Danish Wine Show 2024 - The Award Ceremony
It is Saturday the 21st of September and the sun is shining from an almost cloudless sky. The thermometer in my parents Fiat Panda shows 20° Celsius as I drive over Lillebæltsbroen and take the exit towards Fredericia. Like in 2018 we are experiencing an unusually warm and sunny late summer, and all winegrowers in the country are looking forward to the harvest, which for some has already begun.
Homebound
I have taken a detour from Svendborg – where my family and I are visiting my parents in my childhood home – to participate in the second part of the Danish wine show 2024 in form of the open tasting and the award ceremony no less. Six weeks ago, I was part of the team of judges that rated the 379 submitted wines, and now it is time to get acquainted with the people behind the wines.
The show is taking place in Messe C, Fredericia. As I enter the big building, I’m welcomed, receive my nameplate, it strikes me how professional and well organised an event I have walked into. In my thoughts I had imagined something more like a big, green lawn in the countryside where each producer has been given a table to place their wines on. A little naive maybe, however truthful.
“We have simply come so far as a wine country in Denmark, that there now is a small winegrower in almost every little village! Amazing. ”
That is evidently not the case here: I enter a giant room packed with Danish wine producers who have all brought their wines. There are 108 producers present in total, divided into seven long tables of which the first four are hobby growers and the last three the commercial growers.
Photo: Foreningen Dansk Vin
I smile, find a tasting glass and take a deep breath before I venture into the well organised jungle of Danish wine. The first stand I go to emerges as quite a fun experience for me, as it is a producer from the very small village I was raised in. Tved Vingaard. We have simply come so far as a wine country in Denmark, that there now is a small winegrower in almost every little village! Amazing.
It wasn’t until the day before that I’d looked through the program and discovered that indeed there was a wine producer in Tved! I am still a little speechless when I go to greet Henrik Dyrebjerg who owns the farm. Firstly, I taste his rosé and immediately look up at him and say that I tasted the very same wine at the rating, even though we naturally tasted all the wines in blind. And quite right, a couple of weeks later I find out that his rosé was one of the wines my tables of judges was served the 13th of august at Svenstrup Gods. Luckily it tastes good - then as well as now. I bid him farewell and continue to the next of many many tables that, even for an experienced sommelier as myself, seems a tad unmanageable.
Hope ahead
The next couple of hours I taste everything I come close to, from hobby to commercial growers, and yet again I am surprised by the relatively high quality I meet at several tables. Of course, not all the wines are well made, there are still flaws in some of the bottles, volatile acids, obvious bacterial occurrences and smaller and bigger mistakes. We are a young wine country after all. But overall, quite impressive. I am also surprised by the fact that the difference in quality between the hobby and commercial growers are smaller than expected. The commercial growers makes cleaner wines, but the fluid itself, the pure must that has become wine, is sensed the same way in all the wines.
It would be too extensive to list all the good wines I tasted, but especially two producers caught my attention. Ørby Vingaard from Helsinge, that makes two very beautiful and linear organic wines on Solaris, and Gilleleje Wines, who’s Frühburgunder tastes amazing. There is definitely hope for the future of Danish wine.
When it is time for the award ceremony, I find myself a chair to rest my legs while the different categories are awarded. As mentioned, there are 379 submitted wines from the 108 producers. 246 grape wines in the young class, 77 grape wines in the older class, 28 fruit wines, 14 ciders and 14 mjød. This year there are distributed a record number of medals, no more than 85, of which 6 is Gold, 22 Silver and 57 Bronze as well as 71 with Special distinction.
Reflections
After the presentation the tasting continues, but I have tasted enough for today. Instead, I remain seated, take a look over the many stands and think about what I have just experienced. Despite the great attendance and the countless well-made wines, it is still striking how many of the best producers in the country that isn’t present.
I have tasted a lot of Danish wine during the last 10 years, and I have gradually gotten to known the elite in this country even though new and hopefully producers keep popping up. Which is the same reason why I would have liked to see Ørnberg, Stokkebye, Vejrhøj, Barfod, Njord, Guldbæk and the other top producers participate. But maybe that isn’t the purpose of Danish wine show... All of the mentioned producers participated in the earlier years, and the many walls in their wineries and tasting rooms are undoubtedly decorated with a lot of diplomas and medals from previous wine shows.
Maybe the justification for existence for the Danish wine show is rather – through unity, sharing of experiences, encouragement and awards, that can be used for promotion – to help Danish wine producers being brought out into the light. To give them tools to improve, until they one day can stand in their own feet. It has worked for others, and today they are consolidating Denmark as a serious and quality aware wine country. A country that at this point already are able to measure themselves in the same league with the better white wines of other, more traditional countries. And what does that not mean for the future? Believe me when I say, that in the coming years, the focus on Danish wine is going to increase more and more. Not only from the many Danish wine drinkers, but also from foreign investors and producers. We are entering a very exciting period, the spirit of the producers is high and the wine in the glass is only getting better and better.
