Category: BKWine Brief Archive

Packaging or contents? We all know the importance of the label on the wine bottle. How it influences us to buy or not to buy. Most consumers are not so knowledgeable about wine, and even

White is (not?) as good as red Several times over the years I have been asked a question that has made me confused. “Can you have a wine tasting of white wines in the same

Is it time to scrap “New World Wine”? Not the wines of course but the generalising description of a group of wines using those words. “This feels like a New World wine” is something we

Streamlined or personal? What is it that makes a wine feel personal, as if it has a special character? It really has nothing to do with the price. Sometimes I get the impression that some

Sparkling trends It is popular to talk about upcoming trends at this time of year. An ongoing trend that certainly will continue in 2017 is the world’s unquenchable thirst for bubbles. In 2016 Prosecco and

Parisian café or Japanese sushi? How is the traditional Parisian café doing? Everywhere you look in the French capital, you see a sushi restaurant or a sushi takeaway where there used to be a café.

High or low alcohol Are you one of those consumers who think that the alcohol level in wines is getting higher and higher? Actually, this is an undisputed fact. Wine has more alcohol now than

Aromatized wine? Flavoured yeast? Luxury wines without oak? On our trip to the southern Rhone Valley last week we tasted the unfermented grape juice from freshly harvested Grenache. It was delicious and sweet. But it

Terroir, desirable or despicable? It is interesting to see how a word can be reassessed. Take the word terroir. A word that every wine lover uses about ten times a day. And always in a

True or not true? You can find tons of information about wine on the Internet. Who look things up in books nowadays? (Actually, as we write wine books, we hope that many do!) It is

The respect for a fine wine Wine drinking has been democratized in the last 50 years. There are today wines in all price ranges, for all budgets, for all kinds of consumers. Screwcaps and bag

Some who have just recently entered the world of wine, new wine lovers, recent wine enthusiasts, sometimes says that it is so “difficult” to taste wine. On the contrary! It is the easiest thing in

A lot happens in April. Some things that are supposed to happen, like the tasting of young Bordeaux wines from vintage 2015. Other things that shouldn’t happen but do happen nevertheless, like devastating frost nights.

White, red or rosé? Colour is not just about that! What is the importance of the colour of the? Quite a lot actually. Many people like dark, dense wines, they promise body, power and lots

This is number 150 of the BKWine Brief! Who would have thought that when we started one hundred and fifty issues ago!? Revolution in the New World? We have just come back from a wonderful

With Christmas holiday preparations to take care of maybe you don’t have time to read BKWine Brief. Or, maybe this is the time when you do have time! Whatever the case, this month’s Brief has

There are certain countries, Sweden for instance, that have specific Christmas specialities that are eaten only for Christmas. Christmas food in this sense does not exist in France. Here people eat loads of delicacies instead.

Wine consumers often have great respect, not to say reverence, for fine wine. Old vintages, famous producers, famous vineyards. It affects us all at some point. An awe that comes when you realize you have

It is sometimes strange to see how different trends and how media seem to affect our taste in wine. When they aired a popular TV series about Italian food Italian wines and travel to Italy

Cheap wines are sometimes criticised for being “blended.” Strangely enough, this is seen as something negative. But in fact most wines, almost all, are blended. More expensive wines are also blended. In Champagne they blend

We received an email from Philippe Bernard the other day, one of our favourite wine producers, in Fixin in Côte de Nuits. He was very busy, not only in the vineyards but also in the

Wine drinking doesn’t really have any seasons. With one big exception. Rosé wines. I have decided never to recommend a rosé to anyone. Sounds hard? Maybe even narrow-minded? Many years ago, I was totally against

Our travel in April has taken us both to Sancerre, to Chablis, to Bordeaux and to Champagne. The vines had reached different stages of evolution in the various districts. But everywhere we saw a nascent

March has been filled with some interesting trips for us. We have been in Hungary and tried a variety of Hungarian wines that impressed us a lot. We went there to see the very interesting

Spring is in the air? Spring is (maybe) in the air although the vineyards around Europe still stand naked, waiting for their first green leaves. Some wine producers are doing the pruning of their vines,

We have just made official the wine tour program for the coming autumn. Take a look at the info below in the Brief. We will also soon be publishing the dates for our two upcoming

A new wine year is about to begin. We will see new trends, new issues will be discussed and decided, new legislation will be made. Here are some of the things that we think will

This month we give you a double dose of reading in the BKWine Brief. It’s been two meagre months, in terms of reading the Brief, since we have had so many wine tours to deal