BKWine Blog

French wine TV channel to become Luxembourgeois?

>> Tuesday, April 06, 2010

It’s called Edonys – the TV channel that will be entirely dedicated to wine. It’s a project launched by Media-Place Partner. the TV channel will air interviews, reportage, debates, etc but exclusively on a wine theme (much like BKWine TV, one can perhaps say, but with a slightly bigger budget and different ambitions… And curiously they are in the very same part of Paris, just a few hundred meters away from BKWine). But there’s a catch. A TV channel must have financing and the income is mainly from advertising. But in France it is not allowed to do wine ads or commercials on television. Ouch. Some 20 senators have proposed that it should be OK for pay-TV channels with wine advertisements but at the moment it is very uncertain what will happen. However, Edonys has a Plan B: choose Luxemburg as a base where no such rules exist.

Crushpad expands in Europe

In the last Brief we cited an unconfirmed rumour that Crushpad was closing its European operations. Not only was the rumour unconfirmed, it proved to be entirely wrong. Michael Brill, CEO of Crushpad Inc, and Stephen Bolger, in charge of Crushpad Europe, both confirm with force that Crushpad as ha continued commitment to Europe. Not only that but Crushpad is also expanding in Bordeaux, currently looking for additional vineyard land to be able to expand further. We apologise for any confusion caused and wish Crushpad and its customers continued success in Europe (too). More info www.crushpadwine.fr

BKWine TV with subtitles coming

We now have some one hundred wine videos on BKWine TV. Depending on who we talk to the videos can be in Swedish, English or French. Our videos are now in the process of getting subtitles – in any language you would like! It is Google with their voice recognition software who are automatically generating the subtitles. And with the Google Translate feature you can then get them in whichever language you want. You can see an example in our video interview with Manuel Lobo, winemaker at Quinta do Crasto in the Douro Valley. At the bottom edge of the video you can see a red symbol “CC”. Click on it and choose “transcribe audio” and you get the automatic subtitles. You can then choose “translate captions” to select a different language for the subtitles. In a noisy environment (as in this video) the result is sometimes amusing (not 100% accurate) but in better conditions the quality can be amazing. As yet only a few of our videos are processed but we expect more to come soon. So, coming soon, our French videos with English subtitles for example. Fantastic!

New blog design, with new features

>> Monday, April 05, 2010

If you've been here before you will notice that the blog has a new design.

Hope you will like it.

I've also included a few new features:

A share button at the end of each post. One-click function makes it easy to share on Facebook, Twitter, Myspace and many other sites. Or even email.
Tweet Me Button: each post has a Tweet Me button (from Tweetmeme) that makes it even easier to tweet the post and that shows how many times the post has been tweeted.
You might also like: At the bottom of each post there are five suggestions to other posts that you might find interesting.
Super-Menu: (perhaps there's a better name?) At the very top of the page there's a one-line menu with links to more contents from BKWine
Subscribe: In the right hand column there are now widgets that allow you to subscribe on RSS or on email to blog updates.

There are several other changes that should make it more useful and more easy to read.

So, do you like it?

This blog has moved

>> Sunday, April 04, 2010

This blog is now located at http://bkwineblog.blogspot.com/.
You will be automatically redirected in 30 seconds, or you may click here.

For feed subscribers, please update your feed subscriptions to
http://bkwineblog.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default.

BKWine TV: [E] Ntsiki Biyela winemaker at Stellekaya in Stellenbosch

An interview with the winemaker at the Stellenbosch winery Stellekaya, Ntsiki Biyela. She is one of the very few black women wine makers in South Africa, perhaps even the first. The winery is close to the town Stellenbosch which is also the name of the wine region. The vineyards are quite a bit a way from winery. The name Stellekaya means home of the stars. Most of the wines are named after astrological star constellations (Capricorn, Taurus, Scorpio, Orion etc).

Stellekaya only make red wines: blends and varietals. They have cabernet sauvignon (called Scorpio), a merlot and a shiraz. They make several blends: sangiovese, merlot and cs (called Hercules), Bordeaux style (cs, merlot, cab franc), Cape blend with merlot, cs and pinotage. Wines often highly rated by John Platter in the Platter guide. The wines are generally very elegant with a lot of fruit. Ntsiki Biyela, the wine maker wants to have the fruit prominent with a lot of freshness.

Ntsiki has been winemaker since 2004. Over the years her wine making has changed, improved, learning from experience. There are always changes depending on the vintage but the style with fruit and elegance remains the same.

Making wine was not originally something that Ntsiki Biyela had thought of doing. Her first taste of wine was a strange experience: it was horrible, why would anyone want to drink this, she thought. She had the opportunity to study viticulture and vinification so she came to study at the Stellenbosch University on a scholarship. She has since been named Woman Winemaker of the Year (in 2009). Ntsiki comes from KwaZulu-Natal where they grow sugar cane, bananas but no grapes, and where drinking wine is not part of the traditional culture. Not yet.

More on Stellekaya: http://www.stellekaya.com

Music: Marco Esu, Primo risveglio, http://www.podsafeaudio.com

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

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

A schistous association

>> Thursday, April 01, 2010

There are quite a few wine regions with schist soil and many produce excellent wines. Some examples: many parts of the Languedoc, some areas in Anjou, the Douro Valley, Priorat in Spain etc. At Vinisud recently an association for the promotion of schist soil wines was launched: “L’Association Les Terroirs de Schistes (du monde)”. At the launch some delicious tapas were served on, you guessed, slabs of slate instead of plates. In view of the quality of the wines from such soils this will be an interesting initiative to follow. More (but not much) info on www.faugeres.com or from www.aoc-agence.com

Pauillac is most expensive?

If you are contemplating buying a vineyard you may have an interest in not choosing Pauillac. Pauillac may have the most expensive vineyard land around. Jane Anson tells more on The New Bordeaux

New wine department at Galleries Lafayette with focus on Bordeaux

>> Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Galleries Lafayette, the big department store in Paris, has just opened a new wine department. It is entirely dedicated to wines from Bordeaux and looks as if it will have a very big selection of bottles (judging from the photos). If the focus will be exclusively on the big & famous or if they also will feature some of the many less exalted names that make very affordable and excellent Bordeaux remains to be seen. We have not been there yet. Have you?

BKWine on MTV3 in Finland

We were glad to discover that BKWine was recently featured in an article in the Finnish MTV3 on wine and food travel to France. Our Finnish partner, VirpiSorvisto is interviewed in the article and if you look really hard you can find Britt on one of the photos. The article www.mtv3.fi or translated to English.

Spanish wine sales fall – crisis support for 50 M€ proposed

Export of Spanish wines fell with 13.5% in 2009, measured in value. In volume it fell with “only” 9.7%. In other words, not only are people drinking less and less of it, but they are also paying lower prices. Worst hit are the sparkling wines, which fell with 30%. This morose situation has led to several organisations suggesting to the agricultural minister that a program of crisis distillation should be started, in other words, that the wines that don’t find a buyer should instead be distilled and the producer thus paid by the government. (Wouldn’t it be nice to have that system also in other industries than agriculture – if you can’t sell your products the government steps in and pays for it.) The agricultural organisation Asja has not been positive to the idea though, since it is estimated to cost some € 50 million. Read more www.ansamed.info

Åsa’s Wine of the Month: Biancone, Renzo Marinai

>> Tuesday, March 30, 2010

My friend was so overwhelmed when she tasted Ronzo Marinai’s chardonnay that she decided to rename her cat Renzo, in homage to the winemaker. After having tasted the wine I think I might do the same thing, that is if I had a nameless cat. Biancone is made exclusively from chardonnay grown in the heart of the Chianti Classio zone, not far from the small town Panzano in Chianti. It has an alcohol level of 13% but it tastes dangerously light. It is actually very elegant, with aromas of vanilla and the typical, slightly buttery and nutty flavour that you get in some chardonnays. My recommendation is to make a hearty fish soup to go with the wine. Serve it at ten to twelve degrees, not colder. PS: If Renzo (the winemaker, not the cat) was flattered by having a cat named after him is yet to discover. www.renzomarinai.it Around 15 euro.

BKWine Pick: Marie Edith, Paris 15

Not far from métro Cambronne in the 15th in Paris you find this popular Parisian restaurant on a side street. They have a very affordable 29 euro menu (three courses, or two for 26€) that will give you a very traditional French meal. If you have that kind of preferences you can get andouillette (grilled sausage from intestines), rognons de veau (veal kidney), or veal liver. They also serve various grilled fish (e.g. a delicious filet de bar grillé) and meat (e.g. an excellent and juicy grilled bavette). To start with you can try the terrines, or the original ravioles de Royan (quite different from Italian ravioli) in a cream and garlic sauce, or a salad with crayfish (with a small supplement, as several other dishes have too). To finish you can have my favourite, oeuf à la neige façon Marie Edith, poached whipped egg-white in vanilla and caramel sauce, divine. The wine list is short and traditional. A modestly priced wine is e.g. JL Colombo’s Côtes du Rhône (red or white – 26€). All is very old-fashioned French, almost as if you were in the country side. It is often fully-booked, so call ahead.
Click here for address and more recommendations.

BKWine TV: Domaine Sainte Croix on BKWine TV

>> Thursday, March 11, 2010

It’s been a bit quiet on the video front recently here at BKWine. Too much stuff to do… But now we’ve just published a new video on BKWine TV: An interview with Jon Bowen who makes wine together with his wife at Domaine Sainte Croix in the Languedoc (Hautes Corbieres). We met Jon & Elizabeth for the first time at Vinisud recently (apparently, Jon reads the Brief and he had sent us an email suggesting that we come and taste their wines Which we did. Marketing works!). So we did a short video with Jon (with our new technology). Perhaps we should also mention that they make excellent wine. Watch the video interview with Jon Bowen at Domaine Sainte Croix on BKWine TV.

BKWine Pick: Domaine des Terres Georges, Minervois

Domaine des Terres Georges, Minervois

Three years ago we discovered this winery when we were researching our book on the Languedoc wines. We asked one of the producers we met if he had any personal recommendations and that’s how we got their name! And when we recently re-tasted their wines we can only conclude that their search for perfection continues and makes progress. The wines are exceptionally well made and very delicious. Roland and Anne-Marie Coustal have 12 ha in the southern part of Minervois. Their first vintage was 2001, after taking over Anne-Marie’s family’s vineyards. They still do all the work themselves, except for the harvest. A new cuvée is the Et Cetera. ”It’s our entry level wine and it’s very successful”, says Anne-Marie, ”many wine shops buys this one first and then they discover our other wines”. It is made from 60% carignan and 35% grenache and is very drinkable, unoaked with good fruit and structure and a bit of the typical Languedoc herbs and spices (5.50 euro). Very good is the Racines 2007 from 100% carignan, lots of character fruit, elegance – a genuine Languedoc. Exceptional value for money at 9.75 euro. Quintessens 2007 is a 100% syrah, dense structure, long and good complexity on the palate. The varietal character does not dominate; the wine is still very much from the Languedoc.
Click here for address and more recommendations.

BKWine Pick: Domaine de Pialentou, Gaillac

Domaine de Pialentou, Gaillac

Domaine de Pialentou is a family owned property in the appellation Gaillac in the French South-West, near Toulouse. It is beautifully situated in the small village of Brens by the river Tarn. The Gervais family started to convert it to organic farming in 2007 and this year (2010) they will get their certificate. Now they have grass growing between the vines, making for less compact soil and natural fertiliser. They have planted hedges to attract “good” insects. They have 12.5 ha and make several different cuvees. They use several local and not very well known grape varieties, as is often the case in this region. And they even have a Swedish connection: the mother of Agnès Gervais, who runs it today, is Swedish. A favourite of ours is the white Mauzac Blanc Sec, made from the local grape of the same name. Very good, appely with individuality. Unfortunately only made in small quantities. Some of their reds can be a bit rustic, worth looking for is e.g. the Nuance de Cocagne, a syrah wine with spice, mixed with the local braucol and duras grapes. Or Les Gentilles Pierres where braucol gives a lot of fruit and merlot gives roundness, and cabernet sauvignon gives structure, with some spice added with the syrah. Gaillac is a little known district that is certainly worth discovering.
Click here for address and more recommendations.

Chile earthquake report #2: Colchagua badly hit

>> Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Many areas in Chile were very badly hit by the quake. New reports say e.g. that one of Chile’s biggest cities, Concepcion, was moved three meters to the east by the earthquake. Colchagua is one of the wine regions that were badly hit by the quake. Here is a report we’ve had from Andrea Ilabaca at MontGras Properties (www.montgras.cl):

“As you have seen, the earthquake that we lived through last Saturday, February 27th is one of the strongest in the world’s history. It’s said to be about 500 times stronger than the one that Haiti suffered in January.

Now, as we wait for Mother Earth to re-accommodate herself, we are living with the replicas; dozens of quakes a day, some even up to 6.5º on the Richter scale.

Colchagua was hit hard… and is on the ground. Till today there is still no electricity or running water.

Hundreds of Santa Cruz’s houses and buildings destroyed, on the ground.
The Santa Cruz Cathedral lost one of its towers and suffered major damages.
The losses and damages that our wineries suffered are great.

New bottles lost; Barrels down like bowling pins; Stainless steel tanks down; Santiago offices in a mess; Loss of wine; Thousands of bottles with and without wine lost; Fallen tanks near bottling line; Tanks laid down to rest.
…. BUT OUR DRIVE IS EVEN GREATER.

Fallen tanks immediately removed; Everything was taken out of the winery; Damaged bins, removed; Workers preparing orders; Everything was replaced and re stacked; All equipments cleaned and checked; Wine shop restacked and cleaned; Bin room restacked; Damaged bins and pallets removed; Service patios cleaned; Barrel chai restacked; Service patio cleaned, additional generators rented.

Each bin checked; Team work in re-establishing safety and order; Tanks checked to be able to receive 2010 vintage; Immediate removal of damaged tanks; Label supply room in order; Excellent morale of our workers.

The work carried out last week, since the day of the earthquake has been tremendous. The commitment and high spirit of our workers, despite the losses they may have suffered, is truly admirable.

Our Santiago office, Visitors Centre and our wineries are fine and operative. We shipped 3 containers last Wednesday. We are harvesting normally since last Thursday and tomorrow, we start our normal bottling process.

Fruit reception since last Thursday; Harvest, fruit selection and vinification underway!

Initially, we were pessimistic about the amount of the losses. Only for your information, we now estimate them to be around US$ 3 million, although we hope to have an exact figure this week and gratefully, we do have insurance coverage.

We are standing strong! But our country and region have been very affected. For us to recover quickly, please remember:

The best way to help CHILE is by preferring our products.

The best way to help MontGras Properties, is by paying all invoices soon to expire and with anticipated payments of placed orders.

The best way to help the workers and neighbours of the Colchagua Valley, is to send your donation via wire transfer to the Corpbanca account, or cheque to our corporate office. With this money, we can start building homes in the piece of land we have donated to our workers.

Don’t forget us, we do need your help!

The entire MontGras Properties Team”

The text refers to donations to Corpbanca. We don’t have any details of that activity, other than that it has been put in place to help raise money for workers and neighbours in the Colchagua Valley. If you would like to make donations we suggest you contact MontGras to get the details: www.montgras.cl. Andrea ends with a note that they are among the fortunate: “Luckily, we faired quite well under the circumstances, as other neighbouring wineries lost everything and suffered greater damages. But our greatest asset by far, is our people. They truly make the difference!” (Photos provided by MontGras Properties)

Chile earthquake report #1: things are slowly getting back to “normal”

This is information on the situation in Chilean vineyards from Helen Albano of Brandabout SA, www.brandabout.cl, a marketing and promotion organization for Chilean wines:

“Last week was a very eventful week in which information surrounding the real situation in the effected regions and the vineyards was both difficult to get hold of and understand the implications for the next few months. Towards the end of the week however and today, the picture has become much clearer and I would like to share this information with you.

Please remember that the worst affected areas are the coastal areas immediate around Conception which were badly damaged by the earthquake and tsunami. These are the principal areas which are shown on television, showing complete devastation and they are not the areas in which the vineyards are located.

We have now been in touch with approx. 90% of our client vineyards in Chile. Almost all of them have experienced some losses to their infrastructure in their bodega, a minimal loss of wine and in a few cases also suffered structural damage to their commercial offices in Santiago.[...]

In Santiago, business has now resumed and is operating normally. The road networks are good and there are no visible effects of the earthquake except in very isolated areas – mainly the older parts of Santiago. All communications channels are now working and we have good internet, mobile and fixed line telephone connections. All the shops have resumed business and restaurants have re-opened.

The main highways to the North (Ruta 5) and to the coast (Ruta 68, Ruta 78) are completely open and not affected by the earthquake. To the south of Santiago, the main highway (Ruta 5) is open but suffered some damages. Journeys south now take longer than expected with some diversions in places. With the high amount of government and military aid traffic on this road, it is expected that the main communication channels will be repaired very quickly.

Vineyard areas:
-- Elqui, Limari – ok, not affected
-- Aconcagua – very limited damage in some vineyards
-- Casablanca – ok (no reports so far)
-- San Antonio – ok, (no reports so far)
-- Maipo – very limited damage in some vineyards
-- Cachapoal – affected in some areas
-- Colchagua – affected
-- Curico – affected
-- Maule – affected
-- Bio Bio – no report so far

All of the vineyards are now accessible and we are looking forward to business resuming with them in April. [...]”

Welcome to the BKWine Brief nr 80, march 2010

New issue of the BKWine Brief out. Here's the intro:

It has been an eventful few weeks lately. Most dramatic, and tragic, is the earth quake in Chile. It has cased much damage in the wine districts even if it may be less catastrophic in most wine regions than what was initially feared. In this Brief we have two reports from Chile, written by people in Chile. One gives an overview with at least a few positive notes, the other is more personal and talks about more damage. Read them below. In May BKWine expects to go to Chile and we will come back with more info then.

We have been in the south of France recently, in Montpellier, at France’s second biggest wine fair, Vinisud. As always, a very interesting show where we met old acquaintances and made some new friends. You will find a short summary below and we you will be reading more about those wines and winemakers in coming Briefs.

We will soon be leaving for South Africa. Tomorrow, actually. South Africa has seen a tremendous success over the last few years. It has for some time been the biggest supplier of wine to Sweden and has just recently overtaken France on the UK market. In Sweden the success is no doubt partially due to that the South Africans happily sell their wines in bag-in-box. 60% of all wine in Sweden is sold in BiB (mainly) and other non-bottle containers. Secondly, in Sweden there is one big buyer (the monopoly) and in the UK the big supermarket chains are taking a bigger and bigger portion of the wine sales. For a big (or very big) buyer it is often easier to buy from big suppliers, such as you find in South Africa, but have a hard time finding in France or Spain. That’s some structural reasons for the success. But more important is probably the fact that there is much good and excellent wine produced in South Africa. And we are very excited to go there to discover it on site!

So, let’s go pack the bags!

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 full Brief here (or get a subscription!): BKWine Brief.

Prizes to wine bloggers

>> Tuesday, March 09, 2010

The wine show Salon des Vins de la Loire gives since a few years (or is this the first time?) prizes to the best wine blogs. It is French speaking wine blogs (albeit not purely French blogs as the prize list will show) but it can be interesting to look at as inspiration even if you are not very francophone. Here are the winners:

- The internet surfers' prize and prize for best design: Aurélia Filion, http://busurleweb.com./. We’ve previously written about Bu sur le Web in the Brief (it’s her with the entertaining videos and wonderful “accent”). It is also worth noting that the best design is very, very minimalist. Well chosen!

- Best writer: Hervé Lalu, http://hlalau.skynetblogs.be/

- Best interactivity: Emmanuel Delmas, http://www.sommelier-vins.com/

- Special Loire prize: Jacques Berthomeau, http://www.berthomeau.com/

- Best blog: Anne-Laurence Chadronnier, http://rougeblancbulles.blogspot.com/

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