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An elderly Danish couple walked into Santa Cruz’s Venus Spirits tasting room recently to say thank you. They had been given a bottle of distiller Sean Venus’ new spirit — the caraway-forward Scandinavian bone-warmer called aquavit, a clear spirit infused with botanicals — and wanted to thank him for bringing a bit of Nordic drinking culture to the Bay Area. Skoal, indeed. Five years ago, there were only four aquavits produced in the United States and none in California. But, as Venus explained to the couple, a curiosity for niche spirits drew him to aquavit’s smooth, savory character. “Honestly, it’s...

Five men accused of brewing illegal Portuguese spirits blended with deadly methanol went on trial in Sintra, near Lisbon, this week. Five Norwegians died after drinking the illegal brew, and the man who smuggled it to Norway got more than eight years in prison.Norwegian smuggler Erik Fallo initially was sentenced to 12 years in prison, but an appeals court later cut the term to eight-and-a-half years.The five on trial in Portugal face 25-year terms, after being indicted in what's become the biggest smuggling case in Portuguese history.All were allegedly part of a large international network that also evaded around NOK...

Police and juvenile authorities had to be called out to a shopping center near Bergen this week, to take control over three drunken boys. The youngest of them was just 12 years old.Bjørn Hagen of the Bergen police department is shaken over the incident. "It happens that we get calls about intoxicated youth, but not this young," he told avisen Vestnytt. "It's worrisome."The boys were first approached by security guards at the Sartor shopping center in Fjell, outside Bergen. "They apparently got aggressive when they were spoken to," Hagen said. "We called their parents, who came and picked them up."He...

The Labor Party believes Norway needs more Vinmonopolet--the state alcohol outlets."Every municipality in the country, apart from the very smallest, should have their own "pol" stores," Labor Party social policy spokesman Bjarne Håkon Hanssen told newspaper Bergens Tidende.At the beginning of 2005 there were 195 of the state monopoly outlets, in the country's 436 municipalities.Hanssen believes this measure would be the best way of preventing wine from being sold in grocery stores.Deputy Health and Care Services Minister Kristin Ravnanger said that it would not be particularly profitable for Vinmonopolet to increase their number of stores, something that the monopoly itself...

Erik Fallo, a central smuggler of illegal spirit, was sentenced on Wednesday to 12 years on charges of murder by poisoning after being behind shipments of moonshine lethally tainted with methanol.Fallo, 58, was charged with seven deaths by poisoning and two cases of two of grave personal injury. According to the charges Fallo sold 50,000 liters of smuggled spirit from January 2002 until the summer of 2003.Per Erik Fossum, 76, received a five-year sentence in the trial, charged with one count of murder by poisoning and one count of involuntary manslaughter under especially aggravated circumstances.Fallo had previously admitted guilt to...

OSLO, Norway - A 79-year-old Norwegian might have gotten away with a quick but drunken drive to the gas station to buy tobacco, except for one thing. He drove off behind the wheel of someone else's car, the local Internet newspaper Vesteraalen Online reported Thursday.A court this week handed the man, whose name was not released, a three week suspended jail sentence and a $2,125 fine and revoked his driver's license for three years.In the incident, which occurred last year, the Norwegian arrived at a gas station in an aging Opel from the 1980s. When he left in a different...

ST. PETERSBURG, March 11 (Itar-Tass) -- The famous Russian St. Petersburg-based Baltika brewery is beginning beer shipments to Norway on Friday, its Director for exports Dmitry Kistev told Tass.He said exports to Norway will begin with a batch of 10,000 liters.Kistev said it was difficult to access the Norwegian market because of tough registration requirements and high taxes.Baltika beer will be sold only through the state-run Vinmonopolet retail network.The state monopoly conditioned the sale of Russian beer will begin in May.The Baltika beer will be cheaper than other imported beer.In 2004 the Baltika brewery sold a record of some two...

More men want national costumesWomen traditionally have made up the biggest market for the unique Norwegian national costumes known as bunad. Men have been getting into the act in recent years, and some tailors are now reporting a big jump in sales.It's high season for makers of the costumes that represent different geographical districts in Norway. With the 17th of May approaching, when nearly everyone who has a bunad wears it, needles and thread are flying around the nation to get the bunad ready.It takes months to make a bunad and they sell for anywhere from NOK 12,000 to NOK...

Career bootlegger calls it quitsA Norwegian man who has spent the past 30 years producing and importing illegal liquor says his career is over. Erik Fallo also admitted partial guilt in a recent smuggling case, but denies responsibility for some bad brew that killed several of its consumers.Prosecutors claim at least seven people died painful deaths after drinking liquor that Fallo smuggled to Norway from Portugal. The liquor contained methanol, which allowed for cheaper production but had fatal consequences.Fallo is on trial along with 76-year-old Per Erik Fossum, who's also charged in the fatal smuggling case. The court has set...

Viking ship cracking upEperts are worried about one of Norway's national treasures. Archaeologists have discovered cracks in the hull of he famed Oseberg Viking ship, which may halt plans to move the vessel to a new museum.The archaeologists have been carefully going over the nearly 1,200-year-old ship, and are concerned about what they see, reports newspaper Aftenposten.Removal of the vessel's top deck has revealed some exciting new details, like graffiti from the Viking age and details of the ship's rigging. But it's also exposed cracks that make archaeologists worry the ship won't tolerate any move to new quarters.There have been...

After an embarrassing performance in the world championships 'normal' hill team event on Sunday Norway's ski jumping flops headed for a bar in downtown Oberstdorf to drown their sorrows. Rumours that the waterhole was called "The Shameful Scandies" have been denied.Norwegians are renowned party animals, but most - apart from the saisonnaires littered around many Alpine resorts like Val d'Isère - draw the line at mixing sport and alcohol.The hapless jumpers' evening bar crawl thus made front-page headlines in Norway on Tuesday morning."We were out very late," admitted Lars Bystoel, who also confirmed that he did the driving.The healthy-looking Bystoel...

Windsurfers appeal to crown princeSome avid windsurfers, sure they have a kindred spirit in Norway's crown prince, hope he can help them overturn a ban on the sport in some protected areas off the Norwegian coast. They claim Crown Prince Haakon himself has violated the ban."I've surfed with (Crown Prince Haakon) several times, and I know that he loves the waves," surfer Thomas Olsen told newspaper Østlandsposten."Norwegians are outdoorsy people, but (here) we're not allowed to use the outdoors," Olsen claimed. "I hope the crown prince will meet me to talk about this."Another avid windsurfer, Markus Allen, says the surfers...

Lightning hits flight from OsloA bolt of lightning struck an SAS Braathens flight from Oslo Monday morning, giving passengers and crew a scary start to their week.The lightning hit the SAS Braathens aircraft just as it was making its approach for landing at Kjevik airport outside the southern town of Kristiansand."It sounded like a rifle going off," one of the passengers, Svein Arne Lamo, told local newspaper Fædrelandsvennen. "I got scared when I heard the bang," Lamo said. "We could see that one of the motors was flashing, and then the aircraft rose sharply."He said the pilot then told the...

Oslo imbibes the mostThe number who drink alcohol daily is twice as high in the capital as the rest of the country, with 83,000 of Oslo's resident over the age of 15 saying they drink three times a week or more.Oslo residents have over a thousand watering holes to choose from, and the results from this particular centennial poll show that Norway's metropolitan population outdrinks even the north, famed for their festive enthusiasm.Astrid Skretting, a researcher at SIRUS, the state institution for the study of intoxicants, is not surprised that Oslo leads, though she did find the numbers high.Skretting emphasizes...

Norway's giant dairy cooperative TINE was raided Wednesday by competition investigators bearing warrants.The near-monopolist dairy producers have been in the media spotlight after accusations of unfair business practices and trying to smother competition.TINE's offices were ransacked by authorities and documents confiscated, radio station P4 reported. The discount grocery chain REMA 1000 was also visited by the authority. REMA recently revoked a new policy of only stocking TINE products and dropping competitor Synnove Finden's cheeses.TINE communications director Bjørg Bruset confirmed that the NCA (Norwegian Competition Authority) had paid them a visit and left with computer data, printed documents and notebooks."We put...

Odd world record for BergenNorway's rainy city of Bergen holds a bizarre world record, with more wrists broken there than anywhere else.Each year about 1,500 people break their wrist in Bergen, the highest figure in the world. Experts guess that the unstable winter climate is to blame, NRK (Norwegian Broadcasting) reports.Professor of orthopedics Leiv Hove believes that local authorities must should much of the blame for so many citizens tumbling on slippery sidewalks. He said it is time to take care of pedestrians, and not just motorists."It is embarrassing to be a world leader in a statistic like this. Oslo...

Costs high for Libyan deportationThey didn't want to go back to Libya, to put it mildly. It took 36 Norwegian police guards to escort 19 Libyans out of the country, after their attempts to win asylum in Norway were turned down.The Norwegian immigration agency also chartered a jet to transport the Libyans back home, because it wasn't considered safe to take them on board a regularly scheduled carrier.The would-be Libyan refugees, all of them men, were denied asylum after Libya started cooperating with western nations. Libya now willingly provides travel documents for the return of its own citizens who are...

Angry moose attack dogsled, after another runs wild in clothing storeTwo moose charged a dogsled led by 12 huskies over the weekend. The attack came just a day after another moose broke into a children's clothing store in Lillehammer.The two incidents were the latest in a string of unusual moose behaviour in Norway. The country has a large moose population, but the huge animals are generally shy and stay away from people and populated areas.All the more reason why Reidar Stenmark was stunned when two "well-grown moose calves" stormed out of a forest in Nordland on Sunday and attacked a...

Queen Sonja visits the Antarctic Queen Sonja landed on the new Norwegian airfield in the Antarctic just after midnight, following a nine-hour flight from South Africa, Aftenposten reports.Later Saturday the Queen opened the new permanent Norwegian research station in Queen Maud's Land.Norwegian authorities have decided to show a stronger presence on the Antarctic continent, by establishing a permanent polar research station in Norway's Queen Maud's Land. A new, large airfield has been built on the glacier, and an extensive research programme has also been established.This is the first Norwegian royal visit to the Antarctic, and Queen Sonja will spend two...

Dr. Batman to the rescueNorwegian naming laws relaxed a bit on January 1, 2003 but it is still a rarity when someone adopts Batman as their legal name.Medical student Anders Mjelle, 22, is studying to become a pediatrician, and prefers Batman to more supernaturally powerful heroes like Spiderman or Superman, newspaper Nordlys reports.Mjelle, now Anders Batman Mjelle, told the paper that the idea came to him while he was practicing his signature during a prescription class."It just wasn't as cool as doctor signatures usually are. So I tried signing with the name to my old hero of heroes, Batman. That...