Danish wine show 2024
The story about Danish wine is a short one. Roughly told it begins in 1993, when the pioneer Michael Gundersen plants his first Rondo vine in Avedøre, where he six years later, in 1999, starts Dansk Vincenter. The year after, 1st of august 2000, Denmark is granted the permission to grow winegrapes for commercial wine production on 99 hectares by The European Union, whereby the story about Danish wine sees the light on day.
Growing and showing
Today we grow wine on a little less than 200 hectares with approximately 400.000 vines and a production of 400.000 bottles a year. There are around 1.500 winegrowers in the country of which 150 are commercial, and the number is rising significantly these years, where the Danish climate unfortunately is getting more and more suitable for winegrowing.
While the first 10-15 years of our wine history were marked by a lot of difficult attempts of adaptation, the last decade has shown the big potential our country has for producing beautiful, dry white wines especially made on the Solaris grape. But a young wine country needs good reviews and documentation to get going hence, Danish Wine Show came into existence in 1999.
Roughly told the wine show is divided into two parts. The first, where professional tasters rate the submitted wines, and the second, where the Danish producers at the 2nd Saturday of September, presents their wines, and the prize medals from the tasting are handed out. In the beginning everything was new, and there were some scepticisms connected with the idea of growing, producing and not least selling Danish wine. As our vice president of the Danish Sommelier Association, Tim Vollerslev, very accurately puts it, when he welcomes us tasters to the 25th edition of Danish Wine Shop at Svenstrup Gods; in 1999 he was asked by the Danish Food Agency to supervise the wine show to assess whether it was sound to drink Danish wine at all!
Svenstrup Gods. Photo: Foreningen Dansk Vin
Here 25 years later we can with some certainty answer affirmative to this question, which I will get back to later.
The starting point for this article is precisely the rating part of the Danish Wine Show 2024, as I in the early summer was asked if I would participate as judge, which I naturally couldn’t refuse. So, I found a car, and very early in the morning of Tuesday the 13th of august left the city of smiles and ventured towards Svenstrup Gods on central Sjælland between Ringsted and Køge.
Into the unknown
To be honest, I don’t quite know what I am getting into, so the expectations in the car are high when I with great pace pass first Vejlefjordbroen, then Lillebæltsbroen, speed over my Funen home region and fly over Storebæltsbroen, before I shortly after leave the E20 highway and turn northeast towards Borup. It doesn’t take long before the modern, industrial world is gone and another, almost magical country idyll takes over. The well-known city names of Slagelse, Sorø, Ringsted and Roskilde have been replaced with Benløse, Valsømagle, Ortved, Egemose, Borup and Svenstrup, and as I, in a more moderate pace, drive through a wonderful and amazingly quite forest. Turning into the gravel driveway at Borupvej 94, I am met by an enormous estate with small lakes and endless, vast, green fields of grass.
A bit speechless I park the car at the estate’s parking lot and step out into a deafening silence. The pleasant calmness so omnipresent that I forget for a moment where I am. I just take in the impressions. Slowly reality insistingly returns, and I see a small, laminated sign at one of the side buildings of the estate that says ‘Danish wine show’. I walk towards it and am welcomed by Søren Rasmussen, board member of the union Foreningen Dansk Vin, that arranges the wine show.
Svenstrup Gods. Photo: Foreningen Dansk Vin
Time to taste
Together with 22 other judges and Tim as head judge, we are, after a bite of breakfast, officially welcomed at 9.30am and divided into eight tasting tables with three judges per table. There are 379 wines to rate, whereof 323 of them are grape wine, 42 fruit wine and 14 meads.
I am on team number 7 together with Lars Byager and Palle Broløkke Bøgely, both of them haver, unlike me, participated before. We are assigned to rate 47 wines of which there are 15 whites and 32 rosés. A very fine task, I think, and look at some of the other tables that has gotten a bit more difficult assignments in form of strictly red or sparkling wine.
All the tables start with the tasting of a white and red wine from last year that received Special Distinction, which is the category just below Bronze, just to set the assessment. And then we go. Alle sets consist of four wines and are rated from the categories Appearance, Smell, Taste and Overall Impression. Together there are 20 points to give. If a wine receives 10 points, it is a ‘Good wine’, 11,5 points gives ‘Special Distinction’, 13 points is Bronze, 14,5 points is Silver and does a wine receive 16 points, it is awarded with Gold.
Tim Vollerslev to the left, Kenny Jess Brant to the right. Photo: Foreningen Dansk Vin
The glasses are filled, the computers set at the rating schedule: Here we go. Our team starts with four white wines, whereas three of them are made from Solaris, and unlike our expectations all of them are completely different and doesn’t bear the obvious distinctions of the grape’s signature signs of elderflower aroma and fresh fruit. The rule is, that if the three judges are more than 2 points from each other, Tim are called at the table to find a solution. Luckily, Lars, Palle and I agree on most of the 47 wines, which however doesn’t mean, that there isn’t need to call for help a couple of times, as we not only receive a fortified wine, which can’t be rated as a dry white wine, but also a wine that is corked.
Of the 15 white wines, 14 of them are made from Solaris, and there are awarded five with Special Distinction, three Bronze and two Silver. No Gold in this round, but not bad at all. The rosé part, however, is another story, and it’s obvious to us, that it is dry white wines, we as a wine country must focus on. Of the 32 rosés three are awarded with Special Distinction and two with Bronze, and the best rosés we taste are those, that not necessarily excels with a beautiful aroma and good depths, but rather those who shows harmony and balance in the taste.
At 3.30 pm we are through all the wines at the table. With the exception of a lunch break, we have tasted and rated wines in almost five hours but is has been a very exciting experience. Level-wise I am neither disappointed nor uplifted. Among the white wines there were some good ones, but I think that the team with strictly white wines has tasted better wines than us. Maybe even a couple that has been awarded with Gold. However, I also have the feeling that some of the best producers in the country this year didn’t turn in their wines for evaluation which of course can have different reasons.
But all in all, an instructive and exciting day and a very well organised event with a good atmosphere and a great expectation for the future of Danish winegrowing. An expectation, I can only join, and that hopefully contributes to the reinforcement of Danish winegrowing in the coming years.
