Category: BKWine Brief Archive

— Trends and non-trends — New trends don’t appear just because the calendar says it’s a new year. But at the end of December, many people have a go at predicting everything new that will

— Are we drowning in labels? — The wine world is being flooded with labels. I recently read that Champagne Bollinger was awarded the label “Entreprise du Patrimoine vivant” (roughly “a company that keeps historical

— 100 points! — There is no such thing as perfection. At least not in wine. If anything, the perfect wine is the one you currently have in your glass. Yet one gets the impression

— Is a number worth a thousand words? — Everyone who reads the Brief is probably more or less a wine enthusiast. We are, of course. We have been called geeks and it has probably

— Why is Italy doing so well? — What can others learn from Italy? The country has been incredibly dominant in the Swedish market for several years. Italy sells twice as much as Spain and

— Can a wine be “typical”? Should a wine be typical? — A wine can be typical or not typical. Typical of what? It can be typical of a grape, a region, a vintage, or

— Wine – a question of style — “What is your favourite wine (or favourite region)?” I get asked this a lot, and it is an impossible question to answer. The last time someone asked,

— The Forgotten Winemaker — No, it is not the title of a new thriller novel. “Good wine is made in the cellar, but exceptional wine is made in the vineyard,” Stellios Boutaris of Greece’s

— High alcohol content? Don’t blame (just) climate change — The alcohol content in wine has been controversial for some time. We often hear people complain that the alcohol is too high and that it

— Wine brands – a curse or a blessing? — Surveys show that young people who drink wine are no longer loyal to a particular brand. This is good; maybe they will be curious to

— Terroir or Not Terroir? — One word that stands out in all wine communication today is “terroir”. Wine drinkers claim to find it in the wine, and winemakers strive to express it in their

— How many fruits, flowers and adjectives do you want? — It is quite difficult to describe flavours so that others can understand. Flavours, especially when it comes to wine, are mostly described with similes.

— Not yet time to abandon the New World — In the US, the big news from the wine world this week has been that the American Court of Master Sommeliers is said to have

— All the strange things that you can find on a wine label — The other month, we wrote in the Brief about rules and regulations in the wine industry. The other day, I had

— Contrasts, people, experiences — Our heads are spinning right now from all the impressions from the autumn wine tours, the wine regions we visited and above all the many growers we met. The Loire

— Rules, rules, rules… — Rules are helpful, but some of them are unnecessary. Sometimes, we are asked if there is a lot of cheating among winegrowers. Our answer is no. Besides the fact that

— How do you choose wine at a restaurant? — Much has been written about the anxiety one feels when having to choose a wine at a restaurant. How do I avoid choosing the “wrong”

— Are we drinking too little wine? — History always repeats itself. Now it is time for crisis distillation again in Europe. It has been a while since the last time. We remember Languedoc’s overproduction

— Working with wineries in Ukraine on wine tourism — Over the past few weeks, I have been working on a project on wine tourism for the winemakers in Ukraine. I am immensely impressed that

— What does my wine contain? Read the ingredient list! — It will soon become a reality, what some have been waiting for a long time for and which some will not care about at

— Many more grape varieties are coming to a vineyard near you — A long time ago, when I started doing wine tastings for groups, I noticed some strange perceptions among the participants about certain

Are you a wine expert? At what point can you be considered a wine expert? Is it when you have such good “theoretical” knowledge that you can place Bordeaux chateaux on a blind map and

— Time flies. Where does it go? — This is a short Brief. There’s a reason for that. This very day, we also have a deadline for the manuscript for our new book, so we

— Is the “New World” outdated? — The Old World and The New World. The wine industry has lived with these expressions for quite a few years. And it is convenient. It was natural to

— Does umami exist? — Waiting for the umami moment. — Will you taste umami in your Christmas food? For sure, if it’s savoury. And it often is. I recently learned that umami means savoury.

— Sustainable, yes. But what kind of sustainability? — Sustainability is important. But sustainability is a vague concept. And what is considered sustainable or not can quickly change. This became apparent to wine producers that

— Eating the cake and having it when making wine — Two months of wine tours to different European countries have given us many opportunities to talk about the laws and regulations in various wine

— What kind of wine taster are you? — Wine is basically a luxury product. It’s not vital. In the past it was probably more vital, when the water that was available was not always

— When was the last time you met a tomato grower? — It is easier to compare the price of a kilo of tomatoes than of different wines. Too many factors affect wine pricing. This

— Weighty arguments for lighter bottles — Reducing the world’s carbon dioxide emissions is a gigantic task. Making wine bottles lighter is a drop in the ocean. But everything counts. Every industry needs to take