Winery hotel, where the cellar is

Winery hotel, where the cellar is

In Stockholm the first hotel with barrels in the reception, it is called Winery Hotel and proposes weekends with wine just like a real winery

By Donatella Cinelli Colombini, Brunello, Casato Prime Donne

 

Wine tourism success can be measured also with the increase of wineries everywhere, such as the Winery Hotel. Last year saw the revelation of the  “urban winery” with grapes arriving in crates in the middle of London and wine lovers paying to take part in the choosing of the grapes. Then the vineyard on a skyscraper in New York and a few months ago we saw the images of the domestic winery with wine making apparatus in the lounge. So competition is always stronger for the real wineries.

The last novelty is the Winery Hotel in Stockholm <<Sweden’s first combined urban winery and boutique hotel. This is in fact in Sweden, a nation where the climate has been up until now too cold to cultivate vines and so there are no wineries. But maybe it is because of this that the proposal of a winery hotel, where you can see the production process of wine and then taste it, can result in being incredibly attractive. In fact the invitation is << follow the freshly-picked grapes’ journey from barrel to bottle>> …  and finishes with the sentence: increase your wine knowledge.

You may note that the grapes arrive fresh from Tuscany and has been chosen by Luca Rettondini wine m

aker at Le Macchiole in Bolgheri and for the Terreno in Chianti Classico belonging to the same owners as the hotel. So as not to be left behind by the true wineries welcoming guests who are more organized, the hotel in Sweden proposes guided tours to the cellar, wine tastings, possibility of shopping from the 10,000 bottles sold under their own brand Winery Hotel and the restaurant Winery Kitchen.

Seen from outside Winery Hotel is a typical  “Scandinavian square building”, anonymous, looking rather like a US warehouse from the beginning of last century. The minimalist style brought it to be among the finalists of the “building of the year” prize in Sweden. 180 rooms and a conventions room. The vinification area with the stainless steel vats is in the wine bar while the barriques are in the lobby, both well visible through glass walls.

Three families run this project, among which the  Ruhne’s who have been producing wine in Tuscany for the past thirty years. For this reason  “Cronache di Gusto” interviewed Sofia Ruhne <<We wish to be the new meeting point for wine lovers in Sweden and we will have a rich program of events. We will organize meetings between producers and importers, give guided tours, themed dinners, and much more>>. IT must be underlined that the possibility of sleeping where one drinks is greatly appreciated in a nation where the alcohol test is very probable and drunken driving is punished very severely.

“Cronache di gusto” makes a final ironic conclusion, << What would you say if the Sicilians began producing reindeer sausages with meat imported from Sweden?>> Sofia Ruhne laughed but the idea is not so impossible. What is quite surprising about the Winery Hotel is that they have demonstrated that it is possible to delocalize anything, even the productive phases that up until now were more bound to the territory, like agricultural productions. It is in fact possible to even consider taking the winery closer to where the wine lovers live and it might be very successful and crate a dangerous competition for wine territories. All the more reason to pull our sock s up and offer exceptional winery experiences, that entertain and that are unrepeatable.