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How do you choose wine at a restaurant?
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Much has been written about the anxiety one feels when having to choose a wine at a restaurant. How do I avoid choosing the “wrong” wine? How will it go with the food? What if the guests don’t like it? And so on.
Most of this anxiety (and advice) is misdirected and can be quickly forgotten. I’ll get back to why in a moment.
First, some speculation about different strategies for choosing wine from the wine list. If we now assume that it is you who has that pleasant task at the table.
“I take something I know” – this is (presumably) the most common tactic. You look at the list and find something you recognise. The security of recognition. Not a stupid tactic, in many ways. You know what you are getting and have an idea that you think it will go with the food and your own palate.
“Democracy” – you start reading the wine list and think it’s best to agree around the table, so you start reading aloud and ask the group what they think. It can get complicated and you may not agree even before the main course arrives.
“Choose a crowd-pleaser” – in order not to risk someone not liking the wine you’ve chosen, you pick something that everyone probably likes (see e.g. our “step 1” below for that). Maybe even a rosé because it goes with everything…
“Ask the sommelier” – one might think is a good tactic. But it is fraught with risk. The sommelier can hardly know what kind of wine you like and even if you discuss it, it can be a discussion full of pitfalls and misunderstandings. Another complication is that it varies quite a bit how much they actually know about wine. But it can be a rewarding tactic because it can lead to new discoveries and ideas, if he/she is good at listening (most important!) and explaining. But above all, don’t think that the sommelier obviously knows what “suits” your food. Only you know that. A wine that you like goes with food that you like, almost always. (By the way, a sommelier is just another term for a wine waiter, a person who is responsible for the wine in a restaurant. You don’t need any special training, but you should know wine of course. And on the contrary, just because you attended a “sommelier course” you are not a sommelier . Unless you work in a restaurant.)
“Check in advance” – that’s the tactic for the anxious or the one who likes long-term planning. Many restaurants have their wine list online (or on some site) so you can read it in advance and even look up the wine’s score (sigh!). Doesn’t that spoil a bit of the joy of discovery though?
There are certainly many other strategies for the wine selection at a restaurant. How do you do?
This is how we do it.
Step 1: Avoid the big well-known brands, the most talked about producers. They are simply unexciting.
Step 2: Consider the company. When we have dinner with our friends the natural wine enthusiasts, we look for the most weird thing we can find on the list. Perhaps we need to ask the staff (the “sommelier”) because these are often wines we have never heard of. Dinner with the Bordeaux enthusiast? Find something classic from Roussillon to make him open his eyes to something different (but good). And so on.
Step 3: Look for something that we don’t know about but would like to discover (after all, you often have some idea what it might be). Or something that we know but it’s been a long time since we drank (like Domaine des Deux Ânes last night). The choice is very much about finding something “fun”, a surprise, a positive discovery, preferably something we haven’t tried before.
But how does that strategy work when it comes to pairing the wine with the food?
Absolutely excellent. Choosing the “right” wine for food is not as complicated as many people think. There are very few wines that don’t “work”, whatever you have on your plate (but we’ve written a lot about that before, the simplicity of making successful food and wine pairings). Good food + good wine + (above all) good friends = a successful evening.
And now, on to wine tours:
Important about the wine tour to Chile and Argentina, January 15-28. Last chance:
This is one of our most spectacular trips. If you want to come along, you need to decide now! Book the wine tour to Chile and Argentina before September 15!
Also don’t forget the two other winter trips:
- South Africa in February (book before 15 October)
- New Zealand in March (book before 15 November)
These are tours with unique and magnificent experiences.
Wine travel in harvest time
Plan a wine tour in the harvest season:
- Champagne, September 27 – October 1
- Champagne and Bordeaux, September 27 – October 5
- Bordeaux, October 1-5
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.
Travel in wine regions with someone you trust.
Enjoy the Brief!
Britt & Per
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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:
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- Champagne, September 27 – October 1
- Bordeaux and Champagne, Sept 27 – Oct 5
- Bordeaux, October 1-5
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- Chile-Argentina, 15-28 January 2024
- South Africa, 8-18 February 2024
- New Zealand, 12-27 March 2024
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:
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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
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News from the World of Wine
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Short briefs on what’s been happening in the world of wine recently and other interesting things.
Few organic winegrowers give up despite bad weather and diseases in the vineyard
In several European wine regions, fungal diseases in the vineyard have been a major problem this summer. Severe attacks by, not least, downy mildew can be difficult to manage with only organic spraying (i.e. copper). A few per cent renounce their organic certification each year or end their conversion. It may be because they cannot cope with the diseases without synthetic spraying, but it may also be that they find organic is more difficult than they thought, that it will be more expensive without them being able to raise the price of their wines.
But all in all, not many organic producers return to conventional farming. Most people, once they decide to go organic, persevere. Figures in Bordeaux, for example, show that only 3-4% of organic growers revert to conventional cultivation each year. Read more: vitisphere
Easier to irrigate in France
Irrigation has always been strictly regulated in the European vineyards. But drought affects more and more wine vineyards, and the rules are loosened. It has been generally allowed in France for several years to irrigate until August 15. But it is up to each appellation to decide whether they want to allow irrigation or not. Champagne does not allow it, for example.
By popular demand, the French Ministry of Agriculture has now changed the rules, and from now on, you can irrigate until September 15. It can be assumed that within the next few years, there will be many changes even in those regions that never even had to think about irrigation because they always had enough rain, such as Champagne, Bordeaux, Burgundy, etc. At the same time, various possibilities for coping with dry spells other than with irrigation or at least minimizing the amount of water are being investigated. If the vine is stressed by the drought, even a very small amount of water can make a big difference. But the wine industry is also mostly very aware that water is not a limitless resource.
The classic French aperitif is dusted off and enjoyed again, classic apéro day 16-18 September
Where did that classic French aperitif go? Byrrh, Noilly Prat, Dubonnet, l’Ambassadeur, St Raphaël, Kina Karo, Lillet and more. All of them are based on wine to which spices, fruits or aromatic plants have been added, often also quinine for its beneficial effects. Aperitif wines have a long tradition, but they experienced their greatest success in France in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The memory of some of them has faded, but in fact, most of them are alive and kicking and now there is a reawakened interest in the classic aperitif.
The Fédération Française des Vins d’Apéritif is doing its best to spread the word about these historic aperitifs and on September 16, 17 and 18 it is organizing the “Apéritif du Patrimoine” to make people discover or rediscover these more than 100-year-old wines, forever associated with the French towns where they are made: Noilly Prat in Marseillan (Languedoc), Byrrh in Thuir (Roussillon), St Raphaël in Saint-Raphaël (Provence), Dolin in Chambéry (Savoie), Lillet in Podensac (Bordeaux), Kina Karo in Lagrasse (Languedoc) and more. Read more ffva
Read more on Dolin in this article.
Read more on other classic aperitifs in this article.
Champagne is looking forward to a fabulous harvest
I have just returned from Champagne, where the producers are confidently looking forward to the harvest, which will start around September 12. But, as they say, nothing is certain until the must is in the tank. They have had problems with downy mildew, a fungal disease, and some parts of Champagne have seen grey rot (botrytis) spread in recent days, but overall, they have fine grapes and grape bunches that are unusually heavy. Champagne Jacquinot had weighed in pinot noir at 243g on 20 August, chardonnay at 216g and pinot meunier at 143g. One producer we met went so far as to say that 2023 might be the house’s best year ever. Now, they are hoping for sunny weather, and the forecast looks good. We will tell you more after our September visits to Champagne.
Travel: Come on a wine tour to Champagne with BKWine.
South Africa is recovering, but many challenges remain
The South African wine industry is recovering from the pandemic, but challenges remain. This is according to the latest Outlook report 2023-2032 from the Bureau for Food and Agricultural Policy (BFAP). In 2022, the surface planted with wine grapes fell below 90,000 hectares for the first time since 1998. This is due, among other things, to low-profit margins for producers. Only 12% of wine producers in South Africa are profitable, 49% break even, and 39% run at a loss. Grape growers are finding it difficult to make a living from selling their grapes, and many will either uproot their vines or replace old vines with higher-yielding varieties. A perhaps more sustainable way is to try to integrate the grape growers into the value chain in order to increase their income.
Wine stocks increased in 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic as it occasionally led to alcohol bans. However, the stock levels have since dropped significantly during 2022 and are now at an acceptable level, in part because the country exported a much larger quantity of wine in bulk than what it was aiming for in 2022. The focus now is to promote South Africa as a producer of exciting premium quality wines. Keeping the wine industry sustainable has major socio-economic benefits. The wine industry contributes significantly to the Western Cape’s economy, and every single job on a vineyard generates around 10 off-farm jobs, many in the tourism sector.
Read more about the future of the South African wine industry here. bizcommunity
Travel: Come on a wine tour to South Africa with BKWine.
The olive tree around the world
We don’t usually write about olive trees and olive oil. But they are frequently seen close to vineyards, and they, like the vine, have a good resistance to heat and drought. So, when we came across a newly released report on the state of the olive tree in the world, we cannot help but share some facts.
Key figures for olive cultivation in the world:
- Producer countries: 41
- Location of olive cultivation: 98% in the Mediterranean area (48% in the EU)
- Total area in the world: 10.4 million hectares
- Olive world production in 2021: 3.4 million tons
- Largest olive country: Spain, with 2.6 million hectares, of which 93% of olives are intended for olive oil production, 3% for eating and 4% for both.
- In second place: Tunisia, with 1.28 million hectares (the country’s largest agricultural product)
- Irrigation: Only about 20% of the world’s olive trees are irrigated
- Number of olive presses: 12,000 worldwide
Olive oil represents only 2% of the world’s consumption of vegetable oils. The EU accounts for 50%. America and Asia are increasing their consumption and now account for 19% and 17%, respectively. Read more (pdf): franceagrimer
Desert-like drought reduces the harvest in Roussillon
Perhaps this year, the growers in Roussillon in the southwest of France will have their lowest harvest yield ever. There has not been much rain this year, not even 200 mm. And last year was also extremely dry. Most vines still survive, especially the vineyards that are closest to the sea. But there are limits. Many believe they will lose 40% of their harvest this year. Roussillon is expected to produce just under 400,000 hectolitres this year compared to 550,000 last year and 750,000 ten years ago. The yield will be around 20 hl/ha. Many people are hoping for a good splash of rain this winter. Read more: larvf
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Features of the Month
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Articles and features published on BKWine Magazine and on our wine travel blog and (occasionally) photography blog in the last month.
Champagne with more personality, less bling, and modest price: go for growers
The Big Houses dominate the champagne market. As an example, in Sweden, roughly three million bottles of champagne are sold each year. Well under ten per cent of these are from growers who manage the vineyard themselves and make the wine. The rest, around 90%, is from large producers who often make millions of bottles and sell under the internationally known brands, the “Champagne houses”. From a grower, you often get a more personal wine and also often more character for the penny. But the difficulty lies in finding the names and finding the bottles from these small producers. BKWine’s Sven-Olof Johansson went on a journey of discovery at a tasting with grower champagnes at the French ambassador’s residence in Stockholm.
Read more in Sven-Olof Johansson’s article on BKWine Magazine: Choose an exciting champagne from a grower instead, for a greater experience – a selection.
Travel: Come on a wine tour to Champagne with BKWine.
Domaine Saladin, exceptional Côtes-du-Rhône wines from two ambitious sisters | Britt on Forbes
It feels like Domaine Saladin is doing everything right. Because it is not enough to make good wine, you must also be able to sell it. As soon as you see Saladin’s minimalist labels, you are curious. Half the battle is won. The next half is won when you drink the wines. There is unusual elegance and finesse here.
Read more in Britt’s article on BKWine Magazine, originally published on Forbes: Domaine Saladin, exceptional Côtes-du-Rhône wines from two ambitious sisters | Britt on Forbes.
Chateau Franc-Mayne, a gem in Saint Emilion | Britt on Forbes
Saint Emilion is small-scale and very different from the Médoc on the other side of the Dordogne and Garonne rivers. Saint Emilion has an pretty, rolling and green landscape. The chateaux are smaller and not as “aristocratic”, more real homes. However, there is nothing “small” about the wines. I have travelled in Bordeaux for many years. Inevitably I have a few favourites. One of them is Château Franc Mayne, a Saint Emilion grand cru classé, close to the town. On our Bordeaux tours, we always try and take our wine tour travellers for a visit at Franc-Mayne and it is usually one of the most exceptional and memorable visits of any wine tour. You will see why in this article.
Read more in Britt’s article on BKWine Magazine, originally published on Forbes: New owners aim to make Chateau Franc Mayne in Saint Emilion even better | Britt on Forbes
Travel: Come on a wine tour to Bordeaux with BKWine.
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Wine Tours
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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!
Champagne, the great success-story | wine tour
One could say that Champagne is one of the greatest success-stories of French wine. No other wine region has the same aura of exclusivity and prestige as Champagne. It wasn’t always so. In the late 19th century they used a lot of grapes from other regions for their wine. That ended with the controlled appellations that were introduced in the early 1900s. Today all grapes for champagne must come from the Champagne region and its 32,000 hectares of vineyards. Today they make a bit over 300 million bottles each year. Going back to the middle of the last century, they made only one tenth of that. Now it is by far the world’s most expensive and sough after sparkling wine. But it is not only luxury and prestige, it is also “real” wine made by real winemakers. On our wine tour to Champagne you will experience some of the glitz but we will above all show you the “real” champagne. You will meet real winemakers, visit real wine cellars (not just for show) and you will have some really, really delicious meals. With champagne, of course.
Come on a wine tour to Champagne with us.
Book now!
- Champagne, September 27 – October 1, 2023
And also: We have written an internationally award-winning book on Champagne, so you can hardly get a better guide to the region.
Your best wine and food experience in France? Bordeaux and Champagne combined wine tour
Where should you go to experience the best wine and food in France? In a way, one could say “anywhere”, because almost everywhere you go in France, you find outstanding cuisine and excellent wines. And yet, the two wine regions that stand out as role-models are Bordeaux and Champagne. It is these two that others strive to imitate. Or that’s perhaps not quite right. It is rather that others, who want to make excellent red or sparkling wine take inspiration from them. And, of course, both in Champagne and in Bordeaux you can find outstanding gastronomy. It is not necessarily the “flashiest” with crystal glasses and silver cutlery, but it is with magnificent raw material and world class talent. Some (most) of the meals we present you on this tour is in the cosy atmosphere of a small chateau or the private dining room of a wine producer. But we also show you the true soul of the wine makers and the wine region. You get to meet people who are really involved in the making of wine, whose life it is to make outstanding wine. That they will share with you, both their wine and their knowledge. A very special wine tour to two of the world’s top wine regions.
This is a unique opportunity to visit France’s two most famous wine regions in one enjoyable go.
Come and discover Champagne and Bordeaux with us.
Book now!
- Champagne and Bordeaux, September 27 – October 5, 2023
PS: We have written an internationally award-winning book about Champagne, and also one on Bordeaux. And nine other wine books. Can you think of any other wine tour operator with that in the baggage?
Bordeaux Left Bank is very different from Right Bank, as you will discover on the wine tour
Bordeaux is actually a very big wine region. It is today around 110,000 hectares of vines. This is about the same as half of California’s total wine vineyards acreage. So it is nor surprising that there are great differences in wine styles. The main watershed between wine styles is, of course, the river, or more precisely, the two rivers Dordogne and Garonne. We talk about the Right Bank and the Left Bank, as expressed along the flow of the rivers. The Right Bank has Saint Emilion, Pomerol, Fronsac and a few more regions. It is dominated by merlot often with a good dose of cabernet franc. The soil is limestone or clay, the climate is cooler. The wines have lots of fruit, are elegant, with a ripe -fruit character. On the Left Bank you have Medoc, Graves (with Pessac-Léognan), Sauternes and some more. Here, it is cabernet sauvignon that dominates, with additions of several other grapes. The wines are more “structured”, with more tannins, more pronounced oak and tobacco. The soil is often gravelly. It’s closer to the Atlantic. This is one of the many finer points of Bordeaux wines that you will get to know on our wine tour.
Join us for a fabulous Bordeaux wine tour.
Book now!
- Bordeaux, October 1-5, 2023
PS: We have written a book about Bordeaux, and have been travelling there since 1986. Can you find a better guide and tour operator?
Chile and Argentina, a thriving wine culture | the South America wine tour
Book before September 15!
Argentina and Chile are two exciting wine countries. On this tour, we explore the wine culture that exists in these countries. It has a longer history than you might think. They make wine here since before vineyards spread across the Medoc in Bordeaux. Today, the create wines with a lot of personality, while continuing to refine which grape variety is best suited to grow where. They push the limits of viticulture and venture to high altitudes (in Argentina) and far south (in Chile) in search of slightly cooler climates. We visit some of our favourites in Mendoza, Argentina, the district that accounts for 70 percent of the country’s wine production. In Chile, we will go to Maipo and Colchagua and we will also reach the Pacific coast and visit the wine districts of Casablanca and San Antonio and the amazing city of Valparaiso. Another highlight of the trip is the bus trip over the Andes. Unforgettable. We also manage to visit the big cities of Buenos Aires and Santiago de Chile.
Come with us and discover the wine countries of Chile and Argentina.
Book quickly and before September 15!
More inspiration: You can get an even better feeling for what you will experience on this tour if you visit the latest tour’s own Facebook group. Lots of pictures and videos from the tour (join the group and you’ll get an update when we post new contents): The wine tour to Chile and Argentina 2023.
South Africa, a quality country to be reckoned with for wine | wine tour
People like to go to South Africa for various reasons, not least the nature, the beautiful location at the southern tip of Africa, safaris, golf… and then of course we have the wine. Which we want to make more people discover. South African producers had a tough time during the pandemic, even periodic sales bans. But now they are starting to feel optimistic again. There are still challenges to overcome but there is a lot of positive things happening in the wine industry today and it is becoming more and more dynamic. You will notice that during our visits when we talk to the winemakers who like to experiment and who fight to show that South Africa is a quality country to be reckoned with. We ourselves are already convinced of that. We know it is a fabulous wine country.
We visit the classics, Franschhoek and Stellenbosch, and also some of the “new” districts such as Walker Bay and Swartland, which will make you an avant-garde connoisseur of South African wine. The food is fantastic; it has influences from near and far. Cape Malay cuisine is a favourite. Join us in February next year, summertime and harvest time. It cannot get better.
Discover South Africa, the fantastic wine country, with us.
Book now!
More inspiration: You can get an even better feeling for what you will experience on this tour if you visit the latest tour’s own Facebook group. Lots of pictures and videos from the tour (join the group and you’ll get an update when we post new contents): The wine tour to South Africa 2023.
The wine tour with extra everything – wine, culture, nature, wilderness, big cities, gastronomy, and extra far away | the wine tour to New Zealand
In a fairly short time we have become accustomed to drinking wines from New Zealand. The world’s wine consumers quickly embraced the crisp and aromatic sauvignon blanc and the elegant and complex pinot noir. These two are the most widely grown grape varieties but on our journey from Auckland in the north to Central Otago in the south we will come across many others, such as chardonnay, riesling, pinot gris, syrah and merlot. Wines are the focus, but there will be a lot of other things on this tour as well. We enjoy amazing nature, meals with many different specialties, natural phenomena such as geysers and hot springs, the beautiful capital Wellington and some of the small towns that we pass on our journey through the country, a lovely boat journey between the North Island and the South Island. We cover a lot of things, but it never feels stressful. It is an extended pleasure.
Join us for a great wine, nature and culture experience on the New Zealand wine tour.
Book now!
More inspiration: You can get an even better feeling for what you will experience on this tour if you visit the latest tour’s own Facebook group. Lots of pictures and videos from the tour (join the group and you’ll get an update when we post new contents): The wine tour to New Zealand 2020.
