Iceland: Is The Wine Monopoly System Broken?

So whenever I see a country and there is a monopoly system, I'm a little bit worried. Not because I disagree with the monopoly system, simply because sometimes it's designed to make wine unreasonably expensive. Vindboden is the monopoly system of Iceland. And in this video we're discussing whether that monopoly system is actually helping or destroying the wine industry of Iceland. The monopoly system of Iceland was designed so people generally drink less. And it's a mechanism to control how much people are drinking. Generally if you make something more expensive, people buy less of it. And that's exactly how this monopoly system is working. There are around 40 state-owned wine shops or liquor stores where people are allowed to buy wines. The history of Iceland's alcohol consumption really started with the prohibition. So there was no alcohol allowed until 1922. ATVR is the retailer of alcohol and it was founded in 1961. The stores operate under the name Vindboden. And the company is completely owned and controlled by the state. So that means the complete retail chain, from the import of wine until it lands on the restaurant wine list, as well as on retail shelf, is completely controlled by the government. But here comes the catch. There has been a grey area building in Iceland. And that's exactly the reason why we flew there, because we wanted to check it out. That grey area is foreign companies moving into Iceland and running their own online shop and selling directly to end consumers. So even though the government ruled these stores as illegal, these retailers keep operating. And one of these retailers is really doing something great for the wine nation. And that's Sante Wine. So today we're exploring Iceland along with our partner Sante Wine, who is our distributor for the glasses. And we're trying to explore where to drink, what to drink, and most importantly, the prices on the wine menus. Iceland is generally massive and it's known for its beautiful nature, volcanic eruptions as well as lava fields and blue lagoons. So the first place we stop by is Skred. And here we arrived late, so we are here for a casual dinner. Skred is located in downtown Reykjavik, a very tiny village to be honest. So Reykjavik is a very international town slash city, the main city of Iceland where all the finance as well as business hubs are. And here you have a nice restaurant culture developing with great cuisine, young chefs have worked internationally. So since Iceland is really known for the freshest seafood you can find, the perfect pairing at Skred was the JJ Prym. JJ Prym is a really famous producer from Germany, more specifically from Mosel, a place that is known for sweet and off dry wines. With wines that are of lighter body and with some sweetness, it really complements the Icelandic cuisine, the fish flavors and everything. You have that nice acidity pull and it just works beautifully together. So Riesling and Icelandic cuisine is really one of my favorite pairings. JJ Prym today is run by Katarina Prym, the fourth generation of the estate, and it's going into all of the right directions for me. The wines, be it entry level or their famous single vineyards such as Kraka Himmelreich as well as Vela Sonnenur, all of these wines are highly recommended, especially with lighter cuisines that they serve in Skred. So a great pairing and a great start to our Icelandic trip. Kastrup seems to be more of a place for lunch. They serve more of a French inspired cuisine, again with incredible produce from Iceland. We had fish there, we had meat there, and they have an incredible wine list. Most importantly, this place serves one of my favorite open sandwiches, Smørrebrød. That one is definitely to check out. And again, a great place to pair really light wines too, Riesling, Burgundian, whites. In particular, Aligote would be a great pairing to those open sandwiches. Actually, now we move on to one of the best meals I've had in Iceland, at Skal. This place is more inspired by natural wines. And because of the monopole system, natural wines, even those that are very inexpensive, already cost 10 times the price on the wine list compared to other places. Because of the monopoly system in Iceland, these wines reach the restaurant at such a high level already. And because the margins are controlled from the import to the B2B customer, the restaurant is buying it very expensively. And it ends up being very expensive on the list. So naturally, I had to go for an inexpensive option with incredible cuisine, which was a little bit of a shame because in this place, I would have preferred to drink a more intense style of wine because the food was also more complex. You had lots of flavors, different textures, crunch, delicate fishes, as well as incredible meat. In this restaurant, we went for a bottle of Austrian red wine produced by Klaus Preisinger. So even the entry level of Klaus Preisinger, Puzdalibre, which is a red blend of different grapes, was an incredible pairing, although a little bit of a shame to see it so expensive on the list, but a great match to the cuisine of Skal. And now we move into the really great, great place, something that Iceland is known for. It's Blue Lagoon. For those who don't know how the Blue Lagoons came about, it wasn't actually a natural occurrence. It was a leakage in the power plant. Because of the silica, that hot water leakage formed what is today known as the Blue Lagoon, and they turned it into an incredible resort. Sante took us to one of the most amazing wine cellars. It's just one hour drive from Reykjavik. We were fortunate enough to relax during the day, and then we got an incredible tour of the resort, Blue Lagoon, where they have one of the few restaurants that were awarded one Michelin star in Iceland. Their wine cellar is actually built underground. There are no walls. It's just basically lava rock and very ambient, naturally ambient, very low temperature. So the perfect conditions for bottles to evolve. So you have an incredible selection of wines, ranging from Austrian, French, German, as well as other regions, with no shortage of rarities. So in the cellar, we were fortunate enough to taste the Bon Mare from Comte de Bourguet, an incredible producer from Burgundy, from a Grand Cru plot just between Chambel-Mussini as well as Moray-Saint-Denis. So these bottles go for hundreds of euros, but what was interesting was really the team. The team is super dynamic, knowledgeable, and really a place that deserves a lot of attention. If you want to experience luxury and fine dining with a really relaxed atmosphere, Moss Restaurant is the place to go to. The last place before our flight home is Sumac, and here you have an African slash Middle Eastern cuisine. You have lots of meats that are grilled on open flame fire and a very dynamic wine culture. You can see that every table was drinking wine. We were fortunate enough to have some Caroline Moray, which is an incredible producer located in Chasse-en-Montrachet. You still have these fresh Icelandic ingredients paired with these Middle Eastern slash African techniques of preparation and spices, so you have kind of intense flavors that need an intense structured wine to go along with it, and the Caroline Moray was a perfect match for that. Here are some restaurants that I could also recommend. Unfortunately, we didn't have enough time to go inside and mingle with the sommelier or the team. Bonne Food & Wine is also a place I would like to check out on my next trip. It's a European cuisine restaurant with a really nice wine list curated by a very professional team. So it's popular amongst locals and visitors, a place I will check out on my next trip. Ruinstukan is another place I'd like to visit on my next trip. It's one of Reykjavik's most vibrant places for wine, offering a vast selection of wines alongside Mediterranean plates and bites. So easygoing food, nice snacks, great atmosphere. I will be back. My takeaway of the trip is it's quite annoying for a governmental-controlled monopoly system to make wines unreasonably expensive. For me, the monopoly system in Iceland is broken because the selection is really focused on low-end, high-volume imports that are good for a business model that doesn't care much about the wine culture and cares more about the masses rather than the specifics that we care about. I care about wines of place and sense of terroir, and unfortunately, these Bean Budens aren't carrying those wines. And that's why I strongly support the government easing or even lifting the wine monopoly system in Iceland, because it's a shame that these incredible restaurants with incredible cuisine and ingredients they're working with, they deserve to have a bigger and more quality-focused selection of wine. Thank you so much for watching. Follow me on my journey of discovering incredible wine places, and make sure you hit that subscribe button. See you next time.