A small moth called Western Grapeleaf Skeletonizer is the latest threat to Napa vineyards. One such moth was recently found in a trap in Napa Valley. The evil beast eats the leaves and the grapes and also causes fungal problems. They will now try and find out if it was an isolated moth that had lost its bearings or if that are many by putting many traps in the vineyard area where it was found. napavalleyregister.com
Read more... 
Herdade da Malhadinha Nova, Beja – Alentejo, Portugal
2003 was the first vintage for the Soares family and it has been a running start. The two brothers, João and Paulo has in a few years developed the winery into one of the most dynamic and exciting in Alentejo. With organic farming and green harvest in June or July (removing sometimes 40% of the grapes) they produce excellent grapes. In 2003 they opened the super-modern winery, built in a slope so that minimal pumping of the must is needed. They have 8 lagares – open troughs to crush the wines by (real) feet. But they don’t stop at the wine. The Soares family wants to give the visitor more than that: they have a restaurant at the property (serving food made from crop and animals from their own farm. Wonderful black pig dry cured ham!) and are opening a hotel this year: Herdade da Malhadinha Nova Country & Spa.
Click here for address and more recommendations.
Read about more recommended producers on the site: Favourite Producers
Read more recommendations on where to shop for wine on my Wine Shop Page
Read more recommendations on restaurants and winebars on my Restaurant and Wine Bar page.
Château de Lascaux, Vaquières, Coteaux du Languedoc-Pic Saint Loup
Click here for address and more recommendations.
It is soon time.
Well, yes, it’s soon time for the harvest too. And in many places it has already started. An exceptionally early harvest that will probably yield not very large volumes and uncertain quality. Some regions have had great challenges with the weather and others have been much more fortunate. It will most likely be great variations in quality. But that was not the point.
It is soon time.
Time for what?
http://languedocboken.wordpress.com/english/
But…. It is in Swedish…
So why do I tell you all this then? Well, first of all it is exciting to publish our first (!) book and I tell everyone about it. And secondly, perhaps you have a cousin or an uncle who is a book publisher and who just happens to be looking for a book manuscript on the Languedoc region… We’d love to have it published in other countries so do tell “your cousin” about it and we’d be delighted to discuss the project…
Promo video?
We have put our toe down in the oh-so-trendy world of video on the internet. A very first attempt of a wine tour video is now posted on the wine tour page: http://www.bkwine.com/wine_tours/wine_tours.htm. (Don’t be too hard on us – it’s our premiere on video.) If you’re interested in wine videos you can also see a few video interviews with winemakers in the Languedoc on the Languedoc Book site. The interviews are either in English or in French you wont be subject to the Swedish torture on the vids. See them here:
http://languedocboken.wordpress.com/video/
(And in the first video on the page you’ll see something that you’ve probably never seen in a vineyard before!)
Truffle, wine, foie gras – is that OK with you?
I almost forgot to remind you of the first wine tour of 2008: my Truffles, Foie Gras, Wine and Duck tour on February 13-17. It will be a very special (and luxurious) trip and I’m already starting to receive registrations. So don’t delay for too long to get in touch if you are interested in that trip.
Jubilee time!
Britt
PS 1: Recommend to your friends to read the Brief or forward it to them !
PS 2: Do you like pictures and photography? Take a look at our wine picture blog:
http://wine-pictures.blogspot.com/
(Licensing is available from Alamy and from Danita Delimont)
enologo.com/tempranillo/
and the results can be found here:
http://www.enologo.com/tempranillo/awards2007.pdf
| Come on a wine tour | Where are you? |So it is forbidden to use the classification Cru Bourgeois. What to do? Why not create a “label” that could be called “Label Cru Bourgeois”? Then it wont be a classification but simply a label. Well, that is at least what the producers’ union (the owners of the Cru Bourgeois) are proposing, according to Frederique de Lamothe. She says further, according to Decanter, “we still need some mark of quality to reassure consumers”… Is this perhaps what the English call “smoke and mirrors”? What about letting the consumers decided for themselves what is quality and what is not? Too daring perhaps. decanter.com
Read more...
(PS: We can perhaps add that also Domaine Viret in the Rhône valley experiments with making wine in terracotta amphora (picture).)
The very warm weather, already early in the year, has led to that an exceptionally early harvest is expected – the earliest harvest for 30 years. Early ripening grapes (Chardonnay, Pinot Grigio) will be harvested already at the beginning of August, and late harvesting varieties (Cabernet, Nebbiolo) will be harvested in September and not in the customary October. wantedinrome.com
Read more...Dutch wine growers are worried that the proposed ban on adding sugar to the must will make it impossible to make wine in Holland. Virtually all wine made in Holland is chaptalised, since the vines themselves don’t produce enough sugar in the grapes this far north, according to Dik Beker from the Dutch Winegrowers Guild. But perhaps one can wonder why one should make wine at all in a place where the vines cannot ripen enough naturally… Oh, you didn’t know there was wine made in the Netherlands to start with. There are 135 growers who produce 800,000 litres of wine annually. We have tasted it… RadioNetherlands.nl
Read more... 
- abolition of market management measures (e.g. “crisis” distillation)
- ban on sugar for enrichment (chaptalisation)
- grub up 200,000 hectares
- end planting restriction (by 2013)
- allow more (generally accepted) oenological practices, e.g. oak chips
- better labelling rules
- national financial envelopes (with national control)
- more marketing budget
More details on the reform here.
In early July the EU launched its proposal for reform of the wine sector. Today large amounts of money are spent on various measures, that may not always improve the competitiveness of the wine industry, for example financing distillation of wine that no one wants to buy. The proposal has of course generated a lot of reaction from the main wine producing countries in the EU, but perhaps less violent reactions than could have been expected. Mariann Fischer Boel is on a tour of Europe to promote her proposal. We will come back to the proposed measures when we’ve had a closer look. beveragedaily.com
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Otherwise, the latest packaging innovation is wine in plastic bags. Not the ones you carry home the bottles in of course. Many people are familiar with wine packaged in plastic bags: all bag-in-box wines are in reality package in plastic bags, only the bag is hidden inside the box. Latest packaging news is to dispense with the box (environmentally friendly!) and sell the wine in a nicely decorated bag with a tap. Why not?
Read more...Sainsbury’s, the big British retail supermarket chain, will start selling wine in plastic bottles. One of the arguments is that it will reduce carbon dioxide emissions. And it is easier to handle for the retail chain too: lower weight and fewer broken bottles. If all wine in England was packaged in plastic instead of in glass it would equate to 28,000 fewer cars on the roads in terms of carbon emissions. guardian.co.uk
Read more...Domaine Vincent Paris, Cornas
Mas de Perry, Languedoc
This is a summer when I feel very English: always talking about the weather. Will it change or not? For most people a summer like this year’s is disappointing but for wine growers it can have much more drastic consequences (as, of course, it has had for many non-wine growing people in England too). It is still far from certain if wine growers will face any such dramatic consequences this year. July has been very cool and rainy in many places in France, but if August and September turns out a little bit better there should be no grave consequences. So, let’s hope for the best.
It has become illegal to put Cru Bourgeois on the label in Bordeaux (read more below). The new Cru Bourgeois classification of 2003 was annulled and many people thought that they would simply revert to the old classification from 1932 (still much more recent than the still valid general Médoc classification of 1855). But no. Let’s hope that the chateaux have not pre-printed too many labels. And what will happen with the classification in Saint Emilion? They had a new classification in 2006 that also has been annulled by the courts (after complaints from some of the chateaux that were not included, just like with the Cru Bourgeois). And since the “old” classification in St E only was valid from 1996 to 2006 there is no more any classification on Saint Emilion. Or?... And what about Pessac-Léognan/Graves? They have been working on a new classification since a few years back. Will they dare go ahead with that in the current climate, knowing what it can lead to? We asked some time ago one of the wine growers in Graves how they would do a classification. He said that the only real "measure" to base a classification on is how much the consumers are prepared to pay for the wines. But for the consumer it is very easy to see how much a wine costs so why do we then need the classification(s)? Perhaps time to scrap them altogether?
Being summertime, this month’s Brief is a little bit shorter. But considering this summer, perhaps it is time to start thinking about next vacation.
I certainly recommend that you take a look at next year’s first wine tour, which actually is a wine, truffle and foie gras tour. The final and official program has just been released. It may sound luxurious, and that’s exactly what it is. On top of the gastronomic highlights we will stay at a very nice little chateau-hotel (I’m keeping up the British theme here – this is an understatement). If this trip won’t brighten up a dreary February for you nothing will. And I’m happy to say that it is also at a very affordable price. More info below.
In the last Brief I wrote some comments about wine scoring with some references to Wine Spectator that had scored the same wine very differently at two different occasion. Wine Spec’s Executive Editor Thomas Matthews wanted to clarify a what had actually happened and wrote us the following note:
“Just a point of clarification: The wine referred to in the San Francisco Chronicle article (not WSJ, as cited in the blog) on wine rating, which received different scores from Wine Spectator in two tastings, was not exactly the "same wine." It was a Chateau St. Jean Cabernet Sauvignon tasted on two occasions nearly 10 years apart. It's no wonder it received different scores -- as wine lovers know, wines change with age, and only the very best improve over such a long period of time. From our point of view, the two different scores show the integrity of our evaluation system, reflecting real differences not necessarily obvious, given the wine had the same label. I don't argue that wine ratings in themselves should be the only information wine drinkers use to choose the wines they decide to buy and enjoy. But using an expert's experience as part of a personal evaluation seems reasonable. We do it for many goods in many fields. Why not wine?
Thomas Matthews
Executive editor
Wine Spectator”
The recently held competition for English wines saw record number of contestants and better wines than ever, according to the organisers. 142 wines were awarded medals. “Wine of the Year” was awarded to Camel Valley Vineyard for its sparkling Cornwall Pinot Noir Rosé 2004. Camel Valley won three of the eight gold medals, the others going to Chapel Down Wines, Ickworth Vineyard, and Ridgeview Wine Estate. All prize winners: www.englishwineproducers.com
Read more...Bordeaux.com, the ”official” site for Bordeaux wines, have had a thorough redesign. You will find information on appellations, the classification system, the history of Bordeaux wines, varietals, winemaking methods, vintages, how to discover the region etc. Bordeaux.com
►► Best insider tip to discover Bordeaux: Travel with BKWine.
Then you have a vast range of prices to choose from. Some examples of prices per hectare:
- Champagne: 627,000€ (the only region where prices are up this year)
- Alsace: 133,000€ (curiously second most expensive)
- Bordeaux: 56,000€ (which actually is under the national average. But variations are enormous, from Champagne levels down to almost nothing)
- Fronton: 10,000€ (Oh, you don’t know where it is? Exactly. It’s a small region near Toulouse in southern France that makes very nice wines from an unusual grape variety called Negrette. But which is not very good at marketing.)
PRESS RELEASE –
New tour from BKWine: Truffles, Wine, Foie Gras and Duck, February 13-17, 2008
Truffles, wine, foie gras and duck is the theme for BKWine’s first tour in 2008. The company has just released the details for the program of this unusual wine and food tour. The tour is open to a small number of gastronomy enthusiasts and will take place on February 13-17, 2008.
The tour includes accommodation at a luxury chateau in the Bordeaux region, a morning with truffle, followed by a sumptuous truffle lunch, a gourmet workshop on how to prepare foie gras and other duck specialities as well as visits to a number of wine producers in Saint Emilion and Bergerac. Four dinners and three lunches, all including wine, are also in the package. The price for this out-of-the-ordinary four day tour is 1240 euro.
Britt Karlsson, founder of BKWine and organiser of the tour, comments on the program: “I have designed the program for this tour with the aim of giving the traveller some of the most exclusive and unique gastronomic experiences there are: truffles, foie gras and wine. And I am happy to be able to offer this at a very affordable price”.
Britt comments further on the program: “Spending a morning on a truffle hunt with a truffle dog is almost magical, and then sitting down to an all-truffle lunch is a very special experience. The other gastronomic
As always on the tours organised by BKWine, there will be several wine visits: both to the classic Saint Emilion district in
The tour is also guided and led by Britt Karlsson, who has more than ten years’ experience of organising and managing wine and food tours. Britt explains her philosophy behind her tours: “I want people to learn more about wine and food and at the same time enjoy themselves. I put a lot of effort into designing the program, choosing the most interesting producers and making them varied and interesting. Since I am also a wine writer and journalist I am fortunate to have an extensive network of contacts that allows me to put together truly exceptional programs.”
BKWine focuses solely on wine and gastronomic travel. Over the years the company has organised more than one hundred wine tours to
For more information on the wine tours:
http://www.bkwine.com/wine_tours/wine_tours.htm
Press photos on this wine and food tour, as well as on BKWine are available here:
http://www.bkwine.com/diverse/press.htm#press-photos
Contacts:
Britt Karlsson, info RemoveThisSpamBlock @bkwine.com, ph 00 33 6 80 45 35 70
Kay Steggles, kay.steggles RemoveThisSpamBlock @bkwine.com, 00 33 6 79 18 96 91
More information
- About the Wine
- 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 pictures library can be requested for publication)
About BKWine AB:
51, rue du Chevalier de la Barre, F-92130 Issy-les-Moulineaux (Paris), France, 00 33 6 80 45 35 70, info RemoveThisSpamBlock @bkwine.com, http://www.bkwine.com
The Swedish government has confirmed its willingness to sell the government owned wine and spirits importer and producer V&S Vin & Sprit. Many suitors are expected, not least because Vin & Sprit owns one of the world’s leading vodka brands, Absolut. Speculations include Diageo, Pernod Ricard, Fortune Brands, and even the Finnish state owned Altia Corporation. The price tag is estimated to around $5-6 billion. Well, it’s high time that the Swedish government gets out of the business of producing and selling spirits to the international market - often in blatant conflict with Swedish public health policies.
Read more...
Only 300 participants in the demonstration on Monday in Béziers (Languedoc) protesting against the upcoming EU reform of the wine support program. Most producer organisations had preferred to await the official presentation which is expected this week. The demonstrators demanded more protectionist custom barriers and guaranteed minimum prices for the producers. It would perhaps be more productive to focus the energy on making quality wine and on selling it to consumers? MidiLibre.com
Read more...Archaeologists have found what is believed to be France’s oldest vineyard dating back to 10 AD. They have identified fragments of the fermentation tanks and water channels that are said to have been used for temperature control. The winery includes a roman villa and a 200m2 swimming pool in the garden. Decanter.com
Read more...The light-brown apple moth can devastate fruit plantations – both grape crops and other fruit such as apple (obviously), apricots, and tomatoes. The moth has not previously existed in North America but has been spotted in nine different counties in California since the beginning of the year, e.g. in Napa. Wine and fruit growers fear the worst and traps as well as pesticides have started to be used. Telegraph.co.uk. See it here
Read more...The light-brown apple moth can devastate fruit plantations – both grape crops and other fruit such as apple (obviously), apricots, and tomatoes. The moth has not previously existed in North America but has been spotted in nine different counties in California since the beginning of the year, e.g. in Napa. Wine and fruit growers fear the worst and traps as well as pesticides have started to be used. Telegraph.co.uk. See it here
Read more...A new wine agreement has just been signed by the EU and Australia. It stipulates e.g. that Australian wine producers will no longer be able to use European regulated place names for their wines, such as for example Moselle, Chablis, Champagne or Port. It also says that the EU will recognise Australian wine making practices and will allow wines to be sold in the EU even if they do not follow European regulations, as long as they follow Australian rules (for example, in Australia de-alcoholising wine is allowed but not in the EU). In both cases the rules are reciprocal (i.e. European producers will not be allowed to use Australian place names etc).
Read more...
There was some concern in wine circles in France after the appointment of Christine Lagarde as agricultural minister after the French presidential elections. The magazine L’Express had written that the new minister did not drink wine and wine being one of the main agricultural sectors, it raised questions. However, it turned out that the information was false and that the minister does drink wine (as BKWine can attest, having seen her sip a glass of champagne at a press conference recently). Shortly after, Lagarde was promoted finance minister.
Read more...
The top ten export markets for cognac is quite an interesting read (source BNIC):
- USA
- Singapore
- UK
- Germany
- China
- Russia
- Finland
- Hong-Kong
- Norway
- Japan
All markets grew during 2006, except Finland (-2.1%) and Japan (14.9%). Just over 50% of exports are of the VS (youngest) category.
Lagmark, Helsingborg
Click here for address and more recommendations.
Le Brandevin, Paris 16
Click here for address and more recommendations.
Domaine de Triennes, Provence
Click here for address and more recommendations.
Château Pech Latt, Philippe Mathias, Corbières
Click here for address and more recommendations.
If you are a wine grower you probably have to be a bit of an artist in doing all sorts of things. One of the growers we met in the Rhône valley had just opened a bed-and-breakfast (or chambres d’hôte as it’s called here); another was growing fruit in addition to the wine (and using the fruit cold storage to refrigerate the grapes if weather was hot during harvest). A third put a lot of effort into selling direct to the consumers at the door and sold more than half of his production in the winery shop – with correspondingly higher margins. Everything helps….
Wine points pointless?
Read more here...
Wine tours
We’re working on the program for next season and you will soon find more information on it on the site. You can already get a sneak preview of the first trip of the year in 2008: a luxury tour with truffles, foie gras and wine. More info below.
Custom made trips, events, educational tours,...
I also do custom made tours – designed specifically to your requirements. If, for example, you’d like to take some people from your company on an exciting and unusual trip with (among other things perhaps) wine and gastronomy on the agenda. Or if you want to take a customer or a business partner on a special event. Or if you’re part of a wine tasting club that celebrates an anniversary. Or if you run a wine education program, perhaps you'd be interested in a specifically targeted educational trip. Or… I can organise the whole trip for you, custom designed as you wish, or I can do a specific event that can fit into a bigger organisation, e.g. a day trip to champagne to lighten up a conference in Paris, or a wine and gastronomy dinner… Give me a call or send me an email if you are interested to know more.
Britt
PS: Recommend to your friends to read the Brief or forward it to them !
In spite of the government claiming that internet sales were illegal several internet sites have appeared specifically targeting the Swedish market (usually with exceptionally poor selections, but cheap). The merchants claimed that it was against the EU principles of free movement of goods (which it is, but, you know, Sweden had this monopoly derogation). Several cases where people have bought online and had their goods confiscated at the border have gone to court. Some cases have gone along government lines whereas other court decisions have gone against the government. Undeterred, the customs officers have more and more tightened the control and have recently confiscated all parcels they have found.
One court case has gone to the supreme court. However, instead of taking a decision, the supreme court asked the EU court for advice on how the EU regulations should be interpreted - a normal procedure when country regulations seem contradictory to EU rules, but a procedure that takes time. It is this ruling from the EU court that has now been pronounced.
The conclusion is that the EU court considers that it is an unreasonable restriction for Sweden to limit such imports and that it does not serve the stated purpose of protecting the youth. The EU conclusion is therefore that Swedes should be allowed to buy wines and spirits over the internet. This was actually an unexpected decision since preliminary notes from the EU have indicated the opposite and a ruling late last year that said said that a Dutch resident who had bought duty paid wine in France and had it shipped to Holland would have to pay Dutch duties on it, in spite of it already having been taxed in France.
In the mean time, several of the companies involved in the business have closed down and at leas one has gone bankrupt, as a consequence of the government's previous (erroneous) interpretation of the rules. More comments in the IHT.
On August 10 and 11 there will be a wine and gastronomy fair in Karleby in Finland. The theme is wine and food in combination. Visitors will be able to buy small portions of food (à 2 euro), prepared by the Professional Chef’s Association of the region. 13 wine importers will be there to present their wines to go with it. They will also have cheese presentations and on other gastronomic themes (e.g. by Aki Wahlman), tutored wine tastings, and presentation of other gastronomic specialities (e.g. from Rougie). We here that there are also a few spaces left for a additional wine importers to exhibit. More info: virpi-punkt-sorvisto-at-kolumbus-punkt-fi or vanhatullipakkahuone.com
Read more...The Australian viticultural researcher and consultant Richard Smart has been elected into the New Zealand Wine Hall of Fame. The nomination is based primarily on his work to improve vines and rootstocks after the Phylloxera invasion and for his work on canopy management.
Read more...2006 was a very good harvest for England and Wales too. They produced in total 3,369,000 bottles, which is the third largest harvest since records began. The planted surface grew over the year from 793 hectares to 923 ha and 16 new vineyards were created, bringing the total to 362 wine producers in England and Wales. (A curious comparison with South Africa, who has 581 “wine cellars”. When will England+Wales overtake South Africa?)
Read more... 
- VdP d’Oc is the biggest exporter of French wine, ahead of e.g. Bordeaux
- is also the biggest exporter of varietal wines (and totally dominant of the French production of “vins de cepage” making 90% of all varietals)
- is in fourth place internationally for varietals, after Australia, Chile and USA
- made 4.5 million hectolitres of wine in 2005
Meanwhile in California… Amber Ridge Vineyard is located in the Russian River district in Sonoma and covers 12 hectares. They grow Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Syrah. Nickel & Nickel, a winery in Napa, recently paid $4.1 million for it (3 million euro). It’s the highest price ever paid for a vineyard in this area and computes to around $300,000 per hectare (240,000 euro/ha). winespectator.com
Read more...The Veneto-based Italian wine producer Allegrini has just bought two vineyards in Montalcino in collaboration with their American importer: Poggio San Paolo and Montluc. They will merge the two vineyards under the name Poggio San Paolo. The total surface will be around 21 hectares. They mainly produce Brunello di Montalcino but also some Rosso di Montalcino and two “super Tuscans”. The price tag has not been made public but it is estimated to around 10 million euro. (The price per hectare in Montalcino is around 375,000 euro…) winespectator.com
Read more...You can read more on wine ratings in the article in the Wall Street Journal that you’ll find in the ‘link tips’ in another post. But the question certainly has a point. Yes, it can be interesting and “convenient” with wine ratings sometimes. But in many ways it is unfair and unjust to reduce a wine to a simple score. Because you can’t really rate a wine with a number. Read for example in the WSJ article about the wine that once had a top score in the Wine Spectator and a bit later only had a very moderate score. The same wine. What had happened? Nothing really. And you should certainly not blame the WS and say that they are incompetent wine judges. It’s just that you simply can “rate” (or taste) a wine differently at different occasions. On top of that, different persons have different tastes and appreciate different wines. Some like Burgundy and others like Amarone. Some like elegance others prefer structure. And Parker does not have the same taste as Jancis (Robinson) who does not have the same taste as (Hugh) Johnson who does not have the same taste as BKWine…
Another illustration: in a wine competition in south America the organisers decided one year that all members of the jury should come from England. No doubt a clever move to get some added international attention. But when the medal winning wines were announced they scratched their heads in South America. How could those wines win? Well, no doubt because the taste is different in South America and in England. (And in France, the US, Germany, Hong Kong, etc.)
So perhaps the best thing would be to scrap points ratings? But nevertheless, at BKWine we do use a rating system sometimes, albeit not often on these pages. But I encourage you to read the descriptions and comments rather than the point rating for a wine, and to not only buy top rated wines but also give the lowers ratings a chance – the “rater” may have had a bad day or may have a different taste than you. And best of all – don’t bother with what some “experts” say, taste the wines yourself and judge for yourself and you will discover many wonderful things in the wine world.
The wine competition Syrah du Monde recently honoured 36 wines with the Gold Medal. Wines from all over the world participated in the competition. Here is the list of winning wines: syrah-du-monde.com
Read more...The magazine The Drinks Business makes a yearly review of the world’s most powerful brands, weighing in things like brand recognition as well as sales volumes. Here are this year’s top 10 brands.
- Smirnoff
- Bacardi
- Johnnie Walker
- Martini
- Stolichnaya
- Hennessy
- Absolut
- Jack Daniel’s
- Chivas Regal
And here’s “the wine list”, the list of the top ten wine brands (overall ranking in parenthesis)
- Gallo (17)
- Hardys (21)
- Concha y Toro (24)
- Robert Mondavi (36)
- Yellowtail (43)
- Jacob’s Creek (47)
- Lindemans (50)
- Sutter Home (56)
- Blossom Hill (65)
- Rosemount (80)
One can perhaps note that none of the wine brands originate in Europe, although Jacob’s Creek is owned by the French company Pernod Ricard.
Agricultural commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel will present the project for wine sector reform om July 4. One of the elements in the project is a proposal to invest substantial amounts in a marketing campaign to promote European wines. But only outside of Europe. Fischer Boel says that it may involve “very significant figures … people will be very surprised”. financialexpress-bd.com
Read more... 
Sweet Valley Wines in Walla Walla claims to be the 500th winery in Washington State. The state has 31,000 acres of wine (13,000 hectares). Production has grown steadily from not more than 20 wineries in the 70s. winemag.com
Read more...In contrast, in Australia this year’s harvest will be the smallest since 2000 – only 560,000 tonnes (~400 M litres of wine). It is almost 30% less than last year. Perhaps not entirely unwelcome though, since Australia has had large surplus volumes of wine recently. wine-business-international.com
Read more... 
Is it permitted to irrigate the vineyard? It depends on where and when. Many believe that it is forbidden in e.g. France. However, that is not the case. Even in France it is allowed in some districts and under some conditions (at certain pre-defined periods during the year). Usually not for the better wines though. After the extremely dry 2003 there’s been a lot of discussion about a more liberal attitude towards irrigation in France. In the New World the situation is sometimes the opposite. There are no restrictions on irrigation (as a matter of fact, some wine districts would not exist without it). But there are some arguments raised that perhaps it should be used less. Read more about that debate, primarily on the US west coast, in SFGate.
Read more...Austria aims to become the leading producer of organic wine. There are today 467 organic wineries in the country, representing 4% of the total production. In 2006 the produced volume of organic wine reached 652,000 hectolitres. harpers.co.uk
Read more...On May 11 the official text for the new Vin de Pays du Val de Loire was published. It covers the departements Allier, Cher, Indre, Indre-et-Loire, Loir-et-Cher, Loire-Atlantique, Loiret, Maine-et-Loire, Nièvre, Puy-de-Dôme, Sarthe, Vendée, Vienne and parts of Deux-Sèvres. White grapes: sauvignon blanc, sauvignon gris, chardonnay, chenin, grolleau gris, pinot blanc, pinot gris, melon. Red varieties: cabernet franc, cabernet sauvignon, gamay noir, grolleau noir, grolleau gris, pinot noir, merlot, pineau d’aunis. The grape variety (varieties) can be mentioned on the label. The previously used VDP du Jardin de la France is thus abolished. Read the full text.
Read more... 
Read Per’s articles here.
We also have new articles from two of our established guest writers: Ester Laushway writes about an interesting and unusual producer in Provence (certainly an unusual love story!), and David Furer writes two articles on wine from Israel and on wine from Lebanon.
Read Ester's och David's articles here
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Vine Growing and Wine Making
The original Swedish title is "Ett vin blir till" meaning A Wine is Born. It is a unique description of the work in the vineyard and in the wine cellar. Published in 2009. More info on the web site for A Wine is Born.
Languedoc
Wines, vineyards and winemakers in Languedoc in the south of France, one of the most dynamic wine regions in France, and in the world. Published in 2007. More info on the site of the Languedoc book.
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