WINE IN A VERY EASY WAY

Me and Christina are doing more than 70 wine tastings every year for wine drinkers who love wine but do not know so much about it, I love doing that and let people explore wine in a good and sensible way without fuzz..

This is a great little film about wine where John Cleese guide you thru the most basic stuff in a very good way http://youtu.be/BF6twaKn8xM   for all of you out there who drink your wine for the taste without caring about the label.

Enjoy and give all the posh and snobby sommeliers a hell next time you go out for dinner J

The new Rusthållargården in Arild

Me and Christina are fortune to be invited as the first guests to try the new MM fine dining room at the old Inn at Rusthållargården in Arild http://www.rusthallargarden.se south of Sweden.

The Malmbergska Matsalen is a tribute to the family who runs the Inn as fourth generation and executive chef Claes Ljustander have converted a part of the dining room to a 20 seat restaurant with great ambitions and a set menu with wonderful wines all greatly packed in with atmosphere out of the ordinary.

The food is a little bit shaky as one can imagine in the start but will improve in a few weeks, my guess is that Rusthållargården will set very high standards for the area and I can recommend you all to try it out, you will be surprised how good it is.

I like the idea of transforming some of the classics to the finer level and to use all local ingredients as much as possible, great way of doing things.

This is the menu & wines that we tried in Swedish.

Äggakaka Naccarii caviar, kärnmjölk & äpple.

2002 Laurent Perrier

Lufttorkad grishals från klippan, groan bönor med Masia el Altetolja & ramslökssalt.

2010 Valcorso Monastrell Yecla

Brynt piggvar, krispigt slag i mandel-surdeg, smörkräm med stenbitsrom, toppmurklor & AAA sparris.

2009 Shaya old vines Verdejo Rueda

Spisgrillad Södåkrakilling, rostad ekopaprika och gröna blad från Ådalagård med tryffeldressing.

2007 Neo Ribera del Duero

Sigvard rödskägg, vårens första potatis, kummin och surkål.

2009 Domaine Bott-Geyl pinot gris Les Elements Alsace

Chokladkräm med brynt smör, päromsorbet, youghurt & mynta.

2008 Recioto dela Valpolicella Corte Sant`Alda

Meny 795 Kr

Vinpaket 695 kr

Bodegas Aalto cult or not?

Ribera del Duero have very old traditions of winemaking all back to the old Romans and Phoenician times who showed the Iberian people at that time how to make wine and viticulture.

The Moorish conquerors know how to irrigate and that made even the driest part of the country a winegrowing area that still today flourish from this.

Most of today’s vineyards use to have connections to the church and believed are that the monks from France left some secrets behind on they pilgrimage tours.

Bodegas Aalto was born in 1999 by Mariano Garcia who was the winemaker at Vega Sicilia for more than 30 years and his good friend Javier Zaccagnini who was the head for the Consejo in Ribera.

The 32 first hectares is now 43 of the best sites in the area like La Horra and La Aquilera that are plantings between 40 to 100 years of age, absolutely fantastic when you thing about it.

The grape in Ribera have always been a certain clone of Tempranillo here called Tinto Fino and are widely planted in that part of Spain.

All the wine from seven different villages are vinified separately and the blended for the best balance and future, the wine is after that barrel aged for a minimum of 20 months in new and used barriques.

Aalto is a tasty wine with great ambition and some may even consider this as a cult wine, I don’t think so but that is another storey.

The PS is even more selected and a bigger wine in my taste and for all of you who is interested in Ribera wines should come to my tasting this saturday.

Great artisan food

When you think about great food you have to mention all the wonderful flavours in delicatessen that are made by people who is true to the original history and who really cares about how they produce the cheeses and cured/dried food stuff from all the regions of Europe.

The tradition of producing food from your own and local produce is a great way of preserving the artisan craftsmanship so all of you out there can taste the true favours of the land and the people who every day is trying they best to make us all happy.

I am happy to work in a company who has many of these fine producers and you can find them all in many of the best restaurants and delicatessen shops around the country.

At the Gastro Nord fair the 24-27 of April you can visit us at our stand and taste some of the best products from around Europe on the Swedish market and meet up with the producers and great chefs who will prepare some great treats for you.

Swedish Meatballs ala Original

There are many things to say about Swedish cuisine and the food from the Nordic countries, but I guess that the Meatballs ( Köttbullar ) is the thing that people around the globe think of when asked to mention one Swedish dish.

The Meatballs is actually brought in from Turkey bye the Swedish King Karl XII in the 1700 and are now consider to be the number food for all ages here often served with potatoes, lingonberry and pickled cucumber.

The best meatballs in Sweden are served at Värdshuset Ulla Winbladh at Djurgården in Stockholm, this old Inn is very traditional in foodservice and I just love the way they represent Sweden and its food culture without being snobby or old-fashioned.

Milk, beer or water is the thing to drink with meatballs due to the very creamy sauce and all the different flavours that is going on at the same time makes this a dish very hard to match wine.

Please enjoy this amazing dish the right way and do not consider what is served at most IKEA restaurants to be the true Swedish meatball

NEO wine, music and good life

Bodegas y Viñedos Neo is, according to its musician founder friends Javier Ajenjo, José Luís Simón and Julio César Conde the “dream” since early age and who, in 1999, decided to make a wine they liked.

The first 6,000 bottles of Neo 2000, which some years later scored a rating of 95 points from wine writer R Parker, were made in a rented corner of a bodega by the very talented winemaker Isaac Fernandez Montana who is still in charge of the wines.

Selling wine on the world market is always challenging but when you receive high scores it for sure make life a little easier and the guys knows how to incorporate wine, music, lifestyle and great passion for food in a family style blend.

The bodega holds around 10 hectares of very old plantings with many of the more than 70 years of age and that boost some amazing ripe fruits that shows in the wines.

Neo the regular bottling is a wine that is made from 50-60 years old planting of Tempranillo grapes with extreme control in the vineyard and some 2000 kg per hectare out take, the wine is kept 15 months in American and French barrels.

The main wine Neo Punta Esencia is the flagship wine made from 80+ years’ old vines with very low yield of 1500 kg/hectare and the use of new French barriques for 24 months and loved by the worlds wine critics with high scores.

Bodegas Neo are now producing a wide variety of wines from around Castilla y Leon all made by the Neo design studio aimed for the modern wine drinker, Im looking forward to taste this range of 3 reds and 2 whites.

The first production of 6000 bottles are now 10 years later in the range of 500 000 bottlers annual.

You can go a long way with some money and a great idea, you rock hombres.

I have been busy

I have been so busy lately and travelling in the name of the wine, fun? Yes but very exhausting

especially when I have to be away from my family for to long.

Prowein in Germany was great fun and I did some great deals for the Swedish and Danish market that will result in great wines, www.vallegarcia.com is already in the warehouse and out to the first customers.

To meet winemakers and producers in person is always great and to understand the philosophy behind the product is crucial to a sales guy, great personalities.

I have attended the Nordic chef of the year as a judge for some days and also a Nordic chefs board meeting with great colleagues.

Looking for new wines for my market is time consuming and people around me thinks that this is just fun, they should only know J

Applying for the university is something that I could not believe would happen 6 months ago, but yes I’m heading for the WSET Diploma starting up in September, more to come about this.

I’m a busy bee and could not travel nether to vinitaly in Verona or alimentaria in Barcelona this year but I’m already planning expo in Bordeaux next year, who will come with me?

Look up http://www.mishasvineyard.com great NZ wines from wonderful people.

Cheers