JR67

That reminds me of last summer at the family farm. I was cutting the lawn (it takes about 5 hours on a riding lawnmower, which of course means multiple stops for beer) and I swing back up between the barns and see a bunch of police cars and vans. They often use the farm for speed traps (with our permission), since they can easily hide behind the barns and pull the speeders in out of sight as well. I chatted with the cops, kept cutting the grass, and then stopped for a beer and watched them do their work. Afterwards I was heading back to the lawnmower when my wife pointed out that that was probably pretty stupid. I wonder if they would have done anything. They could have busted me, but then they would have lost their little hideaway forever.

GUWonder

Child labor too little to use the rider? Or is the rider reserved for Carlsberg consumers?

Does the Swedish heart and lung association — or some other charity — come around nagging much and asking you to sign over the farm in your will without regard to whether you have the Future Farmers of America in Sweden. Or do they just target those without children of their own?

JR67

You must not have kids. The thought of 5 hours in the middle of the day on a weekend with beer and podcasts blissfully sheltered from the wife and kids is irresistible to the average family man.

GUWonder

I did hear something about people flying off on business trips to get “blissfully sheltered from the wife (or husband) and kids”. SAS may have some kids and spouses to thank for some bloating of EBG/EBD ranks.

fassy

[Post split out from SAS closes CPH-HKG thread]

By the way, again a story of what is driving me nuts here in Sweden when it comes to bad service and high price: when you finally find good wines in System Bolaget... No, then of course you cannot order them online for picking up in another shop or home delivery.

„This wine is on stock in selected stores and cannot be ordered online“

what a load of BS.

I‘m kind of okay with buying at Systembolaget, even if inconvenient and expensive. But if you do not live in Stockholm, Malmö or Gothenburg the selection in the local stores is horrible. In all three stores around here, the wines makes my nails role up. In the small ones, they top out at 149kr Amarones... Finally I found some nice one in Helsingborg, looked it up for ordering a couple of boxes since they only had two in the store... and no! You cannot! Even though it is on stock in e.g. Kristianstad.

But then they complain about companies like Vivino which try to get around the monopoly.

And then again, most Swedes are just ok with that. It is fine!

nini_su

Never been to a small town Systemet, but moving to Malmö, I was pleasantly surprised by the selection of my local Systembolaget. My weapon of choice is beer, though. I'm still a fan… local breweries actually produce a lot of decent beers and the regularly updated small batches bring in a nice variation, and it's all just a couple of foot steps from my place. Even the opening hours that everyone rants about don't bother me, because they pretty much match normal supermarket hours in Austria

In my experiences, most Swedes wouldn't know what a good wine is anyways and are content with whatever comes in a bag-in-box.

fassy

True, the Systembolagets in the three major cities do have a limit supply of decent wines. If you visit a Systembolaget in Stockholms embassy quarter, you will see socialism at its best. They do have even a climate-controlled Chambre séparée and wines where a bottle breaks my monthly budget. Just the best for the top civil servants, right? The plebs can drink the p**s, the selection in the secondary cities and rural villages is just about right for them.

But even in the major cities, it is impossible to get "that bottle of wine". I had a lot of discussions with the Systembolaget staff about ordering my favorite Cab from Nappa or that great Bolgheri. No, not going to happen.

Yes, true. I have always been a beer-only guy until starting working for a northern California company. Now years later most of my friends or colleagues consider me a wine-snob as my regular "every day wine" runs at around $20 to $30, the wines for the nicer events between $30 and $70 and for that special occasion $70+ topping out at $150 (above that, I can't tell a difference). "Would never spend more than 10 bucks for a bottle of wine, you must be mad!" is quite a common comment I hear, where I say "you spent $150 for a dinner with friends at TGIFridays in Stockholm having bad food and coke from the fountain, you must be mad!"

JR67

So I guess I won't impress you when I say that I actually really like Rotkäppchen Trocken at €2.50 / bottle (on sale, of course - normally it is the astronomical price of almost €4)?

And for nini_su : I also really like Grüner Veltliner at only slightly higher prices...

GUWonder

The embassy area stretch in Stockholm that covers the US, Turkish and Chinese embassies (and some others) also has some of the most expensive residential real estate in the area for Stockholm, and the Swedes around there have some money sometimes.....

Most USFS civil servants can’t afford the most expensive stuff there. Some of of the US ambassadors can afford everything there but that’s more commonly the case when they are the appointed rich folk (or connected to the rich folk) who donate mucho dinero and get to buy their way into being the modern-day equivalent of extraordinarily-privileged quasi-aristocrats sans the pedigree.

Maybe SAS should start serving Molson beers. That was the cheap stuff that was popular for the plebe parties in school, more so when the Canadian dollar was in the toilet compared to the the American greenbacks. SAS will be looking at cost-cutting its beverage expenses too.

JR67

You had Molson? Luxury! We had Schaefer. It takes a lot to brew a beer that makes people wish they were drinking Milwaukee's Best, but Schaefer did it. Maybe they still do. If I recall correctly we were getting cases for under $6, but that was in the late 80s.

nini_su

Same! My go-to white is actually this one: https://www.systembolaget.se/dryck/v...schaden-432001

I'm not against cheap wines, it's just that coming from a red wine region (yes, we have that too), I have certain standards, e.g. wine always comes in a bottle (or a cask I guess is fine too, but keep your box away from me). Plus, Swedes like it sweet and I don't.

JR67

We will have to try it. I usually buy Leth, just so I can say "Leth ith more" every time I open a bottle. :-)

They have a Grüner in a box at Systemet. It is a 2-liter box instead of 3, and it is total crap. So yeah, bottles are better. Plus, if you open a bottle the most you can drink is a bottle. If you open a box you can work your way through a few "bottles" without even noticing. And lets not even start with the Vodka-in-a-box you can get at bordershop in Germany...

JR67

Well, I have taken weekend trips to Hong Kong, San Francisco, and almost everywhere in between.

WindowSeatFlyer

I'm still trying to figure out the connection between SAS and the endless "Bash Sweden" posts from some posters...

nini_su

Heh, selecting the wine based on it's pun-ability didn't even cross my mind yet, but I can get behind that.

But yeah, I feel wine drinking is as much about psychology as about the quality of the wine. When I see a box, part of me already subconsciously decided it'll be bad. 2l bottles on the other hand totally works: I have fond memories of high school parties where friends whose parents have a vineyard would bring a bottle or two of "Hauswein" (usually Veltliner as the white and Zweigelt as the red), though probably these memories are less connected to the quality of wine than other aspects of these nights