Welcome to the BKWine Brief nr 72, July 2009

It is curious how different markets work differently. Sweden and Denmark are basically rather similar countries, especially when seen from a distance (for instance from Paris as in our case, although we’re of Swedish origin).

Sweden is the 23rd biggest (biggest?) market for Bordeaux wine. One could almost say that we seem to buy not much Bordeaux at all in Sweden. (The UK, USA and Switzerland are the biggest markets – see more below.) Demark, that is a much smaller country (in terms of population) is the 11th (10th in volume).

The situation is different for South African wine. Sweden is the third biggest importer of South African wine, and Denmark is seventh.

Why is that?

Difficult to know, but it has no doubt a lot to do with the structure of the market. Sweden is a monopoly market and that means e.g. that they like suppliers who can supply big volumes. South Africa can. There are about as many wine producers in the whole of South Africa as there is in Saint Emilion, one of the smallest sub-districts in Bordeaux. Big buyer wants a big seller and it’s hard to find in Bordeaux (and in the rest of France).

Then there is the question of range: The Swedish monopoly carries some 2000 different wines. In Denmark you can find, according to estimates, 20,000 wines. The monopolist is “obliged” to carry at least a few wines from every wine region (for impartiality reasons) which means that there is less scope to have a good selection of Bordeaux wines.

In Sweden more than half of all wine that is consumed is sold in bag-in-box! Yes, more than half. Have you seen any Bordeaux in bib? You can find them but you will have to look hard (and this goes for the rest of France too). The South Africans, though, don’t seem to have any qualms “bottling” in plastic bags (the interior of a bib is a plastic bag).

There are many other factors to this, e.g. that Sweden is extremely trend-drive when it comes to wine. One year it is Primitivo in every second bottle (well, BiB actually), the next it is Australian shiraz etc. And Bordeaux is not really very trendy. The situation is quite different in Denmark where the retail sector (for wine) is much more fragmented.

And there is of course the fact that Danes drink more wine than Swedes. But I guess that doesn’t really account for the difference between South Africa and Bordeaux.

Since South Africa is now so immensely popular in Sweden we are launching our first wine tour to South Africa. The first one (in March 2010) will be in Swedish, but if you’re interested in going wine touring in South Africa do let us know. As you know we do do custom tours and perhaps we’ll put an English language SA tour on the program if there’s demand.

And don’t miss this month all the new wine videos we’ve put up on BKWine TV. We have, for example, and interview with the chief winemaker at Château d’Yquem, Sandrine Garbay, an interview with a Finnish winemaker in Tuscany, and much more. More info further down.

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 all of the new BKWine Brief here!