Speakers

Although Sweden only recently became a wine producing country, the Swedish relation with wine has long historical roots. In traditional society, wine was imported and consumed both as communion wine after that Sweden had become a Christian country, but also as an exclusive beverage for the nobility and upper classes. Historically, wine consumption was limited but it certainly made a mark on society, for example by the emergence of specific trades such as “vindragarna” (wine pullers), a profession which already in the 15^th Century became an organized guild. They carried the wine from the ships, transported it into the city cellars where they processed the wine by pumping it from barrel to barrel until the sediment at the bottom was filtered, making the wine ready to be sold. In Swedish this was called “draga”.  Wine also made its mark through cultural expressions, for instance in paintings and not the least in songs, of which the most famous are the still much appreciated poet, singer and composer Michael Bellman.
But it was well into the 20^th Century when wine became accessible and consumed by the wide masses and only in the last 28 years when there have been organized and professional efforts to produce wine. The history of wine in Sweden, from a luxury item for the privileged into becoming massively consumed and even making the effort to become a wine producing country and ultimately also the potential success of failure of this new industry, is tightly connected to alcohol governance models, consumption patterns and not the least 20^th Century globalization.
The contemporary history of alcohol and thereby also of wines in Sweden can be divided into three distinctive periods in which different governance models have made their impact on production and consumption. The first period between 1855 and 1955 was characterized by gradual control, the monopolization (by the state) of the production, distribution and sales of alcohol and the adoption of the ration book. During this period fortified wines became a substitute for spirits, but slowly wine became consumed by the emerging middle class (i.e. engineers, clerks, etc.) who wanted to differentiate themselves from the blue-collar workers. The second period between 1955 and1994 was characterized by modernization of alcohol production and sales and a more refined and targeted control of people with alcohol problems. During this period the trend of increasing consumption of wine, which had started already in the 1930’s and which was temporarily slowed down by the war, contributed to a rapid rise of wine consumption during the end of the 1940’s. After 1958 the pro-wine trend accelerated as the state started to promote wine consumption to create a shift from consumption of strong spirits to wine – this shift was achieved in 1976. The final and third period from 1995 until today is characterized by partial liberalization. Some of the more important features of this current period is the abolition of production and distribution monopoly, which enabled the emergence of Swedish wine production.