Every Friday TheChampagneSommelier will ask 5 questions about 5 coeur de bouteilles to friends and Champagne lovers from near and far. This week we had a bubbly chat with Pär Strömberg.
BIO
Internationally recognized artist and trained sommelier with approximately ten years of experience in wine writing for magazines and websites like Winetable.se, SvD Vin&Mat, A Perfect Guide, Wine & Friends, Nöjesguiden, Totally Stockholm, Bästa Drycker and Vinmagasinet Törst. Monitor and reviewing all new wines at the Swedish monopoly Systembolaget and enjoys good homemade food with natural and artisanal wines. Love Swedish tap water and of course, Champagne!
Which Champagne would You treat your parents or in-laws?
‘My parents are no big wine drinkers but my in-laws are. However, whenever we get the families together, a nice bottle of Champagne as aperitif is more than welcomed by all. I would choose a wine that we also will enjoy during the dinner and even afterwards, a wine that we can buy many bottles of because of its price value. I’m talking about the wonderful La Chouette de Champillon Blanc de Noirs NV by the Autréau family situated in Vallée de la Marne and Côte des Blancs. A very soothing and elegant champagne with a much higher quality than price.’
Which Champagne would You treat your lover?
‘My lover is also my wife and the mother of our two kids. She has an exquisite palate but neglects that fact in vain. She expects only the best when it comes to a celebration bottle and we have loads to celebrate and quite often as well. Louis Roederers wines are a family favorite, so are the wines of Diebolt-Vallois, Pierre Peters and Larmandier-Bernier. But for this occasion I would choose the lovely 2006 Charles Heidsieck Blanc de Millénaires, with its dark silver lined sleeve on the outside and elegant creamy texture and crispy fresh citrus acidity on the inside. A champagne, so deep and intense, like our love. Charles Heidsieck was also our choice of champagne when we got engaged 12 years ago.’
Which Champagne would You treat your boss?
‘I’m my own boss since I’m an independent and a freelancing wine writer. However, I work closely together with Linda Pérez at WineTable.se as she is the editor in chief there – which technically makes her my boss. I know she has a weakness for bubbly rosé so I’d love to share a bottle of Eric Rodez ‘Les Beurys Maceration’ Pinot Noir Rose Ambonnay Grand Cru 2013 with her and gossip about the Stockholm wine scene and all the up&coming ”winefluencers” clogging up the social media channels. Rodez vineyard specific maceration wine is pure pink madness, magnificent and delectable at once.’
Which Champagne would You treat yourself?
‘Oh, I love my Champagne with some age to its neck and a fine example of that was the bottle of Philipponnat Clos des Goisses 1998 my good friend Sigurd Wongraven shared with me backstage at Nalen in Stockholm after his gig with Satyricon in 2015. I wouldn’t mind treating myself with that bottle once again. Sigurd also has his own wine label, Wongraven Wines, that among other wines, makes a great organic champagne called Wongraven Champagne Brut made of 20% chardonnay, 75% pinot noir and 5% pinot meunier where Sigurd is buying the base wines (vins clairs) from top growers, blending them, and then getting a winery in Charly-Sur-Marne to bottle, mature, disgorge and label them.’
Which Champagne would You treat a dream guest, and why?
‘My dream guest would have to be Charles Smith over at my house so I can treat him the way he treated me when I was visiting Seattle earlier this year. As the gentleman and generous host he is, Charles picked out the wines for me to have during the dinner and he chose Bollinger Grand Année 1990 to start with.
Back at my crib I would wish for a Jaques Selosse Millésimé 2006 before we would bang our long hair heads to Dead Moon live at Satyricon and Satyricon live at the Opera on full blast on the stereo.
Of course we would finish that bottle rather hasty, so another couple of bottles are coming up. From the wine maker hands of my dear friend Jérôme Lefèvre, the intense and rather unpredictable and incomparable Champagne Delalot ‘Lés Dionysiaques’ & ‘Pléiades’, it will surely be a night to remember, if we could remember anything.’
