Somewhere in the world, a Scanian wine is on its way to the like-minded Swedish city – Twin Cities
Scandia and Mellerud, Sweden, are 4 109 km apart, but the cities share many similarities.
They are close in population – about 4,100 people live in Scandinavia, and about 3,990 live in Mellerud, and they share a similar climate. Both are close to waterways: Scandia has the river St. Croix and Big Marine Lake; Mellerud is located near Lake Vänern, Sweden’s largest lake.
Many of Skandia’s founding families, including Dahlins, Kunos, Abrahamsons, Edströms and Karramns, emigrated from the Mellerud region.
When a genealogist from Mellerud visited Scandia in 2019 to do research at Elim Cemetery in Scandinavia, the city’s officials from Scandia reached out. What would Mellerud’s officials think about becoming sister cities?
“We thought this could be good for both communities,” said Scandia City Councilor Patti Ray. “We thought we could learn from each other and share ideas.”
Anneli Andersson, who works at Mellerud’s museum and family archives, was interested in the idea. She went back to Sweden and wrote an article about Scandia for the newspaper Mellerud, Ray said.
At the same time, Scandia officials formed a committee to learn more about sister-city relations and talked to officials in Lindstrom, Chicago City, Center City and Shafer about their programs, Ray said.
“We emailed the mayor of Mellerud and all members of Mellerud City Council and told them how much we wanted to be their sister city,” Ray said. Then came a Microsoft Teams meeting online between the two city councils that lasted more than an hour.
“We thought they were delightful and enthusiastic and, fortunately, very good in English,” Ray said. “We see great potential in many areas such as tourism, culture, education, history, trade and politics.”
When the council members discussed their cities and companies, Mellerud’s officials noted that they had a famous brewery in their city.
Not to be outdone, Scandia officials said they had a new winery called Rustic Roots that produced excellent wine.
“Someone from Mellerud said: ‘Send us a box of your wine, and we’ll send you a box of our beer,'” Ray said. “The meeting ended with ‘Do not forget the wine!'”
This remark led the committee members to talk to Greg and Andrea Sandager, owners of the Rustic Roots winery, who offered to donate a case of wine.
But the committee members soon realized that “it would be too costly and complicated to send a case of wine to Sweden”, Ray said.
Susan and Paul Rodsjo, committee members and owners of Global Air Charters, came to the rescue. The Rodsjos family offered to fly the bag of wine on board their next flight to Sweden. The box of wine was picked up at Rustic Roots last week and taken immediately to St. Paul Downtown Airport to board a Global Air Charters Gulfstream V.
The case of Rustic Roots wine left St. Paul on November 9 with Captain Paul Rodsjo and First Officer Espen Rodsjo. The wine has followed a winding road, traveling to New Hampshire; West Palm Beach, Florida; Monterey, California; Cabo San Lucas, Mexico; Los Angeles and White Plains, NY Next on their journey: Florence, Italy and Stockholm. It is expected to land in Mellerud on Saturday, Ray said.
“It took a lot of time and effort from some very dedicated people, but we learned that if we work together, anything is possible,” Ray said. And they are waiting with excitement for a chance to taste a beer from Mellerud.
TO KNOW MORE
To track the route of the Rustic Roots wine box, go to flightaware.com and dial back number N280PH, or call sign GJE622 to track the aircraft online.