R&D in a bottle: Can nordic nature be reverse engineered into a wine?
For those who know me well, you’ll already know this: I’m always on a discovery journey. One that’s rarely linear, often a little chaotic, and always guided by curiosity. My background in concept development and my sometimes-not-always-a-pro level of curiosity tend to lead me down paths others might hesitate to take. I follow the question, wherever it leads.
Over the past six months, one question kept circling in my mind:
Can I reverse engineer Nordic ingredients into a wine that flips traditional wine tasting notes on their head?
Let me be more specific.
Take a benchmark Bourgogne — think:
Cherries. Red cassis. Roses. Violets. Mushrooms. Forest floor.
Now ask yourself: don’t we have all of that here in the Nordic region, too?
Wild cherries, blackcurrant, rose petals, violets in bloom, Karl Johan mushrooms, and plenty of mossy, humus-rich forest ground.
So why not try?
The concept: Nordic wine
To begin figuring this out, I had to shape the idea. And, naturally, I made a slide deck. (Ex-management consultant, after all.) I called it RÅ – Nordic Wine (working title). It helped me collect the early threads:
Nordic ingredients
Wine methodology
Global benchmarks
Sensory translation
I started imagining what it would mean to rebuild a salty Albariño using gooseberries and perhaps seaweed to mimic that saline edge. Could I take the structure of a wine I love and translate it through the terroir I live in?
What comes next?
Since then, I’ve been in research mode. Talking to sommeliers, producers, chefs, bio-growers, marketers, and resellers. Getting reactions. Testing the idea in conversation. Feeling out where the excitement is.
Almost everyone said the same thing:
“Fantastic concept but where’s the wine?”
They’re right. At some point, research has to become reality.
I’m getting close to that point.
There’s no clear map ahead but that’s part of the thrill. The next step is simple: start.
And see where Nordic nature leads me <3
