Why it matters
The producer
Åre Bryggcompagni opened in 2013 in the mountain resort district of Jämtland, central Sweden, founded by Anders Abrahamsson and Daniel Flink, with Calle Nygren joining later as a third owner. The operation is based in Huså, at Järpen, in a region better known for ski slopes than for fermented drinks of any kind. The brewery built its reputation on craft beer, particularly a range of wild-fermented ales aged at a second facility opened around 2019, but the bottles now listed at Systembolaget under the wine category are not beers. They are fruit wines: sparkling and still drinks fermented from Nordic berries and garden fruits, made by a brewery that decided the same fermentation logic applied to a different kind of raw material.
Place and vineyards
Where the wines begin
Jämtlands Län is a large, sparsely populated county in the mountains of central Sweden, best known internationally for the Åre ski resort. The landscape is Nordic highland: short summers, birch and pine forest, wild berry terrain. No grape viticulture operates here. What grows are the berry crops that characterise northern Scandinavian food culture: wild raspberries, lingonberries, blueberries, and blackcurrants alongside cultivated strawberries, red currants, and rhubarb. These are the raw materials Åre Bryggcompagni works with.
The brewery describes itself as having roots in the Jämtland mountain world, and the fruit wine range reflects that geography directly: garden and wild berries from a short growing season, with the acidity and brightness that cooler climates produce in fruit. The Systembolaget listings carry the Åre kommun designation, placing the wines firmly within the local mountain district.
In the cellar
Vineyards and cellar
No vineyards. The fruit wine range uses strawberries, rhubarb, red currants, raspberries, blueberries, blackcurrants, and lingonberries as fermentation ingredients. Anrik Bärvin, the still berry wine, shows clear oak character in the glass, suggesting at least some time in wood, though the vessel type and duration are not documented. The sparkling wines, Trädgårdsvin and Hallonsnår, are carbonated and served chilled, with a mousse that lifts the fruit character without weight.
The brewery's background in wild and spontaneous fermentation with the Northern Wild Ales series suggests familiarity with extended, slow fermentation processes, but whether this carries over to the fruit wine production is not confirmed. The cellar approach for the fruit wines remains an open question in the public record.
Wines to know
The range in view
Three fruit wine bottlings are confirmed at Systembolaget.
Trädgårdsvin (Garden Wine) is a sparkling fruit wine made from strawberries, rhubarb, and red currants. It is the most detailed of the three in available sources: fruity, pearling, and fresh, with slight sweetness, a tidy strawberry character up front, and a crisp, bitter citrus note on the finish. Rhubarb and red currant provide a tartness that keeps the sweetness from reading as heavy.
A useful way in
A bottle to begin with
Start with Trädgårdsvin. It is a sparkling fruit wine made from strawberries, rhubarb, and red currants, and it is the most direct argument for what Åre Bryggcompagni is doing with Nordic fruit. The strawberry character is clear and ripe, the rhubarb adds a tart backbone, and the red currant keeps the acidity alive through to a citrus-edged finish. Slight sweetness, gentle mousse, best served cold. It is not a grape wine and does not attempt to imitate one. It tastes like Jämtland in summer: bright, tart, and berry-forward, fermented until the fruit becomes something worth opening a bottle for.