It's " wine o' clock " - a quick history of my background in wines , future plans for my wine - diary etc...
I developed a great interest on wines somewhere in 2007 - 2008, but I think, that the first seed was planted in me at 1996 spring.
I was an exchange student then in Portugal for 3 months , and during that time we also visited in some vinyards, including at the DOC Vinho Verde , where I had my first encounter to those delightful wines , that the region provided.
Years after that, my interest on wines really bloomed and the curiosity grew to the point, that I took part to these courses:
🍷 Haaga Institute, Helsinki / Spanish wine educators tour
🥂 Haaga Institute, Helsinki / WSET level 2, intermediate certificate in wines and spirits
Needless to say , that those courses were fabulous, and the little spark that I had before those courses, had ignited a huge fire of endless passion on the magical world of wines and everything about them.
After those courses I had an opportunity to visit the famous Torres Bodegas in Vilafranca de Penedes in Spain, and took part of a tasting there as well.
I have also had a great priviledge to work in a family vineyard in Switzerland at summer 2016, and it was simply a great summer.
Even though I have worked / still work in hospitality industry as a waitress ( Vocational Qualification in Hotel and Restaurant Services, Waitress / Finland), most of my knowledge and experience on wines has evolved outside of work environment.
Because the limited budget I have available , I am shifting the focus of my wine studies more strongly to the indigenous wine grapes , where my interest has been anyways for many years.
In addition to the limited budget, I am also somewhat bound to the selection, what is possible to purchase via Alko.
But I operate within the boundaries that I have.
So - in the future my wine diary will include grapes, such as :
Carricante, Posip, Kaleč̣ik Karasi, Saperavi , Plavac Mali, Voskehat etc......
However , I have already had a pleasure to taste several wines made out of native grapes : Telti Kuruk ( Ukraine), Koshu ( Japan) , Narince & Emir ( Kappadocia, Turkey) etc etc....
Thanks to the internet, there is plenty of information available in many languages , so that helps to gain more theoretical knowledge .
Of course it would be a dream come true to be able to travel more and visit on all those countries and regions ,where they grow all those indigenous grapes and taste those wines right there .....BUT - we circle back to the issue called money and that limited budget 😁.
There is also another thing, that I have grown interest on the past years : Scandinavia and its' wine industry.
This new wine region is geographically close enough to be approachable to visit at some point , which would be great fun.
I know , that England produces some great sparkling - wines already ( yes, I do know that England is not part of Scandinavia, but it is a fairly new wine region and that's why I brought it up here ), and Sweden and Denmark have also made a mark on the wine -map as an up-coming rising stars.
I have added few interesting links here :
Sweden's wine country: Exploring the vineyards | Visit Sweden https://share.google/hYB0QsehjZkEGRRr6
In from the cold: Scandi wines hope to win over drinkers https://share.google/n8aYVFIXMFFrko5gS
Take a sip of Danish wine https://share.google/HRHS3rpRI9bEfohNc
Slinde Vineyard https://share.google/LNpx1uERRcZjh0tXT
Thank you for taking your time to read this !
Salud 🍷!
( Photos : Anneli Laulumaa)
