A lot happens in April. Some things that are supposed to happen, like the tasting of young Bordeaux wines from vintage 2015. Other things that shouldn’t happen but do happen nevertheless, like devastating frost nights. The entire northern France, as well as other countries, have been hit and the southern regions have not been spared either.
During the week that the Bordeaux chateaux showed their young primeur wines, it was speculated that the role of journalists in Bordeaux will now decrease because Robert Parker is no longer tasting the primeurs. He was the only one, according to many, that could affect the markets, the chateaux pricing and consumer choice all over the world with his points. How the post Parker period will look remains to be seen.
Also Champagne now has its own primeur tasting, of sorts, in April. It is the small producers (not the houses), that invite trade and press to taste their vin clair, that is the still wine before it is bottled to become bubbly a little later in spring or summer. Today it can be really nice to try these still wines. In the past, the acidity was higher and you had to be an experienced vin clair taster to imagine how the champagne from this still wine would eventually turn out. 2015 was a good vintage with ripe grapes and some of the still wines from 2015 you can actually enjoy, much like a good Burgundy.
In April it was also time for the Languedoc to present its wines. They showed a few primerus, i.e. the 2015 vintage, but more importantly and more interesting was to taste the wines that are or have recently come on to the market. Lots of goodies. BKWine Magazine was of course on site, one of the few Scandinavian media present, and we will certainly have reason to return to those wines in a future Brief.
I can also mention that we have made a small restructuring of the Brief.
First you will find brief news from the wine world.
Then you have information on current wine tours.
And lastly you have the longer feature articles that we have published during the past month with lots and lots of reading for you.
Hope you like it.
Britt & Per
PS: Recommend to your friends to read the Brief !
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[box type=”note” size=”large” style=”rounded” border=”full”]This is just the introduction to the latest issue of the Brief. Subscribe to the BKWine Brief and you will get the whole edition in your mailbox next month.[/box]
What’s on at BKWine Tours
- Champagne, September 14-18
- Bordeaux, September 28 – October 2
- Douro Valley, October 12-16
- Chile and Argentina in South America, January 28 – February 12, 2017
- South Africa, February 24 – March 7, 2017 (full program coming soon)
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!
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. More info on the custom designed and bespoke BKWine wine tours and travel here!
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