One of the things we really enjoy is looking for and discovering new wines. Drinking a very good Bordeaux or Burgundy (just to mention those two as examples) can be very satisfying but it is not necessarily much of an achievement – provided you have enough money to pay for these wines. It can be some added satisfaction if you have looked hard for the wine or if you think that you have found something that is yet to become famous – excellent wines at reasonable value. That is one of the reasons why it was such fun to write our new (our first!) book on the Languedoc wine region. It’s a region where you can find many good producers without paying a fortune. But you have to know where to look. So you should read our book as a guide. Unfortunately, it is so far only available in Swedish. (If you have an uncle who’s a book publisher please let us know! We’re looking for one. More on our book here.) The same thing can be said about many other wine districts, for example Portugal. We’ve just had two new books on Portuguese wines land in the mailbox, which we hope will be good guides to discover this “revived” wine country. (We will review them in the next Brief. They came too late for this one.)
But in a way, it is the same thing with the two “classics” I mentioned at the beginning. Bordeaux and Burgundy is easy if you can splash out money (and it doesn’t take much of a wine adventurer to do it). But if you go a bit beyond the obvious choices it becomes more exciting, say the Premières Côtes in Bordeaux or smaller family growers in Burgundy. That’s where you can find really interesting gems, sometimes a bit rough at the edges, but that gives you the extra satisfaction of experiencing something a little bit different.
That’s what we will try and show you on our early summer tour to “Three Classic French Wine Regions” to Champagne, Chablis and Burgundy. If you are only interested in Krug, DRC, Comte Vogüé and the likes, don’t bother with this tour. But if you are curious to discover some family Champagne growers and some smaller properties (making outstanding wines!) in Chablis and Burgundy, we think you should consider it… More info here.
Talking about wine tours – Next season’s first tour, “Truffles, Wine, Foie Gras and Duck” in Perigord is already getting quite a few registrations, so hurry up if you are interested, before it’s full! More info here.
And if we should also be a little bit socially conscious in these times of equitable trade and global warming (and public transport strikes in Paris! Come here if you want to know how it feels to be held hostage…) etc etc, to be honest the classed growths generally don’t need your money. They manage very well as it is, thank you. But many of the small growers are happy for every single customer they get, so why not spend your money with those who really need it and who need to work hard for a living? Which is certainly the case for many smaller growers or family producers.
In this Brief you’ll also have the opportunity to discover some really unusual wines: from Brazil, from Denmark and from Namibia… Britt PS: Recommend to your friends to read the Brief or forward it to them !
