award-winning wine cellar with atmosphere
AWARD WINNING
wine cellar
Our wine cellar was founded in 1985 with 400 different bottlings and in the course of 3 decades has grown to 650 very different wines.
You can easily find wines from the same château, but never two bottlings from the same vintage.
When the wine cellar was founded, it was the French bottlings that dominated the shelves. At that time, 75% of our wines were French – a trend that is reflected in the country's wine merchants, and which reflected the general image of wine in Denmark.
Today, the picture has changed significantly. The cellar is not so French and instead fulfills the guests' needs to be able to choose wines from very different countries and houses. Between 25 and 30% of our shelf space still goes to the French Classified Grand Cru wines from Bordeaux and to the Burgundy wines.
Today, our 650 bottlings form the framework for 200 different white wines, while the other 450 primarily consist of red wines.
Plus a bit of port wine and champagne. And even though the champagne does not take up much space in the collection, we still give high priority to the sparkling drops. So much so that we import them ourselves from the house It goes, which lies on the northern slope of Montagne de Reims south of Reims in the small French town Chigny-les-Roses.
And yes. Our wine cellar is actually so well-stocked that it has again this year received an award from the American wine magazine W for the range of unique wines. But even if a wine is unique, it is not necessarily in a price range that will make your heart skip a beat.
We also have those wines. However, you can easily get an exquisite bottle of wine from the cellar for NOK 400. The wines range in price from NOK 400 to NOK 90.000 per bottle. bottle.
COME WITH A TOUR
in the wine cellar
Down in the hallowed halls below the Munkebjerg Hotel, Karsten Hedegaard stands and looks at the impressive wine cellar he has helped to build up over the past 30 years - it is with a certain amount of respect and affection for the many bottles that the experienced winemaker looks at the impressive wine cellar.
It is no big secret that Karsten Hedegaard is not actually a trained sommelier. He has never taken the training himself, but he has something that is just as valuable – over 30 years of experience when it comes to selecting wines for the Munkebjerg Hotel. Since 1987, Karsten Hedegaard has stepped into his waiter shoes in Munkebjerg's restaurants.
He started as a waiter and has since worked his way up to the title of restaurant manager and wine manager.
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THE FAVORITE WINE IS OUT
Burgundy
"Choose France when you choose wine for food"
It doesn't take a historian to know that a lot has happened since Karsten first walked through the doors of the Munkebjerg Hotel. Events that leave their mark on world history and thus also on the world of wine, which Karsten has witnessed and still expects to witness in the future: "Things can happen quickly that can turn things upside down, for example when France carried out nuclear tests in the Pacific in the 90s, which angered people and boycotted French wines.
It could easily happen again," he predicts. The worldwide boycott of French wines took place in Denmark under the slogan "Choose France when you choose wine for food" - this should not be confused with Karsten Hedegaard's attitude towards French wine. On the contrary, you can actually say – if Karsten has to put his head on the block, then his favorite wine is actually from Burgundy.
The green wave
It is not loose talk when Karsten talks about global trends that can have an impact on the wine we drink. He has a good sense of what the next trend in the world of wine could be: "The green wave with more focus on sustainability could well be an offer, without it having to be the big protest."
For many years, the wine market has been characterized by increased globalization, which has made it possible to get quality wine home at favorable prices, even though the wine is in some cases shipped around the world. A good example is Chile, which for many years has been triumphant on the shelves of Danish supermarkets. In 2019, Chile accounted for just over 10 percent of the wine in Danes' glasses. If you ask Karsten, in the future there may be mainly European or straight Danish wine in the glass when the Danes sit down at the table in one of Munkebjerg Hotel's four restaurants.
THE WINE DETECTIVE
When Karsten is not enjoying the sight of the many bottles in the cellar, he can be found in Treetop, where he is available when guests need guidance on which wine to choose and, not least, which wine they should not choose for the individual right.
"An approach that may sound banal and straightforward, but according to Karsten, there is actually a certain degree of detective work when he has to find out what the guests really want in a wine: "I have to find out what the guest actually mean when they say, for example, that they would like a wine that has a little sweetness in it.
Then I am well aware that they are not thinking of a dessert wine.
Here it is my task to find a wine that has slightly sweet notes and less acid. It's often the acid that scares the guests a little."
However, this should by no means be taken to mean that the guests do not know what they are talking about when it comes to choosing a suitable wine – on the contrary, Karsten can clearly feel that the guests have become even sharper than when he started over 30 years ago:
"We can clearly see that our guests are very well informed.
"It is not always the same words that the guest uses about a wine that we work with in the wine world. There may well be a slight difference, so you just have to ask a little about what they think, and we will always find a good solution."
"OUT WITH THE SHOES - IN WITH THE WINE"
Advice for storing wine
The temperature in the wine cellar is always 17o
If you don't have a cellar at home or the desire to invest in a wine cabinet, it is a good idea to store your wines at the bottom of a cabinet in the bedroom, where it is usually a little cool. You probably already have your shoes on here, but they have to come off in favor of the wine. Wine should not be stored on a shelf in the living room or in the kitchen above the refrigerator. Those places are simply too hot.
The way you store wine should reflect the way you buy it. If you buy wine to drink it, storage is not quite as crucial as if you buy wine that is not ready to drink and must therefore be stored.
OWN IMPORTS
of champagne
In the wine cellar, there are almost 600 different bottlings behind hand-forged bars and here hotel guests can buy piquant appetizers and a glass of Champagne, which Munkebjerg Hotel itself imports.
GOOD WINE FOR THE PRICE
What is it?
"If we talk about good wine, it's certainly not always the wine for DKK 3.000 that deceives. It might as well be the wine for DKK 400 on the card that has it all. Before you buy a wine for DKK 3.000, we think you should have tasted a lot of wines. Especially the expensive ones.
When we come up to this price range, it is the small nuances in the taste that make the difference - and if you are untrained, you may not notice them. In that case, we think it is a shame to pay such a high price.”
But what is good wine then?
Good wine is the wine you like. Simple as that. We think it is important not to get locked into the idea of what others think is right and wrong.
"If you're not too fond of white wine, there's no shame in drinking a light red wine with your fjord prawns. Just as it is also not wrong to leave a good Italian Brunello accompany your meatball.”
THE WINE CELLAR'S MOST EXPENSIVE
2014 Romanée Conti, Burgundy, France
PRICE DKK 275.000.
How is the price of a wine set at DKK 275.000?
When we assess the price of our wines – especially the expensive ones – we first investigate what the wines are traded for at various auctions. How is supply compared to demand? Many of our expensive wines increase their value quite well in these years. Especially ours 1969 Romanée-Conti has felt the inflation and has tripled its value over the past decade.
In the Treetop Restaurant, we guide our guests in choosing wine, and we are often asked if we can't find one a good wine. That is the criterion. It doesn't have to be the most expensive or the cheapest.
"Shouldn't we settle for an intermediate level, à la DKK 45.000?" We always tease in anticipation. Few people are aware that we have such a wide selection in the wine cellar.
The most expensive wines obviously have many years behind them. Several of them were bought over 25 years ago. So expensive wines are not sold in the restaurant. They will be bought!
When a guest wants an expensive wine, the guest makes the purchase himself.
YES, THE TEMPERATURE OF THE WINE
is paramount!
When you want to drink a good glass of wine, the temperature of the wine when served is paramount to the experience. That the wine has the right temperature is unfortunately something that many forget to take into account. And when we talk about temperature when serving, red wine is not just red wine. The lighter and fruitier a red wine is, the colder it should be when it hits the glass. Many prefer one Beaujolais on 10o to 12o. That, I personally think, is a little too cold.
However, the wine's complexity, grape and aging require different temperatures.
A good rule of thumb is a temperature of 14o to 17o for the light red wines, while a strong and mature wine that has had a lot of barrel aging or is made from a full-bodied grape should be drunk at 17o to 18o. And you must not be afraid to refrigerate your red wine if you sense that it has become too warm. All red wines get a little more freshness when you store them cool. If you leave them too hot, they often become bland and flat in taste.
You can actually say the same about white wines: the serving temperature should match the complexity of the wine. If you cool it down too much, you kill the taste. The light and simple white wine may be served at 6o to 8o, while the powerful and complex white wine with a lot of barrel aging gives you the best experience at 12o to 14o.
