Wonderful drinks in large vessels, are created on bases of sour leaves, sharp herbs, sweet berries, aromatic flowers, juicy fruit, and raw wood. The quality-conscious producers place a high value on local craftsmanship and touching transparent honesty. They have nothing to hide but much to be proud of.
Many shook their heads in disbelief when the wine grower west of Pedersker planted his first grapevines back in June 2000. But when the first wine was put up for sale three years later it led to traffic jams, phones ringing off the hook, and heavy media coverage, so much that it was sold out in less than two hours. The wine grower from Lille Gadegård is one of Denmark’s biggest, and his range also includes fruit wine, brandy, whiskey, and beer.
You will find many microbreweries on Bornholm, which all puts beer from Bornholm on the map. Mild, dark, bitter, and sweet beers are produced around the island every day. Microbreweries such as Svaneke Bryghus, Penyllan, Small Batch, Lille Gadegård, Mikkeller, and Chrøøl bottle bottles with tasty golden drops daily.
In 1994 the Bornholm aquavit was produced on Bornholm for the first time in 70 years. Today the aquavit tastes exactly as it did 100 years ago, and is now accompanied by other aquavits, bitter and the well-known Bornholm honey “syp”– the honey aquavit, a Christmas classic, where aquavit and warm honey are mixed together.
It started as a public project for socially marginalised people – to give them some safe surroundings, where they could work as much as they were able to. That was the beginning of the juice mill Bornholms Mosteri. Bornholms Mosteri produce organic fruit juice and nectar to leading restaurants, shops and cafés in the Nordic countries.
The latest additions to the tribe of Bornholm beverages are several small distilleries on the island that produce rum, gin, whiskey, vodka, schnaps, and fermented beverages – with ingredients straight from the nature of Bornholm.
(Cover picture taken by Semko Balcerski)
You can get Bornholm in a bottle (and glass) here
Svaneke Bryghus brews organic craft beer based on their slow beer philosophy - that good beer takes time. The beer from the microbrewery is available in supermarkets throughout Denmark. With initiatives such as a shift from natural gas to biogas, own solar cells, and biodegradable disposable glasses, Svaneke Bryghus will be the first CO2-neutral brewery in Denmark.
The vineyard, Lille Gadegaard, offers a lot of fresh air, high to the sky, and 30.000 grapevines spread over 50.000 square meters. Since the year 2000, the vineyard has been planted with the red wine varieties Rondo, Frühbourgunder, and Bolero as well as the white wine varieties Orion and Solaris. Twice a week, the wine grower offers a guided tour around the farm. The tour takes about 38 minutes and ends in the restaurant with a wine tasting.
It all started as a hobby brewery for the boy's Johnny Fagerlund and Anders Blomquist 3 years ago. In new premises at Rønne harbor, they now brew liters of harmonious beer in balance, with love and respect for the good beer. At the harbor, Small Batch Brewery welcomes beer enthusiasts and others who enjoy the golden drops, inside in cozy surroundings.
The production of Bornholm aquavit, bitter, sevablødda and honey”syp” is characterized by craftsmanship and good ingredients, which can be tasted in every drop.
In 2019, the microbrewery Penyllan, received the Gastronomic Academy's honorary diploma. The brewery, located on the small, slightly raw, industrial harbor in Tejn, produces barrel-aged wild-fermented beer, which can be enjoyed at the bar.
Since 2016, Rie Uldahl has made a living out of producing her aromatic Bornholm natural schnaps, which she sells in her own shop on Glastorvet in Svaneke. Rie is not afraid to work for the good taste - the apples are caramelized by hand and the tiny and fresh light green beech shoots for her Beech schnaps is hand-picked and stuffed in bags. She is also generous with blackberries in her liqueur-like Blackberry schnaps.
Another who found happiness in working dedicated with alcohol is Martin Kofoed, who owns the Baltic Sea distillery. Martin's mission is to create drops of the Bornholm terroir. With hand-picked junipers and heather, apples from Melstedgård, sea buckthorn, and raspberry leaves, he collects the taste of Bornholm in a bottle.
At the Wild Distillery gin is brewed in a beautiful hand-built copper boilers from Germany and with lots of junipers picked from Ravnedalen's rough and cut terrain. There are varieties such as espresso, tomato, hemp, and sea buckthorn. The beautiful gin bottles are decorated with Døndalen as an evocative back motive.
Chrøøl is Denmark's easternmost microbrewery. The brewing is done by hand and patience without sparing the raw materials, and it gives good and full-bodied beers. Without advanced technology, the taste of the beer will vary slightly from brew to brew depending on the ingredients, temperature, and time, but that is just an added charm.
In Nexø, Paulie Melnyk impresses when he catches gentle bubbles in his refreshing kefir. He has been producing lemon kefir and raspberry soda for several years. In the wizard's workshop, he works on reaching the trend of drinks without alcohol. He dreams of redefining red wine, white wine, and bubbles without percentages.
Kombucha is originally a fermented non-alcoholic Chinese health drink, but Malene Rossil and Ditte Brandt have experimented with a Nordic kombucha. Their tea base consists of Bornholm sea buckthorn leaves and local honey. The clear, colorful drinks are available in the flavors ginger lime, blueberry, and mint, apple and Aronia, hemp, and herb - with the herbs mint, sage, ironwort, lemon balm, and lavender, which gives a fresh and slightly bitter drink.
Mikkeller is not just a brewery - it is a company driven by passion and ambition. Mikkeller is first and foremost a world of beer that contains all sorts of styles and ingredients. This world of beer, whose endless possibilities include hops, malt, barrel aging, spontaneous fermentation, and flavorful ingredients such as licorice, coffee, passion fruit, cherries, chili, and chocolate, creates the foundation for the award-winning beer.
Bornholm's Mosteri (juice mill) takes pride in cultivating the original taste of the ingredients. Variants like lemon and lime, rhubarb and elderflower are all well-known drinks from danish café menus. The ambition is to minimize the sugar to create an authentic and unspoiled taste experience, while artificial additives are completely excluded.
