BKWine Brief nr 86, September 2010

Our 2011 program will be launched soon.

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.

You’ll get a tour designed exactly according to your requirements and tastes, made by one of the most experienced wine people in the business. We personally visit some 200 wineries and taste thousands of wines every year; we write on wine for various wine magazines (we had more than 30 articles published last year); in 2007 we published a ground breaking book on the wine of the Languedoc and this year we have another one coming. And we have organised hundreds of wine tours over the years.

More info on the BKWine wine tours here!

Wine tours in Finnish

More info on the Finnish wine tours here: Viinimatkoja

Domaine Virgile Joly, Saint Saturnin de Lucian (Languedoc)

Virgile July knew early that he wanted to work with wine. He studied to be an oenologist and he worked as a consultant in Chile among other places and in year 2000 he created his own domaine. He has 24 hectares and he is certified organic since the beginning. His wines are of a very good quality. My favourites are his white and his red Saturne. Saturne Blanc (11 euro) is made from grenache blanc and has a good minerality and balance. Saturne Rouge (13 euro) is a typical Languedoc with wild herbs and spices on the nose, full bodied on the palate and a good freshness.

Click here for address and more recommendations.

Domaine Roger Sabon, Châteauneuf-du-Pape

Domaine Roger Sabon in Châteauneuf-du-Pape is a true family domaine. Roger Sabon created the domaine in 1952. His three sons Jean-Jacques, Denis and Gilbert are all involved and now also Julien and Delphine, children of Denis, and Didier Négon, oenologist and married to Séverine, Jean-Jacques’ daughter, work at the domaine. The family has 17 hectares in the appellation of Châteauneuf-du-Pape. They also have vineyards of the other side of the river Rhône, in Roquemaure. 12 hectares are in the appellation of Lirac and 6 hectares in Côtes-du-Rhône. They also make some nice and easy-to-drink vin de table from 10 hectares.

The aim of the family Sabon is to make wines with a good concentration and the work start in the vineyard with low yields. The grapes are harvested fully ripe and the alcohol levels sometimes reach 14,5 and even 15 degrees of alcohol. But the wines are full bodied and with a very good fruit and are therefore always in balance and even elegant. Like the Châteauneuf-du-Pape Reserve 2007 with a nose of ripe and intense fruit, good complexity and balanced and soft tannins. Three weeks of skin contact at high temperature gives the wine a good concentration.

Click here for address and more recommendations.

Read about more recommended producers on the site: Favourite Producers

September is the harvest month in Europe. Most producers are a bit reluctant to make statements about the quality of the harvest at this early stage. Nevertheless many are happy with the result so far. At least when it comes to the quality. The quantity is in some places a bit of a problem. Richard Maby at Domaine Maby in Lirac/Tavel says the quantity will be down by 30% due to the hot summer. Also across the river, in Châteauneuf-du-Pape, the volume will be lower than usual. ”We have had a very hot summer and the grapes have shrivelled on the vine, which is good for the concentration but bad for the quantity”, says Hélène Chouvet, owner and wine maker at Domaine Fontavin.

Many growers in this region have also had problems with coulure, causing some grape bunches to have less than normal developed grapes. But quality is promising, says Didier Négron, wine maker at Domaine Roger Sabon in Châteauneuf-du-Pape. ”The harvest is about a week later than 2009, when we started unusually early. 2010 could be as good as 2009. We have small, very concentrated grapes.”

In the Douro Valley in northern Portugal they are half way through the harvest. Paul Reynolds at Quinta de Macedo says the year is very promising. “The grapes are ripe and with a good acidity. The summer was hot but with no extreme temperatures.” Luís Seabra, wine maker at Quinta de Nápoles, and Manuel Lobo, wine maker at Quinta do Crasto, both think the year offers some challenges due to uneven ripeness sin the vineyard. ”Some of our vineyards had problems with water stress at the time of veraison due to the very dry and warm summer”, says Joana Pinhão at Quinta de Vale Dona Maria. ”We discard around 10-15 % of the grapes. Hopefully we will have finished harvesting by the end of September as it is supposed to start to rain on the 30th!”

We keep our fingers crossed for Joana and everyone else so that they can finish the harvest and nice and sunny weather. More harvest information in the October Brief.

(Here are some interviews and reportages from Portugal)

Wine in Paris – BKWine in Frommer’s

Frommer’s is one of the world’s biggest publishers of travel literature. On their web site they recently published an article on wine in Paris: where to buy wine, where to taste, and what wine bars to go to. The article was written by the internationally well know travel writer Jacquelin Carnegie (read about her on: www.jottingsbyjacquelin.com). She has found several good places to go to if you happen to be in Paris and want/need some good wine. Read the article on Frommers.com: “The Best Wine Tastings in Paris“.

She also mentions BKWine! She lists us as one (of two) who organises private wine tastings in Paris. (”Learn how to select the proper wine with your meal and all about the various French wine regions and grape varieties.”)

We also get a mention for our wine tours! We are very proud and say a big thank you for the attention!

Internet – paradise for wine lovers?

In the last Brief we wrote about the total lack of interest in the (Swedish) wine trade, at both importers and in retail. This time it is the other way round: Jancis Robinson, one of the world’s most influential wine writers, recently wrote an article in FT.com on all the various sources of information on the internet: Where to find that very special wine you are looking for at the best price, keeping your wine cellar organised, reading and sharing tasting notes and many other things. Some of the names: Wine-Searcher.com, Snooth.com, Liv-ex.com and many more. Read all of Jancis’ comments here www.ft.com (We can add that Jancis has herself fully embraced the internet world with www.jancisrobinson.com, one of the most informative wine sites on the internet.)

Languedoc wine auction on October 24

On October 24 there will be a great auction of Languedoc wines in Pic Saint Loup, one of the most interesting sub-regions in the Languedoc. There will be wines from the Pic St Loup itself and also from Terrasses du Larzac and Grès du Montpellier. Before the auction there will be a tasting of the wines on sale. The event is inspired by the auction in Burgundy at Les Hospices de Beaune. As in that case, the wines auctioned will still be in barrel. There will be a full week of festivities in the area before the auction. The intention is that this will be an annual event. More info www.automnalesdugrandpicsaintloup.fr Fun!

New wine museum in Barolo

Earlier in September a new wine museum opened in Barolo in Piedmont. It is, not surprisingly, called WiMu. It has been designed by the famous architect François confine. More info on www.wimubarolo.it. Surely worth a visit if you are in the region.

Domaine Turner Pageot in Languedoc goes video viral

Domaine Turner Pageot is a small wine estate in the village of Gabian not far from Béziers in the Languedoc. Karen Turner from Australia and Emmanuel Pageot from France first met in the cellars of Hugel in Alsace where they were both working for the harvest (quite) some years back. Both had a passion for (among other things) taste and good wine and the decided to join forces (as well as getting married). They have built up from scratch a small wine estate in the Languedoc, making original and character-full wines. Earlier this year they contacted us at BKWine since they were interested in telling their story about the wines and the vineyards on video and wanted BKWine to produce the videos. The resulting videos are now available online! You can read more about the domaine on www.turnerpageot.com and you can watch all the videos (there are nine, some in English and some in French) on their YouTube channel www.youtube.com/turnerpageot

Luxury DRC wines from 2006 to be released in Sweden at bargain prices on October 19

The Swedish retail monopoly Systembolaget has announced that they will release the long awaited lot of wines from the Domaine de la Romanée Conti on October 19. It is various cuvées from DRC from the 2006 vintage which have been resting in the monopoly cellars for quite some time. The top wine is the Romanée Conti 2006 which will retail at 24,495 SEK, which is far below the international market price. There are 24 bottles of this wine and a few hundred DRC wines in total that will be released. The wines can be ordered from 10.00 AM on October 19 in the Systembolaget shops. Queues outside the shops are expected to be long, but only a few happy buyers will emerge. Most likely, the 24 bottles will be rapidly sent out of the country and the happy buyers can make a quick profit selling them elsewhere. We find it strange that the Swedish monopoly should indirectly subsidise these kinds of wines by selling them below market prices (foregoing profit). We also cannot fathom in what way one can sell these wines in a “fair” manner, other than organising a lottery (or selling to the highest bidder). Can you?

Belgium wins international wine tasting competition

Belgium emerged winner in the wine tasting competition organised by the French magazine La Revue du Vin de France. Curiously, the winner of the competition has always been the country in which the competition has been organised and this year it was in Atomium in Brussels. There was even a Swedish team that unfortunately did not reach the top. The teams are given twelve wines blind to taste and have to try and identify the origins and grape varieties as accurately as possible. The wines in this year’s competition were:

1 France, Champagne rosé, Pinot Noir, Bollinger Grand Année, 2002
2 New Zeeland, Marlborough, Sauvignon Blanc, St Clair, 2009
3 Spain, Rueda. Verdejo, Hermanos Lurton, 2009
4 Luxemburg, Ehnen Kaltenberg, Auxerois, Kohll-Reuland, 2009
5 France, Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru Morgeot, Chardonnay, Jadot, 2002
6 Belgium, Hesbay, Chardonnay, Chateau Genoels-Elderen, 2003
7 Italy, Sicilien, Nero d’Avola, Calatrasi Terre di Ginestra, 2007
8 Lebanon, Vallée de la Bekaa, Cabernet Sauvignon/Syrah, Chateau Ksara Reserve, 2007
9 Australia, New South Wales, Petite Sirah, Deen de Bortoli, 2007
10 Chile, Limari, Syrah, Undurraga, 2007
11 France, Corbieres Boutenac, Carignan/Grenache/Mourvedre, Dom. Ollieux Romanis, 2007
12 Argentina, Menoza, Cabernet Sauvignon/Malbec, Bodega La Rural Rutini, 2007

”It’s raining Swedes” in South Africa

Niel Pendock (twitter @NielPendock) thinks ’it is raining Swedes’ in his column in TimesLive.co.za. There are no less than three qualified sommeliers in South African restaurants: Josephine Gutentoft at Grande Roche, Joakim Hansi (”the dapper”) at the Round House in Camps Bay and Mia Mårtensson at Winery of Good Hope blogs.timeslive.co.za . As if that was not enough there was more rain recently in the form of two managers from the Swedish monopoly, Marie Nygren and Sara Norell, who came to talk about wine marketing to the south African wine industry. Everything has a reason of course: South Africa is the biggest supplier of wine to Sweden and Sweden is, if we remember right, South Africa’s third biggest export market. What they said (in addition to “we hope everyone will enjoy our work and do the world a bit better”): “Stieg Larsson and Systembolaget“