Bergen

Overview

Bergen has been Norway's window on the wine world since the Hanseatic age, and today its restaurants and wine bars champion a new wave of local drinks. Although there are no commercial vineyards in the city itself, the surrounding fjord valleys produce apples, pears and berries that are transformed into cider, perry and fruit wine.

The climate is among the wettest in Europe, with mild winters and cool, cloudy summers. Apples and pears lead production, joined by blackcurrant wines and small trials of hardy red hybrids such as Rondo on the rare sheltered, south-facing slopes. Soils are thin, acidic podzols over sandstone and granite in the hills, with alluvial soils in the valleys.

Key Varietals

• AppleCider and dessert apples from nearby fjord orchards drive Bergen's cider and fruit-wine scene.
• PearPears are fermented into delicate perry and blended into fruit wines in the mild, wet valleys.
• BlackcurrantHardy blackcurrants produce tart berry wines suited to the damp west coast.
• RondoA disease-resistant red hybrid tested in sheltered pockets where extra ripening sun is scarce.