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Time flies. Where does it go?
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This is a short Brief. There’s a reason for that. This very day, we also have a deadline for the manuscript for our new book, so we have been a little bit busy. Our twelfth wine book.
It is a book about sustainability in the wine business. We try and explain what it is and all the things wine producers do to work towards sustainability. It also covers organic wines, natural wines and biodynamics. In a way it is a follow-up to our book from 2012 on similar subjects, but it is mostly entirely new texts and it covers much more. We like to imagine that our 2012 book was a bit of a pioneering book. It was almost too early. Organics was just gaining momentum and sustainability had hardly started (although we covered it in a short chapter).
But today sustainability is literally on everyone’s agenda, so we have perhaps better timing with this book.
Since the New Year we have also manage to run our wine tour of Argentina and Chile as well as the one in South Africa. It’s for the first time in three years, so it was great to be back to these fantastic wine countries.
So you can perhaps understand that we have been a bit busy, and we’re unfortunately offering you less content than usual in this Brief.
But we’ve collected plenty of information and inspiration on our tours, as well as in the preparation of the book, so you have things to look forward to.
Wine travel in harvest time
You can already start planning for wine tours next harvest season:
- Champagne, September 27 – October 1
- Champagne and Bordeaux, September 27 – October 5
- Bordeaux, October 1-5
Travel in winter (but summer)
Some of our most exceptional wine tours are during the winter. They are filled with very special experiences. In summer weather in the southern hemisphere!
You have three fantastic long-distance tours to choose from:
- Chile-Argentina in January 2024
- South Africa in February 2024
- New Zealand in March 2024
These are tours with unique and magnificent experiences.
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.
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, January 2024
- South Africa, February 2024
- New Zealand, 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.
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More luxury rosé in Provence? LMVH buys Château Minuty
The luxury conglomerate LVMH, which owns Champagne Moët-Chandon, Veuve Clicquot, Krug and many other champagne and wine houses, strengthens its influence in Provence. LVMH recently bought Château Minuty outside Saint-Tropez. The LVMH people know what they’re getting into. Their portfolio already includes two other Côte de Provence wine estates, specializing in rosé (what else?). Château d’Esclans, famous for its Whispering Angel, and Château Galoupet, a 70-hectare property that invests heavily in organic farming and sustainability (among other things, they have launched a flat, lightweight plastic bottle).
LVMH will continue to work with the old owners of Minuty, probably a good idea. At Château d’Esclans, LVMH and Sacha Lichine, the old owner, have together succeeded in doubling sales. The rosé wines in Provence is looking forward to a bright future in the luxury segment. Read more: winespectator
2023 looks like a promising vintage in South Africa
South Africa is in the middle of the harvest, a harvest that this year is unusually early for many producers. Oldenburg in the beautiful Banghoek Valley in Stellenbosch started harvesting three weeks earlier than last year and we heard the same thing from many of the other producers we visited in South Africa a couple of weeks ago. One reason is the dry weather during the spring, which has lasted all summer. It hasn’t been too hot. Although during our two weeks in February there was something of a heat wave (really lovely) and Oldenburg measured temperatures up to 35 degrees C. But the acidity is still good, confirms winemaker Nic van Aarde. The grapes are ripe and healthy looking but a small problem we have heard from several, including Nic, is that all the grape varieties have ripened at the same time. Normally, they don’t, each grape variety and each location ripen in its own time, which makes harvesting work and planning easier. But not so this year. The South African producers are looking forward to a successful 2023.
Travel: Come on a wine tour to South Africa with BKWine.
Four new wine producers in Austrian respekt-BIODYN
respect-BIODYN is an Austrian winegrowers’ association for biodynamic producers. It recently welcomed four new, well-respected members: Weingut Ebner-Ebenauer and Weingut Schödl in the Weinviertel, Weingut Diwald in Wagram and Weingut Schnaitmann in Württemberg in Germany. With these new members, the association has 21 members in Austria, eleven in Germany, two in Italy and one each in Hungary and Slovenia. In total, these 36 members have 1133 hectares of vineyards. The purpose of the association is not to become a large association. They offer growers who they think meet the requirements for quality and individuality in the wines to become members. They work according to Rudolf Steiner’s teachings and great importance is given to biodiversity, compost and limiting additives and processes in the cellar as much as possible. Read more: respekt-biodyn
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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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A different Tuscany: Terre di Pisa
Terre di Pisa. A fairly new area for some of us. Yes, you can probably say that. Not a single wine is in the available at Systembolaget, the monopoly in Sweden. It may seem strange as it is a part of Tuscany that we believe and think we are familiar with and like. So what what would be more obvious for the curious than to participate when the Pisa region tries to increase its presence and raise the temperature around its name? BKWine Magazine’s Henrik Stadler explores the wines from this new area.
Read more in Henrik Stadler’s article on BKWine Magazine: Terre di Pisa, a “new” wine region in Tuscany.
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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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Champagne is full of surprises (and bubbles) | wine tour
2022 was an exceptional year in Champagne (as well as in many other regions in France). It was exceptionally hot all summer and very dry. But in spite of that the vintage promises to be exceptional. A very hot year tends to produce wine that can lack freshness (i.e. have low acidity). But one of the wine producers we visited shortly after harvest said, “when we tasted the wines after it had finished fermentation it had a fantastic surprising freshness.” And then he continued, “here, I’ll show you,” and off he went to draw a sample from one of the big tanks to have us taste the wine “in the making” from the tank. And indeed, it was excellent. That’s the kind of surprises you can have when the people trust you and know who you are. “Hey, let’s take some from the tank.” That’s also why it can be a bit unpredictable what will happen on a visit. It’s a question of the winemaker’s inspiration. That’s not the kind of experience that you’ll get if you go visit the big and famous houses, where everything is orchestrated and controlled to the last millimetre to be impressive and dazzling. That’s also why we prefer to visit smaller producers where you get to meet real people.
Come on a real 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.
What’s a perfect dinner for you? Like a perfect wine tour? | Champagne and Bordeaux
Some would say that the perfect dinner would start with a bubbly glass of champagne, perhaps continuing with it on to the starter. And when the main course comes on the table, there’s a sophisticated and elegant Bordeaux (claret for the British traditionalists) poured in your glass. Well, tastes are different, but if you want to come close to the perfect wine tour, maybe you should try our very special tour that combines Champagne and Bordeaux. You will, of course, be immersed in delicious wines for a number of days, but not only that. We will spoil you with some of the best gastronomy that France puts on the table. Neither of the two regions is famous for any gastronomic specialities, as opposed to e.g. Burgundy with its beuf bourguignon and coq au vin. Instead, they pic and chose from what is best from all over France. But not so for the wine, you will get plenty of extraordinary wine but it will all be champagne and Bordeaux. Nothing else. Will that be okay for you?
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 is big, with an amazing diversity | wine tour
Bordeaux is one of France’s largest wine regions with around 110,000 hectares of vineyards. But it is not only large but also very varied. You probably think most often of the Médoc Peninsula, with the famous communes of Margaux, Pauillac, etc. The landscape there is quite flat. Almost just vines as far as the eye can see. The gravel soil is everywhere. Large, elegant chateaux, just as you imagine a wine palace should be, surrounded by its vineyards sometimes reaching 100 ha. But if you go in the other direction, to the “right bank”, rive droite, where we e.g. find Saint Emilion and the quite small Pomerol another world opens up. Vineyards blends in with woodland on lush hills. Small medieval villages, not least St Emilion itself. Here, the properties are small, often family-owned. And even the wines are different. Certainly there is a family feeling, everyone is genuinely “Bordeaux”, but there is still a big difference in style between the austere Medoc wines and the fruitier lusher wines from the Rive Droite.
Come and discover Bordeaux with us. 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?
The most alluring and delicious wine and food in Argentina and Chile | wine tour
What do you think of when we say “Argentina“? Tango for sure, and it will certainly be a fantastic tango evening in Buenos Aires. Malbec of course, we’re talking about wine after all. And don’t forget, today’s malbec is lightyears from the bulk wine that was exported in the 80s. Today they make world-class wines. But there are many other grape varieties worth discovering, semillon, syrah, fiano, torrontes, etc. And “Chile“? Perhaps the first thing that comes to mind is Valparaíso. The legendary port city that houses the Chilean congress. And the carmenère grape, but it is far from the most planted, cabernet sauvignon is the most planted and c. franc can do great things. País (aka mission, criolla chica), an almost forgotten grape that is now becoming super trendy. Perhaps you think seafood, of course, with the world’s longest coastline. And don’t forget the pisco sour, a must! And for both countries, one cannot help but think of asado, the South American barbecue orgies with all imaginable varieties and accessories.
Come with us and discover the wine countries of Chile and Argentina. Book now!
- Chile-Argentina, January 2024 (the program on the link is for 2023; the tour in 2024 will be similar but with slightly different dates)
A country with great variety and fantastic quality in wine, gastronomy and culture | wine tour to South Africa
South Africa actually has eleven different official languages. And a further 26 that are “recognised”. The most spoken is Zulu. The South African wine world is not quite as complicated. Almost all of the wine growing is in the Western Cape, in an area within a few hours’ drive of Cape Town at most. But it is becoming more and more varied for wine as well. A few decades ago, it was dominated by a few large producers. Today, it is teeming with young, ambitious, well-educated and talented wine producers. Many are so small that it is difficult to find them abroad, except if you turn to a specialised wine merchant. But what fantastic quality they produce already today. There is also a surprisingly big difference between the different wine regions. Cool climate wines are grown down on the south coast, e.g. in Walker Bay. “Southern” wines (“northern” here in the southern hemisphere) with grapes such as grenache, cinsault and syrah in more northerly Swartland. And much more.
Discover South Africa, the fantastic wine country, with us. Book now!
- South Africa, February 2024 (the program on the link is for 2023; the trip in 2024 will be similar but slightly different dates)
The wine tour to New Zealand is a long and thrilling journey through time and space
New Zealand is, of course, considered a “New World” country in wine. And compared to other countries in the New World, wine arrived here not long ago, at the beginning of the 19th century (1819), much later than in South America (16th century) and South Africa (17th century). But to make things worse, no wine worth mentioning was made until the 1980s when sauvignon blanc vineyards took off in Marlborough and those wines took the world by storm. Today, a wine tour to New Zealand is somewhat of a trip back in time, it sometimes feels like coming to England several decades ago (the restaurants close very early, for example). Today, they have a completely different wine world to show off. On our 1,600-kilometer journey, there will be a wide variety of extraordinary experiences. Lots of wine of course, and not just sauvignon blanc; pinot noir, syrah, cabernet franc, chardonnay, and much more. But also sulphurous hot water geysers, Maori culture, seals, lobster orgy, glacier mountains, gold digger landscape, bungee jumping (for the daring, this is where it all started) and much more. Exceptional.
Join us for a great wine, nature and culture experience on the New Zealand wine tour. Book now!
- New Zealand, March 2024 (the program on the link is for 2023; the trip in 2024 will be similar but slightly different dates)
