[ PORTRAIT ]
Artist // Sweden
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Talk with Petter Alexis Askergren
"But ultimately wine’s like music – is it good? Does the wine swirl in the glass?"
He is one of Sweden's most successful music artists, but has many strings to his bow. Petter, as he is known to Swedes, is a bred-in-the-bone entrepreneur. He paints, co-owns a restaurant, has published books, produced his own wine, manages wine imports and one of the country’s most popular podcasts, along with a friend.
He studied the history of art in the late 1990s and was about to apply for art school when he got a record deal and broke through with his hip hop in 1998.
Today, Petter manages to combine his passions with wine pulsating through the veins of them all. We caught up with him to find out more. And to discover what’s so special about Nebbiolo.
How would you describe your different activities?
PETTER ALEXIS ASKERGREN
– My commitment embraces three areas: music, wine and art. It’s a privilege to be able to work with fun things, with your passions. But it has certainly come at a cost. I have worked a lot.
How did wine come into your life?
PETTER ALEXIS ASKERGREN
– At home it was part of my culture, I always liked and drank wine. On tour I would drink wine, not spirits (big smile). Then I connected with the sommelier profession through an acquaintance and signed up for a sommelier course in 2013. At that time it was unusual for private individuals to attend, but I was already having thoughts about working with wine – and you can’t sell something you don’t understand.
I’m a tannin junkie.
What was the most important aspect of the education? It’s a lot to take in.
PETTER ALEXIS ASKERGREN
– I particularly remember a blind test on Piedmont. I didn’t know anything about the wine, but I felt the harshness and astringency – wow! WHAT is this!? It was Nebbiolo, and I was totally sold. I’m a tannin junkie.
You are a recognised Nebbiolo fan. What’s so special about it?
PETTER ALEXIS ASKERGREN
– It’s the best! You can put it away for any number of years. Many people say Pinot Noir is king, but for me Nebbiolo reigns supreme. That said, Pinot is a great grape, as is Nerello Mascalese, which is like a hybrid between Pinot and Nebbiolo. All three have that resistance that I like in wine. But today I probably drink more Barbaresco than Barolo. I also like cool-climate wines from Napa; there’s Angela Osborne in the Santa Ynez Valley who is making really interesting wines. We’re seeing a new generation of winemakers today. It’s incredibly fun.
How do you view wine more generally?
PETTER ALEXIS ASKERGREN
– You can divide wine into classic, organic, natural etc, but ultimately it’s like music – is it a good song? Does the wine swirl in the glass? Of course, it has to be done in a fair way. I’ve seen a lot of trends come and go, and it’s sad when wine becomes a mannerism, when you drink something because it’s part of your image. The trend in wine has moved towards more cool-climate and a lighter style. But the question is: how far can you push it? Do we want a Barolo that tends to be like a Pinot?
To remember the wines, I paint and write a lot.
Petter pulls three notebooks out of the rucksack he always carries with him...
PETTER ALEXIS ASKERGREN
– To remember the wines, I paint and write a lot. Painting has always been a big thing in my family and the idea was that I would study, but my career as an artist got in the way... Now I’m painting more and more though. I exhibited at Liljevalchs Vårsalong 2022. It was great fun, because the panel judges the works anonymously. They didn’t know that it was Petter the artist who had painted them.
Do you see a connection between your different activities?
PETTER ALEXIS ASKERGREN
– Absolutely. The music business is extremely similar to the wine business. The wine producer is the artist. As an importer, you have a personal contact with the producer – and if you change company, the producer often follows, just like in music. On the cultural side, I discover wine like music: you have Piedmont with its grapes, you have a Def Jam recording label with Public Enemy and Stax with Isaac Hayes… a wine style becomes a musical style. You find new artists and producers in the style. Wine is like music but in a different way.
As a celebrity, you were one of the first to make your own wine in Sweden, but you have always kept a low profile. What were your plans?
PETTER ALEXIS ASKERGREN
– I didn’t want to produce a private label like everyone else, I took a completely different route. We created P.Lex in 2013 when I wanted to celebrate 15 years as an artist, and wanted something associated with celebration. Champagne didn’t feel right, but I have a personal connection to Prosecco. My dad is an architect, so I spent a lot of time in Venice, where they make a lot of Prosecco. And my mother loved Prosecco. At that time, there were five or six Proseccos in Sweden, all of them on the sweet side. We did the opposite – we searched for the absolute driest brut. We also started with a non-alcoholic alternative. It’s going well, they’re still around today.
What do you prefer to put in your own cellar?
PETTER ALEXIS ASKERGREN
– White Burgundy, the best I know is Meursault. But it shouldn’t be left for too long, no more than ten years. I have far too little Champagne, but a lot of Nebbiolo – 50 per cent that I drink now, 50 per cent to save. Then Napa and Bordeaux. There are so many fine wines, but a top Bordeaux in 20 years... that’s insanely good! My rule of thumb is to wait with Napa and Bordeaux. Then I experiment a bit. I bought Fontanafredda’s entry-level wines from the 2010 vintage to see how they kept, and they are drinking very well today. You never know.
You run Sweden’s biggest wine podcast, ‘Share a bottle with Alf & Petter’ with Alf Tumble. What is the purpose of it?
PETTER ALEXIS ASKERGREN
– Alf already had a podcast when we wrote the first wine book together, and we share the same philosophy. So we started – and haven’t stopped. We’ve done maybe 150 episodes. But it’s probably the most unpaid podcast in Sweden (big laugh), we have no advertising, we do it because it’s fun. Most of the time it’s just us talking wine, and sometimes we interview all kinds of people in the wine business. The idea is that you, as a wine expert, should be able to listen in the car with friends who are not so knowledgeable. We have between 7,000 and 12,000 listeners, and they are real hard core wine drinkers. We get good feedback from them.
You have compared your stimulation to a tree, with a trunk and lots of branches that grow and develop in their own way. Can you explain what you mean?
PETTER ALEXIS ASKERGREN
– The music is the trunk, then we have a branch with the wine import business Budbreak, another with my wine brand P.Lex, another with the restaurant and then the touring and art part with exhibitions. I do what I want to do, and I feel good about it. Today I’m staying in the music studio all day, after which we’ll have dinner with some sommeliers here in Stockholm, and tomorrow…who knows?
Article - Lena Särnholm
A journalist since her teens, she started out as a news reporter and ended up at the equestrian magazine Ridsport, where she worked as an editor for more than 20 years. Then her interest in wine took over. Lena Särnholm studied as a sommelier at the Swedish Restaurant Academy and works as a freelancer in wine and equestrian sports. She writes mainly for the wine culture magazine Törst, Star Wine List and In Vino, and works part-time in a wine bar in Stockholm to keep up to date. She has also worked eight full harvests, mainly in Loire. She’s the Swedish ambassador for PIWI International.
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