Having won over the notoriously picky sommelier at l'Atelier de Joël Robuchon, Jacob Stokkebye is besting Champagne's biggest names with his Funen creations
"Glou, glou, glou," says Jacob Stokkebye, imitating the sound of all the wine he has poured down the drain in the old barn that today serves as a winery. It's been 14 years since the first vines were planted here on the road between Nyborg and Kerteminde on the Danish island of Funen – just a 30 minute drive from world famous writer H. C. Andersen’s home. And thankfully, it's been nine years since Stokkebye last had to pour the result of a whole year's work down the drain bottle by bottle.
"I just felt like we couldn't present a wine that tasted just barely good enough. Then it doesn't make sense to put so much time and money into this. Not to be arrogant, but we want to be the best," the Danish winemaker says.
Photo: Daniel Jensen/Truestory.
Photo: Daniel Jensen/Truestory.
Like so many other Danish winemakers, Stokkebye started by planting the blue grape Rondo with a view to making red wine. However, he thought the red wine "tasted like hell" and the vines were pulled up again. Today, the six hectares belonging to the vineyard are planted with five different grapes, mainly Solaris and Pinot Noir used for sparkling and still white wines. Solaris is a so-called hybrid – a crossed grape that is disease resistant and therefore well suited to the unpredictable Danish weather.
In theory, it's impossible to get something good from Pinot Noir in Denmark. Even in friendlier climates the grape is known to be something of a prima donna: its thin skin breaks easily, it reacts violently to temperature fluctuations and it has a low yield. Not exactly the dream grape to throw yourself at, you'd think.
But Stokkebye's German wine consultant, who makes red wine from the grape in Rheingau in Germany, suggested that the Funen winery planted the grape with the prospect of making sparkling wine. It was a good idea. Stokkebye's Pinot Noir vines are thriving, the vines are certified organic, and Stokkebye's first sparkling wine made entirely from Pinot Noir, Stella Mary, was given 85 points out of a possible 100 by the wine critic Robert Parker, putting the Funen sparkling on a par with several Champagne megabrands.
Jacob Stokkebye with his wife Helle and their daughter. The wine estate’s sparkling Pinot Noir is named after her: Stella Mary. Photo: Daniel Jensen/Truestory.
Denmark is not widely known as a wine nation. But those who dare to predict the future have discovered the potential of Danish wine. "We have a late maturation here in Denmark. That gives freshness, and that's what's in demand in a market overflowing with full-bodied wines," Stokkebye says, explaining that with the temperature increases we're experiencing, he's starting to have a climate in his vineyards similar to the Champagne region 70 years ago.
Recently, the Funen winery was approached by a French wine consortium – a so-called société anonyme – that owns 11 wine estates in France and now wants to expand with one in Denmark to make white wines. There are also rumours that German wine people are sniffing around the Danish vineyards. And when I asked Master of Wine and author Jancis Robinson a year ago whether she could imagine the big Champagne houses buying up land in Denmark, as they have done quite massively now in southern England, she replied rhetorically: "Why not?" Underneath the topsoil at Stokkebye there is limestone and old seabed, just like in Champagne. So who knows if a representative from Taittinger or Pommery will suddenly come knocking?
Stokkebye's journey with the winery is a very good picture of what has happened in Danish wine over the last 20 years. A movement from cosy hobby project to professional winery spiked with the realisation that the local climate is best suited to white and sparkling wine.
In parallel with this development, the new Nordic cuisine has really caught on. Its fish and shellfish dishes with tender herbs, vinegar and fermented vegetables do not call for red wine, but for acidic, sharply cut white and sparkling wines with great freshness. The sparkling Stella Mary is just such a wine, and highly complementary to Nordic food trends. It's a brut in nature with no added sugar and therefore acidic and light in style.
"We try to be in the slipstream of the new Nordic," says Stokkebye. The farm's wines can be found in around 30 Danish restaurants, half of which are Michelin starred. Foreign restaurants are also using the Danish wines to distinguish themselves and to show that they are well aware of what is going on in the global wine scene.
At the Parisian Michelin starred restaurant l'Atelier de Joël Robuchon, Stokkebye's white wine Liva has won over the sommelier, who is otherwise rather conservative and mostly into French wines. It took three years and vintages and thus three blind tastings before a panel of sommeliers, regulars and the chef at the restaurant in the heart of the French capital acquiesced.
The acknowledgement and interest from foreign winemaker, wine critics and restaurateurs does not mean Stokkebye is resting on his laurels however. He's currently seeking inspiration from smaller, organic producers in Champagne because he wants to learn more and refine further. "I've put all my savings into this. 25 years of hard work. There have been times when I've sat in the kitchen at night staring into space wondering if it could even be done. But I have no regrets," he says. "Not for a second."