This time of the year is relatively calm and quiet in the wine cellar. The fermentation is mostly finished. Where the action is at this time of the year is in the vineyards. It is the period for cutting back the branches – la taille. Much of it is still done by hand. Depending on what kind of training system is used, some can be done with machine, the so called pré-taille. Virtually all of the branches are removed so the vineyards look very empty and barren in this season. Just long rows of black stumps sticking up from the ground. The pruning can start just after the leaves have fallen off in the autumn but often it is done later, sometimes much later. Doing the pruning very late makes the budding come later which can be good if you are in a place where there’s a risk of frost. But you have to do it before the sap starts to rise though. And since it can take quite a while to do it all the vigneron has his work cut out during the whole of the winter season.
But let’s get back to the couch, or perhaps the reading chair in front of the computer. I heard the other day that the average Frenchman spends 3h27 watching television each day. Sounds a lot but it was the number mentioned. And that today he spends 3h50 watching video clips on the internet. Per month. Does not sound much but it still means that internet video (YouTube, Metacafe, DailyMotion etc) has clawed an entire day’s watching from the television. We don’t mind if that number goes up even more, if only a bit of it is spent on watching our wine videos on BKWine TV (beta). We have over 60 clips with interviews with winemakers, reportage from vineyards and other wine stuff. Since the last Brief we have added ten clips – on Greece, Bordeaux and the Roussillon. You can watch the BKWine TV wine videos here: www.youtube.com/bkwine, and get a bit more background information to the wine video clips here: https://www.bkwine.com/tag/video-clips/
This month we also have some extra reading for you. Not only here in the Brief (unusually long, apologies if you like your information short…). In addition to that we have some added reading for you on our guest writers’ page:https://www.bkwine.com/about/bkwine-magazine/contributors/. For the moment there’s one new article on Sardinian wines and more will be posted in the coming days. Keep checking the page. Did you know we have almost 50 articles from our Guest Writers for you to read there?
In this Brief we give you some Christmas gift suggestions: some sexy things and some things to hang on your wall. And to keep you going over the festive season maybe you should try some of the turbo-charged wine we write about.
And if you need some more inspiration for Christmas, you can always give a gift voucher (to someone else or to yourself) for one of our wine tours. Or if you really want to splash out, you can ask us to make an entirely custom made and custom designed wine tour for you, your wine friend, for your company executive team, to go hunting for suppliers (if you’re a wine importer looking for good producers – we have quite a few to suggest), or…
Britt
PS: Recommend to your friends to read the Brief or forward it to them !
