Contrasts, people, experiences | New Brief #242

Our heads are spinning right now from all the impressions from the autumn wine tours, the wine regions we visited and above all the many growers we met. The Loire Valley, Bordeaux, Champagne, Tuscany, Ribera del Duero, Portugal, Piedmont, Burgundy, Sicily, Austria, the Douro Valley, and some others have been on the program. We have met many readers on these tours, and hope for many more next year.

The tours fill you with impressions and sensations. The camera helps us remember how everything looked, bottles, people, fermentation tanks, oak barrels, vineyards. But for the best visits, no camera is needed. You will remember anyway.

This intensive period of travel in the wine regions shows us two important things.

One is the great contrasts.

One week we are in Bordeaux admiring fancy state-of-the-art designed facilities “like out of a James Bond movie” (quote from one of our tour participants) and the next week we are inspecting open granite troughs in the Douro Valley where a couple of weeks ago the harvest workers foot-treaded the grapes they picked during the day. And everything in between. Contrasts, that is the world of wine in a nutshell.

Will one wine be better than the other? Does a wine get better with foot treading than one made with equipment worthy of Agent 007? No, not necessarily.

And this is where the other thing comes into play.

The people.

Someone needs to give the explanations. The better they explain and the more passionate they are about their job, the more you understand and the more you understand why they do what they do. Because there is a reason for everything that is done. A reason why you use your feet and a reason why you do not, why you use a steel tank or why you prefer untreated concrete or amphorae. The important thing to understand is that one is not necessarily better than the other. Just different. Sacred principles like “this is how things SHOULD be done” do not belong in the wine industry.

When someone explains, then you understand that there are different philosophies.

To meet the people behind the wine is also to gain a greater understanding of the difficulties and challenges they face. When you see the damage a hailstorm can do. Or how the vines look after a downy mildew attack, then you understand why it is important to spray against diseases in the vineyard. Or when you see grapes shrivelled by the drought, then you understand problems with weather and water and why irrigation may be needed to guarantee quality. Everything “depends”.

Wine for us is rarely just a drink. It is a “holistic” experience. It is almost as much about knowing something about the person who made the wine and about the place where it was grown. Therefore, a branded wine from a major producer (be it a boxed wine, a celebrity wine, a mass-produced wine from one of the internationally famous, a big champagne brand, the latest trendy brand or something else) is never as interesting as a wine where you know who made it, and where it grew.

Wine is a drink, but it is also about the experience of a person and a place, a culture. If you have also been there and met the person and enjoyed the place, the experience of the wine will never be the same again. That is why we continue to travel like crazy to the wine regions, and share the experiences both with you who come along on our tours and with you who read what we write.

And then some important public announcements… ;-)

Book launch on November 9 in Stockholm

We will both, Britt and Per, be in Stockholm for the launch of our new book “The Wine of the Future” on Thursday 9 November, at 5-7 PM in central Stockholm. We hope you’ll stop by, if you happen to be in Stockholm, and say hello, have a glass of wine (and maybe buy a book). However, please let us know in advance if you are coming. See more detailed info below.

Two of the greatest wine experiences you can have:

The tours to South Africa and New Zealand

We have extended the booking period for the wine tour to South Africa and also to New Zealand.

These two wine tours are among the very greatest wine experiences you can have. Both of these wine countries are today among the greats of the wine world, a picture you don’t always get if you just look at the selection of wine in most shops in export markets. There are great wine experiences, but not only that. The tours also give you wonderful gastronomy and much of the whole country (countries) itself, culture, nature, people. Everyone who has been on these trips has told us that they are truly special wow-experiences, and tours that would also be impossible to do on your own.

So treat yourself to something truly special this winter, join us on the wine tour to South Africa in February or the wine tour to New Zealand in March!

Autumn tours

The autumn tours to Bordeaux and Champagne in 2024 are underway. And maybe some others. (What would you like?) More info coming soon.

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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