THIS BLOG HAS MOVED


This blog has moved to a new location.


You can now read it on BKWine Magazine.


Please change your bookmarks and RSS feeds accordingly.


And do subscribe to our free wine newsletter, the BKWine Brief!


All info on our wine and food tours are now on BKWineTours.com.


BKWine Pick: Domaine Gerovassiliou, Thessaloniki, Greece

>> Monday, August 30, 2010

Domaine Gerovassiliou, Thessaloniki, Greece

You can go to the Greek peninsula of Halkidiki just to enjoy the fabulous nature but you can also to there to taste the fabulous wines of Evangelos Gerovassiliou on his estate, just 20 minutes away from the busy city of Thessaloniki. And after the city, this feels like paradise. You will enjoy the view of the glittering blue sea and if you’re lucky you will see all the way to Mount Olympus, famous hang-out for the ancient gods. Evangelos Gerovassiliou was one of the persons responsibly for the rebirth of the Greek wine some 25 years ago, when he was working as a winemaker at the Bordeaux inspired domaine Porto Carras. Now he has his own vineyard and he makes wines from Greek grapes as well as from French and other more international varieties. I am especially fond of his “Greek” wines, full of character and made with grapes like the white assyrtiko or the red limnio. A favourite is the white Malagousia, a powerful and very tasty wine with aromas of lemon, honey, lavender and other fresh herbs and flowers.
Click here for address and more recommendations.

Enhanced by Zemanta

Read more...

BKWine Pick: Château de la Dauphine, Fronsac, Bordeaux

Château de la Dauphine, Fronsac, Bordeaux

Château de la Dauphine is a beautiful chateau on the right bank of Bordeaux. Jean Halley owns the chateau since 2001 and he has, after having spent millions on renovations, given a new life to this estate. He now produces classic and well structured Bordeaux wines based on 80 % merlot and 20 % cabernet franc. The aim is to make fresh and elegant wines with not too much new oak. The result is very good and the prices are very human as well (13-20 euro for Château de la Dauphine).

Click here for address and more recommendations.

Enhanced by Zemanta

Read more...

Welcome to the BKWine Brief nr 85, August 2010

>> Sunday, August 29, 2010

This is nice:

”World’s Top Wine Tours”! That’s what the worlds biggest travel magazine says about BKWine. We’re very proud!

Travel and Leisure Magazine has recently published a web feature on the world’s best wine travel operators. It’s written by T+L’s highly respected wine and food editor Bruce Schoenfeld (“an acclaimed magazine and television journalist” says Harper Collins). BKWine is one of a handful of tour operators that Schoenfeld puts on his list. In the T+L feature he gives BKWine top score for being the best choice if you want to meet with winemakers and have a really personal wine tour experience. We are, as you might imagine, quite proud. The world’s best wine tours! And we hope that we will have the occasion to see you, dear reader, sometime soon on one of our wine and food tours.

Along with quality (e.g. of wine tours) there are other subject matters in this Brief that may be worth some thinking and reasoning. For example, fairness and justice.

Take fairness.

There’s a big row (well, relatively speaking) on how the 400 bottles of super-luxury wines from the Domaine de la Romanée Conti should be sold in Sweden. (Going for a market price of up to €4000 per bottle.) “What do you mean, how they should be sold?” you may justifiably asked. Well, there’s a monopoly. Previous years, on the day the DRC wines were released, what you had to do was to prepare yourself for long waiting in line in front of the shop entrance the night before the release. The last time it was more a question of luck than of patience: if you happened to be at the store where they opened the doors two minutes before the official opening time so you could rush to the order desk before anyone else. None of this was of course quite fair to those who did not get a bottle.

This time they hope to solve the “fairness” problem with a clever new shop IT system for ordering. How that will work we do not know. You won’t be surprised, we think, if we say that the problem can never be solved, as long as there is a monopoly. How can 400 very sought after bottles be sold “fairly” to 9 million consumers? Read the details in this month’s Brief. Do you have any ideas how to solve the difficult issue with the DRC bottles? (If there actually is one.) Write us a line or post a comment in the blog!

Another philosophical problem is justice and research in genetically modified plants.

A group of activists has destroyed an experimental plantation in Alsace, ripping up 70 GM vines. Is that a reasonable way to do things? Last time it happened (yes, it’s not the first time) authorities hardly reacted. This time the response seems much stronger both from the government and from others.

The activist mean (we assume) that it can be dangerous with GM research. On the other hand, it might lead to that growers need to use fewer chemicals in the vineyard, or that it reduces the problems with incurable vine diseases. Perhaps a difficult balance? And one can wonder if the activists also refuse to dress in cotton, or perhaps also attack the clothes stores in town. 43% of all cotton comes from genetically modified plants (according to gmo-compass.org). What’s your view? Write us a line or write a comment in the blog!

But back to the beginning, the wine tours. We will soon be launching the wine tour program for 2011 so keep your eyes open. For us right now, it is this years most intensive travel season that is just beginning. Over the next two months we will be at home on Mondays and Tuesdays and travelling the rest of the week.

Enjoy the Brief!

Britt & Per

PS: Recommend to your friends to read the Brief or forward it to them !

More on wine:
Guest writers on BKWine.com
Wine videos: BKWine TV
Wine photography



Read the whole BKWine Brief here and subscribe for free to the newsletter!


Read more...

BKWine TV: [E] Domaine Duseigneur part 1, farming the vineyards w Frederic Duseigneur

>> Thursday, August 26, 2010



http://www.bkwine.com/wine_tours/wine_tours.htm --- Interview (part 1) with Domaine Duseigneur (Rhone), Frederic Duseigneur. Domaine Duseigneur is a small family wine producer in the southern Rhone Valley just across the river from Chateauneuf-du-Pape, run by the brothers Frederic and Bernard (they also work with the famous French sommelier Philippe Faure-Brac).

Frederic sees himself more as a farmer than a winemaker. The most important thing is what happens in the vineyard, that you have life in the vineyard, healthy vines. There is a big difference between traditional farming and organic farming. Biodynamic farming is one more step, as done at Domaine Duseigneur since many years.

In biodynamics they use two preparations: 500 which is specially prepared cow manure, diluted in water and sprayed in the vineyards in the autumn; 501, a finely ground powder of quartz. It is also sprayed, but in the spring. This helps the flowering of the vines.

At Domaine Duseigneur they also use some further preparations, homeopathic infusions made from plants and herbs, eg nettles, horsetail, thyme, rosemary or other. These help the plants to fight diseases themselves. This is done instead of spraying with chemicals (sulphur or other). In biodynamic farming one is allowed to use both copper and sulphur, but in smaller quantities. These preparations are also believed to help the vines to better survive difficult weather (hot, cold, wet etc, that happens in the Rhone Valley).

It is difficult to prove the effect of biodynamic farming, Frederic Duseigneur says, but one can see the effect on the vines. And the final proof is also in tasting the vines.

More info: http://www.domaineduseigneur.com/

By BKWine, http://www.bkwine.com. Interviewer: Per Karlsson, BKWine. © Copyright BKWine, Per Karlsson.

Music: Johan Stertman & Patrik Lundin, with permission

See all our wine videos on our BKWine TV: http://www.youtube.com/bkwine

Enhanced by Zemanta

Read more...

Yoga for wine lovers

>> Wednesday, August 25, 2010

If you feel the need to exercise or get away from your sedentary life-style, perhaps you should try yoga. The cartoonist pair behind Harold’s Planet has developed a particular kind of yoga for wine lovers. Watch the video here: www.youtube.com

Read more...

BKWine makes "World’s Top Wine Tours" according to Travel and Leisure Magazine

>> Monday, August 23, 2010

Press release

BKWine makes ”World’s Top Wine Tours” according to Travel and Leisure Magazine
Paris, August 23, 2010

BKWine has just been singled out as one of the world’s best wine tour organisers by TravelAndLeisure.com (T+L). In their latest web feature T+L lists the “World’s Top Wine Tours” and BKWine is one of a handful of travel operators selected by Travel and Leisure. T+L singles out BKWine as the tour operator who is best for the traveller who wants to meet the winemakers and who wants to have a personal and unique experience. The full feature can be read here: http://www.travelandleisure.com/articles/worlds-top-wine-tours/3. TravelAndLeisure.com is the internet version of the American travel magazine Travel and Leisure Magazine with around 4.5 million readers.

Britt Karlsson, founder of BKWine, comments: “We were very excited, happy and honoured when we heard that we had been selected by Travel and Leisure. What T+L says also underlines the things that we work hard to achieve: that our travellers should get a very personal and unique experience. I personally visit some 200 different wineries and winemakers every year so I know where the visits will be exceptional. And in a way, it makes me especially proud that an American travel magazine has selected us, a Swedish tour organiser, as one of the world leaders on wine tours!”

BKWine is a Paris (France) based Swedish niche tour organiser specialised in wine and food tours. BKWine organises around 30 wine and gastronomy tours each year to destinations in France, Italy, Spain, South Africa, Portugal and other wine regions. The wine tours are designed both for the enjoyment of individual wine lovers and wine enthusiasts, as well as for professional training and corporate events. All tours are led by BKWine’s wine experts and take the traveller “behind the scene” of the vineyards.

More information on the wine tours: http://www.bkwine.com/wine_tours/wine_tours.htm

---

More information:

- About BKWine: http://www.bkwine.com/international/about_bkwine.htm

- Press photos: http://www.bkwine.com/diverse/press.htm (Additional press photos from our 20.000 picture library are available on request)

Press contacts:

- Britt Karlsson, ph 00 33 6 80 45 35 70,

- Per Karlsson, ph 00 33 6 83 51 12 53,

Press photos are available. Please contact us.

About BKWine AB:

51, rue du Chevalier de la Barre, F-92130 Issy-les-Moulineaux (Paris), France, + 33 6 80 45 35 70, http://www.bkwine.com

BKWine AB is run by Britt and Per Karlsson and has four main activities:

- Wine & food tours

- Wine journalism

- Wine photography, wine stock image library: http://www.bkwinephotography.com

- Wine consulting

BKWine was founded in the 90s by Britt Karlsson, a Swede living in Paris. In the early ‘00s she was joined by her husband Per Karlsson in the business that now encompasses several different wine related activates. The main business is organising wine tours for wine enthusiasts and wine professionals who want to visit wine regions to learn more about wine. Each year BKWine organises some 30 wine tours. BKWine also publishes an online newsletter on wine, The BKWine Brief, which reaches some 20,000 subscribers. Britt and Per are members of the British Circle of Wine Writers (CWW), the International Wine Writers Federation (FIJEV), the French Wine Press Association (APV), the International Wine and Food Society (IWFS) and several other wine and gastronomic organisations.

Read more...

Red wine helps reduce cardiovascular diseases and obesity

>> Friday, August 20, 2010

Two new studies have shown that reveratrol, that can be found naturally in many red wines, have positive effects to fight cardiovascular diseases, which was well known previously, and also obesity. According to the World Health Organisation obesity affects 1.6 billion people. The two reports were published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Now, if one does not want to drink red wine one can get resveratrol nutritional additive as pills too. Read more: www.biotivia.com

Enhanced by Zemanta

Read more...

Discover the Rhone Valley

>> Thursday, August 19, 2010

Every two years there is the Découvertes en Vallée du Rhône. It’s a gigantic movable wine show. Each (major) village organises a tasting/show with the local producers. It starts in the north in Ampuis (Côte Rôte) on March 1 and ends in Pont du Gard (Côtes du Rhône) on March 6.

An excellent opportunity to get to know the Rhône producers better. But you have to make sure you have your own transportation so that you can get from one event to the next.

A suggestion: focus on the lesser (or less well-known) appellations. In the big & famous you are unlikely to make any new discovery but in the other once that are many exciting producers that are not so well known. Only for professionals. More details in September on www.decouvertes-vins-rhone.com

Enhanced by Zemanta

Read more...

Organic wine fair in Burgundy on March 19-20

For the second year running there will be an organic wine fair dedicated to wines from Burgundy. The first edition in 2010 brought together 35 ecological producers. The next edition hopes to attract even more. The wine show takes place in Beaune on March 19 and 20, 2011 in Beaune. Interesting, not least since Burgundy is a region where it is not always easy to find good organic wine growers. www.lessence-des-sens.com

Enhanced by Zemanta

Read more...

Bag-in-box – a local phenomena?

>> Wednesday, August 18, 2010

If you were in Sweden you might think that the world’s wine packaging is dominated by bag-in-box. Well over half of all wine sold in Sweden is sold in BiB (“it’s so very convenient”). Internationally the picture is different. Leader in bag-in-box market share is indeed Sweden, followed by the two countries that pioneered this packaging form: south Africa and Australia. Here is the top ten for BiB, according to Euromonitor International:

1. Sweden: 18% market share, counted in number of units (NB: units, not volume of wine!)
2. South Africa: 9%
3. Australia: 7.5%
4. USA: 7%
5. Denmark: 4%
6. Greece: 3.5%
7. France: 2.5%
8. Russia: 2%
9. Canada: 1.5%
10. The Netherlands: 1.5%

(Source: Euromonitor International, Global Wine: Challenges and Opportunities Facing the Wine Industry)

Enhanced by Zemanta

Read more...

The glass bottle still reigns supreme, but alternatives grow faster

The glass bottle is used in 88% of all cases for packaging (“bottling”) wine, counted in the number of units. “Other packaging” only accounts for 12%. In the ‘other’ segment ‘liquid cartons’ dominates with well over half of the 12% that is not in glass.

Bag-in-box actually has less than 2% of the total market (again, in number of units), about the same share as PET-bottles (plastic).

Glass is, however, slowly loosing share: alternative packaging has a growth rate of 4.8% compared to only 1.7% for glass (CAGR estimate ’09-’14).

Looking at packaged volume (instead of units) the picture is a bit different: alternative packaging accounts for 17% and glass for 83%, and BiB is the biggest alternative packaging with almost half of the 17%.

(Source: Euromonitor International, Global Wine: Challenges and Opportunities Facing the Wine Industry)

Does the packaging influence your buying decisions?

Enhanced by Zemanta

Read more...

Asia Pacific the most important growth market for wine

>> Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Euromonitor expects Asia Pacific to be the most important driver of new wine sales. It is expected to have a value growth (CAGR) of almost 5% and in volume 6%. It is also expected to be the second biggest market in total volume sales. Clearly the most attractive growth market.

North America is expected to have a similar value growth rate but with smaller volume growth (3%) and a much smaller total market size. North America is actually expected to be the second smallest market, beaten only by Australasia for smallest size.

Western Europe is clearly the biggest market in size, but is sagnat both in value and volume. But still biggest… Total volume growth world wide is expected to be 2% (CAGR).

(Source: Euromonitor International, Global Wine: Challenges and Opportunities Facing the Wine Industry)

Read more...

The world’s biggest wine producers = 15% of the total

There is a handful of very large wine producers in the world, who together represent a quite big proportion of world wine production.

It is not always obvious who they are since they sell their wines under a variation of different brands and rarely under their own name. that is perhaps not very surprising since wine brands often try to keep up an appearance of “family estate” or “local” links, even if that is far from reality (cf. for example the note on the biggest brands in the UK recently).

But even so, wine production is far less concentrated than many other industries (say, car production) – fortunately. The worlds’ ten biggest wine producers make in total some 422 million 9 litre cases, which equals to about 15% of the world market. Here are the names (in size order):

1. Constellation Brands, with ca 90 M 9l cases
2. E & J Gallo Winery
3. The Wine Group Inc
4. Foster’s Group Ltd
5. Grands Chais de France
6. Pernod Ricard
7. Peñaflor
8. Viña Concha y Toro
9. Castel Groupe
10. Bacardi & Co

So, do you know which wines hide behind these names? Perhaps something you had last night?

(Source: Euromonitor International, Global Wine: Challenges and Opportunities Facing the Wine Industry)

Enhanced by Zemanta

Read more...

Internet wine sales is marginal but growing rapidly

>> Monday, August 16, 2010

By far the most common place to buy wine is in the supermarket/hypermarket. They account for around 50% of all sales (940 M 9l cases). On the other hand, growth in that segment is almost zero (surprisingly).

The second source to buy wine is in specialised wine shops, but those sell less half of the volume of supermarkets (400 M 9l cases) and this is also a stagnant market.

Internet sales are tiny but it is the only winner: the internet only accounts for less than 50 M 9lC but the growth is a phenomenal 20%. (Source: Euromonitor International, Global Wine: Challenges and Opportunities Facing the Wine Industry)

Enhanced by Zemanta

Read more...

The international wine market: $256 bn, but badly hit by recession

The world market for wine is worth some US$ 256 billion (2009). In volume it means 3 billion cases (@ 9 litre) – an easy number to remember – or alternatively 27 billion litres (270 million hl). The consumption per person, world wide, is 3.9l, each litre costing on average $9.5. (A surprisingly high number!)

The compound average growth rate (CAGR) over six years is 1.2% growth in volume and 3.3% growth in value. However, from a peak in 2007 (2.3% and 5% respectively) growth has fallen dramatically. Volume growth was virtually 0% in 2009 and in value only around 1.9%. (Source: an interesting report from Euromonitor International called Global Wine: Challenges and Opportunities Facing the Wine Industry)

Read more...

Best-selling wines (in UK shops)

>> Sunday, August 15, 2010

The list of top-selling wines is not, as could be expected, a particularly inspiring reading. Off License News, the English drinks magazine, makes a survey of the drinks business in the UK every year together with Nielsen. One of the statistics it presents is which wines sell best in British off-licenses (shops). Here are the top selling wines:

1. Blossom Hill (from Percy Fox, 1 first place last year, origin: various…)
2. Hardys (Constellation, 3, various)
3. Gallo Family Vineyards (Gallo, 2, various)
4. First Cape (Brand Phoenix, 9, South Africa)
5. Echo Falls (Constellation, 7, USA)
6. Jacob’s Creek (Pernod Ricard, 4, Australia)
7. Lindemans (Foster’s EMEA, 5, various)
8. Kumala (Constellation, 10, South Africa)
9. Stowells (Constellation, 8, various)
10. Wolf Blass (Foster’s EMEA, 6, Australia)

One can ponder whether it is a good thing or a bad thing that no European wine is on the top-ten list. The first European wines comes 13th: JP Chenet from France.

Enhanced by Zemanta

Read more...

BKWine TV: Denis Dubourdieu, one of the world’s best known wine consultants

New video on BKWine TV:

Denis Dubourdieu is one of the world’s best known wine consultants. He is perhaps to modest to cal himself ‘flying winemaker’ and does not really boast his various assignments. BKWine met with him at one of his own properties in Bordeaux (he has five), at Chateau Reynon in Entre deux Mers.

We talk about what a wine consultant does – in the real world – and about the winemaking at his own chateaux. Watch the video interview with Denis Dubourdieu in Bordeeaux here. Don’t forget that you can subscribe to the video channel if you want to get a notification when we post new videos.

Read more...

Natural cork hits back

>> Saturday, August 14, 2010

The English drinks magazine Off License News conducts a survey of consumer preferences for closures since a few years back. the question they ask is “What kind of closure do you prefer?” Last year screw cap became the number 1 preferred closure for the first time.

48% of respondents preferred it (up from 27% in 2006). Natural cork was preferred by only 39% (down from 49% in 2006), and plastic cork 11% (down from 24%).

This year (2010) it seems that the improved quality control by the producers of natural cork and their efforts in information and marketing have started to give results. Natural cork has recovered and is now jointly with screw cap the preferred closure, both preferred by 46%.

The big looser in plastic cork that is down to 8%.

Enhanced by Zemanta

Read more...

3% in France subject to sexual confusion

Sexual confusion is a viticultural practice that aims to protect the vineyards from insects without the need to spray insecticides. One of the pests that vineyards may suffer is the grape worm (eudemis and cocylis in French).

They are small worms that make tiny holes in the grape skin. Juice seeps out through the holes and cause the grape bunches to rot, potentially causing great damage to the harvest. You can fight the insects with poison but a less dangerous method is to use “sexual confusion”. For the grape worms to appear the male insects and the female insects have to meet and do what the need to do to make baby grape worms.

Since they don’t have Facebook what happens is that the females produce a pheromone that attracts the male. Some clever people at BASF (a chemicals company) invented a way to destroy the insect fun. They make small capsules filled with the female pheromone that the worried vigneron can place in the vineyard. The pheromone from the capsules overpower the females’ own perfume which leads to that the male insects can’t find the females, thus preventing the production of new grape worms (presumably the males cluster around the plastic capsules instead). This has become a popular way to fight the problem.

Today 3% (18,000 ha) of France’s vineyards are protected in this way – varying from an impressive 41% of all vineyards in Champagne to virtually no vineyards in the Cognac region.

Too cruel?

(Source: BASF)

Enhanced by Zemanta

Read more...

Chateau Rollan de By up for sale

>> Friday, August 13, 2010

Chateau Rollan de By is a chateau in the northern Médoc that has in recent years acquired a certain fame, no doubt not to an insignificant degree thanks to the marketing skills of the owner, Jean Guyon. According to La Revue des Vins de France Guyon has put up Rolland de By for sale, and also his other property in Médoc: Chateau Haut-Condissas. The RVF says that Guyon is not leaving the wine business but is instead looking to invest in a new property in Saint Emilion or Pomerol. Could the record prices for land in northern Médoc (see the Brief #81).

Read more...

A wine with a certain body? That will keep in the Wine Rack?

If you didn’t fall for the sexy underwear made from cork (see elsewhere in the Brief) you should perhaps consider a bra that makes second duty as wine storage. The bra is called The Wine Rack (not too difficult to come up with that). It gives some added curves to the wearer and a handy way (?) to carry the drinks to the picnic or the sports game. Perhaps the added volume is less important when one has finished the contents? You can buy it for the modest sum of $29.95 from BaronBob.com. It certainly gives a new meaning to ‘tank top’. (Oh, and BaronBob can also provide a ‘beer belly’ for the gentlemen that uses a similar technology) You can watch the British TV show stars Richard & Judy test the Wine Rack on this video! or read this www.nydailynews.com

Read more...

BKWine TV: Denis Dubourdieu part 2 online

>> Wednesday, August 04, 2010

Just a quick note to let you know that part 2 of the interview with Denis Dubourdieu, winemaker and consultant in Bordeaux, is now live on BKWine TV.

Read more...

BKWine TV: interview with César Compadre on the future of Bordeaux

New video on BKWine TV: César Compadre is France’s only journalist at a daily paper dedicated 100% to wine and spirits. He writes for the Sud-Ouest paper, based in Bordeaux. BKWine TV met César this spring, and who better to talk to about the future of Bordeaux? We talked with César Compadre about how he sees the future of Bordeaux, about the wine crisis, what producers need to do. And on the 2009 vintage of course. Watch the video with Cesar Compadre on the future of Bordeaux here. (in French) Part 2 of the interview will be online in a few days. Don’t forget that you can subscribe to the video channel if you want to get a notification when we post new videos.

Enhanced by Zemanta

Read more...

Why is Bordeaux 2009 so expensive?

One can with good reason wonder why it is that Bordeaux 2009 is so expensive. It is the most expensive vintage ever, in spite of an international wine crisis, with prices reaching dizzying heights: Yquem €540; Lafite, Mouton, Margaux €550; Haut-Brion, Latour €600; Cheval Blanc €700; Ausone €800; Le Pin €1050. Per bottle. Long before the wine is finished and bottled. “The Wine Economist” has made a good summary of different theories of why this is happening, Extreme Wines: Most Expensive Vintage?, that you can read here wineeconomist.com. One can at least conclude two things: 1) The prices have reached these levels because there are some customers wiling to pay those prices; 2) If one buys a wine for its taste and for the pleasure of drinking it (rather than the pleasure of looking at the label) then one will buy other wines than these Bordeaux wines.

What’s your take?

Enhanced by Zemanta

Read more...

Many new photos on BKWine Photography

>> Tuesday, August 03, 2010

We recently updated our online stock photography archive, BKWinePhotography.com with a selection of new photos. We have added a bit over 6000 new pictures. Some of the themes covered by the photographs: Alentejo and the Douro Valley in Portugal (the Douro is certainly one of the world’s most spectacular wine regions), Bordeaux and Burgundy. If you are interested in wine photos you should take a look at our photo blog: Wine Pictures from BKWine. We publish one new photo every day, with a short story. You can also subscribe to the blog and get the photo in you mailbox. Look here: http://wine-pictures.blogspot.com/. We were also very glad to discover that we are featured under ‘Food Photographers’ on Photoshelter’s page dedicated to professional photo buyers and photo editors: http://www.photoshelter.com/buyer

Enhanced by Zemanta

Read more...

So, how many grape varieties ARE there in Châteauneuf-du-Pape?

In the last Brief we noted that it is really not a big issue if you don’t remember all the 13 permitted grape varieties in Châteauneuf. Or is it 15? Well, it all depends on how you count, we said. A reader with a penchant for details (thank you Tomas!) has pointed out that in the latest version of the appellation rules (from 2009) they actually specify 18 different red and white varieties. Here’s their list:

  1. bourboulenc B,
  2. brun argenté N (localement dénommé vaccarèse),
  3. cinsaut N,
  4. clairette B,
  5. clairette rose Rs,
  6. counoise N,
  7. grenache blanc B,
  8. grenache gris G,
  9. grenache N,
  10. mourvèdre N,
  11. muscardin N,
  12. picardan B,
  13. piquepoul blanc B,
  14. piquepoul gris G,
  15. piquepoul noir N,
  16. roussanne B,
  17. syrah N,
  18. terret noir N

All details are available here www.legifrance.gouv.fr
Enhanced by Zemanta

Read more...

The world’s oldest champagne found on Åland

>> Monday, August 02, 2010

What is believed to be the world’s oldest champagne was recently found on Åland, the semi-independent group of island between Finland and Sweden in the Baltic Sea. Divers found a cache of bottles in an old ship wreak. The 30 bottles are thought to come from Veuve Clicquot and date back to between 1782 and 1788. Who will have title to the find is still uncertain. The divers cracked open a bottle to taste the bubbly and commented, according to Reuters/BBC that “it tasted fantastic” with flavours of oak and a strong character of tobacco. Does not sound like the most delicious champagne perhaps, but what can you expect after more than 200 years. Read more and watch a short video: www.bbc.co.uk and on http://yle.fi

Enhanced by Zemanta

Read more...

Time to forbid wine writing in Norway? - According to some!

>> Sunday, August 01, 2010

Kjersti Toppe is a politician representing the Norwegian Senterpartiet (The Centre Party). In a recent article in Dagsavisen (Google translation) she argues that wine articles in the press should be forbidden.

She says that the ban against alcohol advertising in Norway is being eroded. The Norwegian wine writer Heidi Jaksland is of a different opinion. She recently wrote a counter argument in her blog I Glasset (“In the Glass”): “Yes to wine reviews in newspapers” (Google translation). We have not yet seen any other reactions from the Norwegian press.

What do you think?

Enhanced by Zemanta

Read more...

BKWine in Wikipedia


Some fan (we assume) has been kind enough to write an entry on BKWine, or to be entirely correct, on Britt Karlsson in Wikipedia, the online dictionary. We are very flattered! We must admit that it is in the Swedish version of Wikipedia but we still certainly feel very honoured. Who knows, perhaps we’ll one day even be in the English language one? Here’s the article: http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Britt_Karlsson
Enhanced by Zemanta

Read more...
The blog has moved. Here is the new location: BKWine Magazine Blog.

  © Blogger template Webnolia by Ourblogtemplates.com 2009

Back to TOP