The dangers of becoming a super-celebrity
The biggest problem with making wine is probably not to make sure the wine is good but rather to sell it.
Then it can be very helpful to be known, that one in some way has a strong “brand”.
An example, that is close at hand, as we have just returned from our New Zealand tour, is Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand. It is one of the great success stories of recent times in the wine world. Everyone knows that New Zealand makes characterful wines from Sauvignon Blanc. Thanks to those, New Zealand is one of the countries with the highest export prices of wine, even higher than France if I remember correctly, if you exclude the expensive champagnes from the statistics.
Another example is Bordeaux. The whole world admires the great Bordeaux wines and many in other wine regions try to imitate them. “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery” as they say.
Mendoza in Argentina has become big, not least on the US export market, thanks to its delicious malbec wines.
There is no sparkling wine that sells as much as prosecco from north-eastern Italy.
But there is always a back side.
Prosecco has expanded its area so much that one wonders if there is any origin identity left and has difficulty getting out of the budget segment. Bordeaux is known for its exclusive wines, and thus has a reputation for being unreasonably expensive, which the 90% of producers who make wines in “normal price ranges” suffer from.
But most significant it is perhaps for the new Zealand wines, which was very obvious when we were there. Yes, the world has begun to discover their pinot noir, but who knows of their pinot gris, riesling, and syrah, not to mention arneis and albarino? Very interesting wines, and very unknown. It’s probably time for New Zealand – like many others – to be cautious about far too one-dimensional celebrity status.
Wine and wine experiences are, after all, a lot about variety, isn’t it?
As I mentioned, we have just returned from our first wine tour that we have organized in New Zealand. Two weeks of exceptional wine, food and travel experiences, including boating on a glacier lake with blue ice.
Add a few additional travel days for us, this means that we have been away for the better part of the month, so writing time has been a bit limited.
That’s why you get a shorter than usual Brief this month. On the other hand, you will get more and better wine travel experiences in the future.
One special experience for us was when one of the New Zealand wine producers wanted us to sign her copy of our book on organic wine. Imagine that our book is read even in New Zealand. That felt great!
New Zealand will come back on our program in March 2020. The coming winter season (!) will also include the extraordinary wine tour to South Africa (one not to miss) in February and the wine adventure tour to Chile and Argentina in January (an equally exceptional experience).
The details of those programs are now finalized so you can see the full descriptions on our travel site bkwinetours.
Not to forget the other wine tours that we have this spring and autumn to Bordeaux and Champagne.
You can find more info below.
Britt & Per
PS: Recommend to your friends to read the Brief !
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