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100 points!
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There is no such thing as perfection. At least not in wine. If anything, the perfect wine is the one you currently have in your glass. Yet one gets the impression that many are looking for the perfect wine or the perfect occasion to drink a wine from the cellar when it has reached perfect maturity. And achieve the perfect food and wine combination.
If anything can scare away would-be wine drinkers (and the wine industry needs new consumers!), this is it. The pursuit of perfection. And the complexity (we come to that later).
Maybe a wine that costs a little more (much more) and has a famous name is more perfect? If it costs several hundreds, surely it must be close to perfect, right? But the value probably lies more in the text on the label than in the liquid in the bottle. You easily get the impression that you must spend a lot of money to get a delicious wine. That is not correct.
The only way to judge a wine honestly and without preconceived notions is to taste the wine blind, completely blind, without knowing anything (anything at all!) about what is in the glass. Those who give 99 or 100 points to wines seldom taste them blind. They almost always know roughly what they have in the glasses – if you are sitting in a château in Bordeaux, or at a tasting with prestige cuvées in Champagne or at a themed tasting for an article for The Wine Magazine – it is not blind even if you do not know exactly what you have in each particular glass. And so, the score will be accordingly.
And then this complexity issue. We just sat in a telephone queue with the bank for around an hour to arrange a simple payment, and three times, we had to give them our social security number, company id number (two different), plus various other strange “control questions”. Not something that made one want to deal with a bank. Too complicated. Not infrequently it feels as if wine plays in the same league.
Many self-proclaimed wine experts make it sound complicated and complex to choose wine for food when, in fact, it is simple and something that people have done for centuries without anxiety. Before transporting most things worldwide became easy, people drank the region’s wines with its food, the most natural thing in the world. Was it good? I am almost sure it was.
How did we end up making wine and food a complex question? Why have we failed to convey that wine is great to drink with food and that combining the two is not complicated? If the wine industry and wine writers are now worried about declining consumption, we should start by NOT saying it is challenging to combine food and wine. Because it is not. If you want, you can make it a science (well, a pseudoscience). But otherwise, you pick a wine you like or are curious about and drink it with good food.
It is as simple as that.
Not only consumers but also producers strive for perfection, to make their wines better and better, year after year. Should we blame the 100-point scale that claims that perfect wines exist (which they don’t, see the first sentence) or just ambition, that they believe that their wine can constantly get better and better? Of course, it is crucial to define what ” better” means; it could be small details in the wine that the winemaker notices but not the regular wine drinker.
Is wine like athletes? Records are constantly broken in various disciplines in the World Championships and the Olympics. It is not only because the athletes run faster, jump higher and so on, but also because their equipment – shoes, boats, poles – is designed to enable them to perform better. Is wine’s equivalent of sprint shoes a new state-of-the-art peristaltic pump? We have seen some advanced cellars during our tours this autumn. I remember some fermentation tanks I had not seen before that were designed differently to provide different types of skin extraction depending on the grape variety. Did they make the wine more perfect? Perhaps. It did taste delicious.
On the other hand, in the Douro Valley, some people think they make better wine with foot treading. And they do make delicious wines. If it’s better than non-foot treaded wines, I cannot say. And anyway, all producers, regardless of cellar equipment, believe that perfection is only achieved if you have perfect grapes at harvest.
The perfect wine does exist. But it can be any wine that turns into something perfect under certain favourable circumstances. Thanks to who you drink it with and where you drink it.
Travel season
Now we have made it through almost all the autumn tours, Champagne, Mallorca, Portugal, Austria and more. Only one remains, our new tour to the sherry district of Andalusia. Fortunately, they are not expecting rain there next week.
Winter wine tours
A tour that is really special is our South America wine tour that takes you to Chile and Argentina in January. It is perhaps our most exotic trip juxtaposing these two Latin American countries and also an absolutely fantastic journey over the Andes. If you want to come along, you need to act NOW. Booking extended to let more wine enthusiasts join. Book now.
We have two other very special tours this winter. First, The Great South Africa Tour, which takes you to almost every wine region in South Africa. A unique insight into South Africa’s wines that no other tour can give you. Book now.
The third winter tour is to New Zealand. I should probably also call it “The Great” New Zealand tour. From north to south over 16 days, you get a view of this new and modern but far-away wine country that few others have. Be one of the first to realise that New Zealand has so much more to offer than “just” sauvignon blanc. Not least nature and culture. A so charming wine country. Book before 15 November.
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
Wine editors to the national encyclopaedia, Forbes.com contributors, award-winning wine book authors, wine tour advisors to the UN and national wine organisations, wine judges … and, above all, passionate wine travellers.
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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:
- Chile-Argentina, 13-26 January 2025
- South Africa, 14-24 February 2025
- New Zealand, 11-26 March 2025
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- Burgundy and the Rhone Valley, 17-25 September 2025 (program coming soon)
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.
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Quality in Germany after difficult weather | 2024 wine harvest
Like many other wine countries in 2024, Germany has struggled against the forces of the weather. The overall harvest volume was not much lower than normal as the large regions of Rheinhessen, Palatinate and Baden managed to produce good volumes, but in some of the smaller regions the volume loss was severe. Saxony lost 70%, Saale-Unstrut 73%, Ahr 64% and Mosel 30%. Germany’s total volume in 2024 of 7.9 million hl is 10% lower than the 10-year average.
The regional differences in yield were mainly due to late frosts in April which in some places severely damaged the young buds. The April frost has also left its mark on the slopes along the Rhine and Nahe rivers as well as in large parts of Franconia and Württemberg. Here, the reductions in harvest volumes range from 19% in Franconia to 25% in Württemberg. The Mosel was hit by large hailstorms in May. Here, the harvest is expected to be the smallest in 50 years.
Despite the difficulties, overall grape quality has been excellent, says the Deutsches Weininstitut. Read more: winesofgermany
Analysing and deciding the future of wine, the OIV Congress of 2024 – the world’s most important wine event?
The International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV), a kind of UN for wine, held this year’s congress in Dijon in October. The OIV sets the technical and quality standards for most of the wine world and is a vital channel for international collaboration. The congress is an occasion to present some of the latest research. It is also a forum for (almost) all wine producing countries to agree on frameworks, regulations and standards for wine. (Regretfully, the US has chosen not to take part.) There was plenty of very interesting reports and research presented during the congress. BKWine Magazine attended several. For example, on pesticide residues in wine, on wine tourism and how it is different in the new world and the old world, on the evolution of the (French) regulatory system (AOC etc) and its impact on wine quality, on the mineral profiles in wine, on how modern regulations and technology have made wine healthier, benefits and disadvantages of geographical indications, and many more. We hope to give you more glimpses of these things in the coming months.
Things look promising for South Africa in 2025
In Europe, the 2024 harvest has just finished and in South Africa the growing season for vintage 2025 is underway. The industry body SAWIS forecasts a good harvest. After a challenging 2024 season with extreme weather conditions including floods, frost and strong winds, South African wine producers are optimistic about the 2025 harvest. Most wine regions have received above average rain during the winter which has filled up the dams.
Growers generally did their winter pruning later to reduce the risk of frost damage, which led to more even budding. But there is still a long way to go until harvest. Now they wish for beautiful weather for the imminent flowering and continued good conditions so that the growers can recover from the challenging 2024. A normal harvest and consistent quality in all regions are needed, according to SAWIS, to stabilize production and strengthen the industry’s sustainability and long-term competitiveness. Read more: sawine
Travel: Come on a wine tour to South Africa with BKWine. 2025 tour soon to be launched.
See: See pictures and videos from South Africa 2024 in the wine tours Facebook group.
Maybe 2024 will be a vintage port year
It is really too early to ask if 2024 will be a year for Vintage Port, as we learned on our Douro Valley tour recently. Although the winemakers may know deep down. Kay Bouchard at Quinta do Tedo said that their winemaker is, so far, cautious and does not want to comment. At Symington’s Quinta do Bomfim in Pinhão, in the heart of the Douro Valley, quality is believed to be of vintage calibre.
The season offered a good amount of rain until August, which was very dry and with high temperatures, up to 47 degrees C. At Quinta do Tedo, the vines “shut down” and ripening stopped. “For a while we feared we wouldn’t get enough sugar in the grapes,” Kay said. But in the end, everything went well. The Alves de Sousa family at Quinta da Gaivosa experienced their longest harvest period ever, starting on August 27 and ending on October 20. The volume is less than normal but of very good quality.
Travel: Come on a wine tour to the Douro Valley in Portugal with BKWine.
100-year anniversary of the South African grape pinotage
Congratulations to the South African grape pinotage, which turns 100 this year. Pinotage was created in 1924 by Professor Perold who crossed two grapes, cinsault (in South Africa at the time called hermitage) and pinot noir, hence the name pinotage.
However, it took until 1961 before a pinotage was launched on the market. The first wine was made in 1959 at the Lanzerac estate in Stellenbosch.
During these 100 years, how has the grape developed? For a long time, many producers thought it was a difficult grape. And not all consumers embraced it either. But as Danie Steytler Jr at Kaapzicht says, it takes a few decades before you understand how a completely new grape variety should be handled. Today we find excellent pinotage wines in different styles: a full-bodied, concentrated style and a lighter style with less oak, a little more towards elegance. Pinotage is the dominant grape in a Cape Blend, a category that was established as a sort of counterbalance to Bordeaux blends.
In a separate post you’ll get some recommendations on good pinotage wines. Although it is the grape that is perhaps most associated with South Africa, pinotage is not the country’s most planted grape.
Travel: Come on a wine tour to South Africa with BKWine. 2025 tour soon to be launched.
See: See pictures and videos from South Africa 2024 in the wine tours Facebook group.
Pinotage recommendations to celebrate the centenary
The pinotage grape turns 100 years old this year, as we note in another post. This is obviously a good reason to celebrate with a glass (and maybe discover that old story about “bakelite” or smokiness is no longer true):
- Steytler Pinotage 2021, Kaapzicht, elegant, flavourful, rich in style with freshness
- Pinotage 2003 L’Avenir, Stellenbosch, shows that pinotage can age well, excellent with good acidity, full-bodied, very well-balanced, lovely mouthfeel with some ripe plum, slight vanilla notes at the end
- Diemersdal Estate Pinotage Reserve 2021, fresh acidity, some oak and caramel
- Rijk’s Private Cellar Pinotage 2018, Tulbagh, good, some oak, lots of fruit, fresh, some tannin at the end
- The Owl Post Pinotage 2018 Neethlingshof Short Story Collection, Stellenbosch, typical pinotage, lots of black fruit, slight astringency at the end, delicious
- Kaapzicht Pinotage 2018, excellent, a lot of freshness, balanced
Pinotage was actually given a green light in France as a permitted grape and allowed to be planted in 2012 but as far as we know no one has yet done it.
Travel: Come on a wine tour to South Africa with BKWine. 2025 tour soon to be launched.
See: See pictures and videos from South Africa 2024 in the wine tours Facebook group.
Fungus-resistant grapes should be called fungus tolerant
There is a lot of talk about fungus resistant grapes (sometimes called PIWI, from German pilzwiderstandsfähige). But the descriptor is maybe poorly chosen. The “fungus resistant” grapes used today are hybrids, in other words crosses between Vitis vinifera (the European vine) and American vines, Vitis somethingelse (labrusca, rupestris…). They are developed to have the American vine’s resistance to fungal diseases combined with the flavour profile of a Vitis vinifera.
But none of these hybrids, which are now slowly starting to spread in the vineyards, have total resistance to all three of the most common fungal diseases in the vineyard, mildew, oidium and black rot, which has been noticed this unusually rainy year when even “fungus resistant” grapes were attacked. This has led some to question their usefulness. But the fact that they have good tolerance rather than resistance to fungal diseases does not detract from their usefulness. Potentially, spraying can be reduced by 80% with these grapes. Read more: vitisphere
Champagne is preparing for more climate change
When you visit Champagne nowadays, the question of the acidity in the wines often comes up. It is generally accepted that a good quality sparkling wine should have a high acidity. But with warmer summers, the acidity in the grapes decreases while the sugar content increases. The grapes are riper when harvested. This is mostly a good thing in a region like Champagne. Although we were told on our visit on the wine tour there in September that some producers will chaptalise this year (adding sugar during fermentation to raise the alcohol content), the practice is much more unusual now than it was in the past. Today, it is easier to reach the alcohol content you want (12-12.5%) naturally.
Much research is being done in Champagne on how to deal with a warmer climate and more unpredictable weather. In the past, Champagne regularly received around 60 mm of rain each month. Now, the rain often comes in the form of downpours and storms with extreme amounts of water, like in 2024. However, there can also be years of drought when as much as 10-15% of the grapes completely shrivel from the intense solar radiation (échaudage in French). A new way of managing the canopy may be needed. Read more: tema-agriculture-terroirs
Travel: Come on a wine tour to Champagne with BKWine. (PS: We’ve written a prize-winning book on Champagne.)
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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.
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Continued renaissance for Moldovan wines, dinner with Moldova’s Wine Boss | Per on Forbes
Although wine has been made for thousands of years in eastern Europe, many of the countries can really be thought of as “New World” wine countries. During the Soviet repression, the focus was on producing large quantities of bulk wine. It is only after the disappearance of the Iron Curtain that the quality of the wine became a factor. But today it is a critical factor, in an increasing international and increasingly competitive wine world. One of those countries is Moldova, wedged in between Ukraine and Romania. A few years ago (before covid) we, BKWine, had the opportunity to make a thorough review of the wine industry in Moldova, visiting almost all of the wineries of note. At the time, we noted that there was a great potential but that there was also much work to be done. What has happened since? We had the opportunity to explore that over a delicious French dinner together with Stefan Iamandi, the new director of the National Office of Vine and Wine (Wine of Moldova), when he visited Paris earlier this year. The story he told was exciting.
Read more in Per’s article on BKWine Magazine, originally published on Forbes: Continued renaissance for Moldovan wines, dinner with Moldova’s Wine Boss | Per on Forbes.
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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!
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High altitude and cool-climate vineyards for real on the wine tour to Argentina and Chile – URGENT!
It has become fashionable to talk about the benefits of high-altitude wine growing. As climate change is become more noticeable, it has become more important to look for cooler growing climates. As you go up 100 metres in altitude a rule of thumb is that temperature goes down by 1 degree C. But when people laude 500 or even 300 m altitude as “high” it seems a bit exaggerated. Come to Mendoza in Argentina and you will experience some real high-altitude vineyards. The average altitude is 900 M and when we go south to the Uco Valley we’ll get above 1000 m with the spectacular Andes Mountain range as a backdrop. This gives added freshness and definition to the wines. Many growers are today looking for suitable places on the slopes of the mountains. The day when we drive over the Andes, we’ll get a glimpse of Mendoza’s highest vineyard, at 2000 m in Uspallata. The vineyards are over 3000 m in Salta, but we don’t have time to go there. However, we get to that height when we have lunch in the Andes.
In Chile, they get a similar effect, a cooler growing climate, by planting vines closer to the cool waters of the Pacific. We’ll see that in San Antonio where, for instance, they make excellent sauvignon blanc, riesling and pinot noir. Not what one expects from Chile perhaps, but still outstandingly good. The quest for quality in Chile and Argentina is very noticeable when you go there.
Join us for a wine adventure on the wine tour in Argentina and Chile.
Very urgent to book! Only a few places left.
- Chile-Argentina, 13-26 January 2025
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.
Which are the most exciting things about a wine tour to South Africa?
What do you remember the most? Which are the greatest experiences of a wine tour to South Africa? I think it’s mainly three things. Firstly, of course, we have the winery visits. All the wine producers you will meet, and especially on a trip with BKWine where we focus on the smaller producers with great talent where we often meet the winemaker or the owner and have exciting discussions. There is a big difference between this and visits to “the big names” (where most other tour organisers do visits) who are tourist-oriented and “professional” with streamlined visits. Then there is the nature, partly the grandiose, often dramatic mountains, but also the very big difference there can be in short distances. On our tour, we will experience both a cool coastal climate and almost desert climate. The third is undoubtedly the people. It is a very welcoming country that welcomes visitors with open arms. And although it is a country of great differences, by and large all South Africans are very proud of their country and happy to show it off to visitors. But come along for a tour and judge for yourself. It would be interesting to hear what sticks in your memory the most!
Urgent to book! Booking 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 2024.
16 days and 1600 km filled with exclusive wine, food, nature and culture on the New Zealand wine tour
Yes, this is exclusive and exceptional. It is our longest wine tour but for most people, it is also the farthest away that they will ever travel. So we have filled it with really exceptional experiences. We want to show you the best of New Zealand wine, but not only that. It is a once-in-a-lifetime experience to come here, so we want to give you a complete experience of this charming and welcoming country. Around 1000 years ago the Maori people settled here. Then came the English; Captain James Cook arrived in 1769, not without troubles. Today it is a very peaceful country. Quality wine is more recent. In the 1980s the NZ sauvignon blancs arrived in Europe with a big splash. Immediate success. Today it is their most important variety. But there is so much more to wine here. One thing that makes it particularly exciting is that you will often meet the first generation winemaker, the one who started the winery. That’s how young this wine country is. Very exciting. And it is certainly not only sauvignon. They make world-class pinot, outstanding syrah, delicious riesling and much more. Combine that with stunning nature (including a glacier lake), Maori culture (a genuine family dinner), gastronomy (delicious fish and lobster, a pint of bitter if you like) and much more and you have this exceptional, exclusive New Zealand wine tour.
A great wine, nature and culture experience on the New Zealand wine tour.
Urgent. Book now! Only a few seats left.
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 2024.
Burgundy and the Rhône Valley, from delicate elegance to intense fruit | wine tour
This 9-day tour offers you an incredible opportunity to explore exquisite wines, breathtaking landscapes, and world-class gastronomy in France. Journey through Burgundy, Northern Rhône, and Southern Rhône, travelling by bus from Beaune to Avignon, near the Mediterranean.
The adventure begins in the Côte d’Or, Burgundy, where we will stay in the picturesque town of Beaune. Known for its numerous wineries and the stunning Hôtel Dieu (Hospice de Beaune), Beaune is the perfect starting point. After three days of savouring Burgundy wines, we move on to Tain l’Hermitage in Northern Rhône, celebrated for its refined syrah wines. The tour concludes in Avignon, with visits to renowned wine villages such as Châteauneuf-du-Pape and Gigondas.
This tour is the perfect blend of wine, food, and culture. Stay tuned for the detailed program, coming soon.
Join us on this tour, organised by one of the world’s leading wine tour operators:
- The Grand French Wine tour to Burgundy and the Rhône Valley, 17-25 September, 2025
