The secrets from the Chef & Sommelier

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

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 an

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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

One day to go for the Nordic chef of the year competition that will be held at Foodexpo in Herning Denmark . The Swedish chefs association are sending Martin Hansen as senior and   Pi Nghi Thanh Le as junior and wild card. The training for this guys have been   tough with lot of challenges regarding the mystery baskets that I have put on to the test just like they will find at the competition. All of us are prepared and ready to go, I will also be one of the judges at this event and will keep you all informed by my Twitter as @draganunic so ad me up for news.

Dear readers in the USA, I’m thrilled and amazed that so many of you are following my blog and that you find my life interesting to read about, I would love to hear from you all and to receive some feedback of what you want me to write about and for me to know you out there. Please send me an e-mail on dragan@unictaste.se I would appreciate that tremendously I’m raising my glass to you all Dragan

The winemakers in South Africa are making some absolutely great wines that in many cases are on top in the world of wines. The problem is that the importers are focusing on bland wines without personality and identity just focusing on the lower prise range, at least here in Sweden . People in Sweden love the S-A wines and prefer this in many cases when they are buying in systembolaget shops (monopoly crap) and this is what they thing S-A wines are all about. The problems appear when you talk to restaurants and ask why they do not carry more of the S-A wines on the list, people are not paying for the wines in restaurants due to that they are used to lower quality wines of lower level wines, this are creating a problem in the long run when you talk about the high end wines that are just amazingly good with great value for the buck. Here are some of my favourite that I tasted recently and I do love them all and wish some more importers will put focus on this high end wines.