BKWine Blog

Le Concours Mondial de Bruxelles 2006

>> Thursday, July 20, 2006

You might expect the Concour Mondial de Bruxelles to take place in Belgium, and it usually does, but this year it was off-shored to Lisbon. 220 international wine experts (including BKWine) tasted 5447 wines and spirits from 43 countries. 1613 were awarded medals. There were 49 Grande Médailles d’Or (Great Gold Medals), 583 Médailles d’Or (Gold Medals), 974 Médailles d’Argent (Silver Medals) and 7 Médailles de Bronze. On addition to all medals there were four awards for “Best Wine”: the red went to Bernard Magrez’s micro cuvée Tivoli 2003 from a small 2.5 ha vineyard in northern Médoc. Spain got the Best Wine for whites with Conces de Albarei Carballo Galego 2004 from Rias Baixas, and Luxemburg (!) for sparkling wines: the Cuvée du Domaind Kohll-Reuland Crémant de Luxembourg. Canada had the sweet Best Wine award for Magnotta Riesling Icewine Limited Edition 2003 from Niagara Peninsula. Here are some of my own favourites:

Château Ollieux Romanis - Cuvée Prestige ph: +33 4 68 43 35 20, Corbières Rouge
Château Valrose - Cuvée Alienor, Saint Estèphe Edonia (ph: +33 5 57 55 60 60)
Château Preuillac, Médoc Yvon Mau SA (ph: +33 5 56 61 54 54)
Ventisquero Reserva Carmenère Viña Ventisquero, Chile (ph: +56 72 20 12 40)
Viu Manent - Carmenère - Reserve Viu Manent y Cia. Ltda, Chile (ph: +56 2 37 90 020)
Esporão - Private Selection Finagra S.A.- Herdade do Esporão, Alentejo, Portugal (ph: +351 213 03 15 40)

For more medal winners: www.concoursmondial.be

California lowers the requirements for vintage wines

It will now be allowed to add 15% of a different vintage to the one indicated on the label in California, so no more than 85% has to come from the given year, according to a new rule on the proposal of the Wine Institute. A pity, especially since the Napa story of the producer who wanted to put Napa on the lable even though the wine did not come from that district has finally been decided by the courts. A step in the wrong direction it seems. But the old rule of 95%/5% is still valid for “regional appellations” though, like Napa Valley or Sonoma Valley.

Bordeaux primeur prices sky-rocket

As expected (or feared) the prices of the highly acclaimed 2005 vintage in Bordeaux are up, and not by little. According to the Danish, but Bordeaux based wine merchant Iakob Schjerbeck, the prices are up with between 10% and … 85%, and that is before probably the “sorties” of the heavy hitters. This has even generated quite a lot of criticism from the down-stream trade. Decanter quotes for example John Avery (Averys Wine Merchants): ”We are a little disillusioned with some in Bordeaux, who seem to be profiteering” (a British understatement?) and described some producers as “just plain greedy”. Well, as we said in the last Brief: Don’t complain of the prices. Buy something else if you think it is too expensive. There are plenty of good value good wine on the market today. Decanter.com

Australians learn from the French – even their bad habits

The Australian Wine Grape Growers Association (WGGA) wants that the government should support producers in difficulty due to over-production and falling prices. They have requested that a guarantee fund be created with $35 million to reduce production. They estimate that 40% of the producers will go bankrupt if the oversupply is not corrected (and support measures put in place) within two years. Sounds scaringly similar to the EU Agricultural Policy and militant French wine producers… Read more on Vitisphere.com

France’s most planted grape varieties

Since 1979 a lot has changed in the vineyards so it is time to review old truths about what is taught in wine classes. The statistics is from Drinks International and based on SCEES RGA79 and CVI (area in ‘000 of hectares): The grape statistics are here.

France’s most planted grape varieties

>> Thursday, July 06, 2006

Since 1979 a lot has changed in the vineyards so it is time to review old truths about what is taught in wine classes. The statistics is from Drinks International and based on SCEES RGA79 and CVI (area in ‘000 of hectares):

Grape Variety ha 1979 ha 2004 % change

Red Grapes 687 627 -9%

1 Merlot 38 115 200%
2 Grenache 78 99 27%
3 Carignan 207 74 -64%
4 Syrah 12 68 451%
5 Cabernet Sauvignon 23 61 164%

6 Cabernet Franc 23 39 72%
7 Gamay 34 35 4%
8 Cinsault 52 25 -52%
9 Pinot 17 28 61%
10 Aramon 63 4.2 -93%

White Grapes 311 255 -18%

1 Ugni 128 84 -34%
2 Chardonnay 13 42 221%
3 Sauvignon 7 23 231%
4 Semillon 23 13 -46%
5 Melon 10 13 36%

6 Chenin 10 10 2%
7 Grenache Blanc 16 5 -69%
8 Macabeu 7 4 -50%
9 Terret 9 2 -80%
10 Baco 7 1 -90%

The world’s most powerful brands

Drinks International, an English trade publication, has made a ranking of the world’s most powerful wine and spirits brands. Different factors have been combined to arrive at the ranking: brand perception, market share, price position etc. Here’s the ranking:

1. Smirnoff
2. Bacardi
3. Johnnie Walker
4. Martini
5. Stolichnaya
6. Hennessy
7. Jack Daniel’s
8. Absolut
9. Ballantine’s
10. Baileys

This month’s must-have wine gadget: Private Preserve

This heading is usually reserved for items that we talk about with a certain irony. But this time it’s serious. Private Preserve is definitely worth trying! Private Preserve is a pressurised bottle of neutral gas that makes it possible to keep an opened bottle for a long time without the wine going bad. Perfect if you drink just half a bottle, or if you have a big wine tasting and want to save what remains in the bottle until later. It actually works fine just putting the bottle in the fridge for a week or two (many people think it will turn to vinegar in a few days but that’s not the case), but Private Preserve is much better. Just spray a few puffs of gas in the half empty bottle and the wine keeps excellently. We have trialled PP for a month and it seems to work very well. A month ago we opened a lot of bottles and served just a little from each bottle. Then we used Private Preserve on all bottles and put them (standing) in the cellar. And still, more than a month later, the wines keep well. Every bottle we bring up is well preserved. We almost start wondering for how long it will keep… So, well worth trying if you worry that your half empty bottles will go bad. Just $9 per canister. Unfortunately it is difficult to get hold of in Europe but you can get it directly from the producer www.privatepreserve.com or www.winepreserve.com (and do tell us if you know of a European distributor…)

Wine for women

Do you remember a few months ago when we talked about the wine specially designed for men? Now it is the turn of women. The English supermarket chain have spent years of research and development to discover that many women find today’s average wine with 12.5-14.5% alcohol too heavy. Therefore they will launch a lower alcohol wine called Early Harvest Semillon / Sauvignon Blanc with only 9.5% alcohol (and 19% fewer calories!). Wouldn’t it have been easier to just buy some German wines instead? Read more in The Times

INAO proposes two tier appellations

INAO, the semi-governmental body that control French wine production rules, has proposed that the system of Appellation Contrôlée should be split into two tiers: one that follows traditional, strict rules on production, terroir etc, and one that allows for more flexibility and for more new technology (should we read “oak chips” between the lines?). As always in French procedures this is so far just a proposal and will have to be debated with various organisations. Read more on Vitisphere.com

Norwegian wine

A while back we wrote about an April’s Fool joke by the London wine merchant Berry Brothers and Rudd where they (jokingly) talked about Norwegian wine. At the moment we noted that there actually are vines in Norway but that we did not know exactly where. A reader has supplied us with more details: There is a vineyard in Norway planted with 2000 vines. The winemaker is called Sveier Hansen and the vineyard is called Hallingstad Vineyards, located near the Oslo Fjord. The wine, called L’Esprit d’Edward Munch, is made from Pinot Noir. We hope that there is not too much Munch esprit in the taste though… Read more on WineOnTheWeb

Monks start a vineyard in California

Historically the Church has been very involved in winemaking and many vineyards have historic links to Christianity. But today very few wineries have any direct connection with religion. But now 25 monks of the order of St Benedictine have started a winery near the town of Chico. It is supposedly the first Roman Catholic winery in North America. “We don't want or expect to get rich” said Father Harold Meyer. Probably quite reasonable expectations. Read more on post-gazette.com

Wine course at Sotheby’s

Interesting for Londoners: The auction house Sotheby’s, one of the world leaders in wine auctions, also arranges wine tasting courses. The coming autumn there will be two courses: one varietal course (starting 18 September) and one focused on wine districts (6 November). Each course has six sessions with highly competent lecturers. More info: www.sothebys.com/wine (for some strange reason the course info is not on their site so you will have to contact the course responsible in their staff list).

New articles by our Guest Writers

>> Tuesday, July 04, 2006

We have several new articles by our guest writers this month. Here are the new texts:

Many thanks to the contributors!

Taittinger back in French hands

The champagne house Taittinger was sold last year to the American company Starwood. Now, Taittinger has returned to French hands. But that was probably more or less part of the scheme originally. Starwood is primarily a hotel operator and the Taittinger Group owned some very prestigious hotel properties. The champagne house just happened to be part of the total package. It is Crédit Agricole du Nord-Est, a co-operative agricultural bank in the Champagne district, that has bought the champagne business for some 660 million euro. But it could have landed in Indian hands: United Breweries Group, a leading Indian brewery group, was in the bidding for the champagne house. Several other parties were in the running for having a new “house champagne”. Read more in Vitisphere and ChannelNewsAsia.com

Israeli wine? Swedish retailer tries (and fails) to be politically correct

The Swedish state-owned monopoly retailer of alcohol, Systembolaget, was criticised for selling Golan Heights wine under the country label “Israel”. They consulted with the Foreign Ministry which resulted in Systembolaget changing the country of origin in their catalogue to “Israeli occupied Syrian territory”. A representative for the opposition party Christian Democrats, Annelie Enochson, said the decision was unfair, treating Israel different from other countries, and represented a politicising of the state owned monopolist. Not too surprising though: The monopoly have a habit of running political campaigns since several years, although it usually has to do with alcohol politics (the recent campaign to influence EU policies on alcohol for example, infamously called “Dear Mr Barroso”). Read more in Jerusalem Post and in Decanter

Last minute update: in a very careful and politically correct press release the monopoly Systembolaget announces that they will henceforth use as country of origin for these wines … nothing!

Replay of ”The Paris Tasting” of 1976: Californians win again

30 years after the original Paris Tasting when Steven Spurrier (an eminent British wine critic) organised the original version of the event to compare French and Californian top wines he repeated the experience. In the 1976 tasting Californian wines came top both for red wine and white wine which created quite a stir. One comment often voiced about the original tasting was that Californian wines are easier to appreciate when young but that they don’t age well. So in the re-run wines of similar vintages as in the original tasting was included – now 30 years older. Top of the reds emerged Napa wine 1973 Stags Leap Cabernet Sauvignon and the top rated white wine was 1973 Chateau Montelena Napa Valley Chardonnay. Read more in San Francisco Chronicle and Slate.com and plenty of details on JancisRobinson.com

Château Guiraud in Sauternes sold

Château Guiraud is a Sauternes property of 128 hectares. It has been acquired by a group of investors including the Peugeot family (FPP), Domaine de Chevalier and Neipperg Invest. FFP (Société Foncière, Financière et de Participations) is managed by Robert Peugeot and is the biggest shareholder in the car manufacturer. Domaine de Chevalier is one of the best properties in Graves (Pessac-Léognan) owned by the Bernard family (Olivier Bernard). Neipperg Invest is led by Stephan Neipperg and also controls Château Canon La Gaffelière, La Mondotte, Clos de l’Oratoire, Peyrau, d’Aiguilhe and Clos Marsalette. The price tag? – 20 million euro (actually almost a steal). Petrolium in Riesling wines or burnt rubber in Syrah wines – so why not in Sauternes? But according to what is reported Peugeot will remain a passive financial partner. Vitisphere.com and Decanter

Global warming threatens Spanish wine production? Wines reach new heights?...

Will climate change and hotter weather make wine production disappear in Spain? That is what some people fear, estimating that temperatures will rise by 7 degrees centigrades to the end of the century. Some wine producers have started to look for land in hig-altitude areas in the mountains. Torres is one of them. Read more on Bloomberg

BKWine Pick: Barrique Wine Bar, Gothenburg, Sweden

>> Friday, June 23, 2006

Barrique Wine Bar is actually the name of the restaurant Hamngatan in the evenings... The two owners and wine enthusiasts, Rolf Olofsson and Thomas Norman, had the idea a few years ago to create a wine bar concept, something they now want to develop into a chain of wine bars (something unheard of in Sweden!). A new Barrique is supposedly on its way. In the evenings at Barrique it is wine that has centre stage. They continuously run special 5-week campaigns with selected wines and an accompanying menu. I tried a delicious tapas menu when they had a Spanish theme. Right now they run Tuscany. The whole restaurant is beautifully done and it all makes for a very attractive place. www.barrique.nu

Click here for address and more recommendations.

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