Wine monopoly

One of the peculiarities of Norway is the Vinmonopol - or wine monopoly. It is an attempt to reduce the damaging effects of alcohol consumption on the Norwegian people. The monopoly has the exclusive right to sell wine, liquor and anything above 4.7% alcohol. There are restricted opening hours and a ban on advertising for alcohol. According to the World Health Organization, Norwegian consumption of alcohol is significantly lower than the European average largely due to the wine monopoly. You can read more about Vinmonopolet here. I'm going to tell you what it means for sailing. 

First off, not all towns have a wine monopoly shop. A municipality has to apply for one, and then the state will do an analysis of a number of factors to ascertain whether it can be run responsibly and profitably in that municipality.

There are 345 wine shops in Norway, and 75 municipalities are currently being assessed for a wine monopoly. Most of the places in Norway with guest harbors also have wine shops, so you wouldn't think shopping would be a problem. However, with the opening hours of 10 - 17 on weekdays, 10 - 16 on Saturdays and closed on Sundays, the wine shops are not Mabu Hay compatible. So far, we have not been in a single port at the same time as a wine shop has been open. That is why my provisioning was so important. (Remember that at the time when I was provisioning I thought our first stop would be Denmark, which has one of the least restrictive alcohol policies in Europe and where you can buy wine at a 7-11 24/7.)

I made a critical error: I only bought two bottles of prosecco. We had one on the first day to celebrate the start of our holiday. I cunningly convinced Reidar to put off the spritzes until we had a sunny day, and that was yesterday. 

We are now in Sweden, which has an even more peculiar concept with the same purpose as Vinmonopolet, Systembolaget. While assessing ports yesterday, I did look for places with Systembolaget because I would like to have some prosecco on hand for the next perfect day. (Looking at the weather forecast, it seems like there is no big rush actually.) In Sweden, there is also Systembolaget ombud and Gullholmen has one. I had never heard of Systembolaget ombud, but Google helped me figure out that you can create a username and password, order your wine online and then pick it up at the grocery store. Two days later. 

I don't give up very easily though, and taking into account the number of Norwegians cruising around these little islands, I surmised that the grocery store possibly had a few cartons of red and white wine as well as some medium-range bubbles on hand so that you could order at the shop and pick up on the same day.

Not so.

So I bought some tonic and invented the limoncello tonic. With my ice cube maker, we are ready for the next sunny day.

Let's hope for tomorrow.