From the atlas
Frederiksdal Kirsebærvin
A Danish cherry winery on Lolland making wine from Stevnsbær cherries by the same principles applied to grape wine for centuries: fermentation, lees ageing, oak, and vintage blending.
At A Glance
| |
| Country | Denmark |
| Location | Harpelunde, Lolland |
| Main fruit | Stevnsbær cherry |
| Signature wine | Sur Lie |
| Defining feature | Sole producer applying centuries-old grape-wine methods to Danish cherries |
The Producer
On the island of Lolland in southern Denmark, Frederiksdal Kirsebærvin makes wine from Stevnsbær cherries grown on 44 hectares of orchard. The Stevnsbær is a Danish cherry variety with an unusually high natural acidity, and it is that acidity, which the producers describe as the DNA of the fruit, giving Frederiksdal wines the backbone to carry fermentation on skins and stones, extended lees contact, French oak ageing, and vintage blending without losing freshness.
Harald Krabbe, Jan Friis Mikkelsen, and Morten Brink Iwersen founded the estate roughly twelve years before 2023. They developed production methods from scratch, applying vinification techniques drawn from centuries of grape-wine practice to the Stevnsbær cherry: full fermentation, oak ageing, lees contact, and vintage blending, not filtration and sweetening in the manner of commercial fruit wine. Wine reviewers called this a breakthrough for Danish wine production.
Place
Lolland is a flat, low-lying Danish island in the southern Baltic. The island's Stevnsbær cherries carry a balance of acidity and sugar that sets them apart from commercial sweet cherry varieties. That acidity is fundamental to the winemaking approach at Frederiksdal: without it, fermentation to dryness and extended oak contact would leave the wines without the grip to hold their fruit character.
Harpelunde, the estate's address, is in the interior of Lolland, where the orchards supply all of the fruit the winery uses.
Soil And Site
The packet's sources do not give detailed soil data for the Frederiksdal orchards. What the sources make clear is that Lolland's Stevnsbær fruit carries a natural acidity that is central to the estate's entire production method. The cherry variety supplies both the sugar to ferment and the acidity to keep the wines alive through oak and lees contact.
Story
When Harald Krabbe, Jan Friis Mikkelsen, and Morten Brink Iwersen decided to make wine from Lolland's Stevnsbær cherries, they set aside the model of commercial fruit wine and looked instead at how grape wine had been made for centuries. The founding group included Jan Friis Mikkelsen, a chef, and the venture was shaped from the start by a food-culture view of what cherry wine could become rather than a fruit-processing view of what it had been.
The methods they developed were not adaptations of a ready-made cherry-wine tradition: there was none to adapt. Fermentation on skins and stones, lees ageing in French oak, multi-vintage blending, and a range that runs from a sparkling demi-sec to a Solera and a Rancio were built from principles applied to grapes, translated to fruit. Wine reviewers responded to the result as a new direction in Danish wine production.
Vineyards And Cellar
The 44 hectares of Stevnsbær orchards are certified under Global Gap. Cherries come from both young and old trees, and the two contribute differently: young trees give fruit and freshness, older trees add depth and weight.
In the cellar, the method changes by wine. For the Vintage, cherries are fermented on their skins and stones for four to five days to extract complexity, then pressed and finished in stainless steel to preserve fruit character. The Sur Lie is aged on its lees in French oak, a process that produces a richer, deeper wine through contact with yeast sediment over time. The lees-aged wines bring together multiple vintages, with younger vintages contributing fresh, lighter fruit notes and older vintages adding more complex tones.
Wines
The range at Frederiksdal runs from an approachable sparkling wine to a Solera and a Rancio aged in an extended fractional-blending system.
The Vintage is the most fruit-forward expression, made with cherries from both young and old trees and finished in stainless steel; it is the range's clearest statement of fresh Stevnsbær cherry character. The Sur Lie steps up in complexity through lees contact in French oak and multi-vintage blending, with the younger vintages bringing lightness and fruit brightness and the mature ones contributing more layered, secondary tones. RØD is a sparkling demi-sec with deep red colour and a lively mousse. The Likør carries intense cherry sweetness with a hint of chocolate and a citrus edge on the finish. The Solera and Rancio are the estate's most oxidative wines, built through fractional ageing.
In The Glass
Across the range, Frederiksdal wines open with concentrated Stevnsbær cherry fruit: deep red colour, vivid cherry aromatics, and the almond-adjacent note that comes from fermentation on stones. The acidity is the defining backbone of the wines, keeping them from reading as sweet or heavy even where residual sugar is present.
The Vintage is the brightest: fresh cherry on the nose, clean fruit on the palate, and an acidity that extends the finish without sharpness. The Sur Lie shows more depth and secondary complexity from lees contact and oak, with richer texture and a longer, more layered finish. RØD is lighter in body, sparkling, and demi-sec in sweetness. The Likør moves into dessert-wine territory, with concentrated cherry, a hint of chocolate, and a citrus note at the finish that stops it from reading as cloying.
A Bottle To Understand It
The Sur Lie is the bottle that shows what separates Frederiksdal from commercial cherry wine. It is a multi-vintage blend of Stevnsbær cherry wine aged on its lees in French oak barrels. The younger vintages in the blend bring the bright cherry fruit forward; the older vintages introduce more complex, layered notes that sit underneath. Richer and deeper than the Vintage, it carries oak-derived texture and a long finish built on the Stevnsbær's natural acidity rather than added sweetness.
Anecdote
Jan Friis Mikkelsen came to the Frederiksdal project as a chef, not a winemaker. His presence shaped how the founders understood what they were making: not fruit wine in the commercial, sweet-and-filtered sense, but a food-culture product that belonged at a dinner table. The estate's early positioning, emphasising craft production methods and serious winemaking principles applied to a Danish fruit, followed directly from that culinary starting point. When wine reviewers began calling the Frederiksdal approach a breakthrough for Danish wine production, they were responding to a decision that had been made in the kitchen before it was made in the cellar.
Final Word
Frederiksdal is the only producer applying centuries-old grape-wine methods to the Stevnsbær cherry: fermentation, lees contact, French oak ageing, and multi-vintage blending on a single Danish island variety whose natural acidity carries all of it.
Sources
- https://www.frederiksdal.com/int
- https://foodfromdenmark.com/vare/frederiksdal-kirsebaervin-a-s/
- https://shop.frederiksdal.com/se/products/frederiksdal-sur-lie
- https://shop.frederiksdal.com/nl/products/frederiksdal-vintage
- https://shop.frederiksdal.com/se/products/frederiksdal-rod
- https://www.frederiksdal.com/int/products/wines
- http://blog.wineandcheeseplace.com/2018/02/frederiksdal-kirsebaervin-denmark.html
- https://www.baltic-manors.eu/en/article/cherrywinery-frederiksdal.html