Sweden

The Kingdom of Sweden (Swedish: Sverige) in northern Europe with its capital Stockholm covers 447,435 km². It borders Norway and Finland as well as the Baltic Sea, the Kattegat and the Skagerrak (easternmost part of the North Sea). Since the opening of the Öresund Bridge in 2000, there is also a direct land connection to Denmark. Sweden has 221,800 islands, the three largest being Gotland (2,994 km²), Öland (1,347 km²) and Orust (346 km²). Sweden is divided into three parts: Norrland (northern Sweden), Svealand (central Sweden) and Götaland (southern Sweden).

Viticulture

The Swedish natural scientist Carl von Linné (1707-1778), who laid the foundations of modern botanical and zoological taxonomy with his binominal nomenclature, reported frostbitten vines in the southern Swedish province of Skåne. So there must have been viticulture or at least the cultivation of vines here as early as the 18th century. In any case, these vineyards were among the northernmost vineyards. The former poultry farmer Percy Månsson was involved in viticulture from the early 1960s until 1998, when he planted vines near the municipality of Skillinge near the Baltic coast, founded the first Swedish commercial winery and named it "Domäne Sånana" after a local expression for sandy soil. He experimented with different varieties such as Riesling, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Kerner and Rondo. The first wine was made from Rondo.