Latest news with #Norwegian
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
How a mountaintop Chilean winery is harnessing the earth's energy to disrupt the global wine market
The origin story of Stonevik—the latest introduction from VIK Winery, a pioneering winery neighbored by its sister hotel in central Chile—is rooted some 3,000 feet above sea level, in a mountaintop forest between the Andes and the Pacific, amidst a circle of century-old oak trees. Here, in amphorae handcrafted from clay sourced from the Vik estate and half-buried in the earth, the wine ages, untouched by human hands—culminating in a literally groundbreaking blend Vik bills as 'the ultimate natural wine, crafted by nature, in nature.' Stonevik marks a new milestone in Vik's quest to become one of the world's most renowned wineries—a passion project that began in 2004 when its owners, Norwegian investor and entrepreneur Alexander Vik and his wife, Carrie, embarked on a wildly ambitious mission. 'We put together a scientific team with the objective of finding one of the best terroirs in the world, to make some of the best Bordeaux-style red wines in the world,' says Alexander Vik. That epic two-year search ultimately led to the Millahue Valley, nestled in the foothills of the Andes within the greater Cachapoal Valley, a hundred miles south of Santiago. In 2006, the Viks purchased an 11,000-acre swath of virgin wilderness there called Lugar de Oro ('Golden Place') by the area's indigenous Mapuche people—perhaps a reference to how the rose-hued horizon shimmers just above the surrounding hills at dusk. More than two decades since the seeds of the Viks' idea were first sown, this enchanting hinterland has steadily evolved into an oenophile's Xanadu, seemingly worlds away from civilization, where winemaking, art, and architecture converge with exuberant nature. The addition of Stonevik to Vik's award-winning lineup gives wine lovers another reason to visit. Vik's terroir encompasses a pristine landscape composed of 12 valleys, each with its own microclimate and distinct exposures, and all cooled by Pacific coastal breezes and winds from high in the Andes. With the expert guidance of chief winemaker Cristián Vallejo, whom the Viks hired to oversee Vik's viticulture and viniculture, a thousand acres of Cabernet Sauvignon, Carménère, Syrah, Cabernet Franc, and Merlot were planted. 'We knew that this terroir was truly exceptional,' Alexander Vik continues, 'and that if we did things correctly, we could produce wines that would enter the pantheon of the world's great wines.' The next order of business was to build a winery. In 2007, the Viks launched a global competition to tap the brightest minds in the business; renowned Chilean architect, Smiljan Radic, won with an avant-garde design that minimizes impact on the landscape and champions sustainability. The white stretched-fabric roof resembles a wing, whose translucence eschews the need for artificial light in the daytime. A sloping plaza fronts the entrance, where running water trickles toward the glass-walled building beneath a striking river rock installation, naturally cooling the cellar below. Walkways crosshatch the sprawling space, immersing visitors in a stunning tableau that is both organic and otherworldly. Inside, most of the building lies underground to maximize natural insulation and conserve energy. Rows of amber-lit barrels stacked three high flank an aisle leading to the tasting room, where an accent wall displays a mélange of gold-toned metal shards that appear to hover in midair like a grand mobile, an arresting homage to the Mapuche's moniker for the region's natural grandeur. The winery's light footprint dovetails with Vik's holistic winemaking philosophy. Guided by a steadfast commitment to environmental stewardship, Vik embraced a virtually no-intervention approach from the outset, using only native yeasts and no additives or filtration. All grapes are harvested at night, when they're at their lowest temperature, to preserve their quality and acidity. These measures (and many others) ensure the purest expression of Vik's terroir. In 2014—a year before Vik's first commercial wine, a 2010 vintage of its eponymous flagship blend, entered the market—VIK Chile opened its doors, completing Vik's metamorphosis into a world-class escape. (The Viks opened their first hotel, Estancia Vik, in Uruguay in 2009; the Vik Retreats portfolio now includes two other Uruguayan outposts and a hotel in Milan.) Perched on a hill with panoramic views of the winery, the vineyards, and the valley beyond, the luxury hotel—whose free-form bronzed titanium roof seems to undulate in the unrelenting sun—is arguably the country's most iconic getaway, and a dazzling complement to the winery. Contemporary art, the Viks' other prevailing passion, informs every inch of the hotel. The couple recruited a slew of artists to design the 22 themed suites, whose floor-to-ceiling windows frame Millahue's jaw-dropping vistas. 'Vicky Money' features a bathroom adorned with 50,000 one-euro-cent coins, while a replica of Dali's iconic Mae West 'Lips' sofa commands attention in 'Valenzuela,' a riot of color with a Mondrian-inspired floor. A central courtyard—where a Zen garden presides over a border of vibrant blooms—celebrates the natural world, and common spaces showcase unique works by artists including German painter and sculptor Anselm Kiefer and Chilean painter Roberto Matta. Puro Vik, a collection of seven stand-alone glass bungalows with themes ranging from holographic art to 18th-century France, and with bathrooms that each feature a different marble, comprise the newest accommodations. Vik's vintages join forces with elevated cuisine at Milla Milla, the hotel's glass-walled signature restaurant, where dishes like grilled red octopus with potato foam and duck magret with blueberry sauce earn raves. La Huerta, an alfresco eatery in the property's two-acre organic garden, makes an idyllic lunch spot, thanks to plates beautifully composed of 250 varieties of fruits, vegetables, herbs, and eggs, topped with edible flowers. Activities like horseback rides through the vineyards and birdwatching walks along mountain trails can be easily arranged for guests—a well-heeled, international mix of couples, families, and wine enthusiasts—while winery tours and tastings loom large in the Vik experience. Since Vik's founding, the endlessly complex, ever-evolving relationship between wine and nature has fueled its winemaking—an ongoing journey most recently manifested in Stonevik. In 2018, Vik became an entirely circular winery, meaning every element used in its production comes from the property—including its barrels, which were previously sourced from France. Winemaker Vallejo began crafting Vik's own barrels with French oak staves, toasting them with 300-year-old Chilean oak that had fallen within the reserve to integrate the terroir directly into the wood—a process he dubbed 'barroir.' In 2023, he approached the Viks with an idea to take the circular concept a step further. 'Circular wine normally means growing and harvesting grapes on your land and aging the wine in your winery, but no one had yet returned to nature to close the circle,' he recalls. 'I suggested we create a wine and take it in amphorae up to the forest, to let it be their guardian and help us age it.' Intrigued, the Viks agreed. When Vallejo happened upon the ring of oak trees—a relative anomaly in nature—during his search for the perfect location for this new venture, he felt an energy he couldn't identify. He summoned a geologist to investigate what, if anything, was happening below ground; the geologist subsequently determined that a fault line intersected with a water vein in the circle's center. That nexus created a natural electromagnetic field that generates a kind of circular pulse, which Vallejo says explains the trees' unusual growth. He then consulted a machi (a traditional healer in Mapuche culture), who identified the energy point's exact location with no knowledge of the geologist's findings; and an astronomer, who advised how best to arrange the amphorae within the circle to optimally align with the sun, moon, and stars. After a month in Vik's 'barroir' barrels, the wine—a blend of Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Carménère—rests in seven amphorae in the forest enclave until December 21, the summer solstice in the Southern Hemisphere, when it is bottled and ready for sale. Annual production is limited to 800 cases, given the small capacity of its unique aging process. Stonevik joins three other flagship wines—Vik (its premier blend), Milla Cala, and La Piu Belle—in Vik's production. Its 2023 and 2024 vintages each earned 98 points from leading wine critic James Suckling—a notable achievement for a wine aged less than one year with no intervention. As for the future, Alexander Vik is optimistic. 'We're way ahead of our expected timeline for the vineyard and the winemaking,' he says. 'Each vintage is better than the prior one, as the vines become more established and more capable.' Vallejo's take befits an unlikely tale that began in an untouched, aureate wilderness, and that continues to unfold. 'I think of our wines as a book: Every glass is a chapter, every sip is a page,' he says. 'They really tell the story of this terroir. When you connect with our wines, you can follow this story, and in every glass—every sip—you feel something different.' This story was originally featured on Sign in to access your portfolio
Elle
6 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Elle
All That's Known About Alexander Skarsgård and Girlfriend Tuva Novotny's Very Private Love Story
THE RUNDOWN Alexander Skarsgård is known for playing enigmatic, unpredictable characters—from Eric Northman in True Blood to Lukas Matsson in Succession. When it comes to his real life, the award-winning actor prefers to keep things quiet. That discretion extends to his relationship with Swedish actress and director Tuva Novotny. While it's unclear when exactly they started dated, the pair was first romantically linked in 2022 and have since welcomed a child. Skarsgård confirmed the news of his baby in March 2023 after he was seen out with his firstborn in November 2022. Below, everything to know about Novotny, Skarsgård's partner and mother of his child. Novotny, 45, began acting professionally at age 16 , but her exposure to the arts started far earlier. 'I wasn't pushed; I was inspired,' she told Vogue Scandinavia in 2024, recalling how she directed plays with her siblings and grew up immersed in music, painting, and theater. Since then, she has racked up an extensive list of acting credits, including roles in Eat Pray Love, Annihilation, and more. She's also made a name for herself behind the camera. Her film Blind Spot (2018) explored mental health and family trauma. The project—the first film she has directed—earned her the New Talent Grand Prix at Copenhagen's CPH PIX Festival that year. 'Blind Spot refers to what we don't see in our everyday life,' Novotny said in a 2018 interview with the Golden Globes. 'Where we can be surprised about what is going on in people's lives, where they go around smiling and pretending that everything is fine, and they are actually having a very difficult time. That is the blind spot that I am referring to.' Novotny had built up directing experience before doing the project, working in TV: 'I always knew I wanted to direct, but I wanted to make sure that I was [ready] for it,' she explained. 'Ten years ago, some friends of mine asked if I could direct a few episodes of a Norwegian TV series, and they brought me onto their next project. This was very good as a self-esteem enhancer. And after those TV series, I decided that either I do TV for the rest of my life or it is now that I decide to do my own things. I took a year off and started writing a couple of scripts. [I] wrote a series for a Norwegian channel so it kind of happened organically but also at a point where I felt it was the right moment.' She went on to direct more films: Britt-Marie Was Here (2019) and Diorama (2022). 'After Blind Spot and Britt Marie Was Here, I felt safer about directing small or bigger-budget movies and taking on new creative challenges,' Novotny told Variety in 2019. Novotny is the daughter of Czech director and writer David Jan Novotný and Swedish actress and artist Barbro Hedström. Though Novotny's early exposure to the creative world was significant, she told Vogue Scandinavia that her career path felt natural. 'The apple doesn't fall far from the tree,' she said. In April 2022, Novotny appeared pregnant at the Swedish ELLE Fashion Awards, though she did not publicly confirm the news at the time. Months later in November, the couple was photographed in New York City pushing a stroller, adding fuel to speculation they welcomed their first child. While at the Succession season 4 premiere in March 2023, Skarsgård confirmed the news to Entertainment Tonight, saying, 'Thank you very much,' when congratulated. He then held up a stuffed animal he had just been gifted, adding, 'I got this on the red carpet.' A few days later, he offered a more specific confirmation to Swedish outlet Aftonbladet, revealing that they had a baby boy. 'We have a son who is eight months old now,' Skarsgård said. In a May 2025 interview with The Times, Skarsgård reflected on how parenthood changed his lifestyle. 'It's been an adjustment for someone who's a selfish asshole like myself,' he said. ''I'm so used to being able to go somewhere on a whim, take a job, like, 'Oh, seven months in the Kalahari Desert? No problem.' Now your priorities obviously change, and you have to take other people's needs into consideration. It takes a lot more planning to make it work because I still love to work, but it's about finding that balance.'' He also referenced his role in helping to raise Novotny's children from a previous relationship: 'I have two teenage stepdaughters, so it's not like they can come with me and be out of school for six months.' Despite her extensive resumé, Novotny tends to avoid media attention. 'I don't see myself as a public person,' she said in her 2024 Vogue Scandinavia profile. 'For many years, I wouldn't do interviews; I wouldn't watch my own stuff.' She added, 'My job is public and then what I do outside of work is super private.' Vogue Scandinavia wrote that Novotny previously had an Instagram account for work but has since deleted it. Novotny has spoken about balancing her creative ambitions with motherhood. 'It's super important that you keep yourself intact, and that's difficult being a parent,' she told Vogue Scandinavia. Noting that she has 'always worked through parenthood,' Novotny added, 'Work for me is a place where I feel inspired and I meet people—there's that social aspect. Bringing that back home is a good thing for parenting—for me, at least. Only being a parent sometimes can be claustrophobic.' She also acknowledged the changes in the industry since she began acting as a teenager in the '90s. 'It was a different time,' she said. 'It was sexy times, and they wanted me to be sexy.'
The Herald Scotland
8 hours ago
- Sport
- The Herald Scotland
I faced Thelo Aasgaard - here's what he'll bring to Rangers
Little did the former Rangers and Liverpool midfielder know that just two years later, the Norwegian internationalist would make the move to Ibrox. "He was at Wigan with Shaun [Maloney]," recalled Adam, speaking on behalf of Free Bets. "He's a good player. I think he just broke into the Norwegian national team as well. "We beat him that day, but yeah, he's a good player technically. I've seen him a few times, actually playing. "Luton getting relegated back to League One would financially have hurt them. So they've obviously sold him, and he's a talent. "He's a good age as well. He's a technical player who will be able to open passes and goals and assists as well. "It'll be interesting to see how he does at the top end of the pitch for Rangers as well." Read more: Aasgaard is a doubt to feature for [[Rangers]] in the first leg of the Champions League second qualifying round against Panathinaikos - but Adam reckons he can provide a spark under Russell Martin this season. "It depends on what you call a maverick," Adam responded to a poser on Aasgaard's playstyle. "What I will say is he's, he's hard working as well. He's a creative player, and Rangers will need that a lot this year because there will be a lot of teams where the low block and it's 4-5-1 might even be for 5-4-1 at times. "So they'll need that little bit of magic. Aasgaard, Lyle, Cameron, players like that will be able to open the door for you, for you as well to make things happen. "So yeah, good, good players that they need, but again, they have to hit the ground running quickly, and they need to win football matches."
NZ Herald
8 hours ago
- Science
- NZ Herald
Scientists track polar bears for pollutants amid Arctic warming
Like the rest of the Arctic, global warming has been happening there three to four times faster than elsewhere. But this year the eight scientists working from the Norwegian icebreaker Kronprins Haakon are experimenting with new methods to monitor the world's largest land carnivore, including for the first time tracking the PFAS 'forever chemicals' from the other ends of the Earth that finish up in their bodies. An AFP photographer joined them on this year's eye-opening expedition. Delicate surgery on the ice With one foot on the helicopter's landing skid, vet Rolf Arne Olberg put his rifle to his shoulder as a polar bear ran as the aircraft approached. Scientists sedate bears with darts to fit GPS collars and take samples. Photo / AFP Hit by the dart, the animal slumped gently on its side into a snowdrift, with Olberg checking with his binoculars to make sure he had hit a muscle. If not, the bear could wake prematurely. 'We fly in quickly,' Oldberg said, and 'try to minimise the time we come in close to the bear ... so we chase it as little as possible.' After a five- to 10-minute wait to make sure it is asleep, the scientists land and work quickly and precisely. They place a GPS collar around the bear's neck and replace the battery if the animal already has one. Only females are tracked with the collars because male polar bears - who can grow to 2.6m - have necks thicker than their heads and would shake the collar straight off. Olberg then made a precise cut in the bear's skin to insert a heart monitor between a layer of fat and the flesh. 'It allows us to record the bear's body temperature and heart rate all year,' NPI researcher Marie-Anne Blanchet told AFP, 'to see the energy the female bears [wearing the GPS] need to use up as their environment changes.' The first five were fitted last year, which means that for the first time experts can cross-reference their data to find out when and how far the bears have to walk and swim to reach their hunting grounds and how long they rest in their lairs. The vet also takes a biopsy of a sliver of fat that allows researchers to test how the animal might stand up to stress and 'forever chemicals', the main pollutants found in their bodies. 'The idea is to best represent what bears experience in the wild, but in a laboratory,' said Belgian toxicologist Laura Pirard, who is testing the biopsy method on the mammals. Eating seaweed It has already shown that the diet of Svalbard's 300 or so bears is changing as the polar ice retreats. The first is that they are eating less seals and more food from the land, said Jon Aars, the lead scientist of the NPI's polar bear programme. Pollution levels in bears are decreasing, reflecting successful regulations, but the variety of pollutants is increasing. Photo / AFP 'They still hunt seals, but they also take eggs and reindeer - they even eat [sea] grass and things like that, even though it provides them with no energy.' Seals remain their essential food source, he said. 'Even if they only have three months to hunt, they can obtain about 70% of what they need for the entire year during that period. That's probably why we see they are doing okay and are in good condition' despite the huge melting of the ice. But if warming reduces their seal hunting further, 'perhaps they will struggle', he warned. 'There are notable changes in their behaviour ... but they are doing better than we feared. However, there is a limit, and the future may not be as bright.' 'The bears have another advantage,' said Blanchet. 'They live for a long time, learning from experience all their life. That gives a certain capacity to adapt.' Success of anti-pollution laws Another encouraging discovery has been the tentative sign of a fall in pollution levels. With some 'bears that we have recaptured sometimes six or eight times over the years, we have observed a decrease in pollutant levels,' said Finnish ecotoxicologist Heli Routti, who has been working on the programme for 15 years. 'This reflects the success of regulations over the past decades.' They track "forever chemicals" and changes in diet due to Arctic warming, noting less seal consumption. Photo / AFP NPI's experts contribute to the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP) whose conclusions play a role in framing regulations or bans on pollutants. 'The concentration of many pollutants that have been regulated decreased over the past 40 years in Arctic waters,' Routti said. 'But the variety of pollutants has increased. We are now observing more types of chemical substances' in the bears' blood and fatty tissues. These nearly indestructible PFAS or 'forever chemicals' used in countless products like cosmetics and nonstick pans accumulate in the air, soil, water, and food. Experts warn that they ultimately end up in the human body, particularly in the blood and tissues of the kidney or liver, raising concerns over toxic effects and links to cancer. -Agence France-Presse
Atlantic
9 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Atlantic
Are You Laughing Yet?
You all remember comedy? That thing from the 1980s where you hate your wife? Well, it's back! We're in a golden age of comedy now where everyone can say exactly what they want, free of the fear of censorship, except by the government. Donald Trump has made comedy legal again! Remember, censorship is when people don't laugh at your jokes. Freedom is when your late-night show gets permanently taken off the air for financial reasons (16 million of them) and the president expresses his approval. Comedy is great again, which is to say, it's funny only if the president says so. Jokes are back, baby! Airplane travel is the worst! Take my wife, please. She's a green-card holder who's been in the country for 25 years! Knock, knock! Who's there? Sorry, they won't identify themselves, but they say they're here about the op-ed. The Norwegian tourist who was denied entry by border officers—after the agents took a special interest in the meme of J. D. Vance he had on his phone —didn't understand that when we say that comedy is legal again, we mean real comedy. This was clearly not comedy. This was somebody laughing at J. D. Vance. Comedy is when you laugh with J. D. Vance about people who don't look to him like their ancestors fought in the Revolutionary War and the Civil War. Comedy is the memes that the Department of Homeland Security and the White House keep sharing about how Donald Trump is Superman and 'my body is a machine that turns ICE funding into mass deportations' and 'even E.T. knew when it was time to GO HOME'! If you need any more clarity about what comedy is, here's one of Trump's favorite comedians ('I absolutely love that Colbert' got fired. His talent was even less than his ratings. I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next. Has even less talent than Colbert! Greg Gutfeld is better than all of them combined.') offering what has been identified as a joke: 'You know what?' Gutfeld said on Fox News. 'I've said this before: We need to learn from the Blacks, the way they were able to remove the power from the N-word by using it. So from now on, it's 'What up, my Nazi?' 'Hey, what up, my Nazi?' Hey, what's hanging, my Nazi?'' Laugh? I thought I'd die! This joke is funny, because people are constantly saying that Gutfeld is a Nazi, and he is getting a little sick of it. So, to dodge the Nazi allegations, he's riffing on the N-word! This is comedy now! Comedy is legal again. You are free to say whatever you want, provided it's a slur. You must say it, or President Trump won't approve your new stadium! No, that's not a joke. That's completely serious. You should know by now: Everything is serious, until it's suddenly a joke and you were a fool for not laughing. Everything is a joke, until suddenly it's serious and how dare you laugh. Everyone is trolling, until they aren't, and even when they aren't, they are. Everyone is always and never joking. It's not a threat. It's a joke. Comedy is legal again! Tragedy, to paraphrase Mel Brooks, is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you fall into an open sewer and die. More and more people are getting pushed into open sewers lately. Boom times for comedy. Boom times for laughing at. From the open sewer, you can hear a lot of laughing. They are so glad not to have to remember anymore that other people are in the room. What an enormous relief! Finally, they can say it! That is the project of Trumpism: becoming the only people in the room again. Becoming both the protagonists and the intended audience, the only people whose laughter counts. What you think is funny depends on what you believe to be true. When you make a joke, you are asking someone to look at something and see the same thing you see. When the response is laughter, it is a way of making eye contact, of looking through the world at one another. That is the terror of bombing onstage: the realization that what you are seeing is not what everyone else is seeing. The anxiety that you have got the world by the wrong end, that you are alone in what you think. But there are two reasons you can laugh. One is recognition, and the other is coercion. Some jokes are funny only with a power differential to back them up. This is the kind of comedy that's legal now: the joke whose punch line you're afraid to be. The kind of joke you have to take. Laugh, so they'll know you're one of them. Laugh, or he'll kill you. Laugh, and maybe you won't be next.
