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It’s late summer afternoon and a fresh North Sea breeze is blowing through the vines at Kullabergs Vingård, a vineyard and winery that’s at the forefront of producers looking to redefine Swedish wine.
Scandinavia isn’t exactly what connoisseurs would describe as premier wine country, and commercial vineyards are still tiny compared to France, Italy, or Spain. But as climate change leads to warmer and longer growing seasons, and new grape varieties are adapted to this landscape, the bouquet of Swedish wines is maturing well.
As drought, increasing heat and other extreme weather events force traditional wine-growing regions to reconsider their methods, Swedish viticulture is transforming from mostly small-scale amateurs to an industry with growing ambitions.
Kullabergs Vingård covers 14 hectares (approx. 34 acres) and most of the vines were planted less than a decade ago. By 2022, the winery had reached an annual production of over 30,000 bottles – mainly white wines, which can be found in top restaurants from Europe to Japan to Hong Kong and which have won several international awards.
“Where vineyards in more traditional countries suffer, we gain momentum,” said Felix Åhrberg, a 34-year-old oenologist and winemaker who returned to Sweden in 2017 to run Kullabergs Vingård after working in vineyards around the world.
Grapevines tolerate heat and drought, and parts of Europe have traditionally practiced non-irrigated agriculture. But the past decade has been the hottest year on our planet on record, and further warming is on the cards. This can have an impact on the wine, where even minor changes in the weather can change the sugar, acidity and tannin levels of the grapes.
Climate change can make areas that were once ideal for certain grape varieties more difficult to grow. Extreme heat causes grapes to ripen more quickly, resulting in either earlier harvests that can affect quality, or stronger, less balanced wines if left to mature for too long.
In recent years, vines have been planted further north, with commercial vineyards emerging in Norway and Denmark and others expanding into cooler zones, including in the American West. The UK, known for its ales and bitters, expects acreage to double over the next decade due to demand for sparkling wines.
“This is the new frontier of winemaking and grapes thrive best in their coolest spot,” said Åhrberg as he walked through Kullabergs Vingård’s newly built winery, an Instagram-friendly gem worthy of design magazines and with sustainability and a capacity of three people was built times the current volume.
According to the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute, temperatures in southern Sweden have risen by about 2 degrees Celsius in the last 30 years compared to the 30 years before. And the growing season has lengthened by about 20 days.
The widespread introduction of new varieties of disease-resistant grapes is also responsible for the growth of Swedish wine. Most of the vineyards have planted a grape called Solaris, developed in Germany in 1975, which is adapted to the cooler climate and is more disease resistant. This allows most vineyards to avoid the use of pesticides.
“Solaris is like the national grape variety here in Sweden,” said Emma Berto, a young French oenologist and winemaker based in Thora Vingård on the Bjäre Peninsula, about 20 kilometers north of Kullabergs Vingård.
She and her partner Romain Chichery moved to Sweden shortly after completing their viticulture studies in France because of the opportunity to run a vineyard and winery early in their careers. Their goal is to combine traditional winemaking with modern environmental practices such as no use of pesticides and use of extensive cover crops to improve soil quality and encourage beneficial insects and biodiversity.
They say they face fewer extreme climate events in Sweden than in France, where warmer winters can mean grapevines produce early buds that are vulnerable to frost, and fierce hailstorms can destroy a year’s work in minutes. And Chichery said they had more freedom to experiment in Sweden than in countries like France, steeped in tradition and regulation.
But working in cooler and wetter conditions required learning new methods. While vineyards in hot climates would protect their grapes with more canopy, the opposite is true here. The leaves are plucked from the underside of the plant to allow more sunlight onto the grapes and reduce humidity.
Attracting trained wine professionals also presents a hurdle, as does the difficulty of obtaining wine casks and other equipment on a larger scale.
Thora Vingård’s owners, Johan and Heather Öberg, said Swedish universities offer little about winemaking or viticulture, which hopefully will change soon.
Lots of talent is currently coming from abroad – like Iban Tell Sabate, who hails from the wine-growing region of Priorat in Spain and has worked in the industry for decades.
He had read about Sweden’s wine industry but said most people he spoke to at home knew nothing about it. He works the season at Kullabergs Vingård together with colleagues from France and Austria.
“Italy, Greece, Spain, all these countries will face problems. There isn’t enough water and the winters are too warm,” Sabate said.
“Sweden is in a good position in the face of global warming and it’s a good wine too.”
Maarten van Aalst, director general of the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute and professor of climate and disaster resilience at the University of Twente, saw the growth optimism in Swedish wine as an indicator of how quickly the world climate is changing. Businesses “have a good sense of this,” he said, calling it positive that “part of climate change is something we can adapt to.”
But van Aalst recalled the days of heavy rains that hit Scandinavia in early August, flooding dams, destroying roads, forcing thousands to evacuate and causing over $150 million in damage. Man-made climate change is causing such extreme and destructive weather events to occur more frequently.
Both Kullabergs Vingård and Thora weathered this storm without major damage and have now been able to focus on what businesses are doing: trying to grow.
A major challenge for Sweden’s fledgling wine industry is getting the product to consumers around the world. Unlike France and other traditional wine-growing countries, there is no government support. Wineries are subject to strict regulations and cannot sell directly to consumers due to the Swedish state monopoly on alcohol sales.
“The government does not yet see the potential of the wine industry,” said Mikael Mölstad, wine journalist and critic. “Politicians are not interested because they still see alcohol as a social problem.”
The winemakers hope that this will change as the vineyards expand. Although the area under vines is growing rapidly, it is only around 150 hectares, tiny compared to almost a million hectares in Spain and more than 800,000 hectares in France.
“Very few bottles are produced each year,” said Henrik Edvall, who runs an online shop that exports Swedish wine abroad. Its sales have grown 10% each year, and consumers are curious to try something new — but expect long, and sometimes unsuccessful, waits.
Göran Amnegård planted his first vines over 20 years ago, an experimental endeavor few believed would succeed, but his Blaxsta produced mostly rare ice wines that won top international awards.
Amnegård said he feels reassured by the growth in Swedish wine and expects “far more wineries” as the climate changes.
“I can see things growing here that were unthinkable 30 or 40 years ago,” Amnegård said as he looked out over his small vineyard nestled between glacial lakes and dense forests.
“We see fruit trees like peaches and apricots. I get beautiful peaches in August.”
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The Associated Press’s climate and environmental reporting is supported by several private foundations. For more information on AP’s climate initiative, click here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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