The Arctic Circle: A new frontier for sustainable wine
When Emma Serner met and fell in love with the Italian oenologist Andrea Guerra in Tuscany, the young couple began to dream of starting their own winery together. “We were both very invested in climate and environmental issues,” says Serner, who was an intern at the winery Guerra worked at. “But I really felt that it would be impossible to do in southern Europe. Climate change has really become drastic and it affects agriculture in a very serious way.”
In recent years, heat waves, drought and smoke from forest fires have wreaked havoc on vineyards across Europe, making it increasingly difficult to produce the same heritage wines that producers have consistently produced for centuries. Last year, Southern European winemakers faced historically low harvests due to bad weather.
Serner suggested going up to her native Sweden and planting a vineyard on the island of Gotland, a southern province with warm, mild summers where her grandmother owned a summer house.
But Guerra wasn’t sure. “He had never heard of Gotland,” Serner said, “he asked, ‘What is it? Are there polar bears?” there is potential.”
They took a leap of faith, and today Serner and Guerra are co-founders of Långmyre Winery – a 10 acre vineyard on Gotland, with a collection of 26,000 vines. They are part of a small but growing cohort of Swedish winemakers whose combined land area ranges between 370 and 500 hectares. “It was really just a fantasy,” Serner admitted. “But things escalated pretty quickly.”