BKWine Brief # 95, June 2011
Finally some summer. We had a sampling of summer in April and early May but after that it has been rather chilly.
Summer can be a good occasion to spend some more time with good wines and perhaps read that wine book or that wine magazine that one simply has not come round to reading.
In the last issue of the Brief you could read about some of our suggestions for barbecue wines. In this issue we will give you five suggestions of how to make it a more interesting wine summer:
1. Think about the temperature: Serve the red wines a bit cooler (~16C) and the white wines not too cold (~8C). It will make the reds a little more refreshing and give the whites a bit more flavour and character.
2. Don’t go for the rosé: Yes, it is trendy and you are supposed to say “rosé is so good these days”, but in reality many rosés are quite boring and character-less, as well as having quite a bit of residual sugar to help a weak wine. We suggestion that you rather choose a red or a white, or why not one of each. A rosé is still quite often the in-between choice supposed to please everyone. Which it doesn’t.
3. Don’t pick a bag-in-box (wine pouch): This is perhaps particularly relevant for the Scandinavian market (in Sweden almost 60% of all wine is sold in BiB!). Buy three of four bottles, different bottles, instead of the BiB. It will be so much more fun and the wine will be much better.
4. Dare to be different: Try some different or unexpected wine and food matches. Why not a Beaujolais to the grilled fish? Or a white wine to the cheese? (Delicious!) Or a New World chardonnay to the barbecue. It can’t be all bad. It can actually be excellent! And fun.
5. Designate a “country of the week”: Drink only wines from that country for a full week, say Portugal one week, Greece the next, and then France. Etc. But pick some countries that you are not so familiar with – not your usual Napa Cab or Chianti. It will take some planning but with a bit of cooperation from a few wine merchants it shouldn’t be too difficult to do.
And since summer is here it is about time to think about the wine tours to do in the autumn!
We still have a few places left on our Bordeaux wine tour in September, but not many.
Book now!
Britt & Per
PS: Recommend to your friends to read the Brief or forward it to them !
2 Responses
I would have to say that I disagree with a part of you summer do’s and dont’s. First, I do recommend people try rose wine. Some have residual sugar but many are dry. There are sone beuatiful examples such as Domaine du Cheverhy, made from Pinot Noir and a small amount of Beaujolais.
Second, I am not a fan of bag in the box wine either but that doesn’t mean people shouldn’t drink them. For some this is perfectly acceptable.
Sharon,
Yes, I agree, there are indeed some good rose’s, but in many cases it is just a choice to avoid making a real choice. Just like, for example, Beaujolais, there is a sea of uninteresting wine but if you look hard you can find some really good ones too.
The point of the list was to make people think a little bit differently and maybe venture into something a little more exciting than “the usual”.
-Per