—
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 healthy to drink. But today the main (only?) purpose of wine is to bring joy and pleasure. And thus being a social lubricant.
But even if the ultimate purpose of drinking wine is straightforward, it is not always so straightforward what the purpose of tasting wine is.
Many non-professionals do wine tastings today. (People which in French are more simply called “amateurs”, i.e. people who enjoy something. “Amateur” comes from the verb “aimer” which means to like or love. Nothing denigrating in the meaning, quite the opposite.)
Then it is often about one of two things. Either you try to learn more about wine, e.g. “how does chenin blanc from the Loire taste?” Or it’s about choosing wine, “which Côtes du Rhône should I buy?” In that kind of tasting it’s always good to take notes. The more you write down, the better you remember it. What you write is very personal and it can be quite long. It is often good if you take your time and use personal expressions. Summer meadow, rubber boots, the cellar stomped dirt floor in the country, etc. Often you only taste a handful of wines.
Many wine writers taste with a similar approach, but then it is important that they describe the wines in an understandable way, not in a too personal way. “Grandma’s cardigan” means nothing to someone else. “Floral minerality” is a contradiction in terms with no meaning. Brief but illustrative is important.
Another type of tasting is what an oenologist does. (An oenologist is a university-educated wine chemist/microbiologist – not just a “regular” wine connoisseur.) Their purpose is often to identify deviations or inaccuracies, or to assess where in the development phase a wine is. A very technical tasting. In these contexts, they often judge whether a wine is “correct” or “as it should be”, not whether they like it or not.
A third type of tasting is what is done in wine competitions. We are regularly invited to participate in the jury in various wine competitions. Then you assess (subjectively) the quality of the wines that participate in the competition and arrive at a collective assessment together with other jury members. If the wine gets a medal, it is a good sign that many people would appreciate the wine (i.e. that it is of good “quality”). In that kind of situation you can try 50 wines in one morning. Is it even possible to try that many wines?
Indeed so, but it requires some training and experience, and a lot of concentration. A little while back I was on the jury at the Michelangelo Awards in South Africa, 300 wines over five mornings. Earlier this year, at the Concours Mondial with around 180 wines in three mornings. Then it is above all about quickly forming a (subjective) opinion about the wine’s quality (give a score), not about describing the wine with beautiful words.
In the end you are quite exhausted, but it is a fascinating exercise that makes you more humble, especially if the competition is completely blind (you do not know at all what you are tasting). It is never easy to guess “correctly” what it is. At tasting competitions or wine course exams (wine course exams, WSET, Master of Wine, etc.) you at least have an idea of what it might reasonably be. It is rarely a kekfrankos, xinomavro or voltis…
Then we have the matter of assessing the “quality” of a wine, when we have concluded that it is basically subjective. Yes, it works, but that’s the subject of another text.
Winter is also a good time for wine tours. In fact, some of our most exceptional wine tours are during the winter. It’s the “long” tours to the southern hemisphere. They are long both in the sense of “far away” and “long time” (11 to 16 days). And they are filled with very special experiences. In summer weather in the southern hemisphere!
You have three fantastic long-distance tours to choose from:
- Chile-Argentina in January – very few places left
- South Africa in February – book now!
- New Zealand in March – book now, don’t wait!
These are tours with unique and magnificent experiences.
More info on our wine tours here. “World’s Top Wine Tours”. Tours with the people who know wine and who have an unrivalled experience of wine and tours.
Enjoy the Brief!
Britt & Per
If you appreciate what we do, you can help us:Tell your friends about the Brief or send it to them.
Like us and follow us on social media:
BKWine Magazine on Facebook | Wine Tours on Facebook
—
What’s on at BKWine Tours
—
BKWine is also one of the world’s leading wine tour operators. Here’s what we currently have on our scheduled wine tour program:
–
- Chile-Argentina, January 16-29, 2023 – BOOK NOW
- South Africa, February 8-18, 2023 – BOOK NOW
- New Zealand, March 15-30, 2023 – BOOK NOW
–
- Bordeaux and Champagne, Sept 27 – Oct 5, 2023
We also make custom designed wine tours.
We’re different than most other wine tour operators. We are people who know wine inside out, who travel constantly in wine regions, who write award winning books about wine. Who do this out of passion.
Our wine tours are different from others.
A typical year we organise more than 30 wine tours to destinations across the world. In Europe: France, Italy, Spain, Portugal and more. World-wide: South Africa, Chile, Argentina, New Zealand. Thanks to our Scandinavian background we have a separate offer for the Scandinavian market. These are sometimes offered in English and also available as custom made tours. For example, these destinations:
—
Read our books
—
We have written eleven wine books. They have won awards from the Gourmand Awards, The International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV) and others.
Unfortunately, only one of them has been translated to English; the others are (so far) only available in Swedish. This is the one that is available in English:
Here’s the full list of our books:
- The Wonderful World of Wine
- Languedoc-Roussillon, the Wines of Southern France
- Champagne, the Wine and the Growers
—
News from the World of Wine
—
Short briefs on what’s been happening in the world of wine recently and other interesting things.
—
Relief in Burgundy: the 2022 harvest is big in quality as well as volume
This year’s harvest was already finished when we arrived for our wine tour in Burgundy last week. In many places, also the fermentation. The harvest started already on August 16 for the earliest plots of crémant de bourgogne. All the producers we met were happy and relieved. The quality is top-notch, and so is the volume. A large volume is really what is needed now in Burgundy after three lean years and with stocks starting to empty.
After a mild and dry winter, budding began in early April. Then it got colder, and there were four nights of frost between April 3 and 11. But luckily, the budding had not gone that far in most places, so the damage was limited. Then the spring weather came, and the growing season started, and already in May, the flowering started in some places. Overall, flowering was two weeks earlier than usual. The summer was hot and dry. There were no problems with diseases, but in the first half of August, the lack of water meant that some vineyards developed more slowly. Rain was needed, and it came in mid-August. The harvest was saved, and beautiful, healthy grapes could be picked. Pinot noir has good phenolic ripeness and a lot of colour.
Organic vineyard area reaches record high in France
Recent years have seen a record-breaking increase in organic wine acreage in France. Now you are up to 20% of the total vineyard area, which means 159,868 hectares that are organically certified or under conversion. Of the 159,868 hectares, 69,570 hectares are under conversion, and they are fairly evenly distributed between years 1, 2 and 3.
France has steadily increased its organic area since 2012. At first, it was slow and then increasingly faster.
- 2012: 62,514 ha
- 2013: 62,528 ha
- 2014: 63,759 ha
- 2015: 68,537 ha
- 2016: 70,624 ha
- 2017: 78,471 ha
- 2018: 91,289 ha
- 2019, 112,591 ha
- 2020: 137,276 ha
- 2021: 159,868 ha
If we take agriculture as a whole, the organic area is just over 10%. Read more: AgenceBio.
Read: more on organic wines in BKWine’s book Organic, Biodynamic and Natural winemaking.
Vintage 2022 in Austria, challenging but excellent
During our wine tour in Austria in mid-September, the harvest was in full swing. The producers were full of confidence after this year which has had some challenges, the hot weather in July and August not least. The lack of rain and temperatures above 30 degrees C stressed the vines, especially the young ones. High sugar levels came early, and Niki Moser at Sepp Moser in Kremstal says he started harvesting very early to maintain the acidity and balance of the wines.
Franz Schneider at Artisan Wines in Neusiedlersee is very optimistic, not least for his red wines. “We’ve had warm weather that gives good colour and phenolic ripeness.” The Austrian red wines look to be a hit this year, but the white wines will also be excellent. “Our riesling and grüner veltliner look perfect,” says Franz Leth at Weingut Leth in Wagram.
Four new grape varieties in the Côtes du Rhône and more white wine
The appellations Côtes-du-Rhône et Côtes-du-Rhône Villages have the ambition to reduce the spraying of their vineyards and make them more resistant to drought. As part of these efforts, they have now included four new grape varieties in their regulations.
Two of the grapes are so-called resistant grapes with good resistance to fungal diseases: vidoc, a red grape, and floréal, a white. To adapt to dry summers, they have chosen carignan blanc, known from the Languedoc region, and rolle, also known as vermentino, but that name will probably no longer be allowed in France because Italy wants to keep it for themselves. Three of the four new grapes are white, and clearly, these two Rhône appellations will produce more white in the future. Demand for whites is increasing. Read more: Vitisphere
Moldova celebrates its National Wine Day on October 1 and 2
The traditional National Wine Day is celebrated in Moldova every year, the first weekend of October. After a two-year pandemic hiatus, the festival is on again this year, and it will be the twenty-first edition. The organisers have chosen a very special slogan this year: “My wine is a wine of Peace. My wine turns hate into Love”. That this refers to the war in their neighbouring country is not difficult to understand. Moldova, a small country of only 2.5 million inhabitants, has opened its doors to more than 200,000 (!) refugees from Ukraine. The Moldovan wine producers are now showing their solidarity with the Ukrainian winegrowers on the other side of the border by – for the first time – inviting them to participate in the festival.
80 wine producers, both large well-known and small boutique wineries, will be on-site in Moldova’s capital Chisinau on October 1 and 2. Moldova’s various regional appellations, Codru, Stefan Voda, Valul lui Traian and Divin, will be highlighted, as well as the superb local gastronomy. Although we cannot be in Chisinau, let’s raise a toast to Moldova, and Ukraine, on this day. Read more: WineDay
Read more on Moldovan wines on BKWine Magazine:
- Moldova, an exciting “new” wine country with a long history | Britt on Forbes
- Moldovan wine classics in modern versions: Chateau Purcari and Castel Mimi
- Wine in Moldova: Château Vartely and Asconi Winery, two strong newcomers after independence
- Moldova’s emerging small, high-quality wine producers
- Historic bottles and traditional gastronomy in Moldova’s amazing underground wine world
- Wine tourism at Vinuri de Comrat in Moldova, a passionate project
Gigondas, soon also in white
Some appellations only come in one colour, like Gigondas in the southern Rhône valley, which is always red (or rosé, but these are rarely seen). From 2023 however, Gigondas will also be able to be a white wine. The main grape will be clairette, which must represent at least 70% of the blend. Other varieties will be bourboulenc, clairette rose, grenache blanc, grenache gris, marsanne, piquepoul blanc and roussanne, as well as viognier and ugni blanc, but these two may only be included to a maximum of 5%.
Today, around 16 hectares are planted with white grapes. These wines have until now been sold as Côtes du Rhône. But there is a desire within the appellation to make more white wine. The conditions are there, it seems, both in terms of terroir and demand. Read more: TerreDeVins
—
Features of the Month
—
Articles and features published on BKWine Magazine and on our wine travel blog and (occasionally) photography blog in the last month.
—
A Frenchman In New York: Louis Barruol From Gigondas Goes To Finger Lakes To Make Wine
We find French wine producers a little bit everywhere in the world. For various reasons, they are attracted to foreign wine regions. For Louis Barruol, from the famous Château de Saint-Cosme in Gigondas in the southern Rhône valley, it was the opportunity to start an estate from scratch. When he took over Saint Cosme, it had been in the family for many generations. He had a long-time dream of creating something from zero.
Read more in Britt’s article on BKWine Magazine, originally published on Forbes: Crispy dry riesling from Forge Cellars, Finger Lakes, New York, came out of a French winemaker’s dream | Britt on Forbes.
Fitou In The South Of France Revives Its Image With Local Grape Carignan | Britt on Forbes
Fitou is Languedoc’s southernmost appellation. In the past, this was the frontier between Languedoc and Spain. Today, it is the French region of Roussillon that is on the other side of the border. It is mountainous and beautiful with picturesque villages and ruins of Cathar castles on the mountain tops. It is warm, sunny and often dry. Carignan thrives here, a grape that Fitou has made its standard-bearer.
Read more in Britt’s article on BKWine Magazine, originally published on Forbes: Fitou, the ultimate carignan wine region, with a touch of grenache and syrah, goes modern | Britt on Forbes.
Harvest by helicopter and dried grapes: Sandro Fay and Le Strie from Valtellina
Everyone loves influencers. Before you let your irritation dangerously increase your heart rate, look around and list your own five most influential influencers. Well, you can’t think of any. But then raise your gaze a bit above the peach-skinned youngsters who hunt for money through posts about make-up and fashion. But they can have an impact on wine.
Valtellina is a relatively small region. A narrow strip of land that stretches 45 km from west to east, just a few kilometres from the Swiss border. In the valley, all 820 cultivated hectares are on the south-facing slope. The vines grow from three hundred meters altitude up to about eight hundred meters. The area is distributed among very many small and very few large producers. That fewer than ten of the region’s 900 growers own more than 3 ha says something. We can a bit inaccurately specify nebbiolo as a character grape, but the diversity is great and some other varieties are newly planted, according to the producer’s own desires.
Read more in Sven-Olof Johansson’s article on BKWine Magazine: Harvest by helicopter and dried grapes: Sandro Fay and Le Strie from Valtellina.
Champagne Harvest 2022: Excellent Both In Quality And Volume | Britt on Forbes
The harvest in Champagne started early this year; the earliest villages already on August 20. I went to Champagne Chassenay d’Arce in the Côte des Bar, the southernmost part of Champagne, on the first of September to feel the mood and the atmosphere. And it was electric. Everyone was very excited. The rumours about a shortage of champagne that we’ve heard, although they already at the time were unfounded, can now be put to rest.
Read more in Britt’s article on BKWine Magazine, originally published on Forbes: A long-awaited, superb harvest in Champagne 2022: A visit to Champagne Chassenay d’Arce | Britt on Forbes.
Travel: Come on a wine tour to Champagne with BKWine.
The microbreweries conquer the world with beer with character and taste: Hönsinge Hantwerksbryggeri in Sweden
There has been an explosion of microbreweries in the last 15 years worldwide, not least in Sweden. “It is thanks to these microbreweries that people have discovered the different flavours of beer,” says Magnus Elmgren Servin, owner of one of them, Hönsinge Hantwerksbryggeri, in the very south of Sweden. “The giants are still by far the biggest, of course, but together, the small breweries represent quite a lot of volume.”
Read more in Britt’s article on BKWine Magazine: The microbreweries conquer the world with beer with character and taste: Hönsinge Hantwerksbryggeri in Sweden.
The dream of Modigliana, the sangiovese star of the Apennines
An ambitious oenologist, an experienced wine journalist and about ten craft producers with a common dream. The dream is called Modigliana and is located in Romagna, on the border with Tuscany. Here, the small group makes wines from the sangiovese grape that taste like no other in Italy. Together they have created the organization Stella dell’Appennino, Star of the Apennines. The Modigliana dream is becoming an interesting reality and is aiming for the stars. BKWine Magazine’s Åsa Johansson tells the story.
Read more in Åsa’s article on BKWine Magazine: The dream of Modigliana, the sangiovese star of the Apennines.
—
Wine Tours
—
Details on our current and future wine tours. Book a wine tour with the “World’s Top Wine Tour Operator” today (or when you feel like travelling to wine country).
Treat yourself to an unforgettable experience in the beautiful wine-lands together with some of the most knowledgeable wine people around. Book now!
—
Two fantastic wine countries united by language divided by mountains: Argentina and Chile
You might think that Chile and Argentina are similar. That is not the case at all. It is true that both countries are Spanish-speaking, but otherwise there is a lot of difference: culture, social issues, nature, politics and more, much of it due to history of course. But they also have a lot in common.
Most importantly, both countries today make world-class wines. You will discover that on the wine tour to Chile and Argentina. Chile has become famous for its carmenère, which was originally thought to be merlot, but today they make a wide range of wines. Sauvignon blanc from Casablanca, cabernet franc and sauvignon from Colchagua and much more. Argentina is often identified with malbec and it dominates a lot, but there is also much else, often produced by small, ambitious family producers, semillon, torrontés, syrah… Another thing the two countries have in common is the gastronomy: lots of grilled meat and delicious fresh vegetables. Which we will enjoy many times at our gastronomic lunches, asados, on the wine tour. Not to forget all the other great experiences on this South American wine exploration.
Only a few places left. Book now!
Wine tour to Chile-Argentina, January 16-29, 2023
From cool coastal climate to almost desert, on the wine tour in South Africa
Almost all wine in South Africa is made in the part of the country called Western Cape. That’s where Cape Town is, at the South West edge. The whole of South Africa is almost twice the size of Texas (big!); Western Cape a tenth of that. But in the relatively small area, there is a very large variation in climate and nature, which our wine tour to South Africa will give you a good picture of. After kicking off in Cape Town, we head out to the south coast, Walker Bay, where it’s quite cool and where they make outstanding pinot noir (whale watching in winter). Then we go up to the Swartland, to the north and thus warmer, where warm-climate grapes such as grenache, syrah and cinsault are grown, in a nature that resembles the interior of Spain.
In between, we have e.g. Franschhoek and Stellenbosch. What all these areas have in common is that today you have winemakers with a great appetite for experimentation and great ambition. When we were in South Africa in July to be on the jury for the important Michelangelo Awards wine competition, we got a good illustration of this in the 300 wines we tasted. On our wine tour, there won’t be quite that many wines, but you will get a good dose of delicious wines, gastronomic food and wonderfully welcoming South African culture.
South Africa – a great wine experience.
Book now!
Wine tour to South Africa, February 8-18, 2023
New Zealand – experience the whole long country with wine, gastronomy, culture and nature over two weeks
You can hardly get further away than New Zealand. That’s why we’ve made sure that our wine tour to New Zealand is packed not only with wine experiences but with much more. We get to experience Maori culture, see hot geysers spewing sulphur fumes, seals sleeping on rocks (and maybe a dolphin), the country’s highest mountain Mount Cook (3,724 m), sheep farms, lobster gastronomy and much more. The journey stretches from Auckland in the north to Queenstown in the south (1547 km, including a ferry) over 16 glorious days.
There will of course be a lot of wine as well, and lovely, delicious local gastronomy. We cover just about all wine districts. If you think New Zealand is almost all sauvignon blanc, it’s time to think again. They make wonderfully complex syrah in Hawke’s Bay, elegant cabernet sauvignon on Waiheke Island (another ferry ride), not to mention the famous pinot noir from Central Otago and much more.
It’s a long journey, yes, but it gives you experiences that last for years to come, unique and special experiences in this faraway land.
Book now! Last booking date November 15!
Wine tour to New Zealand, March 15-30, 2023
A wine tour to Champagne and Bordeaux not like others
What do you want to get out of a wine tour in France? Tasting the most expensive and famous wines? That’s easy; you just go to any luxury restaurant and open your wallet. But what if you want to meet the winemaker and perhaps the owner, understand how they reason when they try and make the best wine, what makes their terroir special and why they age the wines the way they do? That’s not so easy. In fact, anyone can make a “super-luxury” wine tour, it doesn’t take much talent or knowledge, but that’s still how many packaged wine tours look.
We do things differently. We think that what’s really important is who you meet at the winery. What you will remember are the people that you met and talked to, not that $1000 bottle you tasted. We’ve been doing this for more than twenty years. On our wine tours we take our guests “behind the scenes”, to meet the people that others don’t meet. To taste the real wines, not the collectors items that few can afford.
That’s why, when you come on our Champagne and Bordeaux tour you will visit some special places but wineries that you most likely have not heard of. Yes, we do visit one big and famous champagne house making many millions of bottles, but doing that kind of visits three days in a row is not so exciting. Every guide says the same thing. But meeting wine-making families IS exciting and we take you to the family producers. If, in Bordeaux, you only go to “classified growths” then you will see a lot of gilded salons and expensive stemware but you won’t meet any winemaker. You will meet them on our Bordeaux tour. And in addition, you will enjoy extraordinary meals, star-level gastronomy, as guests of chateaux. Because they know us, and they want to get to know you. Because it’s personal.
Come with us on the extraordinary wine tour to Champagne and Bordeaux.
Book now!
Wine tour to Champagne and Bordeaux, September 27 – October 5, 2023
PS: We have written a ground-breaking book about Champagne, and also one on Bordeaux, so we have a bit of a clue of what we’re talking about.
