What’s happning here – A flabbergasted Monopoly!

There’s a battle brewing, blood is slowly boiling – we might be on the verge on a monoploy war. A few days ago the internet wine shops of Sweden started a trade association. This caused Systembolaget, the Swedish monopoly, to issue a press release where they state that they are flabbergasted that they have formed a trade association.

I would say that if the monopoly is flabbergasted they don’t do any business intelligence at all.

In many ways this war is old. The last big battle was fought in the EU-courts and rendered the Rosengren judgment (C-170/04) in 2007, which changed the landscape of Swedish imports of alcoholic beverages. It opened up the door for legal internet shops, most of them are wine shops. To simplify it all the internet shops has their storage in another EU country until the beverage is sold, then they deliver it to the Swedish buyer (sounds easy, but it really isn’t); you need to be registered by the Swedish tax office, have a license for international trading, pay taxes etc. etc. and fight the monopoly and in part the media.

The monopoly obviously disagrees with the interpretation made by the internet retailers and consider thier business illegal. Further more it seems that the monopoly are beginning to feel threatened by the internet shops and describe their sole existence as threatening the Swedish alcohol policy.

In the Systembolaget’s press release they claims to be very surprised that the internet wine shops creates a trade association – I wonder on what planet the monopoly is operating if they are surprised?

In the press release the monopoly highlights that there is considerable uncertainty as to the legality of the various inter-mediation activities that occur on the Swedish market – I feel that that alone is a reason good enough for the e-sellers to position themselves. Add to this the fact that the Swedish government has a commission working on a study with proposals to ensure effective supervision in the areas of marketing and e- trade of alcoholic beverages and the Retail Institute (HUI Res) recently published report has assessed the potential of e-commerce with alcohol, the last one funded by Systembolaget. In this report they claim that internet seller might have up to 30% of the market within a 10 year period.

Add to this that one of the biggest internet retailers (Australienska vin klubben – the Australian wine club) have had big tax problems, and another, the South African wine club, had big financial problems and couldn’t deliver to their costumers.

IOGT (Swedish temperance movement) have done lots of test purchases at online retailers and have made a reported about 10 stores to the police for crimes against the laws of sales of alcohol, none of which these have yet been prosecuted etc.

All these are reasons enough to understand why the internet retailers have started a trade association – to create common guidelines and to improve, I see this as evidence that the industry are becoming part of a more mature market.

One of the reasons the government of Sweden gives for holding on to the monopoly is for public health concerns, this is also stated in this press release – though this can be discussed. In today’s monopoly stores you mainly find lots of low priced alcohol beverages or beverages that clearly are marked towards young buyers such as sweet ciders that are closer to be soft drinks with alcohol, soft drinks with alcohol, cheap bag-in-box wines and lots of cheap beers – non of these can be said to be improving public health. Today more than 60% of the wine sold is Bag-in box wine. There is of course also quality wine, beer and liquers sold.

My personal opinion is that if the Monopoly truly sees the internet shops as illegal they are required to submit a report this to the police, especially as it is a state owned enterprise, and not act as judge or a lobby organization doing politics – leave that to our political parties.

Let’s see if this is the beginning of the next battle in the Monopoly wars!

The newly formed trade association press release is here (in Swedish)

The Monopoly press release is here (in Swedish)

Magnus Reuterdahl

Sex år i bloggsfären - dags för år 7!

Reblogged from Magnus Reuterdahls vinblogg (Aqua Vitae):

Tiden går fort! Idag ska jag på ett 40-års kalas, nästa år är mitt eget, och mitt i detta kom jag på att bloggen fyllde 6 år häromdagen, den 15 maj publicerade jag inlägg nummer 1.

Under dessa sex år har jag hunnit med att publicera 1187 inlägg, inklusive detta, och haft mer än 250000 besök. Jag har har varit med på tre…

Read more… 97 more words

I just realized that I been into the wine blogging thingy for six years – May 15th 2007 I posted my first wine blog post at Magnus Reuterdahl's vinblogg Aqua Vitae, in Swedish. Since then I posted 1187 posts there and then a few here and on some other places – wine blogging is a wonderful thing that create lots an lots of opportunities to drink wine, see new places and make great friends, if you haven't already check out the #winelover community and EWBC! Magnus Reuterdahl

Interesting Austrian stuff

Today I got a few samples via Swedish internet shop Handlavin.se from Alexander Koppitsch, not to be confused with weingut Koppitsch. Alexander Koppitsch is a family winery, making bio-dynanic wine. They have six hectares of vineyards on the slopes of Lake Neusiedler in Burgenland, Austria.

They make two series of wines called superior and classic. Today I tasted the Chardonnay and Syrah Neuburg from 2011, from the superior-series. I also tasted a rosé – barrel sample – if I understand correctly this is a new wine and I don’t know what series it will belong to.

When I first saw the labels my first thought was new world wines – as my mind connected with americana style tattooes. The wine maker says that this is a homage to Austrian wine labels from the 50- and 60s when it was usual to include swallows on the labels. The taste of the wine is not new world then again it’s not typical Austria either. My fav of the day is Chardonnay Neuberg 2011.

The wine has a prominent acidity and a wonderful purity with a lot of underlying fruit. Here are hints of citrus fruit, both green tart apples as well as yellow winter apples, a touch of peach and a nice little spicy finish that reminds of the white pepper notes in a Grüner Veltliner. The wine has a complexity and develops nicely in the mouth, the acid is relatively high and I would love to taste this with food, the underlying fruit flavors make me want more. The oak barrels notes are nicely integrated, they are there, creating a neat structure, but they do not take over. There’s a feel of barren earth, chill winds, and hint of rock and wild herbs.

It’s no crowd pleaser but I love it – the style is nearer a chablis than an Austria wine but with a difference in the spiciness. It is personal, elegant and fun!

Next on in the glas is Syrah Neuberg 2011.

The aroma is a little shy. It has some floral notes with hints of warm fruit, from underneath comes some toffee and a nice herbal tone.

The style of the wine is cool, it’s floral, some stems, soft silky fruit and fine tannins. There are blue and red berries, a lovely acidity and a nice minerality. The finish is a bit spicy and the minerals are salty. It’s elegant, concise but somewhat young – I would put this in the cellar for a few years and enjoy in the future. Very good!

The last on is the Rosé – as this is a barrel sample and not a finished wine I will not speak much about it but just make a few notes for future reference:

The color is pink, and now I mean pink, the scent is rhubarb cream, a beautiful tartness mixed with sweetness with just a hint of fresh herbs the background.

The wines is dry – almost crunchy, very fresh and has a good acidity. There are lots of rhubarb and citrus fruits and a slight spiciness in the finish. It’s not nearly as sweet as the smell indicated, which is good. A rather odd, but fun, rosé that should work well for desserts or as a welcome drink. It shows promise!

Common to all three wines is the acidity and minerality, which means that they can come across as a bit sharp, but this is what I particularly like about them. They have an elegance that meets the acids, they have storage potential (not the rosé) and lots of personality. It will be fun to follow them into the future!

Magnus Reuterdahl

Austrian Wines does Stockholm

A few weeks ago Austrian Wines were in Stockholm for the annual Austrian Wine day at Grand Hotel. I was there on behalf of BKWine Magazine and had the chance to revisit several of the great wines I encountered at EWBC in Austria 2010.

An article in English is now available at BKWine Magazine that concerns a few of the wines I had the pleasure to taste.

Magnus Reuterdahl

Parlez-vous français?

Well – if you watch the following video it’ll be obvious I don’t but I love french wine. One district that is really exacting is Jura and currently my blog colleague and wine friend Wink Lorch of Wink’s Wine and Travel World is writing a book on Jura. Look at the video, read this post and then help her getting this done – I know I will!

Click on the image to see the video – embedding wouldn’t work :/

Magnus Reuterdahl

 

Where once vines stood tall…

Kirschblute am Mittelrhein Kestert

I found an old book a few days ago: Deutschland in Bildern – Städte und Landschaften from 1922. My German isn’t all that up to date and when written in fracture style letters it isn’t easier. In this case though it is mainly a photo book with pictures taken between ca 1910-20 so it really wasn’t all that hard.

Endingen am Kaiserstuhl

In the book are several pictures of cities, villages, landscapes and monuments – capturing Germany at the time. Then as today they cultivated vines, by Mosel, by Rhine as well as in other parts.

Die Katharinenkirche bei Oppenheim

Here a but a few of the pictures, pictures that in one way or another concerns vineyards, and though perhaps more the landscapes might be a tad more pastoral than today, it’s not really that much of a difference.

Karden an der Mosel

 Though I can’t say for sure, in all cases, there’s still a good chance that these places are still cultivated with vines, and that they will be for a foreseeable future.

Ruine Ehrenfels bei Assmannshausen am Rhein

So as I miss ProWein this year I still get to enjoy Germany a bit through these pictures – to all my freinds and to all #winelovers have a great ProWein and Winelovers hangout in Mosel.

Magnus Reuterdahl

Traditonal Swedish Ox tail soup

This is a traditional Swedish dish, that has been around for ages, the oldest recipe I found was dated back to the the 19th century. In this case I haven’t followed a recipe per se but rather taken inspiration from several sources. This recipe is for about 5-6 persons as a main dish – serve with bred and cheese.

Start with the oxtail bits and let them soak in cold fresh water for circa two to three hours.

Step one is to make a broth on the ox tails.

• Circa 1-1,5 kg ox tail, cut in parts circa 3 cm thick
• 2 small carrots
• 1 parsnip
• 1 piece of celeriac
• 1 stalk celery
• 1 yellow onion
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 2 bay leaves
• a pinch of rosemary, thyme and parsley
• 5 black peppercorns
• 5 white peppercorns
• 5 allspice (Pimenta dioica)
• 2-3 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1 cup white wine (I used grüner veltliner)
• 1 tablespoon salt
• duck fat and/or butter for frying
• 

Start with drying the meat. Sprinkle flour over the ox tail and brown them in duck fat. Then place them in a roomy pot or saucepan. Brown the root vegetables and the onion in a little butter and whisk out of the pan with water. Put everything together in the pot along with the spices and garlic. Add water to cover it and bring to boil. Skim it until its clear then add the tomato paste and the wine. Put the lid on and simmer for a few hours (when the meat falls off with ease from the vertebra’s with ease it done).

When it’s about right lift out the meat, let it cool down and then remove the meat from the vertebra’s and chop it finely. While the meat is cooling, strain the broth through a wire strainer, press some of the root vegetables through.

Now it’s time to do the soup – if you rather wants a stew just make the it thicker!

• 2-3 yellow beets
• 1 carrot
• 4 fixed potatoes
• 1 piece of celery root
• 1 parsnip
• 5-10 small onions
• 10 or so mushrooms
• 1 knob of butter
• black pepper & salt
• red wine (if necessary)
• Fresh parsley

Cut the root vegetables into small bite size pieces and saute them along with the small onions and pour them into the broth, bring to boil and simmer for about 10 minutes. Meanwhile quarter the mushrooms and fry them up in a dry pan, add them and the meat in the broth. Let cook until the vegetables are ready. Thicken the soup if necessary. Season with salt and black pepper, and a little red wine in the absence of acid. Garnish with parsley and serve.

We served it with a very good red wine from Umbria, Italy. That refined rustic flavours worked like a charm with the soup,  Montignanello LS10 from producer Stefano Leonucci.

Magnus Reuterdahl

Georgian flash backs

I got a question earlier today reminding me of Georgia. That got me looking back on pictures and remembering a very special trip. It’s been a few months since we got back and what lingers on besides the wines are the people we met. The warmth and the hospitality and all the singing.

One of our last visits were at the Shumi winery. Here we where met by wines, chacha making, cooking and of course singing. Even though it was cold outside we were all warm inside.

We got bread made in a qvevri-like oven, not unlike the way I’ve seen nan-bread being made – though these looks more like a baguette.

They made chacha, a kind of grappa, and served it straight out of the distillation machine.

We got grilled pork…

…we got Khinkali, a kind of Georgian Dumplings filled with, juicy pork-and-beef-filled and spiced with chiles, cilantro and fenugreek. Will have to try to do this at some point – really nice.

I found this recipe.

 

And of course there were singing and cheering…

…and wines

Good memories from a fantastic tour of Kakethi, Georgia.

Magnus Reuterdahl

Velvet structure fever

I’m a metal head and winelover. When you find something that combines the two, that kind of makes it that much better.

Yesterday I met Neal Martin, the Wine Advocates man in the UK, at a Pomerol tasting in Stockholm curtisy of RobersonWineSweden. This night was a double whammy, eight Pomerols in eight glasses, spanning from 1985-2007, and then Pomerol in a book. The combo was wine and prints as Neal Martin presented his small book on Pomerol, just including the most important stuff, and great photo art by Johan Berglund.

Though the cover of the book might suggest shades of grey this is far from 50 shades of grey it is rather 596 pages of velvet, starting up with a Motörhead reference. This got me even more hooked than I was before starting to read it,  I have to admit I was already hooked on Pomerol. Neal Martin asks if Motörhead is an appropriate way to begin a book on Pomerol and I answer with Wendy O Williams words: It’s my life, and I do what I wanna, do what I wanna do… so yes it is!

I’ll get back back to the book regarding the iron fist in the velvet glove and the eight wines we tasted as soon as I’m done with it.

What I can say about the book after reading the first 50 pages or so is that it really is a book rather than an encyclopedia, with lots of fun little extras, in modern terms easter eggs, such as cultural references, anecdotes, photos and notes on great vintages Neal have tasted etc, etc…  Buy it enjoy it and while you at it by a few Pomerols as well as a side dish to the book!

I was invited to the tasting as a blogger and got the book for free!

Magnus Reuterdahl

Ps. As I guess many of you know Roberson Wine is also available in the UK Ds.

I’m going to Rioja – are you? EWBC2013

It is time to plan ahead – EWBC13 has been announced; Rioja it is! …come October. Read all about at the EWBC webpage.

Why should you go? This is according to myself one of the best wine events around, a group of people that are more like a community or family than an event to be honest. Best of all – even if you’ve not a member of this community or family yet you’ll be welcomed with opened arms.

At EWBC there are winelovers, bloggers, communicators, journalists, importers, vendors and winemakers all in the same venue – this is a great place for networking, for learning and having fun!

I hope to see you in Rioja come fall!

Magnus Reuterdahl