Reykjavík Grapevine - 07.06.2019, Qupperneq 44

The Call Of The Wild
Ragnheiður Axel Eyjólfsdóttir livening up
Iceland’s liquor and wine
Words: Andie Fontaine Photo: Art Bicnick
Og Natura
Buy Og Natura’s products at
Vinbuðin. Find out more at
ognatura.com
Iceland’s booze scene is experienc-
ing a renaissance right now, from
the recently-sparked ubiquity of
craft beers to locally-distilled whis-
keys. Ragnheiður Axel Eyjólfsdót-
tir—nicknamed Raxel—is the man-
ager of the organic foods company
Íslensk Hollusta, which has taken
things to a whole new level with the
Og Natura line of drinks. Her con-
cept is simple: use local, wild-grown
ingredients to craft high quality al-
coholic beverages, from wine to gin.
Purple fountains
provide important clues
One of Og Natura’s newest prod-
ucts is their crowberry wine. Crow-
berries are a small, dark, bitter berry
that grows plentifully around Ice-
land. They’re used in many of lo-
cal recipes, but this is the first we’d
heard about anyone making booze
from them.
As it turns out, the idea is actu-
ally pretty old. “I've been brewing
for some time, and became inter-
ested in fermentation,” says Raxel. “I
was just experimenting. As I started
to think about it more, I arrived at
crowberry wine—because that is
the only wine tradition that we have
in Iceland.”
The tradition of making crow-
berry wine may date as far back as
40 to 60 years, Raxel explains. “Some
of my friends’ grandparents have
made crowberry wine. People used
to make it in their basement or in
their garage. I went on a search for
old stories for old recipes, and a lot
of families had their own recipes.”
It’s the intrinsic qualities of
crowberries that make them ideal
for brewing. “Because the crow-
berry has a thick skin, with a lot of
oils and tannins, it preserves really
well,” says Raxel. “So the crowberry
doesn't oxidise as much as blueber-
ries, for example. The ageing pro-
cess is then closer to that of grapes
than other berries or other things
that grow in Iceland.”
Part of the experimentation pro-
cess involved learning from the mis-
takes of others; in particular, trials
wherein someone didn’t engage the
fermentation quite right, resulting
in exploding barrels of juice. “I went
on a search for all the stories,” says
Raxel, “especially stories about ‘pur-
ple fountains.’ People would have
their containers explode all the time
from fermenting too much.”
Ragnheiður isn’t just making
wine, either; she’s also launched a
bold take on an old favourite with
what she calls “Slow Gin,” using
blackcurrants that are slightly fer-
mented with sugar before being
added to the gin. Her recipe uses
hard-to-find Icelandic juniper ber-
ries, Arctic thyme, angelica root and
“a little bit of rhubarb.”
“All of these ingredients are
wild—none of it is cultivated. It's
all handpicked,” she says, adding
that even her parents take part in
foraging the ingredients.
Hidden gold
One of Og Natura’s stand-out stars
is a liqueur made from stone bram-
bles. They’re foraged in the north—
but good luck trying to find them
yourself. “Stone brambles are like
a hidden berry,” says Raxel. “A lot of
people don't know them. The pick-
ers have their own secret locations.
They’re like gold. They're really
expensive and it's difficult to pick
them.”
All of these beverages and more
can be found at the state-run ÁTVR
alcohol stores. Given the nature of
the ingredients, their availability
may depend on the time of year, but
Ragnheiður sees the bright side to
seasonality. “I want to be able to pro-
vide these products all year round,
but we're dealing with limited re-
sources,” she says. “But then it's also
nice to have to wait for the next har-
vest. It's a luxury problem.”
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Raxel is into fermentation. A lot.
“Crowberry wine
is the only wine
tradition that we
have in Iceland."
FISH panS
icelandic "plokkfiskur"
Onion, garlic, potatoes,
celery, lime, white wine,
cream and butter
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arcTic cHar
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luncH?
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