First 25 years with Danish wine

Sven Moesgaard is Denmark’s most decorated winemaker, holding a total of 101 gold, 141 silver, and 68 bronze medals won at competitions both at home and abroad. He certainly deserves a great deal of credit for the fact that Danish wine has evolved from something people chuckled at into wine that is gaining increasing recognition internationally. He owns Skærsøgaard Vin by Kolding Fjord and has been there from the very beginning of Danish viticulture. He was one of only two winemakers who back then could proudly present the 2001 vintage – the first commercial vintage of wine on Danish soil. Until 2001, selling Danish wine was simply illegal! The year 2026 is thus an anniversary year, and to mark the occasion, Sven Moesgaard has published the book “The First 25 Years of Danish Wine – From Forbidden Wine to Quality Wine”.

Not Without Struggles
Across the book’s 141 pages, Sven Moesgaard gives a vivid account of the entire journey – from the first vines planted in 1998 at Skærsøgaard to the present day. When he decided to become a winemaker, he was met with head-shaking. To most, Danish wine made from grapes was a completely absurd idea – wine belonged in warmer southern climates. But with great willpower, a pioneer spirit, and a substantial sum of money from his previous career, Moesgaard turned his dream into reality and has ended up as a role model for many other Danes dreaming of becoming winemakers. As the book reveals, it has naturally not been without struggles along the way, and it is only in the past three years that Skærsøgaard Vin has turned a profit.

From Table Wine to Appellation
As early as 2003, five additional vineyards besides Skærsøgaard Vin were able to present their 2002 vintage. However, as Sven Moesgaard writes, total production was very small, “at most 10,000 bottles, which corresponds to 1 bottle per 400 Danes!”. Back then, all the wine was table wine, and according to EU rules, neither the vintage nor the grape varieties could be stated on the labels. This only became legal in 2006, when Denmark established actual wine regions: Jutland, Funen, Zealand, and Bornholm. But Sven Moesgaard wanted more than just a region on his labels. He wanted to establish Denmark’s first wine appellation, a so-called PDO (Protected Designation of Origin), equivalent to the French AOP and the Italian DOC. He fought for the cause, and after seven years of hard battle, he succeeded in 2018 in obtaining EU approval for a 500-hectare area around Skærsøgaard. The appellation, which is the Nordic region’s first – and so far only – of its kind, is named after Skærsøgaard’s sparkling wine, DONS, which has been produced every year since 2001.

A Danish Counterpart to Napa Valley
According to Sven Moesgaard, such an appellation is important because it builds respect abroad. Two other vineyards are currently covered by this PDO, and as Moesgaard writes, with even more vineyards, it could end up as a “small Danish counterpart to Napa Valley”.In addition to delivering the at times quite entertaining story of Danish wine’s baby steps, the book is also highly educational for anyone considering trying their hand at making wine from their own grapes. Sven Moesgaard goes into great detail when recounting the trellising of vines, selection of grape varieties, analyses of the grape must, and generally about the craft, joys, and hardships of being a winemaker. The book is seasoned with plenty of informative pictures as well as lovely atmospheric photos showing the passage of the year in the vineyard and the winery at Skærsøgaard Vin.