(Vitis vinifera, Vitaceae)
♥ Green Thumb Sunday ♥
This is the first grapes I personally have seen in a private garden. It’s TorAa‘s Norwegian cultivated grapes. Aren’t they grand? They tasted as good as they look! His Mom is getting the first harvest today, since it’s her 89th birthday. Congratulations x millions to her.
The climate zone in Sweden and all of Scandinavia is a bit too cold to cultivate Grapes. We need hardy Grapes that ripe early and cope with the weather. One has to find the right spot in the garden for them too, as he did. How smart to plant them in the shelter of a rock, getting the warmth that the rock has stored.
Cut from DN, Swedish newspaper:
“Almost half of all the cultivated fruit is grapes. Ten millions hectares of land are planted with grapes. All of it isn’t turned into wine, but a lot of it – only one year of the wine cultivations gives about 40 billions bottles. That’s about 8-10 bottles each to all of us here on earth. Talk about wine mountains!”
Grapes has been cultivated in Sweden as early as in the 18th century. Back then every castle or manor with any pride had an orangery with exotic fruits. It gave them a feeling of that culture and civilization existed even here up in the North. In the 19th century it ended because it were much more cheap to import.
It’s not until around 1990 it came back again, when more hardy grapes were developed, but it’s still difficult and varies a lot from place to place, depending on the local conditions. There are red, white and sparkling wines that’s made here in Sweden, from Swedish grapes, so far, but not that many – yet.
We have a really good Ice wine, “Vidal Ice Wine”, from Blaxsta Vingård, that has won prizes in Wine Worlds Championship twice:
- 2007: Bronze. International Wine Challenge (England) vidal ice wine 2005
- 2005: Silver. Challenge du vin (Bordeaux) vidal ice wine 2003
Ice wine is produced from grapes that’s harvested and pressed when they’re frozen, giving it a more sweet and special taste. Though it’s very demanding and there is a risk of not getting any harvest at all, so they’re generally more expensive. The Vidal ice wine is very much alike the Canadian ice wine.
The market for Swedish wines are not so big. It’s difficult to get the grapes to ripe well here, we need more sun and not so long winters. The wine have a tendency to get too tart and thin. Not to mention how expensive they are.
We’re spoiled with so many other good and cheap wines from the rest of the world already!
Lifecruiser ♥ Wine Grapes
We have some wineries here in the northeast of the USA. Our growing season is just a little longer than yours. They’re good wines, but not like the warmer climates.
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California has lots and lots of wine county. Napa is one of my favorite places. Now I just want to go to Tor and Anna’s for grapes, or maybe dinner too. Just saying. Have a great day Captain.
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We used to have a grape vine in our backyard when we lived in the mountains of North Carolina. A very vibrant purplish/reddish color similar to Tor and Anna’s grapes. Loved going underneath it. It was a magical spot.
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We do have them in the supermarkets, but imported yes. And not so many ecological unfortunately….
Does this mean you don’t see many grapes for sale at the (super)markets? ..or do they get imported? Can see how Tor’s grapes would taste all the more special and they look so healthy too.
Love them best when they’re fresh & firm over here
Those grapes look delicious! Thanks for the visit.
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We are so “Grapeful” for a fantastic photo of our Blue “Norwegian” Grapes at out Summer House Garden. They are of the type Schybler . Takes several years to give results, like this years. Record harvest- and my mom enjoyed them at her 89th BD this afternoon.
I should be more brutal cutting away weak and late fruits. But, you know, it’s so fascinating to see the Grapes here at 60 degrees North.
I was not aware of the fact Ice Wine is produced in Sweden. Very fascinating. And I love the way you do find facts
My son Niklas, you met him during the 3×20 event, bought some winestocks from Ukraina last year. They can survive down to -40C. But they grow very slowly.
Have a great week to come
TorAas last blog post..HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR MOTHER – 89
I didn’t realize that grapes were so very hard to grow in Sweden. I’m glad to hear that TorAa was so successful this year.
Here in Canada there are parts of the country that it would probably be just about impossible to grow grapes, but then we also have some regions that are renowned for their grape growing and wine producing abilities. As you kind of touched on – our Ice Wines are probably the wines we Canadians are best known for as they are delicious! This year looks like it might get cooler earlier than normal so our ice wine harvest might be earlier than it normally is ( I believe it most often occurs in December and sometimes even January!).
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40 billion bottles is a lotta bottles. If you took a couple of days’ production and threw it all into the oceans and rivers, every living being on earth would end up drunk.
Scandinavian wine, HIC ! we have Belgian wine too, actually the grapes here are quite famous (and expensive !)
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Tor’s grapes look delicious but I can see where someone has sampled them! I love grapes…especially when they’re turned into wine…my favourite type of grape, heheh!
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Amazing what TLC (tender love and care) can do to a plant…great grapes, Tor did a wonderful job!!
Weather alone does not garantee a good harvest, I see it with our neighbors who try hard to grow their own grapes…
Cheers!
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Tor has got green hands to cultivate nice grapes in his garden! if you don’t product a lot of wines you product super beers! And we love beer so much with Pierre!
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