Last revised March, 2007.

OK - besides fly fishing I´m also interested in wine and cooking and I will try to share some of my ideas with you. I´m very international when it comes to wine - Sweden being a country where you can buy any quality wine from every part of the world, even in the most remote parts of Sweden thanks to our loved/hated "Systembolaget" - a Swedish state owned monopoly selling wine, strong beer, and liquor to the Swedish public.

The Systembolaget are forced to be absolute (no pun intended!) neutral to the producers of alcoholic beverages and being one of the largest single buyers of eg. wines in the world --> in Sweden you can buy quality wine from any wine producing country (and cognac and whiskey/whisky - they even have to sell bourbon the poor devils...) to prices met by few other merchants. And, you can order these beverages in the most remote parts of Sweden you can think of!

Just think of it. You can in Sweden go to a remote village hundreds of kilometres north of the Arctic Circle and from the local appointed deliverer of the Systembolaget (usually a grocery shop or bus station) order what you want from their inventory of thousands of different wines - or exclusive single malt whiskies, or whatever, - and it will be delivered to you in a few days or at most a week, if you ordered something very special that the Systembolaget shop nearest to you didn´t have. And - it will be delivered at no extra cost, not even for the extra transport! I´d like to see the private enterprise that can stand up against that! It´s not that I don´t like private enterprise - I am in fact very much for private enterprise - but only a state owned monopoly can "be forced" to give the customer such extravagant service at no cost. It is simply on the base that all citizens should have the same opportunity to use the services of the state.

Although being very much in favor of the European Union I personally think that they also in the future should stay away from trying to force Sweden to dissolve the Systembolaget monopoly. This opinion can be defended from many different points of view but one of the main points being that the Swedish people will most certainly be deprived of this super service that we have now leaving everybody outside the major cities to abandon the steadily increasing consumption of wine and go back to drinking the Swedish vodka called brännvin (probably of illegal origin). Sweden have for some years now had a clear trend of decreasing use of hard liquor (eg vodka) and a clear trend of increasing use of wine and beer (local and imported or license made continental beer). Frankly, I can´t see the point for France, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Italy and Spain and other wine or beer producers to lose one of their largest customers and at the same time making it worse for "the little man" in a new member country! It certainly won´t make the Swedish people more positive to the EU!

I have the pleasure to make the comment that the European Court of Justice has made the right decision, i.e. they have decided that Sweden can continue to have their beloved/hated liqour shop monopoly, Systembolaget, and there will be changes made concerning the import of alcoholic beverages to Sweden in the future.
This court decision will give me the opportunity to continue to buy new and interesting Riojas, Hermitages, Chiantis, etc at my local Systembolaget shop 12 kilometres from my home instead of getting them only when I visit Stockholm (250 km) or Gothenburg (500 km) !!!
But - according to the local newspapers .... if I wanted locally produced illegal vodka instead of wine or different European beers I wouldn´t have to go to Stockholm or Gothenburg ....

When it comes to cooking I naturally use the fish, birds, and animals I can get in Sweden - be it trout, salmon, moose, reindeer, capercaillzie or - ptarmigan. But - I admit I sometimes get very influenced by the cooking styles of other countries and continents!

I will expand this wine & cooking page as times go by. If you think it´s too slow - mail me!

Links to begin with..............

	Go to "Systembolaget" - info in Swedish and English. http://www.systembolaget.se
	Go to "Amfora" - info in Swedish. http://www.amfora.se
	Go to "Laphroaig" - info in English. http://www.laphroaig.com
	Go to the homepage of the Swedish magazine "Dina viner" - info in Swedish. http://www.vininfo.se

 

	Go to Den Grymme Kockens Hemsida ('the cruel chef´s homepage') med olika intressanta recept och matlänkar - info in Swedish. http://www.users.wineasy.se/dengrymmekocken/
	Go to The Swedish Consumer´s Cooperative Organization´s site. Under the headline "Mat & dryck" you will find information about different matters useful to know about food, eg information about food allergy, food for vegetarians, etc. - info in Swedish. http://www.kf.se/
	Go to ICA`s page (= approx. the Swedish private grocery store owners association) which under the headline "Mat & recept" has information about food and recepies - info in Swedish (some info in English). http://www.ica.se/
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