During my recent trip to Norway, I was pleasantly surprised to discover the growing importance of wine among Norwegians. It seems that wine has become a hot commodity in the country, with some individuals willing to camp out for weeks just to get their hands on top-quality burgundies. In fact, wine-related theater events have become quite popular in Oslo. Norwegian tastes are truly unexpected.
What’s even more intriguing is that Norway’s best-selling wine is actually produced by a black-metal musician who curated an exhibition at the famous Edvard Munch Museum. In Scandinavian countries like Norway, there is only one retailer of alcoholic beverages, and similar to Systembolaget in Sweden and Alko in Finland, Vinmonopolet, the Norwegian monopoly, imposes heavy taxes on alcohol to discourage excessive drinking.
In Norway, there is a fixed mark-up of 54p on every 75cl bottle of wine, along with an additional 22% of the price. However, unlike Sweden and Finland, Norway imposes a limit on the total mark-up. For most wines, the maximum mark-up cannot exceed the equivalent of £8.36. For a special category of higher-priced wines, the maximum mark-up is £19. This unique pricing structure has resulted in a situation where “cheap wine is expensive and expensive wine is cheap,” according to Stephen Fulker, manager of Vinmonopolet’s store in Oslo.
This pricing phenomenon is exactly why every freezing February, there is a line of tents outside the flagship Vinmonopolet store in Oslo’s waterfront neighborhood of Aker Brygge. Wine enthusiasts, and perhaps opportunists, queue up for up to four weeks in anticipation of the annual arrival of top-notch burgundies, including wines from the highly sought-after Domaine de la Romanée-Conti. It’s easy to understand the appeal. Wines that are typically allocated to the most favored customers at staggering prices are available to anyone willing to wait in line. For instance, DRC’s La Tâche 2017 was sold earlier this year for £1,230, a mere quarter of its price in the UK. Selling these wines can be quite lucrative.
While it is suspected that some potential buyers employ students or others to queue on their behalf, there is an unwritten rule of honor when it comes to queuing. No queue jumping is allowed, and the building owners even provide tents and toilet facilities. These dedicated wine lovers refer to themselves as the Grand Cru Network and even have their own song. I had the chance to speak with someone who was number 132 in line last February, and he sadly shared that the last bottle of DRC wine went to queuer number 131.
This unique wine culture is not the only surprising characteristic of Norway. Since my last visit in the early 1990s, wine has evolved to cater to more than just connoisseurs. Per capita consumption has tripled between 1980 and 2010 as Norwegians enjoyed the prosperity resulting from the oil industry. Unlike in the UK, wine columns are plentiful in Norway, with around 20 wine writers in the country. I had the pleasure of meeting eight of them, including six women, some of whom have columns in as many as three different newspapers. For example, Merete Bø has an impressive 10,000 subscribers to her newsletter offered as part of a £700 subscription to the business newspaper Dagens Næringsliv. The largest wine club in Norway, Norske Vinklubbers Forbund, boasts 4,000 members.
Bø and popular stand-up comedian Thomas Giertsen host a wine podcast that easily garners 30,000 downloads per episode. Just last month, the three of us filled the historic Chat Noir vaudeville theatre in Oslo with 350 wine enthusiasts who paid £100 per ticket to enjoy three small tasting samples while listening to our lively discussions about wine.
Norwegians’ taste in wine is quite surprising. As an outsider, I would have expected full-bodied red wines to be the most popular choice in a country with long, cold winters. However, dry German Riesling takes the top spot. The flagship Vinmonopolet store boasts an impressive selection of top German labels, far exceeding any other store I have seen. I was informed that the Norwegian palate is particularly drawn to high acidity, which might also explain the popularity of English sparkling wine in Norway, as it is the country’s most important export market. Almost 90 brands of English fizz make their way across the North Sea, with one store in Sandefjord offering an astounding 51 English sparkling wines, along with 11 still white wines and six still reds, far surpassing the variety found in English retailers. I had the opportunity to taste Komorebi 2022, Norway’s top sparkling wine, which is made from the early-maturing, disease-resistant Solaris grapes grown near Kristiansand in the south. The winemaker, John Reidar, explained that he often has to cover the vines in spring to accelerate flowering. Despite the small scale of the vineyard, with Reidar measuring production in terms of vines (2,000 with the potential for 7,000) rather than hectares, a recent survey of the 150 members of the Norwegian Grape Growers’ Association revealed that almost 20 of them have plans to produce wine commercially. However, at present, only two Norwegian still wine producers are professional enough to sell to Vinmonopolet, while others are only permitted to sell wine to restaurants or visitors, but only by the glass and with the appropriate license. The sale of alcoholic beverages is heavily regulated in Norway, with no advertising allowed and strict regulations governing the relationships between Vinmonopolet, importers, and commentators. Vinmonopolet, which now boasts 347 stores, celebrated its centenary last year and was ranked top for consumer satisfaction in a poll of Norwegian businesses. Most wines are purchased based on a tender process followed by a blind tasting, ensuring that small producers have an equal chance of getting their wines on the shelves. Based on my observations of the American Pinots available, it seems that the staff at Vinmonopolet are allowed to follow their own taste preferences. Similar to Sweden, boxed wine is popular in Norway and constitutes approximately half of Vinmonopolet’s sales by volume. Additionally, for their less expensive wines, they require bottles that weigh no more than 420g.
It is quite surprising that despite having only one retail customer, Norway has an extraordinary number of wine importers, amounting to around 750. According to figures shared with me by one of the wine writers I met, approximately 10,000 out of the 28,000 wines on Vinmonopolet’s shelves last year sold fewer than 24 bottles. Many importers focus on supplying Norway’s vibrant restaurant scene. As for the Munch-loving musician, Sigurd Wongraven, who performs as Satyr in the band Satyricon, he intentionally chose to brand his wines under the name Wongraven rather than use his musical alter ego. His wines, which mainly come from Piemonte and Germany, became incredibly successful, prompting Norway’s largest wine company, Vingruppen, to acquire 90% of his brand for around £4mn in 2019. Nevertheless, Wongraven continues to produce the blends himself, and based on the couple I tried in Bergen airport, he does so with admirable skill.
Overall, the wine culture in Norway is both surprising and intriguing. It is fascinating to witness Norwegians’ evolving taste preferences and the growing popularity of wine in the country. With a unique pricing structure, an impressive number of wine importers, and a dedicated wine-loving community, Norway is undoubtedly a fascinating destination for wine enthusiasts.
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