BKWine Brief
Issue 97, August 2011
This requires an explanation! Why are we late? This is the August newsletter and you should have received it around two weeks ago.
You may have noticed that we have renovated our web site. We certainly hope that you have noticed! If not, take a look here: www.bkwine.com.
But… following this renovation, and complete change of technology platform, migration to new web host and other things, we have been having some problems with the stability of our new site. The web site was down several times and it would have been dangerous to send out the newsletter, and risk pulling the site down again.
The positive side of it is that the reason for these problems is that there is so much contents on the site so it needs more resources that originally expected.
If you don’t believe us, do go take a look at the new site, BKWine Magazine, on www.bkwine.com. Actually, even if you DO believe us, do go and take a look!
But now it is fixed. (Or so we hope; we’ll see what happens with this mailing.)
So, back to the August BKWine Brief!
We hope that you have had an excellent vacation. Presumably there are not many who have much left of it. For it has not been much holidays. to start with, weather in Paris has been miserable. Worst summer we can remember. But above all, we have been rather busy.
First, we have had a lot on our plate to get our new, redesigned site up and running. Much more than we had ever imagined. But there is quite a lot of information there now. Some 2000 texts (of varying length). One of the first things we did was to make sure that there was a section for wine videos. In this month’s Brief you can read more on the videos: that we have more than one hundred online and that we have just passed a quarter of a million viewers. We are very glad to be able to put all the videos in one single place on the site that should be easy to find: BKWine wine videos.
Another thing that has taken up our time (also more than expected) is our new book. The draft should soon be finished and there is of course an awful lot to do at the last minute… The book will be on organic wines, biodynamic wines, “natural” wines and similar things. It is not an “evangelising” book telling you how great that is. It is rather a “descriptive” book explaining what it is and how it works. There is a lot of confusion today both among consumers, and professionals, and writers about what those things actually mean. We hope to make it a little bit clearer and explain each of those ideas and compare them. We will of course also have a section with some of our favourite wine producers in those categories. The title is not yet decided. Any suggestions?
In this month’s Brief you will also get a few more restaurant recommendations that habitually. We have the impression that those are much liked (would you agree?) so we will continue with quite a few of those in the coming months.
Which, quite by chance, gives me the opportunity to tell you about another part of the new site: on BKWine Magazine you can now find a special section with restaurant recommendations (including wine bars and other nice places). We already have a fair number there now and will be loading our old ones as we get the chance. Read more of our restaurant recommendations in the menu Reviews > Restaurants & Wine Bars. It is organised on city / place.
The new travel season is starting soon. Very soon. This will not make life much calmer. In September and October, and perhaps also November we are mostly at home on Mondays and Tuesdays. The rest of the week we travel. Lucky we like travelling. The first destination will be … Bordeaux.
Which gives me a good reason to mention that it is still possible to book a place or two on our October wine tour to Bordeaux. It is a small and exclusive tour so if you want to get behind the scenes in Bordeaux this is a very good opportunity.
More info on that in the Brief.
But enough of preliminaries. Time to let you loose on the Brief.
Britt & Per
PS: Recommend to your friends to read the Brief or forward it to them!
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What’s on at BKWine Tours
“World’s Best Wine Tours” – Travel + Leisure Magazine, on TravelAndLeisure.com
BKWine offers you two possibilities to go wine travelling this autumn:
- Wine Tour to Bordeaux, October 5-9, 2011 – Book now!
For a wine lover a trip to Bordeaux is a must! In Bordeaux you find world famous châteaux and world famous wines but also a lot of new exciting initiatives (less famous but maybe more important for the future of Bordeaux!) and young enthusiastic wine makers.
On this trip we will visit both some big, famous Grand Cru Classé-châteaux and smaller ones that are less known, but very quality conscious. More info on our wine tour to Bordeaux here!
- Burgundy wine tour – exclusive, elusive, enchanting, October 19-23, 2011 – no more bookings!
Some of the most unique wines in the world – reds and white – come from Burgundy. A well made red Burgundy, made from the elusive pinot noir, is a wine of elegance, hardly found anywhere else. You find them in the Côte d’Or, the golden slope, the heart of Burgundy. More info on our Burgundy wine tour here!For more information please contact us on email or on phone (we’re on French time), or go to our wine travel site on www.bkwinetours.com!
What do people think about a wine tour with BKWine?
That is of course a question that we think is very important. We want it to be a wonderful and memorable experience for everyone. Here are some of the comments we’ve had from customers this season:
- “Many thanks for a fantastic trip. You are so keen to make everything the best for your guests and you are so knowledgeable about wine. A pleasure to travel with you.”, W-A
- ”Thank you for a wonderful trip to Umbria and southern Tuscany. Wonderful in many ways – our initial ideas for the trip on food and wine in Umbria and Tuscany – and discovering sagrantino and sangiovese – were more than fulfilled”, I & P in Umbria and Tuscany
More wine tour customer testimonials here.
Custom wine tours
We also make custom designed wine tours – on-demand tours for you and a group of friends, for your company (maybe to scout new winegrowers?), for a special event… We can combine winery visits and wine touring with other activities: gastronomic workshops, visit to an oyster farm, truffles hunting, cheese making, and more. We’ve done tours for wine clubs, for sommelier educations, for corporate events, for wine importers, for wine course study groups… just to mention a few.
More info on the custom designed and bespoke BKWine wine tours and travel here!
Wine tours in Finnish
We also do wine tours in Finnish. And in German, Norwegian, Spanish…
Do you want the latest news and updates on our wine travel activity? Subscibe here! (Second alternative BKWineTours.com)
From the World of Wine
Chafariz do Vinho Enoteca, Lisbon | BKWine Pick, restaurant
The Chafariz do Vinho is primarily a wine bar. The restaurant element of it is modest although what they serve is very good. Architecturally and historically it is a curious place. The restaurant is located in what once was the end (the pumping station?) of an aqueduct and one can still almost feel the damp from the water – which is very nice a hot Portuguese day.
They have a wide selection of wines from all over Portugal – as they say “wines are the reason why we are here”! You almost want to start in one end and go all through it. They also do have foreign wines but if you come from abroad obviously it is the Portuguese wines you should explore! They also serve quite a few wines by the glass.
As for the food it is almost like tapas: they have a variety of small dishes, prices from 3.50€ to 9€ and you would do well to order a selection of different things. Some examples: mussels in a herb sauce, smoked Portuguese charcuteries, fresh ravioli with cheese and spinach, carpaccio of duck breast, fresh oysters… It all depends on the season. The seating is basic and places are few so (a bit more when the terrasse is open). It is an excellent place to go and taste wine and quench the hunger. Absolutely an address for the wine lover. Chafariz do Vinho is located on a side street half way up the Avenida da Liberdade.
Chafariz do Vinho Enoteca, Chafariz da Mãe d’Água, Rua da Mãe d’Água à Praça da Alegria, 1250-000 Lisbon, ph 213 422 079
Sex and wine: when is the packaging too suggestive?
A while back we wrote about a wine that had been banned from the Systembolaget shelves in Sweden (the monopoly retailer) because of what was judged an offensive packaging: pouting lips on the label and the name “Wacky Chicks”. Poor taste no doubt, but so bad that it should be banned?
Recently we happened to come across another wine with an interesting packaging that made us think about this story: the wine Untouched (a name that alludes to what?) that comes in a bag-in-box with a big photo of a young girl in a flimsy dress (partly see-through?) and a love story on the box in a picture series: a happy man with the girl and a refused rival.
The wine is “Untouched by Girasol rosé” imported by Primewine in Sweden. But such a packaging is evidently not sufficient to be considered to “give the impression that alcohol consumption raises the physical or mental capabilities, contributes to social or sexual success or solves problems such as loneliness or boredom”, as opposed to the pouting lips, in spite of the explicit references to love (and slightly implicit on sex), success and failure. This wine happens to be, according to the importer, the best selling rosé in Sweden. Read more on this strange story here and compare the two packagings yourself: Sexism and equality in wine packaging
Chile expands vineyard area with 6.5%
According to the latest statistics vineyard acreage grew with 6.5% in Chile in 2009. They now have 111 52 ha planted with vines to produce wine. 73% of the vineyards are planted with red grapes and 27% are planted with white grapes. these are the main grape varieties:
- Cabernet sauvignon, 40 728 ha
- Chardonnay 13 082 ha
- Sauvignon blanc 12 159 ha
- Merlot 10 041 ha
- Carmenère 8 827 ha
Read more in vitisphere.com
Two friends of BKWine in Tuscany mentioned in the Decanter guide
Two of the places we sometimes visit on our wine tours in Tuscany were recently included in a Decanter Magazine guide. In their August issue they have an article on what to do when you are in Florence and which places to visit nearby.
On the list of vineyards to visit they have included Villa Malenchini, an olive oil and wine producer just outside of Florence, and Cantina Candialle, a vineyard run by a Finnish-German couple. Congratulation!
Read more here: Congratulations to BKWine’s friends in Tuscany featured in Decanter.
EasyJet and British Airways serve the best wines
A good idea not to focus on the business class wines in this recently held competition but instead on the wines served in Economy. How many of us fly these days in business… The competition included 12 reds and 12 whites and the winners were perhaps not quite as expected:
Winners for white wines:
- EasyJet (Louis Mondeville Côtes Gascogne in France)
- SAS (Crusan Colombard Sauvignon Côtes de Gascogne in France)
- Virgin Atlantic (Spanish)
Winners for the red wines:
- British Airways (malbec from Argentina)
- Emirates (Australian shiraz)
- Air France (Syrah from France)
The competition was organised by the new “find cheap flights” site SkyScanner and was led by the well known Scottish wine writer Tom Cannavan. More info on Which airline offers the best inflight wine? That’s “Easy”…
The dangers of inviting your friends over to share a bottle of wine
Sub-title: The Life of a Vigneron. We suspect that it is actually a so called viral video that tries to market the wines of Domaine Mazet de Croses, a vineyard in the Languedoc. But it does not matter. It is so fabulous so we just have to share it! The video is actually called La dernière goutte (the last drop) and it tells the story of the winemaker, his life and how he makes wine. But it is not at all what one thinks it is. It is beautiful and it is charming and it even gives you a 101-course on how to make wine. Do watch it! We just wish that we had had the opportunity to taste the wine! Watch La Derniere Goutte here.
Interview with Cortes de Cima winemaker on BKWine TV
We have a new video interview with the Cortes de Cima winemaker Hamilton Reis on the new video channel on BKWine Magazine. Cortes de Cima is one of the new generation wineries in Alentejo in Portugal.
It was founded some 25 years ago by a Danish-American couple: Hans-Kristian and Carrie Jorgensen. Hamilton talks to us about their range of wines, some of which have gained international fame (for example their Incognito and their Touriga Nacional) and about what their philosophy is behind the winemaking.
Watch the video here: Cortes de Cima, Alentejo, Portugal, Winemaker Hamilton Reis
A rosé made from sangiovese – Aurora from Poggerino i Radda in Chianti | Åsa’s Wine of the Month
It is very seldom you find a rosé wine made from sangiovese grapes, but that’s what they do at Poggerino i Radda in Chianti. 24 hours after the harvest, destemming and the vatting of the sangiovese grapes 15% of the must is removed in what is called bleeding (saignée). These fifteen percent are what in time will become the rosé wine while the remaining 85% will become the red wine (that thus will be more concentrated).
The rosé wine is called Aurora and is fermented in stainless steel tanks. You should drink it when it is young and fresh, flowery but not at all cloying. The acidity that sometimes can be quite high in the sangiovese grape keeps the wine very lively. A wine that goes well both with simpler starters or a good pasta dish, and even to white meats like chicken or veal, provided they are not too spicy. Price: around 10 euro. www.poggerino.com
How might a wine tour to Catalonia or Bordeaux look?
We don’t always have all our destinations on our scheduled tours list (in particular in English – we currently have a much broader selection in Swedish). So how can you get a feeling for how a wine tour to, say, Catalonia would look when we don’t have it on our schedule? We want to help interested travellers to get an idea of how travelling to these wine regions can be by publishing a selection of “sample wine tour programs” both for popular destinations and more niche oriented destinations.
The first to wine regions on this list are Catalonia in Spain (quite some time since we did a tour there actually – about time now perhaps?) and Bordeaux.
Here is more info: Wine tours to Catalonia and to Bordeaux
”What is there to do in Paris?” | BKWine Pick
Someone asked us that question the other day so we sat down and wrote an email with a list. It ended up being a selection of all sorts of things: restaurants, wine bars, wine shops, museums, places to visit (don’t miss the Marché aligre!)…
Then it struck us that perhaps that list could be interesting for some other people too. So we added a little text and it turned into an article with recommendations on what to do, where to eat and where to drink when in Paris: La Gazetta, Bofinger, Lavinia, Bercy, Le Train Bleu and much more!
Read our suggestions here: An enjoyable trip to Paris – some recommendations
Muscadet will get three village denominations
Muscadet will get three new village denominations. It is not, as far as we understand, a question of village “appellations” (AOP as it is called nowadays) but the right to put the name of the commune on the label on a AOP Muscadet wine. The three communes are:
- Clisson
- Gorges
- Le Pallet
Those who choose to use the village name on the label have to adhere to some rules that are stricter than for the basic AOP. For example, the yield is limited to 45 hl/ha instead of 65 hl/ha. The three villages represent no more than 100 ha of vineyards together shared between 65 (!) growers so it is not a question of great impact. But perhaps it can help push quality up for Muscadet. The whole of Muscadet has 10,000 ha and some 650 growers. Read more on vitisphere.com/Muscadet-mentions-communales. Sally Easton MW speculates on that it should in time be extended to seven villages in total and explains a bit more of the characteristics on Muscadet Crus Communaux.
New French symbol for food “made in France”
France has just launched a symbol to brand agricultural products with French origin: fruit, vegetables etc, but also wine. The symbol is a stylised Eiffel Tower with a scarf in French colours around its neck. (It exists also in other colours.)
The symbol has been developed by Sopexa and the French Ministry of Agriculture.
More info: franceagroalimentaire.com/france-bon-appetit
South Africa’s first ever wine tourism show
Wine tourism has become an increasingly important source of revenue for South Africa. The Minster of Tourism gave a speech a while back where he underlined the importance of wine travel.
Today there are some 20 wine routs organised in South Africa. And now they will have, for the first time ever, a show and conference on wine tourism in South Africa: Vindaba wine tourism conference on September 26-27.
19 Glas, Stockholm | BKWine Pick, restaurant
19 Glas is Swedish for nineteen glasses and this is without a doubt one of Stockholm’s best wine addresses. It is a tiny restaurant, in the centre of the historic Old Town (Gamla Stan), with a small bar section – but with a huge wine list. One has to start with the wine list when talking about 19 Glas: They have a very, very broad selection of wines from all over the world. It ranges from quite affordable to quite luxurious. We haven’t made the count but there are hundreds of wines on the list. But it’s not only a very broad selection, many of the wines (really, many!) are also served by the glass. It can be a good idea to ask the staff whet they have on glass since it varies by the day. And often you get to taste a small sip before you do the definitive choice.
On the food side, in the restaurant, the choice is simple: either you select a few small dishes to nibble from – a bit like Swedish style tapas – or you go for the five course menu. The menu is five elegantly prepared dishes. You don’t have a choice but there is no reason to worry – it’s good. The first time we were there we ware a bit surprised by the first course: it was two tiny asparagus, delicious, but tiny. But we needn’t have worried. After five courses we were certainly satisfied.
If you want you can choose the “wine package” (as they say in Sweden) which is one separate wine to each dish. One cannot avoid to say a word about Peter Bennyson who runs 19 Glas – he is the most unlikely chef-restaurateur – with pirate style moustaches and wild hair, but one cannot image a more dedicated and enthusiastic person to explain the food. And all the wines!
Stora Nygatan 19, Gamla Stan (The Old Town), Stockholm, 08 723 19 19, www.19glas.se
Are wines from Apulia set to become better known? BKWine to judge quality.
Apulia (Puglia in Italian), the “heel” of Italy, is not particularly well known for its wines today even if they do produce quite a lot of wine. It seems that the organisation Consorzio Puglia Best Wine has decided to change that situation. This autumn they will organise a big event called Apulia Wine Identity, to showcase the wines, which will also be the occasion to have a wine competition for the region’s producers.
There are several DOC:s (but no DOCG) and several interesting local grape varieties, for example primitivo and negro amaro. BKWine has been invited to participate in the jury for the competition that takes place at the end of November, so we will no doubt come back on this subject.
More info: www.pugliabestwine.it
A quarter of a million video views on BKWine TV
We are a bit surprised ourselves. We recently passed 250,000 (yes, a quarter of a million!) video views on YouTube for our wine videos. We started doing video four years ago mostly for fun and not as a serious thing. Since then we have done more than a hundred videos (and they have become a little bit more ambitious). Recently we passed the 250,000th video view on YouTube! Over a year we meet quite a few winemakers and visit quite a few vineyards and some of those result in a video. The most popular video is one from a cooper on how he makes a wine barrel. More than 30,000 views.
But it is not always easy to get them on to YouTube – it takes quite some time to edit a video and currently we do all ourselves. We probably have some 30 videos (or more) waiting to be processed… (Volunteers, please raise your hand!) All videos can be found on YouTube but with our recently renovated site we have a new “home” for them in our wine video section on the site (click here).
How to sidestep the law on moderation in alcohol advertising
In Sweden advertising for wine must be very restrained, as in many other countries (France for instance). In principle, you are only allowed to show the product in the ad i.e. the packaging. In recent years it seems that the rule may have been slightly relaxed so that you are allowed to show a glass. There have been instances of wine importers have been fined, or threatened with a fine, for ads showing e.g. a chequered table cloth and a cork screw or an oak barrel.
One of the first to have figured out a clever way to make these rules meaningless is the wine importer Primewine, thanks to the success of bag-in-box (cask) wines, which represent more than 50% of sales in Sweden. There is a big flat surface on the BiB box, almost like a magazine page. And the box is undeniably the wine packaging. Print a pretty picture on the box et voilà you have the possibility to put almost anything in a magazine ad (for example, young and beautiful people alluding to sex, happiness and success). The advert will show only the packaging so there should be no problem. Here is one example.
Imagine the alternative situation: an ad with a traditional bottle with a label and next to the bottle a photo of a romantic couple on a picnic. Any doubt that such an advertisement would fall foul of the rules?
An introduction to truffles with Giorgio Colli
We have published a new video on our video channel on truffles. Earlier this year we met with a doctor in truffles, Dottore Giorgio Colli.
Luckly we had the time to make a short video interview with Dottore Colli. In it he explains “all about truffles”, especially on the exclusive white truffle that has made Alba famous but that you can also find in other parts of Italy and in Croatia. He also gives the fundamentals of how to prepare truffles – if you would be lucky enough to have some. (And if not, maybe you would be interested in one of our truffle hunting tours?)
Watch the video here: An introduction to truffles with the truffles doctor dottore Giorgio Colli.
Addictive wine? (fun game)
It is not the wine itself. It is the game. Vignobles de France is an online game where you should place French wine appellations as close as possible to the correct location (in a limited time). The closer you get the more points you score. Some are easy but some are really hard. Pessac-Légonan is perhaps not so tricky but what about L’Etoile?
If you are not happy with your first score you just play once again. Given the number of appellations there are in France the risk that you will get the same twice is minimal. In addition you will lear a few things. After you place your guess they give you the correct location. So, are you up to the challenge? We have done it four times (twice each) with varying results: 39 000 once and 43 000 and then 61 695 and 61 711… (But it’s perhaps best to stop there, so as not to spoil it…) Play the game here: Vignoble de France. So what was your score? Put it in the comments on the site here! (So, where is Maury?)
Enoteca Fuori Porta | BKWine Pick, restaurant
“The other side of the river” is a good place to look for a restaurant in Florence. Away from the worst tourist traps. This place is not only across the river but “outside the city gate” as the name indicates. It is not far though, just a five minutes walk from the Ponte alle Grazie bridge close to Santa Croce. Just outside the city gate, on a small street going uphill you find this small restaurant-café-bar on the right hand side.
The style is very straight-forward, simple café, no frills. You can choose from small dishes, bruschettas etc, a pasta dishes, and a few other things to. Again, noting complicated or sophisticated, but very well prepared simple food. The wine list is quite extensive also including wines from other parts of Italy – not only Toscana! If you are lucky, and it is warm outside, you will find a place on the outside on the terrasse. The perfect place to go for a glass of wine (or a few) and something to eat when you just want to relax and don’t want to go gastronomic.
Enoteca Fuori Porta, Via Monte alle Croci 10r, 50125 Florence, ph 055 23 42 483, www.fuoriporta.com
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