The secrets from the Chef & Sommelier

Dear friends from around the world, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for following me here are my travel thru the culinary wine world, I appreciate this tremendously and wish you all a very happy new 2013. I will be back next year for sure J   Med vänlig hälsning/ best regards Dragan Unic  

My latest friends in the wine world is the wines made by the dynamic duo Sarah & Chris Vandendriessche (try to pronounce this after a bottle of wine) and the great artist of all the labels Grant Schexnider and his wife Laura who all together created the Vending Machine Winery in Napa CA. Christina broth some back from the states for me to taste and It was a true pleasure. The 2009 Crooked Mayor is a 100% cabernet Sauvignon from old vines that undergo a long maceration in 50% new French oak and are as always bottled without any filtration or disturbance to the wine, 100% pure fruit juice The wine is packed with dark blueberry jammy fruit and cassis all well balanced with the spicy oak, dark cherrys and tobacco, long lingering aftertaste. You have to try the Loulas Revenge, Horror Show, Eccentric and the Dubbleshot Gun if you can find them in the store, worth look for.  

The Christmas is upon us and the new 2013 is behind the door and all of this makes me do reflections of this year with family, friends and work. January and the beginning of the year started with the search of wine producers for the new wine portfolio and hasted to Prowein in march do meet up with some great producers such as Bruno Trapan that make fantastic wines of many indigenous grapes from mainland Croatia, and also Vinarija Bodren who is considered to be one of the best sweet wine producers in the world, I am extremely happy to have these wines for this market. Pago Vallegarcia top producer from Spain is another one that I have added on this year and who is making my customers really happy with excellent quality. My big girl Tammy was going sweet sixteen in April and is a big girl now and I am very proud of her and her achievements in school. Visiting Korea and the WACS congress was great and to meet up with old and new friends there was a reminder of how importa...

The Christmas spirit is here and to sample the Swedish Christmas table with all the traditional delicatessen is a must for everybody here but the challenge is to find the right place to visit for this extravaganza. Last year we tried the Rusthållargården http://www.rusthallargarden.se in the small fishing village of Arild and were amazed by the presentation and the quality of the food so we decided to do this all over again but this time stay over in the beautiful settings. The food was as I expected of great quality, not to much but precise selection of all the must have on the Christmas table, I am very picky on some things like the herring must be perfect, the salmon cured as it should be and the pate just perfect. To have salmon in different way is a big tradition here like the meatballs (köttbullar) and people are suckers for it, but I prefer the more complex flavours of smoked ribs, green cabbage cooked in cream, Jansons frästelse (shredded potaoes baked with anc...

Vintage 2012 – Ripe and Healthy Grapes Guarantee High Quality   The bottom line: crop quality and harvest conditions in Germany was influenced not only by months of capricious weather but also by consistent, quality-oriented work in the vineyards that resulted 2012 to be one of the top vintages with broad selection of first class wines. FRANKEN Thanks to a predominantly healthy crop, growers are optimistic about the potential quality of the new vintage. The weather was good as preliminary harvesting began and Riesling grapes were in top form and nearly all were of Prädikat-level quality. Growers anticipate powerful, yet fruity, wines that are brilliant and elegant . RHEINHESSEN The crop was healthy and ripe ready to be harvested by early October, followed by completely ripened and aromatic Riesling grapes at the end of the month. Quality was above average. Good, solid everyday wines as well as first-class wines from individual sites are expected. ...

Last night I was invited to the residence and beautiful house of the American ambassador in Denmark Madam Laurie Fulton for the Washington state wine tasting for specially invited guests. I was there to learn more about the wines from Washington that I do not have enough knowledge about the stats wines, and I was truly amazed of the quality shown here and this was the best of the night. Columbia Crest is a stabile producer as always and the H3 cab & chardonnay is good and the reserve cab in impeccable. Kiona vineyards showed some great late harvest Riesling & gewürztraminer and wine spectator have put two of Kiona wines on its “100 best” list, not bad at all. Charles Smith is very well known here in Sweden for the funny names as Kung Fu girl & Velvet Devil. Located in the blue mountains in the Walla Walla where he makes his signature wines that are easy approachable. The Long Shadow Vintners Feather cab, Pedestal merlot and the Sequel syrah was on...

  To visit great producers are always nice and one of the great things in life when you travel in wine country’s. To visit the Rhone valley without visiting the Casa Jaboulet and the talented winemaker Caroline Frey it a true treat, but when you arrive to the tasting room and meet the unfriendly attendants you make it easy for the, I just walked out and I will not return. All of the wines are great vallue for money and you can find them at bolaget in Sweden. Caroline Fray you make great wine but you have to train your staff.