Exploring Swedish wine (5) Kullabergs Vingård

September 6, 2024September 6, 2024 jamiegoode 464 Views

Kullabergs Vingård is based at the tip of the Kulla Peninsula, and has 18 hectares under vine. We arrived to find them on a high, after taking first place in the Swedish Wine Tasting 2024. Winemaker Felix Åhrberg was happily sabering the Zero Dosage to welcome guests. And Kullabergs chairman Björn Odlander said, ‘it will be hard to disregard Swedish wine in the future.’ He thinks the tasting has resulted in ‘an expansion of the international wine map.’

A wide variety of grapes are grown here. Solaris is dominant, but there’s also Cabernet Noir and Pinot Nova. The vineyard is exclusively planted to resistant varieties. ‘PIWIs allow us to be more sustainable with less tractor work,’ says Bjorn. Labour costs are high and they harvest by machine. ‘We think this gives us incredible quality,’ he says. They use a state of the art Pellenc machine harvester with the sort of advanced destemmer they would otherwise have bought for the winery. ‘It picks better than if you pick manually.’

They have 3 hectares protected by hail netting. The location, surrounded by three seas, means they can grow red and white, with the climate buffered nicely. It doesn’t get above 26 C in the summer. They use lasers to deal with the bird problems: this deters the flocks of starlings, but doesn’t affect raptors.

Row spacing is 3 m. This wide spacing means that in September and October the low angle of the sun in the sky means the rows are blocking the light to each other less.

The new winery was built in 2022, and has enough space to take the grapes from 30 hectares of vines. It’s architecturally stunning, build around a courtyard with a 37 degree angled roof. This is important because it makes the winery blend in with the local architecture.

THE WINES

Kullabergs Vingård Josefinelust ZD 2019 Sweden
Highly aromatic: very fruity and grapey with some lychee notes. It smells sweet. In the mouth this is bright, pure and fruity with grapey richness, a touch of sweetness, and then some bitter notes on the finish providing a foil. Very terpenic, quite unusual, but with some appeal to it. 88/100

Kullabergs Vingård Josefinelust ZD 2022 Sweden
Bright and focused with lovely fruit: tart citrus, some pear, white peach and a tocu of grape. Lovely fruit purity and focus with nice integrated acidity. 92/100

Kullabergs Vingård Askesäng 2021 Sweden
Pronounced aromatics of table grapes, lychee and smoky bacon, with a sweetness to them. The palate is broad, terpenic and full flavoured with lychee, Turkish delight, table grapes and then some nice bitter phenolic characters giving balance. Softly textured with moderate acidity and a slight savouriness on the finish. 89/100

Kullabergs Vingård Immelen 2021 Sweden
This is highly aromatic with sweet grape and Turkish delight notes as well as some apricot and spice. The palate is dry and fruity, with some exotic apricot notes as well as a nice spicy overlay. Tastes like a dry Sauternes. Really delicious and rich. 92/100

Kullabergs Vingård Immelen 2022 Sweden
Nice focus here. Bright with some pear and apricot, as well as some grapey richness. Layered and textured with fine spices. Powerful and lively with nice intensity. Rich, flavourful and complex. 92/100

Kullabergs Vingård Himmelstorp Pinot Nova 2022 Sweden
From 2019 plantings, this is ripe and aromatic with some sweet berry fruits complemented by some smoky bacon hints. In the mouth it’s dense and sweetly fruited with black cherries and plums. Rich and nicely intense with fresh blackcurrant and black cherry fruit, and nice spicy framing, as well as a subtle hint of green. 92/100

SWEDISH WINE

THE WINES

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