely produced in steel tank shows great expression and are some of the richest dolcettos around. Barbera d'Alba La Foia aged for a few months in oak has great complexity and...