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



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