As easy as 1-2-3 is not what it is to produce a new issue of the Brief (hint: look at what issue it is).
We are still recovering – catching up – from a rather hectic travel season, so I will keep this brief. (That is what it is supposed to be, remember?)
This month we can give you a bit more insight into the harvest in 2013 with the “official” versions of the harvest report from Austria and Germany. (You had ours last month.)
Some of the other themes in this Brief: calvados and skeet (we mean clay pigeon shooting), Doktor (not doctored) wine from Germany, sex & wine & Belgians, and a bit of Champagne. Plus a number of other things too.
We also have an essay about Mendoza in Argentina, a wine region full of contrasts. And an essay about a winery visit in Franschhoek with an unexpected finish. As well as two quite different articles on Bordeaux.
A reminder about upcoming wine tours:
There are a few places left on the Chile-Argentina wine tour in February, and the wine tour to South Africa in March. However, if you are interested you need to book soon, very soon, to make sure that you get a place. Later in the spring we also have a magnificent wine tour to the Douro Valley in northern Portugal. All these tours will give you both spectacular landscapes, delicious wines and good food. Book now!
Don’t miss the activities at Vinisud. We are participating at two events there. If you are coming to Vinisud it would be great to see you!
Britt & Per
PS: Recommend to your friends to read the Brief!
– – – – – –
What’s on at BKWine Tours
- South America: Chile and Argentina, 1-16 February 2014
- South Africa, 28 February – 10 March 2014
- Douro Valley, Portugal, 14-18 May 2014
For more information please contact us on email or on phone (we’re on French time), or go to our wine travel site on www.bkwinetours.com!
We also make custom designed wine tours – on-demand tours for you and a group of friends, for your company (maybe to scout new winegrowers?), for a special event… We can combine winery visits and wine touring with other activities: gastronomic workshops, visit to an oyster farm, truffles hunting, cheese making, and more. More info on the custom designed and bespoke BKWine wine tours and travel here!
Wine tours in Finnish: We also do wine tours in Finnish. And in German, Norwegian, Spanish…
Do you want the latest news and updates on our wine travel activity? Subscribe here! (Second alternative BKWineTours.com)
From the World of Wine
Mandatory spraying in the vineyard
It can be costly to refuse to spray against the grasshopper that spread the disease flavescence corée. Flavescence dorée is a bacterial disease that weakens the vine. The only thing you can do to prevent the disease from spreading is to remove the infected vines and to use insecticide against the grasshopper that spread the disease. In France it is sometimes mandatory to spray against this grasshopper. This was the case for instance in the Côte d’Or in Burgundy in June this year, according to La Vigne. Growers were required to do at least one spraying.
Emmanuel Giboulet, with 10 hectares of biodynamically grown vines, refused and now risk hefty fines. Giboulet says that even natural insecticides such as Pyrevert, is harmful to other insects as well. Read more on lavigne-mag.fr
Christmas gift tip
The top-of-the list Christmas gift for a wine lover must be, we hope, a trip to one of the worldd’s wine regions. The gift can of course be to yourself, or to someone you know. What better way can there be to enjoy excellent wines and delicious food (with a no-Christmas-party guarantee!)?
We can of course arrange for an elegant gift card if you would wish. A gift card can be for a specified tour or it can be made out so that the gift receiver gets a choice. We may even be able to arrange for special deliver from the North Pole of the card, given sufficient notice before Christmas.
At the beginning of the year we have to long distance tours: a wine tour to Chile and Argentina in February, and a wine tour to South Africa in March. There are a few places left on both of those tours but it is urgent (!) to book if you want to make sure to get a seat. Later in the spring we have an equally exciting wine tour to the Douro Valley in Portugal. As I mentioned, time to book your Christmas present now!
Orion, Primitivo di Salento IGT | Åsa’s Wine of the Month
Orion from the Li Veli vineyard is one of my favourite wines from Puglia (Apulia). The wine is made from one hundred percent primitivo that grow on vines pruned in alberello (gobelet or bush vine). A full-bodied wine with plenty of ripe fruit and spicy undertones. The wine is neither flabby nor heavy thanks to an unusually fresh acidity. Apulia has a very warm climate and is flat as a table-top. Therefore there is no great difference in temperature between day and night and to get the freshness in the wines is one of the region’s major challenges. The Falvo family previously owned the well-known Avignonesi winery in Tuscany. They took over Masseria Li Veli in 1999. So it is not surprising that they continue to produce quality wines also in Apulia. However, it is surprising when you see the price. 9 euros for a bottle of Orion when buying it at the vineyard. Very affordable considering what you get for the money. www.liveli.it
Bordeaux city, one of the most magnificent in France
There is no other city in France that exudes so much luxury and elegance as Bordeaux. Walk along the river Garonne in the evening and the city looks as if it is shimmering in gold. As a matter of fact, it is.
Along the water you have an incredible row of beautiful buildings, many of them gilded, at least in parts. The city has seen a fantastic transformation over the last 20 years. It is a totally different place than when I visited it for the first time almost 25 years ago… Read the rest of Per’s article on the travel blog: Let’s go for a walk in Bordeaux City!
Not only art but also good wine in Bilbao: Bodegas Itsasmendi and Txakoli
From a wine perspective Bilbao is often just the starting point. There is an international airport. You visit the museum. And then you go to Rioja. That can be a mistake. The city itself is fabulous and worth a visit. And around the city the Basques also make wine, in very little-known wine region called Txakoli (Bizkaiko Txakolina).
I had the occasion recently to visit one of the wineries there, Itsasmendi, together with Mariella Beukers, the person behind Wijnkronieken.nl. We were both very impressed by the wines and wish they were more readily available outside the Basque countries.
Here is the story that Mariella wrote on our visit at Bodegas Itsasmendi, illustrated by my photographs: Brief Encounters in Bizkaia: a Visit to Bodegas Itsasmendi.
Contrasts in Mendoza: wine, landscape, climate…
There are two ways to get to the Mendoza wine region. Either you fly in, from Buenos Aires or Santiago (or from somewhere else). Or you come by road. The “easiest” road to take is over the Andes from Chile. Not that there is anything particularly easy about driving across the Andes.
I have done both on two different occasions. There are 27 hairpin bends in a row on one segment of the road going to Mendoza over the Andes Mountains…
Read the rest of Britt’s article on the travel blog: The Mendoza wine region: a land of amazing contrasts.
Some delicious German wines: Kloster Eberbach, a winery dating back to 1136
Kloster Eberbach is a German wine producer with a very long tradition. They own vineyards, and produce wines, in the Rheingau and in Hessische Bergstrasse, from, in a German perspective, very extensive vineyards.
Their range of wines is broad, including dry whites, sweet whites and reds. In recent years they have much improved the quality of their wines, as we could see in a recent tasting.
BKWine’s reporter Tomas Eriksson reports: Kloster Eberbach, a German wine producer that is getting better and better. [divider_flat]
Travelling in the South African wine regions can be full of surprises
It looked very curious. The clouds were pouring over the edge of the mountain tops in the Franschhoek Valley. It looked almost like a waterfall that was falling down on us. Luckily the “waterfall” evaporated before it reached the middle of the valley where we were standing in the vineyards.
We were in a block of merlot at the Rickety Bridge Winery in Franschhoek together with Wynand Grobler, their young winemaker. It was one of our visits on a South African wine tour. Franschhoek was once called Olifantshoek, the elephant corner, before it became the French corner.
Read the rest of Britt’s article on Franschhoek in south Africa: Pouring over the edge in the Franschhoek vineyards.
Ernst Loosen presents some delicious wines from Dr Loosen in Germany
Winemaker lunch with Ernst Loosen: Ernst Loosen has during his time at the helm of the Dr. Loosen vineyards and winery managed to create a series of very good wines. He has also had great success in marketing wines internationally.
When Ernst Loosen was in Sweden to present a selection of his wines on a tasting BKWine was there with our reporter Roland Eriksson.
Read about the wines and the winemaker on BKWine Magazine: Dr. Loosen’s good regimen: exquisite Riesling wines from the Mosel Valley.
Go right or go left? Both! When you are travelling in Bordeaux
Perhaps the most important thing that you should make sure that you pack when you go wine touring is a pair of comfortable walking shoes. Another thing that you may want to bring is a good flashlight. Flashlight? Yes. Why? I’ll come to that in a minute. Go right or go left? Both!
There are two sides to wine touring in the Bordeaux region. The left side and the right side. Or in the local language, Rive Gauche, which is on the left hand side of the river and includes the Medoc and Graves, and the Rive Droite, the right hand side of the river where you find Saint Emilion and Pomerol…
Read the rest of Per’s article on the travel blog: The importance of always carrying a flash-light when wine touring in Bordeaux.
German harvest of the vintage 2013: Good quality, quantity slightly below average
In the last issue of The Brief we wrote about our own impressions of this year’s harvest around Europe. We have the privilege to actually be on site in many of the wine regions and see for ourselves what is happening.
But it’s also interesting to hear the “official line” from different regions. Germany has recently published its assessment of the harvest in 2013, through the German Wine Institute. In short: “small but pretty good.” Their press release also contains some interesting numbers about the harvest volumes, ie size, of the different wine regions. To put it in perspective, the German wine production is about 20% the size of the French production.
Read the press release from the German Wine Institute on BKWine Magazine: This year’s harvest in Germany (2013): good quality but small quantity, says official sources.
A meeting with Vincent Boulard and with his calvados
Calvados can be a deliciously refreshing digestif, or a multi-faceted, complex post-dinner drink. Calvados is a kind of apple spirit, distilled cider, which really deserves to be appreciated more! With a fruit and freshness that few other spirits have.
Calvados Boulard is one of the largest producers. Their different calvados are highly regarded in many countries.
BKWine’s reporter Roland Eriksson went to meet Vincent Boulard at a calvados tasting. And a clay pigeon shooting. Read his report on BKWine Magazine: Calvados & Doves.
An ambitious co-operative in Champagne: Palmer & Co
Champagne in magnum is always impressive. Palmer & Co. is a champagne producer who ages their magnums longer than usual before releasing it to the market: for ten years. The currently available vintage (1998) and the soon to be launched (1999) were presented along with some older magnums at a recent tasting.
They proved to be very nice; you get a lot of character for a relatively modest price.
BKWine’s reporter Roland Eriksson was there. Read the article on BKWine Magazine: Palmer & Co., a magnum class champagne cooperative.
How to be successful in wine tourism
How to become successful in wine tourism is the theme of a conference and panel discussion at the (excellent) wine fair Vinisud that takes place in Montpellier in February. The event is probably mainly geared towards wine producers and tourism organisations who want to work better with wine tourism, “oenotourism”.
BKWine is probably one of the world’s most experienced companies (tour operators) focussed on wine tourism and wine tours, so we have been invited to be on the panel for this event. If you are coming to Vinisud perhaps it can be an interesting theme for you?
Read more on BKWine Magazine on the conference and debate: Wine tourism conference at Vinisud with BKWine as speaker.
Sex and wine marketing: evil intentions or humoristic?
I don’t know why the Belgians should be most prone to this, but according to this campaign that is how it is. Undoubtedly alluding more or less subtly to sex (usually in the form of pretty women) sells wine, as well as many other things. (You could probably even sell paper clips with it.)
Sometimes it is outrageously trite or tasteless. Sometimes it is fun, humorous or even self-depreciating or ironic. Sometimes it is, well, incomprehensible.
Which of those categories do you think this vide campaign for cava belongs to?: Sex in wine advertising: drink cava, make more babies?
Bulk is bulk and bib is bib
World statistics for wine is today quite unreliable in terms of “bulk wine”. The bulk wine category is growing steadily, but unfortunately it includes bag-in-box, which should not be counted as bulk at all since the meaning of “bulk” “in a packaging that is not intended for retail.” (But in Sweden we actually have the tendency to call those cheap bag-in-box wines for “bulk wine”.)
This will now change. Read more about wine statistics and these bulk wine changes on BKWine Magazine: World wine statistics to be more accurate: Bag-in-box no longer bulk.
The harvest in Austria
It seems that the wine harvest in Austria was a difficult one but that in the end it can give some good wines, albeit with high acidity (good aging potential?), and some excellent sweet wines.
We have not been in Austria this year, unfortunately, so we cannot give you our own impressions. We have previously published our comments on the harvest in some other countries to where our wine travel has taken us this year. But the Austrian wine information bureau has published a very useful report on their view of this year’s harvest.
Read it on BKWine Magazine: Harvest report: Austrian wine 2013, difficult but some good and perhaps great wines.
Time to try the IWFS vintage chart?
Some people find a vintage chart with year ratings invaluable. Others think it is unnecessary. If you want a small, convenient and reliable vintage chart you can do worse than to try the one published by International Wine and Food Society in handy pocket format. Starting this year we at BKWine have been asked to join their vintage chart consulting committee to update the chart every year.
Read more on BKWine Magazine: New wine vintage chart available from IWFS (with BKWine on the tasting panel)
The Vinisud wine show targets organic wines with BKWine
Vinisud is the second biggest wine show in France (after Vinexpo), and in many ways the most interesting. At the next edition of Vinisud, in February, BKWine, Britt, has been asked to lead a wine tasting with organic wines. If you are going to Vinisud you are of course welcome to the wine tasting!
Read more on Vinisud and on the tasting with organic wines that BKWine has been asked to do on BKWine Magazine: Are you going to Vinisud? Come to our wine tasting!
[divider_flat]
Wine events calendar
Send us an email if you have some event you want on the calendar.
Don’t be an egoist! Share with your friends and other wine enthusiasts! Forward the Brief to your friends! Suggest that they sign up for a free subscription !
© Copyright BKWine
