It is an easy life being a wine journalist for a big newspaper in Sweden. You attend one tasting a month at Systembolaget, taste the new bag in box wines, give them a rating out of 5 or 10 or whatever depending on how high you can count, and write an article that one of the major daily newspapers publishes and pays you well for.
How many have ever asked to try the wines that aren’t available from Systembolaget? No one has ever asked us to do so, but that does not mean that they can’t have an opinion on our wines! Of course tasting wines is not a necessary criteria for wine journalists in Sweden to give them a rating (if I had to try hundreds of bag in box wines a year I would also start rating them without tasting them!). Fortunately we taste about 4500 wines a year to find the 400 we offer our customers so we understand that trying before judging a product is rather crucial. Sorry to disagree with you Mikael and Bengt-Göran!
Sitting down there in Paris travelling the world leading wine tours is Britt and Per Karlsson. Per and Britt also write BK Wine Magazine and Per dares to have an opinion that differs from the flock of wine journos back up in their former home country.
Per has written an interesting article on how two of the national daily wine journos have not been very supportive of wine clubs for no other reason that it is not in their interests to do so. These journalists have combined more years in the business than Systembolaget has been around for and share the same level of integrity.
If you can read Swedish click on this:
Soon it is winter vacation and my stream of consciousness will return in the new year!
Cheers
Mark
Tags: kronstam; mölstad; bk wine; per karlsson; britt karlsson
