Member Spotlight: Nicklas Folkesson MIH

Nicklas Folkesson MIH has worked in some of the UK’s very best hotels. Now back in his native Sweden, he is a proud advocate for the country’s wine producers, an activity that was only made legal in 1999.

In the early nineties I left Sweden to start my career in the international hotel & catering industry. Following the completion of a Hotel & Restaurant Management degree in Switzerland, I travelled to Great Britain. After having graduated among the top five students in my class, I applied to the most highly-acclaimed hotels throughout the UK.

Having been called for job interviews by more than a dozen of the best hotels in the country, I approached the British Tourist Authority. Being a poor student, the BTA give me a grant for a free national rail pass and in return I wrote about my experiences. After careful planning, I set off to meet hoteliers from Gleneagles in Scotland down to Gravetye Manor in Sussex.

Finally, in 1995 I joined a one-year Management Training programme at the Bath Spa Hotel. This was the starting point of an exhilarating journey into management that took me through all the departments of a hotel operation. Here are a few of the properties I have been fortunate enough to work with: myhotels, Brighton, (pre-opening operations manager); Bishopstrow House (deputy GM); Cliveden House (assistant F&B manager); Spread Eagle Hotel Midhurst ( F&B manager); The Royal Crescent (F&B manager); Montcalm Hotel London (front office manager).

Ultimately and mainly due to the credit crunch of 2008, I decided to return to Sweden with my girlfriend and two-year-old daughter. My experience in the international hotel arena landed me a job with Hilton in Malmoe as food & beverage manager. However, with a growing family (I now have three daughters) and all that entails, I decided to specialise in a field that has increasingly captivated me – viticulture and wines.

In order to achieve my objective, I returned to the classroom. After one year of hard work, I graduated with distinction and received the WSET Level 3. I assumed the role of head sommelier at Flädie Mat & Vingård, a country house hotel and vineyard in the South of Sweden. Here, I followed the creation of some of Sweden’s top wines, which are primarily made from the grape variety Solaris.

It has been a long and upward struggle for Swedish wine producers. It was only in 1999 that an EU directive made wine-making legal in Sweden. However, due to a Swedish law as old as the Bordeaux wine classification of 1855, there is a monopoly that only permits state-operated off-licences. But in May 2018 the Swedish parliament voted to allow producers of alcoholic beverages to sell their own produce to the public in Sweden.

At present there are more than 550 registered producers of alcoholic beverages in Sweden, which employ in excess of 5,000 people. To give these small-scale producers the right to sell their craft-made produce on site will certainly benefit a whole community, not to mention tourism. Current trends shows that the public increasingly wants locally-grown produce.

After five years working with only Swedish wines, I decided to get back in the driving seat and three years ago I started working for a small collection of restaurants called Pieplow’s Restaurants.  My main place of work is at their flagship property in Malmoe – Årstiderna (meaning the seasons). It is formal dining at its best with a modern and innovate twist. My work as head sommelier has given me the work-life balance that we all strive to achieve.