Hola Argentina como estas?

Considering that Argentina is the fifth largest producer of wine in the world I took a challenge and ordered in some 98 samples from seventeen different wine producers with the focus on the most famous malbec grape but some cabs and syrah appeared in the blends.

This massive tasting was a great way to understand the recent development in the Argentinean viticulture and to see what is going on over there and let me tell you that I got one hell of a surprise with most of the wines, there where terrific to unforgettable wines with some massive rating from the well known people (no names) we hade a very hart time to decide our favourites (mine is at the pictures below)

The idea of this tasting is to find producers to work with on the Swedish and Danish market and so we did after wild and heavy discussions, I sure look forward to show of the wines on this market and the horeca sector.

But you have to remember that wines from here in great quality will never come cheap but always great value for the money.

Looking forward to visit Argentina

Can you compete in cooking ?

The first sponsor dinner of the year for us went very good and I could notice that all the invited guests where very impressed of the food and the presentation of the new team, now is our focus on the cold table display that we will compete with on the culinary Olympics in October this year in Erfurt Germany.

The Skåne culinary team is really on the toes to do perfection and the team is in good spirit and doing the best even if there are some more months to go but we all know that time moves fast and we will soon be there.

Another thing is that we have the team captain Martin Hansen who will represent Sweden in the Nordic chef of the year and Pi Nghi Thanh Le for the junior chef of the year great guys with enormous talents.

My myself and I will go judge the kitchen work and my great pal Tomas Gustafsson will judge the dishes, only people from Skåne here now, great achievements from all.

Sebastian Gibrand are at the same time competing in London for the Hans Bushkens trophy with Magnus Johansson as the following judge, a very strong Swedish team.

Here are some pictures from the sponsor night.

A proud president of the Swedish chefs association of Skåne who missed to take pictures of the first dishes.

Can you drink Italian Fashion?

The Italian company of Martini & Rossi started up in mid 1800 and are now days mostly known for its vermouth and are owned by the Bacardi company from 1992.

Martini Gold is a result of the great collaboration between Bacardi and the most famous house of Italian fashion Dolce & Gabbana that sourced the world to create a unique flavour.

This essence of bergamot, lemons and oranges from Sicily, Spanish saffron from La Mancha, myrrh from Ethiopia, ginger from India and Kubeba pepper from Sunda island of Indonesia and it is all packed in a beautiful golden bottle with a black packaging designed by the two fashion icons.

The taste is beautifully balanced of fragrant lemon, deep, zesty orange and rich exotic spices with the special Martini touch.

You just have to try it! Its for sale at tax-free for about 250 SKR

Please enjoy.

Kiwi wines from heaven

What a great start of the New Year!! I have the fortune to taste the unbelievable wines from Misha´s vineyard and the winemaker Olly Masters for the first time in Sweden, thank you Misha and Andy for this special treat with your wines, and let med tell you guys out there that better than this is very hard to find in New Zeeland or somewhere ells for that matter.

Misha´s vineyards are located on the edge of Lake Dunstan in the region of central Otago where they have 57 hectare of sundrenched vineyards that provide perfect conditions to make world class Pinot Noir and fabulous whites on different grapes with no compromise viticulture.

Lets start of with the Pinot Noir The High Note inspired by Misha´s opera singing mother J

This ruby colour pinot have an amazing power in the nose packed with yummy dark fruit, cassis and herbs’ and a full on palate with warm dark fruit, pickled ginger, liquorice and an aftertaste that last forever, one of the best new world Pinots 95 DU points

Pinot Gris Dress Circle is for me a WOW wine that I did not expect at all, watch out all you Alsace producers, this wine is light golden in colour with very nice nose of juicy pear, granny apples and lemon verbena that continues with a full off dry palate with ripe stone fruits, orange peel and the best mineral tone with a very long finish, great balance.93 DU points

Sauvignon Blanc The Starlet is not like the other NZ wines that you can find on the Swedish market today, this is more in the French style with pale straw colour and a beautiful nose of lemon/lime, gooseberry and some ripe pineapple that will continue in this dry wine. The palate is refreshing, dry with good minerality and full of intense exotic fruit all balanced off with great acidity 91 DU points

Riesling Lyric is another wine that could be from a great producer in Alsace or Germany, this pale golden wine have a nice nose of rose petals, citrus and white peaches very very nice! The palate is dry, grapey with mineral, slate and sweet honey melons all balanced off with great acidity and long lingering finish 93 DU points

Riesling Limelight is the sweeter of the two Rieslings with pale colour, on the nose is this wine packed with sweet mature exotic fruit, lemongrass, lime leafs and mineral. In the mouth is this medium dry wine (25g/L) fantastically well balanced with bursting fruit, citrus, apple and ripe melon, all finished off with long spicy finish 95 DU points  

More information about this wines is to be found here http://www.mishasvineyard.com

And the wines are to be found in Sweden by me in a few weeks.

Sunshine in my life

Med vänlig hälsning/ best regards

Dragan Unic

Closure of 2011

I’m sitting here on the last Day in this year to sum up all the things that have happened this year and figure out that I will divide it as follow:

Wine:

This year have been the greatest wine year ever, I have tried thousands of wines from all around the globe with some disasters but also some icon wines that will blow you away when they appear on the market I Sweden in 2012.

I have the fortune to visit some amazing wine producers with my family this year and some of they are, Pol Roger, Bollinger, Guy Charlemagne, Trimbach, Domaine Weinbach and many more in France, Germany, Luxembourg what a treat that was.

The tastings and wine courses that me and Christina are doing was truly booming this year and we are looking forward to all the great people that we will meet in 2012, we have some great plans for you guys,

keep you updated on our website www.atmosphere-store.se

Gastro Import wine selection is another thing that was happened this year, a wine import business to the horeca sector in Sweden that will conquer ground in the following years to come, I sure look forward to this with all the great producers in the portfolio.

Gastronomy:

I hade the chance to visit some great city’s this year as an member of the Swedish chefs associations culinary board and you can read all of my impressions here on my blog, Istanbul, Bergen among others.

The world chefs tour against hunger In South Africa was a mind blowing experience with more than 250 chefs from 45 countries gathered together for supporting SACA to collect money for starving children, thanks Frida, Helena and Mike for excellent companionship and a job well done and an special thanks to the SKF for letting us do this trip.

The Skåne culinary regional team are improving all the time and we are aiming for the gold medal in the culinary Olympics this year in October more of this will follow later on, there are some pictures on my FB side from this event, check it out

Family:

The THEODOR tea is on the Swedish and Danish market now and we are very happy for this, a struggle but Christina will beet this challenge in 2012, any of you who haven’t tried this tea let us know and we will send you samples and

Please check out this great side www.unictaste.se

My girls are doing just fine and growing like a wildfire, I can not catch up with the already, Bianca is now six years old and Tammy is closing to sixteen and I’m grateful everyday for them. God bless

Christina the love in my life is the best companion a man like me could have, couldn’t do this without your support love J I love you passionately and deeply more and more for each day.

The 2012 will have its many challenges and opportunities who know where it all will end but I’m looking forward to this with the most enthusiasm.

Thank you all for following me here and have a very happy new year.

Over and out

Happy new year

I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all out there a very happy new year and may the wine god be with you all.

Respect

Dragan

German Pinots with a twist

First of all I would like to wish you all out there a very merry Christmas and a happy new 2012, may the new year be wonderful with lots of joy and happiness to you all.

On my mission to improve my pinot noir appreciation I twist and turn all over for finding the soul of this grape that many ”know it all” of my friends in the trade consider to be the one and only grape.

I recently turned my head towards German pinots “spätburgunder” the third biggest producers of Pinot grape in the world even due to that most people never thinks about Germany as a red wine country.

The wines I have tasted are all very exiting with lush mature fruit, soft mellow and polished tannins with their own personality that shows very well how this grape adapt and show its potential where ever it grows.

I have tasted a lot of pinot noirs during my crusade to learn more about this grape and have found many grate wines but all of the are from outside France, what the heck are wrong with the frog eaters way of doing wine with this grape?

My 2011 high and low list will be out during a couple of days there are still some days that can improve dramatically J

Love conquers all