Our travel in April has taken us both to Sancerre, to Chablis, to Bordeaux and to Champagne. The vines had reached different stages of evolution in the various districts. But everywhere we saw a nascent green colour and beginning leaf canopy. From now on things will develop fast! The vines grow so that you can almost see the branches get longer if you stand watching (much more exciting than watching paint dry). It is a beautifully time in the vineyards now in spring. A lovely time to go visit them.
Some growers have already started picking off some buds, de-budding, at an early stage to limit the number of bunches per hectare. Soon the tedious work to remove the wild shoots that grow from the bottom of the trunk will begin, les pampres as it is called in French. Tough but necessary.
We saw many vineyards with an unusually high proportion of newly planted vines. Often it due to diseases like esca, black dead arm and eutypiosis. The wine growers have been forced to tear up the infected vines. These wood diseases are a major threat to vineyards worldwide today. Almost like the wine louse, phylloxera, was little over a hundred years ago.
We have also tasted several wines from the latest vintage, 2014. Both whites that were already nice to drink and some red Bordeaux wines that were not finished yet, but still very nice indeed.
These four districts that we have visited are all prestigious districts in France, but the funny thing is that they still have an incredible breadth of price levels. On our Bordeaux tour, for example, we tasted wines for between 5 and 200 euros (price at the chateaux).
One of the things that are fascinating when you travel around the vineyards is to see all types of properties, from small family farms to stately palaces with gilded halls. But the most important thing is, after all, that the wines are good and excellent quality.
And you can find quality at many different price levels!
Britt & Per
PS: Recommend to your friends to read the Brief!
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What’s on at BKWine Tours
- Bordeaux, September 23-27
- Douro Valley, October 21-25
- Chile and Argentina in South America, February 6-21, 2016
- South Africa, February 26 – March 7, 2016
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
BKWine now writes for Forbes
If you have read the Brief the last few months then you have probably already seen it. We (both Britt and Per) now since some time back write for Forbes.com. We write for Forbes almost once a week on a wide range of wine related subjects. Recently we have for instance covered luxury rosés and the different expressions of Malbec in France and in Argentina (more about this elsewhere in the Brief). For each article we also do a short introduction on BKWine Magazine.
Forbes is an American business magazine with a monthly circulation of almost 1 million. Their web site, Forbes.com, is today I believe approaching 2 million visitors per month. An exciting project for us! A readership that is a bit different from the habitual one. Follow what we write on our own page on Forbes.com: Per & Britt Karlsson på Forbes. There you can also “subscribe” to our articles. (Or simply continue to read BKWine Magazine.)
Maius M Barranc de la Bruixa 2011, Priorat | Per’s Wine of the Month
There has been ups and downs for the Priorat wine region. It soared to international fame some fifteen years ago with a few producers almost achieving cult status. And cult prices. Then suddenly one heard less of them. Today many new producers have started and the style has developed to focus more on fruit and elegance than on power and muscle.
Maius M Barranc de la Bruixa 2011 Doq Priorat is a superb example of modern Priorat. Surprisingly light colour but the dominant grape is Grenache so this is natural, ripe fruit, quite full-bodied and southern character but not too much, very much Grenache character in the taste as well, full, with excellent slightly sweet-ripe fruit. A bit of an iron hand in a velvet glove. Very good southern-style wine. Recommended! 18 euros from the property. Maius is a young producer who made its first vintage in 2004. More info: maiusviticultors.com
New rule will make it easier to buy Alsace wines
It can be a bit of a gamble to buy Alsatian wine. Will the wine be completely dry or will it have some residual sugar? But all this uncertainty will soon end. As of vintage 2016 it will be mandatory for white Alsatian wines that have less than 4 grams of residual sugar per litre to put the word “sec”, ie dry on the label. By doing this the wine producers in Alsace hope that the consumers will have an easier time choosing their Alsace wine.
A good decision, we think. We sometimes hesitate to open an Alsatian wine for dinner for fear that it will be too sweet. So something needed to be done. Less than 4 grams of residual sugar are considered as dry according to EU standards. But there is one exception and that exception will also apply for Alsatian wines. A wine is considered as dry if it has up to 9 grams of sugar per litre, provided that the total acidity is not less than 2 grams lower than the sugar content. So, if the acidity is 6 grams per litre, the sugar level can be 8 grams and the wine is still considered dry. According to the theory that high acidity masks sweetness. I don’t particularly like this exception myself. Even if the sugar to some extent is masked by the acidity, it is still there.
Read more about this new rule in Alsace at La Vigne.
New wine region in Argentina: Chapadmalal
The wine world is growing. One of the newest wine regions are Chapadmalal located on the coast a few kilometres south of Buenos Aires. We are more accustomed to Argentine wines from hot and dry Mendoza. Here on the Atlantic coast, it is much cooler and wetter. The vines don’t need irrigation; the nights are cool and bring aromatic, fresh flavours to the wines.
Trapiche is one of the wine producers that are investing in these coastal vineyards. They believe that the climate will suit for instance Albariño, a grape that is quite accustomed to rain where it is planted in Europe. Trapiche has already noticed that it is too cool for Malbec and Cabernet Sauvignon. Read more on winesur.com.
Do you want to explore the wines of Argentina with us? Join us on our wine tour to South America, Chile and Argentina, in February! You’ll meet both Britt and Per on the trip.
Two classics on BKWine’s wine tour program for the autumn: Bordeaux and Douro
If you want to go on a wine tour where you will really get to enjoy some of the best food and wine as well as get behind the scenes at the wineries, then you can find no better than BKWine. You can hardly find a wine tour operator with better wine credentials than us. Just ask the people who have travelled with us if you don’t believe me!
On the autumn program this year we have scheduled two great classics:
Bordeaux: the world’s indisputably most famous wine region. Avoid the glitzy tourist traps and find the gems with us. You’ll visit world class wineries and we’ll take you to some fabulous gourmet meals chez le vigneron at the chateaux. More details on our Bordeaux wine tour program here.
Douro Valley: One of the world’s most spectacular wine landscapes. Here they make the famous port wine but also perhaps Portugal’s best table wines. Outstanding wines and beautiful landscape. More details on our Douro wine tour here.
South African rooibos plant used instead of sulphur
Rooibos is a South African plant that we have so far only been in contact with in the form of tea. Rooibos has a strong antioxidant capacity, preservative, like sulphur. Wine producers now realise that maybe this quality can be used for winemaking.
The big producer KWV has recently launched a wine called Earth’s Essence Pinotage with no added sulphur at all. Instead the rooibos plant is used. Branches of rooibos are dried in the sun and then ground into a powder which is placed in a sort of tea bag in the wine. Approximately 5 grams per litre of wine needed. The wine gets a special spiciness, says Jörn Ek from Arvid Nordquist, a Swedish importer. If rooibos will be a success as a sulphur replacement remains to be seen. We have unfortunately not yet tasted the wine. It retails for around 12 euros. More info on earthsessence.co.za
Do you want to discover South Africa and its wines with us? Join us on our wine tour to South Africa in March! You’ll be travelling together with both Britt and Per.
Which are the highlights in classic French gastronomy?
The French gastronomy is world famous. Countless are the French dishes that are enjoyed every day all over the world. Not easy to choose a favourite dish. The French newspaper Le Figaro recently asked some well-known foreign chefs what they think is the best of French cuisine. Among the chefs were Italian Massimo Bottura at three-star Osteria Francescana in Modena, German Daniel Achilles at the two-star Reinstoff in Berlin, Joan Roca at three-star El Celler de Can Roca in Girona, Belgian Kobe Desramault t one star In De Wulf in Heuvelland, the Australian James Henry at Bones in Paris and Japanese Taku Sekine at Dersou in Paris.
And these were their favourite French dishes: ratatouille, coq au vin, terrine de foie gras, poularde a vessie (quite a complicated dish involving a big, well fed chicken, black truffle, a tasty bouillon and a pig bladder), oeufs en meurette (a Burgundy specialty, poached eggs in red wine sauce), île flottante (snow eggs in vanilla sauce, a classic dessert), omelette, onion soup and charcuterie. Some of them are my favourites too! Read more on lefigaro.fr
If you want to really enjoy and experience French gastronomy join us on our wine tour to Bordeaux in September. We promise you some real gastronomic treats. But no poularde en vessie!
Crémant de Limoux, Domain J. Laurens | Britt’s WineS of the Month
Limoux is a small wine region in Languedoc, just south of the famous city of Carcassonne. It’s a little cooler here than in the rest of the Languedoc and the focus is on the white and sparkling wines. Domaine J. Laurens is totally concentrated on sparkling and I was very impressed with their Crémant de Limoux. The estate of 30 hectares is run by Jacques Calvel. The grapes are Chardonnay, Chenin, Mauzac and Pinot Noir. The wines ferment a second time in bottle and are kept on the lees between 12 and 24 months before disgorging.
Crémant de Limoux Brut 2012 Les Graimenous, Domain J. Laurens: Very good Crémant de Limoux with an aftertaste like a good Champagne. Rich, toasty aromas, ripe apples, lovely freshness. The grapes are 60 % Chardonnay, 30 % Chenin, 5 % Mauzac and 5 % Pinot Noir. A perfect aperitif. Great value at around 10 euros in France.
Crémant de Limoux Brut 2012, Clos des Demoiselles, Domain J. Laurens: Fine complexity, ripe fruit, some notes of honey and brioche. Quite powerful and a nice, long finish. Enjoy it as an aperitif or with food. The grapes are 60 % Chardonnay, 25 % Chenin and 15 % Pinot Noir. Also very good value at around 12 euros in France.
I strongly recommend both wines! More info on jlaurens.fr.
New environmental certification in Champagne: VDC
Sustainable viticulture is much talked about in Champagne today. A year ago the producer unions starting making great efforts to get the growers to think more about the environment and to work towards sustainably (durable in French). Now, this work has yielded results and a certification that has been approved by the Ministry of Agriculture.
Around 2,000 hectares are already receiving this new certification called “Viticulture durable en Champagne”. And there will be more soon. Many producers in Champagne believe more in sustainable winegrowing than in organic. Less than 500 hectares in Champagne have organic certification of a total surface of around 32,000 hectares. Sustainable viticulture means briefly that the grower avoids as much as possible the use of products that can be hazardous to the environment and people but in a case of emergency make use of synthetic chemical products. Read more on mon-viti.com
If you want to learn more about sustainable wine production you can read our book Biodynamic, Organic and Natural Winemaking.
Far-away wine tours with BKWine: South Africa and Chile-Argentina
We just recently launched the winter wine tour program. Two long-distance wine and food tours that are perfect to make the cold and dark winter more bearable:
Chile and Argentina in February: A magnificent experience both for the wines and the food, but also the countries, the people, the cultures, the Andes, plenty of asados, Valparaiso and much more. More info on the Argentina-Chile wine tour here.
South Africa in March: South Africa can and do make world class wines! Unfortunately it is mostly known for budget wines but don’t be fooled! This year we have extended the tour to include the super-trendy Swartland, wonderful nature and of course the classics regions Stellenbosch and Franschhoek. More info on the South Africa wine tour.
Are German organic wines better?
Perhaps it is the wrong question to answer. There are good and bad wines in all categories. But it is still a question worth asking since you sometimes hear arguments from wine pundits on this. The German wine institute had invited a group of German organic producers to discuss this issue and show their organic wines. It was a good illustration of how many aspects there can be to the answer. And a good selection of German organic wines.
Read more on BKWine Magazine: Do organic wines taste better? German wine producers answer.
You will get a royal welcome in South Africa in March
On the next wine tour to South Africa, scheduled for March, we will give you some special treats. For example, The Royal Riebeek Hotel in Swartland, where you (if you join us on the tour) will get a Royal welcome. The hotel is famous for, among other things, South Africa’s longest porch! (Perfect for a G&T.) It is also famous for its restaurant and the beautiful colonial architecture.
In addition it is perfectly situated to explore Swartland, the new “hot” wine region in South Africa. Warm climate and highly acclaimed wines. Here you can find some of South Africa’s best, and sometimes almost already legendary wine producers. Join us on the tour to South Africa. Book your tour now!
Read more about the Royal Riebeek Hotel with its famous stoep on BKWine’s Travel Blog.
France, the Country of Wine: ”Best Wine Education Book in Sweden”
Gourmand International awarded our book “France, the Country of Wine” (Swedish title “Vinlandet Frankrike”) the prize of Best Wine Education Book in Sweden. We are very happy and proud of this. There are surprisingly many wine books published in Swedish so we see this as a great honour. The book will now participate in the international finals of the Gourmand International Awards in China in June.
Read more on BKWine Magazine: Our book “France, The Country Of Wine” wins award as best wine education book and an international nomination.
But the best way to discover French wines is on site. Join us on a wine tour to Bordeaux and you will experience some great wine and food.
Five wine regions in France that are worth discovering | Per on Forbes
This article was originally published on Forbes.com. See the intro and find the whole article on BKWine Magazine: Five good-value French wine you really should taste | Per on Forbes.
One of the regions on the list is actually Bordeaux (yes! Read the article to see why). You can join us on a wine tour to Bordeaux to see for yourself.
Two delicious rosé champagnes
We recently had the opportunity to taste and compare two exciting rosé champagnes. Two very different champagnes, one was light and elegant, the other was dark and powerful. Both were made by independent growers, so called champagne de vigneron.
Read more on these two lovely rose bubbly wines on BKWine Magazine: Rosé Champagne in different guises, Maxime Toubart and Thevenet Delouvin. [divider_flat]
Unusual wines from Slovenia, Georgia, and Lipari
There are some unusual business ideas and some that are very unusual. There are some unusual wines and some that are very unusual. Combine the two and you get close to Meadowdale Wines.
It is a wine importing business started quite recently by a Swedish wine enthusiast who has settle on the Isle of Wight (!). Their wine selection is mainly wine in the category “natural” wines, or close to that. Often very special wine. They also sell over the internet to consumers both in the UK and in Scandinavia. We had the opportunity to try some of their wines recently.
Read about what we thought about it on BKWine Magazine: Wines for the curious consumer from Meadowdale Wines on Isle of Wight: Slovenia, Georgia, Lipari.
A selection of interesting wine bars in Paris | Britt on Forbes
It is almost spooky. Almost each and every new wine bar, that is really mostly a restaurant, is specialised in “natural” wines. They often broaden the selection a little bit with more “main-stream” biodynamic and organic wines. One can have very different opinions about “natural” wines but these restaurants / wine bars are often charming places and full of character. But often hard to find. They are rarely in the parts of Paris most frequented by tourists.
Britt has written an article on Forbes with a selection of Paris’ wine bars-restaurants. Find out more on BKWine Magazine: Trending in Paris: “natural” wine bars and restaurants | Britt on Forbes.
Two beautiful award certificates for our book on organic wines
Some month ago I could with pleasure tell you that our book on organic and sustainable wines, Biodynamic, Organic and Natural Winemaking, had won two prizes in the Gourmand International Awards: Best Wine Book for Professionals in Sweden AND Best Drinks Health Book in Sweden.
We have now received our beautiful awards diplomas. We think they look great. You can see them here on BKWine Magazine: Beautiful Gourmand Awards for our book on organic wine.
The book was also recently mentioned by the wine writer Jonas Larsson, who called it “an eminent book on organic viticulture and winemaking”. Read more on BKWine Magazine: Jonas Larsson on our book on organic wines: “an eminent book”.
Malbec from Argentina and from France on World Malbec Day | Per on Forbes
It was recently World Malbec Day, on April 17. Per had the opportunity to taste a wide range of Malbecs from Argentina at the Argentinean embassy in Paris. It gave him an occasion to compare the wines from the two Malbec regions, one in France and one in Argentina, and pick some favourites. The article was originally published on Forbes.
Read more on BKWine Magazine: A study in style: compare Argentinean and French Malbec | Per on Forbes.
The world’s biggest producer of Malbec wines in actually Argentina. Join us on our wine tour to Argentina and Chile in February and we promise that you will taste some outstanding malbecs. And much more.
Pinot noir, and more, from the American west coast
American Wine Day 2015. The slimmed down version of the catalogue still extends over seven pages and lists more than 80 importers and far more producers and vineyards. It feels as if the West Coast just gets more and more interesting from a vinous perspective! BKWine magazine’s reporter Ulf Bengtsson was there but asked himself the question: How to attack such a trade show? He choose to focus on Pinot Noir, partly to see what the status is of US pinots and partly because it is becoming something like his favourite grape.
Read more in Ulf’s article on BKWine Magazine: Go West! The pick of the best from the American Wine Day 2015.
Dr Loosen’s good Rieslings from the Mosel Valley
The German producer Dr. Loosen has been at the forefront of the qualitative renaissance of Riesling wines from the Mosel. Under the leadership of the dynamic owner Ernst Loosen the winery has since the late eighties upped the quality of the wines it produces. BKWine Magazine’s reporter Ola Öhlund had the opportunity to taste some of the most recent releases from Dr Loosen and recommends some of his favourites.
Read more in Ola’s article on BKWine Magazine: The Doctor cures an ailing reputation – top Rieslings from Dr. Loosen in the Mosel.
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