Storing your wine collection? good or bad?

If you speak to wine professionals who provide wine storage facilities or assist in building cellars, they will tell you that a great many mistakes are made along the way to building a dream wine collection. The good news is that, unlike doctors who have to bury their mistakes, those of wine lovers can be drunk – or at the very worst, poured down the sink. However, this can become expensive, so do be careful.

Surprisingly, the experts will tell you that it is often those with the deepest pockets that make the most errors of judgment. They can take a scattergun approach to filling the cellar, tossing a wallet at every offer so as to corner as many of the best wines as they can. Unfortunately, they often also dredge up a lot of crap wines on the way. Those who take greater care however, often have more interesting cellars.

So the million-dollar question is: what do you put in your cellar?

Deciding if you are a collector or an investor is key. Investors usually have an entirely different agenda, and some may not even like wine. Collectors, on the other hand, are the real wine lovers, although they may make the occasional purchase for investment purposes. Buying two cases and later selling one allows for future expansion, and if done astutely, can even finance the cellar.

Bordeaux has underpinned the secondary market in wine for decades but not every Bordeaux is the same. First Growths and wines known as Super Seconds, along with the best from the Right Bank, such as Cheval Blanc, Petrus and Ausone are as close to blue chip as is possible, and a good vintage is vital.

In recent years, the pronouncements of American critic Robert Parker have had a profound influence on this market. A good score from him can propel an unknown into 'blue chip' territory, or send well-known wines into the pricing stratosphere.

Outside of France, things are more hit and miss. Spain has many exciting wines developing, but Vega Sicilia and Pingus are probably the most reliable investments for the moment. Vintage port has seen somewhat of a recent revival. German wines is rarely a fruitful investment, and Italian wines are mixed. Super Tuscans, like Sassicaia, Ornellaia and Masseto have done very well (the 1985 Sassicaia has been one of the great wine investments of all time), and the best Barolos are starting to see the sort of return that such great wines deserve.

From Australia, Penfolds Grange and Henschke's Hill of Grace are the leading performers, but the next generation is making strides. Some of the boutique producers from the Barossa and McLaren Vale with their turbo-charged shiraz have been given a boost by Parker points.

New Zealand has yet to establish such iconic auction performers, though some of the pinots from Martinborough and Central Otago, like Dry River, Ata Rangi and Felton Road, are close. From the United States, the auction performance of such wineries as Screaming Eagle, Araujo, Phelps 'Insignia', Opus One, Heitz 'Martha's Vineyard' and Harlan Estate is legendary and not completely unrelated to positive reviews from Parker and Wine Spectator.

Serious wine lovers soon learn that there is little point in collecting wines unless they are properly stored. High or fluctuating temperatures, light and vibration can all adversely affect wine. So can humidity: too dry an environment is detrimental as it can dry out corks, which allows for the ingress of oxygen and thus spoils the wine. Too much humidity, on the other hand, promotes the growth of bacteria and mold around the cork, which isn't very esthetically pleasing. However, the increased use of screw caps makes humidity less of an issue.

 A cellar can be anything from a box under the bed to a massive underground, temperature- and humidity-controlled facility. If you do not have a proper cellar at home, consider storing your wine with professionals. It has the disadvantage that late at night, you cannot grab a favored bottle on a whim (next morning, some may consider that as a positive), but at least you can be assured the wine will be in ideal condition when you do decide to drink it.

Remember do enjoy your wines in proper wine glasses such as Riedel.

Mr Gaston in Dizy, who the hell are he?

One of my many meetings recently in champagne was with the charming Nicolas Chiquet in the village of Dizy where he produce champagne in an traditional style with great depth and concentration especially the blanc de blanc from the vineyards of Dizy

That wine is exiting and very different from the Blanc de Blanc of the Grand cru in cotes du Blanc that is more famous for producing such a wine.

This is truly a challenge to identify on any blind tasting, how fun would that be? Very fun indeed J the flagship wine is his Special club selection where he use the best pressing and the oldest parcels of his vineyards, great stuff!

Nicolas is a very modern winemaker with lots of new ideas without dropping the respect of the family and the tradition that he grew up with, we hade a good discussion about the cork issue and he told me a lot of how you actually can manipulate the wine just by choosing an certain cork quality, amazing and very interesting news for me.

Another thing was all the things going on with the organic and biodynamic winemaking that’s going on in the world, he just prove to me that most of the things that are going on is BS, halleluiah!!! I told you, but we both agreed on that sustainable winemaking is the best way of producing grapes of the best quality and to take care of the environment regardless what it say on the label.

The house of Gaston Chiquet is a nice treat if you ever visit the area, but do make a reservation ahead

Istanbul by night

I culd not resist to put up some more pictures from this wonderful city even that I only use my mobil camera. tomorrow is off to Belgrade the capital of Serbia.

ISTANBUL, AN MAGIC CITY / İstanbul, Sihirli şehir

English:

Istanbul an Magic city

I am actually here on work, as a representative for the Swedish chefs association on the WACS European presidential meeting, but you need some fun also don’t you think?

Where to start? The first thing when arriving to this marvellous city is the heavy and crazy traffic that easy scare the living hell out of you, everybody is driving like maniacs, its nothing for weak nerves.

Officially the live 16 million people in Istanbul but nobody really knows the right figures, some people told me that as many as 25 million live here, moving in from the country side to get a better life, I don’t know about that.

The culture here must be the best in the world without any doubt considering all what have been going on here for thousands of years, simply wonderful architecture and remains from great past times, there is something magical in the air when you hear the priest call people to the mosque with the songs from the minaret, I must say that Islam is truly an fascinating religion that I do not know anything about, but I would like to!

 Food, what to say about that?  I hade some great experience and some extremely bad, its like a coin, if you hit wrong you can suffer for days in your bathroom, I call this Jalla, and if you hit the superjalla! You can only start to pray.

The Turkish cuisine is in my opinion one of the worlds best with authentic flavours and ways to prepare food, when its good its world class, like the old restaurant Beyti that started in 1945 and is still consider to be one of the best in Istanbul, we hade a great treat of excellent food, and you know how picky I can be J don’t miss out when you are here next time.

The belly dancing is a very special chapter for its self, I saw the top dancer in Turkey and let me tell you boys a secret! She was fabulous and very sexy.

The grand bazaar is very grand, about 6000 shops and It takes  some days to get around it all, sadly it is also the biggest tourist trap with fake cloths, handbags and so on, nothing genuine and no normal Turks in sight, I wonder where they shop? Maybe in the Gucci store when you look at all very well dressed ladies with top brands everywhere.

 I would love to get back here asap to discover more of this amazing city and our friend Malin who lives here must be prepared to receive us soon

Turkish:
İstanbul, Sihirli şehir
WACS Avrupa başkanlık toplantı İsveç aşçılar derneği temsilcisi olarak, iş burada aslında, ama bazı eğlenceli değil mi?
Nereden başlamalı? Bu harika şehre gelen ilk şey, kolay yaşayan bir cehenneme korkutmak ağır ve çılgın bir trafik, herkes, manyaklar gibi zayıf sinirler için hiçbir şey sürüyor.
Resmen canlı İstanbul'da 16 milyon kişi ama kimse gerçekten doğru rakamlar bilir, bazı insanlar gibi pek çok 25 milyon olarak daha iyi bir yaşam elde etmek için ülke tarafında hareket, burada yaşıyor, ben bu konuda bilmiyorum söyledi.Rahip çağrı insanlar duyduğunuzda kültürü burada ne, binlerce yıldır burada sadece muhteşem mimarisi ve büyük geçmiş zamanlardan kalan edilmiştir düşünen hiç şüphesiz dünyanın en iyi olmalı, havada sihirli bir şey var. camiye minarenin şarkıları ile İslam hakkında hiçbir şey bilmiyorum gerçekten büyüleyici bir din olduğunu söylemek gerekir, ama ben istiyorum!
Gıda, bu konuda söyleyecek ne var? Ben bazı büyük deneyim ve bazı son derece kötü, yanlış vurduğunuzda bir sikke gibi, banyoda gün boyunca muzdarip olabilir dikey durumdan eğik duruma geçmek, ben bu Jalla çağrı ve superjalla vurdu! Sadece dua etmeye başlayabilirsiniz.Türk mutfağının otantik tatları ve yemek hazırlamak için yollar, en iyi dünyalar benim görüşüme göre, 1945 yılında başlayan ve hala İstanbul'un en iyilerinden biri olarak kabul eski restoran Beyti gibi iyi, dünya standartlarında, biz mükemmel yemek ayrı bir keyif damarın dikey durumdan ayrılma açısı ve ben burada bir dahaki sefere ne zaman  kaçırmayın ne kadar seçici olduğunu biliyoruz.Oryantal dans kendini çok özel bir bölümde, Türkiye'nin en iyi dansçı gördüm ve bana erkek size bir sır vereceğim! O muhteşem ve çok seksi.
Büyük çarşı, yaklaşık 6000 dükkan, çok görkemli ve aynı zamanda sahte bezler, el çantaları ve benzeri, gerçek bir şey ve hiçbir görüş normal Türkler ile en büyük turist tuzağı ne yazık ki, etrafında almak için birkaç gün sürer, nerede merak ediyorum onlar alışveriş? Belki Gucci mağazası, her yerde en iyi marka tüm çok iyi giyinmiş bayanlar baktığınızda.
En kısa sürede bizi almak için hazırlıklı olmalısınız burada yaşayan bu muhteşem şehir ve bizim arkadaş Malin daha fazlasını keşfetmek için en kısa zamanda geri almak isterdim
Şimdi ve İnşallah için Bye

Guy Charlemagne Champagne

Champagne Guy Charlemagne is situated in the heart of the Côte des Blancs, in the small village of Mesnil sur Oger. As father to son winegrowers since 1892, they only harvest and vinify grapes from their own Chardonnay vineyards and produce around 130 000 bottles per year and most part of it is sold outside France.

I fell in love with this champagne house and its wines some years ago after tasting some bottles of the Mesnillesime vintages that I still today hold as one of the best buys when it comes to vintage champagne, I base this on the pure power and great finesse in the wine that I like and appreciate.

All of the wines are well worth the money.

On my recent visit I tasted the whole range of wines with the recently realised 2003 vintage of the wine that Christina refers to as the “kexchoklad label” all Swedes know what that is J

The wines of Guy Charlemagne is a champagne with great muscular presence, wonderful acidity and aging potentials, I try to use this as an reference wine on my tastings with great success, people just love it.

Another cool thing is that you can make your own personal label on the wines, great gift idea don’t you think?  

POL ROGER IN MY HEART

Upon arrival to the private office of champagne Pol Roger I noticed that the Swedish flag was in front of the house as an honour to us and that made us feel very special and welcome.

The champagne house of Pol Roger dated back to 1849 in Epernay and is still one of very few houses that are still privately owned with Christian Pol Roger and others in the family.

You can not write anything about this house with out mentioning sir W.Churchill who in 1908 bought his first bottle of Pol Roger and stayed unwavering client thru his life and called the house “the most delightful address in the world”

When Churchill died in 1965 the house declared mourning and in 1975 to celebrate the 10: th anniversary of his death the pay an tribute to an old friend by launching the Cuvee Sir Winston Churchill.

Entering the cellars of Pol Roger was a fantastic experience with all the new fermentation tanks and newly restored cellars, I have never seen something like this during my travels in wine countries, I can just say WOW..

Even more amazing is that everything is totally manually made with even the remuage made on every single bottle by hand, I don’t know any other champagne houses that are doing that considering the volume that they put out every year, I have the greatest respect to this great house.

The VIP tasting of all the wines in the range was a tremendous treat and an unforgettable memory that will stay with me until the next visit J

I sure believe in the sun & wine god   

Unga EKO kockar & girl power

Efter en lång tur med utagningar och semifinaler så var det äntligen dags för den stora finalen av Unga Eko kockar som gick av stapeln i Växjö denna helg, vinnarna av årets tävling var tjejlaget från dackeskolan i Mjölby som gjorde en utomordentlig tre rätters meny med tanke på deras ringa ålder, dessa tjejer visar vägen att vi säkrar en framtid för Svenska kockars förening och alla våra tävlingslag.
ETT STORT GRATTIS TILL EMMA, JONNA & FRIDA
Och ett tack till PM & vänner för en strålande middag på kvällen och ett extra tack till Per för den goda Chambollen.

här kommer även lite bilder på tjejernas rätter.

English:

This is from an competition this weekend where students from the 2:nd grade at restaurant school ware competing for the Ekological trophee.
what a great future we have in this country. bevare all the guys here comes the girlpower.