Commercial vineyards in Denmark and Sweden have only been allowed under European Union rules since 2000. Winemaking picked up around 2010, seeing a shift from amateur growers to more ambitious production.
Curiosity, and the fact “it’s possible”, has attracted wine entrepreneurs, explains Jean Becker, from the Danish Wine Association.
“I was one of the ones that started in the year 2000. We were six growers,” says Mr Becker, standing in his vineyard 25km (15 miles) north of Copenhagen.
There are now 150 commercial wineries in Denmark with a combined 125 hectares of vines, plus more than 1,000 hobby growers.
Meanwhile, Sweden has 47 commercial operators spanning 193 hectares, according to the Swedish Wine Association, and the biggest has 125,000 vines.
“I began with 500 vines,” said Jean Becker, “Today, new winegrowers are starting with 15,000-25,000. They start bigger in scale. Is there a market for it? The answer is yes.”
But it’s an industry still in its infancy, compared to the 800,000 hectares cultivated in France, and almost a million hectares in Spain.
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