—
Contrasts, people, experiences
—
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
If you appreciate what we do, you can help us:
Tell your friends about the Brief or send it to them.
—
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, 15-28 January 2024
- South Africa, 8-18 February 2024
- New Zealand, 12-27 March 2024
–
- Champagne, September, dates TBC
- Bordeaux and Champagne, Sept – Oct, dates TBC
- Bordeaux, October, dates TBC
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:
—
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
—
News from the World of Wine
—
Short briefs on what’s been happening in the world of wine recently and other interesting things.
—
If you are in Stockholm in November: Come to the launch of our new book on November 9, “The wine of the future”
Now it is finally here. The book about the wine of the future, with the title “The Wine of the Future, Sustainable, Organic, Natural, Environmentally Friendly” (in Swedish: ”Framtidens vin, hållbart, ekologiskt, naturligt, miljövänligt”). Both Britt and Per will be in Stockholm for the book launch on Thursday 9 November 2023. It would be great to meet you there. In central Stockholm, at 17.00-19.00. Let us know by mail that you are coming to the launch and we will give you the exact address.
“The wine of the future” is about one of today’s hottest issues, the environment and sustainability. What does the wine of the future look like? We can’t really answer that. But we know that both climate change and the transition to more sustainable agriculture and production will affect the wines in different ways. The winegrower must change his way of working. In our new book, we talk about the challenges the wine industry is facing and what this might mean for the wine consumer. The focus of the book is on sustainable (including economic sustainability), organic, biodynamic and natural and to explain what all this means, for the environment, for people and for the wine. Read more here on the book The Wine of the Future”.
A book for all wine consumers who are interested in the environment, sustainability, and what kind of world we will have in the future. Hope to see you at the launch November 9 Stockholm.
What wine did South Africa drink to celebrate the Rugby World Cup victory?
Rugby is a sport for wine drinkers and football is a sport for beer drinkers. At least that’s what they say in France. Oscar Wilde supposedly expressed it a little differently: “Rugby is a game for barbarians played by gentlemen. Football is a game for gentlemen played by barbarians”.
Be that as it may, and leaving aside the constant battering of each other, rugby seems to be much more controlled and civilized. The players even listen to what the referee says. In both South Africa and France, rugby is roughly as popular a sport as football.
So what wine did the South Africans celebrate with? Well, we don’t know, but they could choose from several different wines made by rugby players. For example Kanonkop previously made by rugby legend Jan Boland Coetzee, La Boucher in Stellenbosch (Eddie ‘Kwagga’ Boucher), Welbedacht Wine Estate in Wellington (Schalk Burger father and son), The Beast Wine Collection (Tendai ‘The Beast’ Mtawarira), Annandale Estate in Stellenbosch (Hempies du Toit), and surely many more. Or a South African in France: The Rugby Field Vineyard La Grand Melée (French for scrum) at Chateau de Valcombe with the Du Plessis brothers, as well as Domaine Montgros in Languedoc (Pieter de Villiers). Or from a number of vineyards run by French rugby players, e.g. the gigantic producer Domaine Gérard Bertrand, Domaine de la Garance (Pierre Quinonero), Château Haut-Francarney in Bordeaux (Olivier Brouzet) and others.
Travel: Come with us at BKWine on a wine tour to South Africa in February to discover their amazing wines, and maybe some rugby.
New Zealand: Even a silver medal is something to celebrate, so the All Blacks can also feel proud. It seems less common for rugby players to venture into wine here, but one is John Ashworth at Junction Wine in Hawkes Bay.
Travel: There’s guaranteed to be more wine than rugby on BKWine’s New Zealand wine tour, so come along even if you’re not a rugby fan.
What are young wine drinkers looking for?
We hear it all the time nowadays: young people don’t drink wine. The wine industry is worried, in Europe and the USA. Sowine, a French consulting firm, has conducted a study on what French wine producers can do to persuade the 18-25 age group to, at least occasionally, abandon cocktails and beer and drink a glass of wine instead. Sowine’s recommendations are nothing new. The same things came up when France was first confronted with competition from New World wines just over 20 years ago.
A slightly simplified summary of Sowine’s advice to producers is that they should think differently. The young reject the traditional. They are drawn to wine labels that are fun, colourful, and different. Childishly drawn figures pique their interest more than a picture of an old chateau. They want soft, fruity and easy-drinking wines without prominent tannins. The wines should be marketed in places where young people go, such as music festivals and the like. The question of young people’s lack of enthusiasm for wine has come up a couple of times during our travels this autumn, i.e. in Bordeaux where some châteaux are expanding their range and complementing the château wines with a wine adapted to a younger target group. But not all producers see such an adaptation to young taste buds as a solution. Wine is wine, they say, and young people must learn to like it. The eternal question: how much should producers adapt and how much should consumers get used to? Read more: vitisphere
Systembolaget’s profit Q3-23 was 182 million SEK, but sales decreased and customers buy cheaper products
Systembolaget’s report for the third quarter of 2023 has some interesting figures:
- Turnover Q3 was SEK 9.8 billion, an increase of almost SEK 200 million
- In volume, however, sales fell to 147 million litres, down 4.5 million litres
- Profit (operating profit) was SEK 182 million, a decrease of SEK 48 million or -21%
- Gross margin (operating margin) was 1.86%, down from 2.39%
- “Satisfied customer index” fell to 80.0 (from 80.7)
- 33 million customer visits, i.e. 423,000 per store-day, or an average of the almost 1,000 customer visits per day per shop, with an average purchase of 300 SEK per customer per visit
They also describe a changed buying pattern: customers buy fewer and cheaper products, but shop more often. One can suspect that this is just the beginning of a change in customer behaviour, as inflation and the poor exchange rate of the Swedish krone do not yet appear to have fully affected prices. Normally, the year-end report also emphasizes the customer satisfaction index, but not this quarter, perhaps because it fell? They also underline their talent for gobbledygook (e.g. the cryptic abbreviations for their different ranges) by having the “business area manager Business Support” comment on the numbers. Wondering what such an officer does? Read more: cision
Sorting can be critical to secure the quality a problematic year like 2023
The sorting machines and sorting tables worked overtime during the 2023 harvest in France. Overall quality has been excellent and in some places this equipment is to thank for that. Dried grapes, rotten grapes, grapes attacked by downy mildew and other things have ended up in the harvest baskets. But you do not want it to end up in the yeast tank. The time-consuming sorting has paid off. (But it was far from all that had these issues with diseases.)
A manual sorting table is often used before destemming (if the grapes are harvested by hand). After de-stemming, many producers find it more efficient to use a machine. Château Bernateau in Saint Emilion has experience with both the optical sorting machine and another machine called Tribaie. The latter worked best this year, says Karine Lavau during our visit in early October.
In a Tribaie, the de-stemmed grapes are placed in water with a sugar solution of a certain density. The sorting of the grapes happens thanks to the grapes’ different sugar content. Leaves and other plant debris, dried berries and berries affected by downy mildew or rot float. The flawless, ripe berries that you want to keep fall to the bottom. A very efficient sorting. Others have used optical sorting and been very happy with it.
Here, you can watch a video showing manual and optical sorting of grapes at Chateau Phelan Segur, Bordeaux.
Travel: Come on a wine tour to Bordeaux with BKWine.
Is pinot noir the future of Alsace?
Riesling is the flagship grape of Alsace, along with gewurztraminer. But the latter is no longer profitable to produce and the riesling harvests are getting smaller and smaller due to warmer weather. How will this end? Perhaps with increased production of red wines? The red grape in Alsace is pinot noir and in the past these wines were thinner and lighter than many rosé wines. Nowadays it is increasingly colourful and flavourful. The climate in Alsace is approaching that of Burgundy 20 years ago.
The riesling grapes in 2023 were so small due to the heat that the harvest for some growers was not bigger than 20 hl/ha. Pinot Noir, on the other hand, fared better and produced large, heavy grapes with a lot of juice. Perhaps more pinot noir will be the solution for the future. And solutions are needed in Alsace. Too many winegrowers face poor profitability due to low harvest yields. The income per hectare is too small. Every year in Alsace 200 growers close their businesses. Sparkling cremant d’alsace sells well however and now accounts for 30% of sales in Alsace. Read more: wein-plus
The important French wine cooperatives are increasing again
A new report provides an interesting insight into the world of French wine cooperatives. The cooperatives do not get big headlines in newspapers, but they are very important for the wine industry. The cooperatives produce between 35 and 40% of the French wine production, depending on the year. A member of a cooperative farms an average of 7.5 hectares compared to 13.5 ha for French winegrowers in general. There are around 400 cooperatives in France (excluding Champagne) and these each cultivate on average 662 hectares. The IGP (indication géographique protégée) category is their strong point. They harvest 63 to 68% of French IGP production, depending on the year but only 35% of the AOP production and, perhaps surprisingly, only 25-30% of wines without a geographical indication (vin de france). The cooperatives make a lot of rosé wine, 58% of the national harvest, compared to 40% of the red wines and 41% of white.
The cooperatives lost 34,000 hectares between 2010 and 2020. However, the last two years have seen a slight increase, perhaps a result of economic difficulties forcing smaller independent winegrowers to join cooperatives. The French cooperatives (still excluding Champagne) now exploit 275,000 hectares. But many of the cooperatives have problems with profitability and often show results that are lower than the private sector of the same size. Champagne has around 130 cooperatives that manage around 40% of the area. However, you should perhaps remember that you can drink cooperative wine without knowing it. Private wine producers can buy raw material (wine) from co-ops and integrate it into their blends. Read more: vitisphere
New growing season for South Africa in full swing
In Europe, people are exhaling after a challenging harvest season that has just ended. In South Africa, the new growing season has started and with it also the speculation about the potential of the 2024 harvest. The producers are happy with the rain that came during the winter. Above average rainfall in all growing regions has filled dams and soils. This is according to harvest forecasts compiled by industry bodies Vinpro and SAWIS. Water, and its access, is a critical aspect of South African wine production.
Spring came early, with the first buds appearing two weeks earlier than last season. The number of buds per vine was consistently high and even, a testament to the excellent winter conditions. It has been cool and rainy during the spring, with quite heavy downpours in some places at the end of September with floods as a result. We’ve seen some dramatic pictures from the south coast, Bot River and Walker Bay. Some wine districts have been affected, exactly how seriously it will affect production is not yet known. Overall however, people are optimistic about 2024’s potential. Read more sawine
Travel: Experience the 2024 harvest up close in South Africa on a wine tour with us at BKWine in February!
Excellent quality but challenging conditions 2023 for the wine harvest in France
Heat, drought, moisture, downy mildew, powdery mildew, grey rot, hail… The winegrowers in France have not lacked challenges in 2023. Now the harvest is finished and despite difficulties the result is excellent. In Burgundy, everyone is happy. After several very small harvests, many producers are lacking wines to sell. 2023 offered both quality and a very much needed quantity. However, there were still problems. High temperatures caused problems for those who did not preserve enough foliage to provide shade for the grapes. In Bordeaux, there have been some losses in volume due to severe mildiou attacks, especially on merlot. However, there is a general satisfaction with the quality. Champagne managed both quality and quantity this year. The Chassenay d’Arce cooperative in Aube in southern Champagne reports of an abundance of grapes and a harvest at record speed because all the grape varieties ripened at the same time. The bunches were also unusually heavy with an average weight of almost 219 grams compared to 130 grams in previous years.
Travel: Join us at BKWine on a tour to experience the Bordeaux and Champagne harvest in 2024.
Innovative port wine producers find new customers
All wine regions need new customers. But global consumption is shrinking and if the global wine consumption continues to fall, consumers will become fewer and fewer. I just returned back home after 10 days in the Douro Valley and I tasted fabulous ports. Port wine has gone through some difficulties in recent years. People do not drink sweet, fortified wines as often as they used to. Port wine producers know that they must find new consumer groups and inspire people to drink port in other ways. They have always been skilled marketers. The big port wine house Sandeman launched its symbol – the dramatic man with the black cape and wide-brimmed hat – in 1926. It still today has a very high recognition factor throughout the world.
A few years ago, rosé port was launched, a style of port that did not exist before. They wanted to take advantage of the success that rosé wines have worldwide and reach new customers. Rosé port was launched not only as a port among others but also as an ingredient in cocktails. It is delicious to blend with gin, lemon, and a splash of tonic. Experiments in the USA have shown that simple things can make younger consumers appreciate port more and remove its somewhat old-fashioned image. Serve the ports in regular wine glasses instead of the small traditional port glasses and serve them at a cool temperature. Simple ways to make port more popular.
Sensitive champagne houses exaggerate the protection of their brand name, Louis Roederer whines over English petnat
It is hard to believe that it is true. And maybe it is not. But Decanter is our source and it is a serious wine magazine so it is probably true. According to them, Champagne Louis Roederer is threatening to sue the small English Urban Winery Renegarde if they don’t stop selling the wine they call Crystal (after one of their regular customers who is also pictured on the label). The wine is a pink Petnat. I guess Roederer does not mean that anyone could seriously confuse an English petnat called Crystal with their prestige champagne Cristal (different spelling, different pronunciation, different most things). Their view of things is probably that they see the petnat taking advantage of Cristal’s reputation. But is that really likely? Why does Roederer even bother to argue with such a small and in the context completely insignificant actor? It’s not the first time champagne’s millionaires’ brands have done such a thing, but just the latest in a long line of muscle-flexing by those with a lot of money. It feels petty and pointless. Read more: decanter. And Renegades Winery’s own comment on their Facebook page.
Travel: Join us at BKWine on a Champagne tour where you can experience how fantastic the small grower’s champagne are, with the risk of you abandoning the big international brands for good. We’ve even written a prize-winning book about it.
New Zealand’s Hawke’s Bay is now a “Great Wine Capital of the World”
Earlier this year, Hawke’s Bay in New Zealand became the twelfth member of the Great Wine Capitals of the World. Great Wine Capitals is a global network consisting of 12 of the world’s great wine regions. The network was founded in Bordeaux in 1999. The idea of the Wine Capital Global Network is to benefit and promote wine-related industries in these wine regions through a broad collaboration within for instance industry, tourism, and education.
Hawke’s Bay is beautifully located on the east coast of New Zealand’s North Island. On the rolling slopes are vines, olive groves, palm trees, and cypresses. With around 5,000 hectares it is the second largest wine region in the country and also the oldest. Mission Estate, which still exists, was founded in 1851. Hawke’s Bay is known for its concentrated chardonnay and excellent syrah, merlot and cabernet sauvignon. Napier, the ‘capital’, is a charming little town with unique art deco buildings.
Other regions in the Wine Capital Global Network are Adelaide/South Australia, Bilbao/Rioja, Bordeaux, Cape Winelands, Lausanne, Mainz/Rheinhessen, Mendoza, Porto, San Francisco/Napa Valley, Valparaiso/Casablanca Valley, and Verona. There is, as one of their rules, only one GWC per country and one would wish that they were not so limiting restrictive. There are many more that would merit to be part of a network to promote good wine. Read more nzwine
Travel: Join us at BKWine on a tour to Hawke’s Bay and (almost) all of New Zealand’s wine regions in March 2024!
—
Features of the Month
—
Articles and features published on BKWine Magazine and on our wine travel blog and (occasionally) photography blog in the last month.
—
Sadly, sadly…
This month we’ve been so busy with our wine tours so that we have not had the time to publish (and even less to write) any new feature articles on BKWine Magazine. On the other had, we’ve collected lots of interesting information for future articles.
Wine Tours
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!
South Africa, delicious wine and food, stunning scenery | wine tour
Booking deadline extended! Book now!
Urgent, if you want to book on this fantastic wine tour experience!
South Africa have just become world champions in rugby, but they are also good at making wine. Several hundred years ago, the country was known for its sweet muscat wines (Constantia) and just after the fall of the apartheid regime in the early 1990s and the opening of the country, they became experts in easy-drinking wines at low prices. Now, South Africa profiles itself as a producer of exciting and unusual wines that we cannot find anywhere else. And rightfully so. There are fantastic conditions here both in terms of climate, weather, soil, grape varieties, and skilled and enthusiastic winemakers. Some of them have old vines and see them as a great asset. There are almost 100-year-old vines of semillon, chenin blanc and cinsault in South Africa. Of course, not everyone has vines this old and it is not a prerequisite for quality. There is an abundance of interesting wines and winemakers experimenting, with classic grape varieties or more unusual ones. We will see (and of course taste) many examples of this during our tour which takes us from Cape Town down to Elgin and Overberg, to Hermanus and Walker Bay, to Franschhoek, Swartland and to Stellenbosch.
Discover South Africa, the fantastic wine country, with us.
Book 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 2023.
New Zealand, a young wine country in rapid change towards quality and diversity | the wine trip to New Zealand
Booking deadline extended! Book now!
Urgent, if you want to book on this fantastic wine tour experience!
Although the first vines were planted in New Zealand already in the 19th century, this is an extremely young New World country. The modern wine industry did not develop until the 1970s, and at that time it was still a grape called müller thurgau that dominated the vineyards. It is hard to imagine that today. It has been fast for sauvignon blanc and pinot noir in particular to take over. But more grapes grow in New Zealand. Syrah, cabernet sauvignon, pinot gris, pinot blanc, gewurztraminer and other grapes also thrive.
Our tour will last just over two weeks and will take us from Auckland on the North Island down to Queensland on the South Island. We travel by bus, this way you will see and enjoy as much of the country as possible. Our main focus is the wines and the wineries of course, and we will visit Marlborough, Hawke’s Bay, Central Otago and other wine regions, but we will also to do a lot of sightseeing. There will be geysers, kiwi birds, glaciers, picturesque villages, the Maori culture, and some other things. Our tour to New Zealand is in March with the harvest probably in full swing.
Join us for a great wine, nature and culture experience on the New Zealand wine tour.
Book 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 New Zealand 2020.
Learn all about the success story of Champagne | the wine tour to Champagne
Champagne is an incredible success story and the region has a long and exciting history. A lot has happened since the first bubbles were “discovered”. The technology has been refined, rules have been written and more hectares have been planted. Throughout the 20th century, more and more vines were planted in Champagne and the entire Champagne appellation is now fully planted. In total there are almost 34,000 hectares here and on our tour in September we will see, if not all, then at least quite a few of these vineyards. And we will taste a wide variety of champagnes, some of them with food during our lunches together, an interesting food-and-wine-pairing experience. The best way to learn about champagne is on site in Champagne.
The dates for the fall tour in 2024 will be finalised soon. Contact us now to be the first to know.
Until then, here’s the program of this year.
- Champagne, next year’s dates coming soon
And also: We have written an internationally award-winning book on Champagne, so you can hardly get a better guide to the region.
A wine tour that will give you all you need to know about Champagne and Bordeaux
Champagne and Bordeaux are perhaps the two most famous wine regions in the world, and for good reason. They produce some of the most iconic and sought-after wines on the planet, from the sparkling wines of Champagne to the red and white wines of Bordeaux. On our wine tour, you will have the opportunity to experience both of these regions firsthand. You will visit exciting wineries, learn about the winemaking process, and taste some of the best wines that these regions have to offer.
The grapes used to make Champagne are chardonnay, pinot noir, and pinot meunier. Champagne is made using a traditional method called the méthode champenoise, which involves a second fermentation in the bottle. You will learn all you need to know on this tour. In Bordeaux, the grapes are mainly cabernet sauvignon, merlot, cabernet franc, sauvignon blanc, and sémillon. Bordeaux produces a wide range of wines, from dry reds to sweet whites. We’ll go into depth primarily on the famous reds. A wine tour to Champagne and Bordeaux is a must-do for any wine lover. It is an opportunity to experience some of the best wines that the world has to offer. This tour will give you all you need to know on these two world leading wine regions. Who could refuse that?
The dates for the fall tour in 2024 will be finalised soon. Contact us now to be the first to know.
Until then, here’s the program of this year.
- Champagne and Bordeaux, dates for 2024 coming soon
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?
Chateau lunches, classic wines but also innovative ideas | the wine tour to Bordeaux
Gourmet lunches and tastings of prestigious wines from grand cru chateaux is a short summary of the tour that also gives you an insight into how producers prepare for future challenges in France’s most famous wine region. For example, they plant Portuguese grapes! We will tell you more about it on site. Bordeaux has also become one of France’s most organic wine regions. A big change for this seaside region. There is a lot going on in this region that both preserves the historical heritage and looks to the future. We visit Médoc, Graves, Saint Emilion, Entre-deux-Mers and we mix big and small chateaux to give a good and true picture of today’s Bordeaux. Not only the glossy marketing façades but also the real people making the good wines.
Join us on a fantastic wine trip to Bordeaux.
The dates for the fall tour in 2024 will be finalised soon. Contact us now to be the first to know.
Until then, here’s the program of this year.
- Bordeaux, dates for 2024 coming soon
PS: We have written a book about Bordeaux, and have been travelling there since 1986. Can you find a better guide and tour operator?
Chile and Argentina, a thriving wine culture | the South America wine tour
Argentina and Chile are two exciting wine countries. On this tour, we explore the wine culture that exists in these countries. It has a longer history than you might think. They make wine here since before vineyards spread across the Medoc in Bordeaux. Today, the create wines with a lot of personality, while continuing to refine which grape variety is best suited to grow where. They push the limits of viticulture and venture to high altitudes (in Argentina) and far south (in Chile) in search of slightly cooler climates. We visit some of our favourites in Mendoza, Argentina, the district that accounts for 70 percent of the country’s wine production. In Chile, we will go to Maipo and Colchagua and we will also reach the Pacific coast and visit the wine districts of Casablanca and San Antonio and the amazing city of Valparaiso. Another highlight of the trip is the bus trip over the Andes. Unforgettable. We also manage to visit the big cities of Buenos Aires and Santiago de Chile.
Come with us and discover the wine countries of Chile and Argentina.
- Chile-Argentina Dates for 2025 coming soon
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.
