Katarina's Blog

Wine bottles can have many shapes and colors. Sine we tend to use traditional shapes for specific wines the consumer can often tell just from the shape of the bottle what it is. But who decided this to begin with and why?

The aromas from Glögg (pronounced “glewgg”) simmering in a pot is the essence of Christmas for me. This brew has all the spices that I equate with the Holiday Season. If you visit Sweden in December you cannot avoid it - it is the welcome drink wherever you go that month. This mulled wine is served hot during the four weeks leading up to Christmas, the Advent time, together with ginger snaps and saffron bread.

Cork is a fantastic material. I love it. A natural bottle stopper from the bark of the cork oak. The cork comes from the bark of the tree which is harvested and then grows back again. Each tree can be harvested 12-15 times during its life which can be up to 200 years. Cork oak forests, today mostly in Portugal and Spain, are also a natural habitat for many species, some endangered like the Iberian Lynx. Before corks wine storage and transportation looked quite different. But cork also has its problems which the producers now has learned to mitigate.

We have roses at the end of the vine rows next to our Tasting Room. It's a beautiful frame for our outdoor tasting patio. But did you know there's also a historical reason for planting them by the rows of grapes? It used to be a warning system for grape vine deceases. Now we have other methods, but roses and lavender can be used in many other ways and in cooking.