BKWine Brief Blog

Revue des Vins de France (finally) launches a web site

2009-11-08T12:10:00.000+01:00

About time. The leading French wine magazine La Revue des Vins de France (RVF) has launched a web site. They intend to publish their library of tasting notes (65 0000 wines), wine producer profiles and much more. The RVF journalists will write blogs on the site and they will have a reader forum. Some of the information is free but to have full access you have to pay a subscription. What we don’t like is that even if you subscribe to the magazine you have to pay for online access. In their launch information they underline their long history: 80 years of wine journalism (the world’s first wine magazine?). That’s of course very good, but not having had a web site until 2009 gives the impression more of living on past glories than in the present. Hopefully that will change. www.larvf.com

Buy a potential vineyard in Pomerol

2009-11-08T12:06:00.000+01:00

Pomerol is a small appellation in Bordeaux with only 780 ha of vineyards. There is also a horse racing course. But they only have four races per year and they have now decided to close it and sell the land – so they are looking for buyers. The interesting thing about it is that the 13 ha, a substantial plot in the appellation, could be planted with vines and transformed into a vineyard (Chateau du Cheval?). If it is possible to do is another question. For example, the buyers would need to have planting rights (cf the piece on the AREV in this Brief), which they don’t have. As a vineyard the land would be worth between 1 and 3 million euros. Per hectare. As a race course, or agricultural land, much, much less. More info newbordeaux.blog.co.uk

American wine consumption continues to grow

2009-11-07T12:36:00.000+01:00

The forecast from the US Wine Market: Impact Databank Review and Forecast 2009 Edition shows that wine consumption in the US will continue to increase in 2009, albeit with only 0.6%. It will then be the 16th consecutive year that consumption is up. It is nevertheless affected by the recession: there’s a shift towards lower priced wines and thus towards bigger volume branded wines. And Americans tend more and more to drink American wines; imported wines have suffered, partially due to the weak dollar of course. Read more www.winespectator.com

What is the worlds best classical symphony? The world’s best car? The best pub in London? The world’s best champagne?

2009-11-07T12:34:00.000+01:00

Well, that would depend on what one is looking for and one’s taste you may think. But not so for wine perhaps? Many people have some kind of belief that there is an absolute scale of quality for wine. The magazine Fine Champagne has decided on what is “the world’s best champagne” in a recent ranking. They have tasted 1000 champagne and selected the best. The world’s tenth best champagne is, apparently, Chartogne-Taillet non-vintage.

French wine consumption reaches record low

2009-11-07T12:33:00.000+01:00

According to estimations by the French customs (who keep track of it) the French will drink less wine in the current 12 month period ’08-’09 (“la campagne 08-09”) than ever before: only 30 million hl, down by 9% since the previous year. Wines with appellation controllée do better, decreasing with “only” 7%, whereas all others shrunk by 11%. www.vitisphere.com

Chile and France bestselling wine countries in Denmark

2009-11-06T09:41:00.000+01:00

Some wine statistics:

According to the Wine and Spirit Organisation in Denmark, and Vinavisen.dk Chile is the top wine supplier to Denmark with a market share of 17%, followed closely by France with 16%. Italy has increased its share significantly, as has South Africa. Australia and Great Britain (!) are the big losers with respectively falls of -5% and -4%.

Total imports shrunk with almost 13% to reach 87 million litres. Numbers are for the first six months of 2009, compared with 2008. It’s interesting to note how different this is from neighbouring Sweden's preferences. The full list:

1. Chile 17.2% (+1.4%)
2. France 16.5% (+1.2%)
3. Italy 14.7% (+2.9%)
4. Spain 11.8% (+1.8%)
5. South Africa 10% (+2.8%)
6. Australia 9.3% (-5.2%)
7. Germany 8.3% (+0.9%)
8. USA 3.3% (+0.1%)
9. Argentina 3.2% (-0.9%)
10. Great Britain 2.8% (-4.6%)
11. Portugal 1.2% (+0.2%)
12. New Zeeland 0.6% (+0.2%)
13. Greece 0.2% (+0.1%)
14. Others 0.9% (-0.2%)

Rhone vineyard next location for American ’reality show’

2009-11-05T11:01:00.000+01:00

According to a press release from Vignobles Investissement they have been tasked by the Film Commission of Luberon Vaucluse to find a suitable winery location to record a series of reality shows. It is the American producer PBS that is producing the series. Apparently, the programs have already been shot, during the 2009 harvest. When can we hope to see the result? http://thewinemakers.tv/

Just like hand sewn shoes?

2009-11-05T10:46:00.000+01:00

Chateau Angélus in Saint Emilion, Bordeaux, is not making hand sewn shoes but something of the sort – haute couture. They destem their grapes by hand. When you make red wine in nine cases out of ten (or more) you destem the grape bunches. Using a destemmer, you feed it with grape bunches and out comes at one end the separated grapes and at the other end the stems. Voilà. After that the grapes are (usually) crushed and the fermentation begins. At Chateau Angelus they think this is too brutal a treatment for the grapes so they recruited some 50 persons (we estimate) to do the destemming by hand, separating the berries from the stems… Does it make any difference? It is difficult to believe it does, but we have not made a comparative tasting. Watch the video here: www.chateau-angelus.com

Rollan de By in Bordeaux launches single-variety collection

2009-11-04T10:12:00.001+01:00

Domaines Rollan de By, best known for the Château Rollan de By in the Médoc, has launched a four bottle case with single variety wines. Each bottle contains wine from just a single grape variety. The four bottles are made from cabernet sauvignon, merlot, cabernet franc, and petit verdot (no doubt they did not have any malbec or carmenère in the vineyards). It gives you the possibility to taste each variety in its pure state. and you can play the game “make your own blend (assemblage)”, mixing the wines to see which proportions you prefer. But it is a rather expensive game. The four bottles retail for 400€! Can be found at La Cave de Joël Robuchon in Paris. We also wonder how it works with the AOC on the wines (that according to our info is Medoc). Normally, a wine should be “typical” to get the right to an appellation controllée, and single variety wines are extremely unusual (nonexistent) in Bordeaux. But is it definitely a fun initiative.

Austrian wine exports up

2009-11-04T10:08:00.001+01:00

For the first six months 2009 Austrian wine exports were up 10% in volume and only marginally down in value (-1.8%). Austria needs be cautious in the longer run though, since the general price level has fallen and an increasing portion of the exports are in bulk rather than in bottle (especially to Germany). "For the Austrian wine industry overall, the export figures - considering the economic climate - are very positive," states Willi Klinger, general manager of Austrian Wine Marketing Board. www.austrianwine.com It is indeed much more positive numbers than in many other places.

AREV wants to go backwards

2009-10-28T09:51:00.000+01:00

AREV (l’Assemblée des Régions Européennes Viticoles http://www.arev.org/) is some kind of collaboration organisation between some European wine regions. In their latest press release they underline the importance of fighting the EU reform that will abolish planting rights control. Currently (and historically) the European planting rights control means that to be allowed to plant new vines you have to get planting rights, which in general is difficult to get. So if you have good demand for your wines it can be very difficult (if at all possible) to increase production by planting more vineyards. The EU reform will lead to that this control system will disappear. The principle will instead be that you can plant more vines if you want but it will be your responsibility to sell it (in the old system, if you could not sell it you would get subsidies). This new principle is something the AREV wants to fight. They also criticise the “neo-liberal” reforms that Mariann Fischer Boel has introduced in the wine sector. The AREV hopes that a future EU commissioner will be selected that has some wine background. Reading behind the lines it seems that the AREV is hoping for more subsidies and more controls, and less market orientation in the future. A pity. And in the long run it is hardly something that will benefit the European wine growers.

700 naked people in the vineyard

2009-10-28T09:45:00.000+01:00

To influence the upcoming climate conference inn Copenhagen Greenpeace France and Spencer Tunick organised a demonstration / installation / work of art in a vineyard in Burgundy: 700 naked people in the vineyard. The purpose was to draw attention to the effects that climate change will have on agriculture, and specifically wine growing, in France. You can now watch the video from the happening, 700 nude people in the vineyard: http://www.greenpeace.fr/tunick/ and www.treehugger.com (But one assumes that at least at that occasion all participants appreciated the unseasonably warm weather.)

Bordeaux 2007

2009-10-27T09:13:00.000+01:00

The Union des Grands Crus (UGC) in Bordeaux recently presented the 2007 vintage in Paris. the UGC includes not only the 1855 Grands Crus Classés but also some excellent producers inn Pomerol, Graves, Médoc and Saint Emilion. It can be quite a chore to taste a large number of young Bordeaux wines but this time it was quite pleasant. 2007 is a year with soft tanning and many of the wines are virtually ready to drink already today. The summer was cool with quite a lot of rain but the vintage was ‘saved’ by a nice autumn and harvest season. However, you had to be careful with the extraction, or risk getting too much green and bitter notes in the wine. Most producers choose to make a wine playing on the fruit. The best have done careful extractions and have avoided too much new oak. The result is a very good wine, approachable and with a very nice fruit dominated by blackcurrant notes and a touch of mint.

2007 is a vintage that restaurateurs will love. Ready to drink young, not needing long cellaring. This, no doubt, will benefit the consumer too in offering less expensive wines accessible now. “It’s good to have a vintage like 2007 every once in a while”, says Caroline Poniatowski at Château Lafon-Rochet in Saint Estèphe. Gonzague Lurton at Château Durfort-Vivens in Margaux thinks that they can age for 10 to 12 years: “2007 is not a vintage to lay down for very long”, he says. A “vin de plaisir” is how Eric d’Aramon at Château de Figeac describes it, to drink before the 2005s and 2006s: "What’s important for the 2007s is to keep the fruit and the freshness”, he says. Tristan Kressmann at Chateau Latour Martillac in Pessac-Léognan sees it as an ‘in-between’ year: Cabernet sauvignon was successful thanks to good weather in October but the merlots suffered from the humidity earlier in the season. That’s why we use two thirds cabernet in the blend which is more than what we normally have. But it gives us both elegance and fruit”. Château Lagrange in Saint Julien is another winery that used more cabernet than normally and in their case it has given the wines a good structure and, thanks to soft extractions, a fresh fruit. The wine is nice, soft and agreeable.

Antonio Flores, chef de culture at Château Malescasse in Haut-Medoc, is quite satisfied with the result. “But”, he says, “it was difficult to get sufficient ripening of the grapes. We had to do a lot of work in the vineyard and a strict sorting of the grapes when they arrived at the chai before the fermentation”.

Many chateaux choose to use less new oak than habitually in 2007. Frédéric Le Clerc at Château La Tour de By in northern Médoc used only 10%. “You had to be careful not to mask the fruit”, he says.

Some other of my favourites: Cos Laboury, Saint Estèphe, with hints of aniseed, blackcurrants and a round and soft body; Grand Puy Ducasse in Pauillac, complex with a bit of astringency, needing a few more years of bottle age; Haut-Batailly and Lynch Moussas, both in Pauillac and both with lots of finesse and a fabulous fruit.

If 2007 was a non-exceptional year for the reds it was, on the contrary, a fantastic year for the whites from Pessac-Léognans (the region which was on tasting). The white Château Latour-Martillac had exceptional balance between the aromatic side of the sauvignon blanc and sémillon’s “fat”. “We don’t use more than 1/3 now oak. There should be just a hint of oak”, says Tristan Kressmann. Some other very good whites I tasted came from La Louvière, Larrivet-Haut-Brion, Ch La France, Carbonnieux and Pape-Clément (the latter with quite a lot of new oak though!).

BKWine Pick: Domaine Grand Lauze, Ferrals de Corbières

2009-10-26T10:19:00.000+01:00

Domaine Grand Lauze, Ferrals de Corbières

This is a 22 ha big estate in Boutenac, one of the best areas in the Corbières. The vines are old. Some carignans and grenaches are over 100 years old. 80% of production is AOC and the remainder is Vin de Pays. Xavier Ledogar is the winemaker. He has a passionate interest in the soil and in his vines. You feel right away that this will be individualistic wines full of character. Which indeed they are when you taste them. Together with his younger brother Xavier, he makes white and red wines with a very distinct Languedoc stamp on them, as well as having depth and complexity. Taste for instance the La Compagnon 2007, a Corbières made from 50% mourvèdre and the rest a mix of carignan, syrah and grenache. A very nice wine with flavours of the local herbs, good fruit and freshness and lots of personality. “I try and make something special”, says Xavier, “I adapt to what nature gives me”. With excellent results.

Click here for address and more recommendations.

BKWine Pick: Domaine Grand Guilhem, Fitou

2009-10-26T10:18:00.000+01:00

Domaine Grand Guilhem, Fitou

In the mountainous part of Fitou, in the small village of Cascastel, on the border to Corbières, that’s where we find Gilles Contrepois (an exiled Parisian) at Domaine Grand Guilhem. He and his wife completely changed their lifestyle a few years back when they settled here among the vines and the aromatic garrigue shrub. They have 12 ha of vineyards in four different appellations: Fitou, Corbières, Rivesaltes and Muscat de Rivesaltes. The grow the vines organically and try and emphasise the terroir expression in the wines. Taste for example his Fitou 2007, fermented with natural yeast, made from 47% carignan grapes, and you will get a wonderfully garrigue-herbs wine, fruity, with good acidity and structure. A Fitou when it is as it should be.

Click here for address and more recommendations.

Welcome to the BKWine Brief nr 75, October 2009

2009-10-26T10:04:00.002+01:00

The big thing for us right now is that our new book is finished. Really finished. We will have it in our hands in just a few weeks! We’re really excited.

The book tells the story of how a wine is made. It’s aimed at the wine enthusiast but can also be used as a wine course book. It’s quite unusual in that it goes into details of vine growing and winemaking – but with a text aimed at the wine lover.

The story in the book evolves around two themes: First, our innumerable conversations with winemakers, interviews, vineyard visits (we visit some 200-300 vineyards each year), wine shows etc. They are to a great extent the ones who tell the story in the book, explaining what they do and why. Secondly, we show that there are rarely any absolute truths. There are always different sides to an argument. If one winemaker says that you should absolutely have stainless steel fermentation tanks to make good wines, his neighbour will be convinced concrete is the best. The same goes for closures, oak, filtering, planting density etc etc. And both are generally right and make good wines. The interesting thing then is why you do this or that. And we explain, or let them explain, that in the book.

The book has two sections: The first half is dedicated to the vineyard: planting, vines and grape varieties, training and pruning methods, soil, climate, illnesses, manual vs. mechanical harvest etc. We also try and get to grips with this thing “terroir”. The vineyard section ends with an explanation of organic wine growing and biodynamic wines (issues that are often misunderstood!). We try and explain it in a practical, down to earth way.

The second half talks about the work in the wine cellar: The importance of sorting (and how you do it), crushing, pressing, fermentation is looked at in detail, as is the ‘upbringing’ of the wine (élevage) and the aging, the influence of oak, assemblage (blending), fining and filtering (should you or should you not?) etc. We look at what various substances you can add in the winemaking to control and influence the result. Closures have a chapter of their own (another subject that is often misunderstood): natural cork, plastic cork, screw caps, etc, as does ‘special' vinifications: sweet wine and sparkling wines. Finally we look at defects and problems, e.g. corked wine and reduction, and what types of wine you should cellar and age.

Everything is illustrated over 300 pages with many, many colour photographs (you wouldn’t expect anything else from us, would you?).

It will be hot off the presses (not the wine ones) by mid November.

Sounds interesting?

Well, hrrm, it’s published in Swedish (but the pictures are nice). We’d love to find a publisher for an English or French edition. Any suggestions?

Apart from that, the travel season is starting to calm down now. We’ve been to quite a few of Europe’s wine districts this autumn, and most have been very positive about the harvest, and some have been positively jubilant. At least for the quality. Many are suffering from smaller harvests than usual.

But what remains is the European Wine Bloggers conference next week (at least for some of us – Britt stays in Paris), something that I’m sure we’ll have reasons to come back to.

In this issue you also get a special report on the 2007 wines from Bordeaux. We recently tasted most of the Grands Crus Classés plus some others (the ones that are part of the Union des Grands Crus). In summary the reds from 2007 are delicious, accessible, with a nice fruit dominated by blackcurrant and some mint. Not an extraordinary vintage – instead they’re quite nice to drink already today! But the whites on the other hand …. are fabulous. Unfortunately, white Bordeaux seems not to be much appreciated by the consumers. Production has shrunk to only 10% of the total in Bordeaux. Let’s hope that the superb 2007s can change that.

Britt & Per

PS: Recommend to your friends to read the Brief or forward it to them !

More on wine:

Read all of the BKWine Brief here!

Bordeaux exports drop

2009-10-19T09:31:00.001+02:00

Exports of Bordeaux wine fell with 16% over the 12 months up to June 2009 to reach only 1.62 M hectolitre. Measured in value the drop was 14% to reach 1.43 M euro. According to CIVB/Vitisphere.

Wine festivals in Zagreb

2009-10-19T09:26:00.000+02:00

In the last Brief we wrote a piece on a wine event in Zagreb. It turns out that what we wrote may have led to some confusion. So here we try and be a little clearer:

- On November 27-28 there will be ”The Fourth International Zagreb Festival of Wine & Culinary Art”, more info here: www.vino.com.hr

- On February 12-13, 2010 there will be the ”Zagreb Wine Gourmet Festival” at the Arts & Crafts Museum in Zagreb. More information here: zagrebwinegourmet.com

We apologise for any misunderstanding or confusion due to our earlier post. So, if you happen to pass by Zagreb, either in November or in February, there are some fun things to do!

Three entertaining wine videos

2009-10-17T11:01:00.001+02:00

It’s quite some while since we had the time to update BKWine TV, so here are three other entertaining wine videos:

1 - Don't go to the gym! Come and pull weed in my vineyard instead!, says Pierre Caslot at Domaine de la Chevalerie in the Loire

2 - Can you tell the difference between a 1500 euro wine and a 15 euro wine? Not evident, not even for these wine tasting experts: With English subtitles, or simply in French

3 - What does the average Frenchman think about screw caps on wine?

Excellent harvest in the Roussillon

2009-10-16T10:01:00.000+02:00

In the Roussillon the harvest is essentially finished. As in many other regions, it is estimated to be a very good vintage. The winter and spring saw a reasonable rainfall (after some dry years) and summer was dry and hot. In August they had, just like in Spain, exceptional heat and it was feared that it might block the maturation of the grapes. Not too much damage was caused though, albeit different parcels have ripened very differently. Provided the wine grower have adapted harvest dates accordingly this has not been a problem. Over all it is expected to be an excellent vintage.

Pirate wine

2009-10-16T09:49:00.000+02:00

Many countries across Europe are pondering anti-piracy laws. In France we have a proposal (likely to go through) called Hadopi that woul make it easy for authorities to cut the interenet connection for people suspected of downloading pirated music and films. Domaine Bérénas has launched a protest wine called Cuvée Hadopi (admittedly, not a very elegant name). It exists in both red and white. Exactly how it supports the anti-hadopi case we are not sure. Perhaps the profit from the sales goes to a defence fund for pirates? blog.vinospherus.fr

Languedoc reading

2009-10-15T09:23:00.001+02:00

We have, as you might know, a certain weakness for the Languedoc-Roussillon. A few years back we wrote a book about the wines from the region (so far only published in Swedish unfortunately). Therefore it is with great pleasure that we recently discovered a new blog about Languedoc wines. It is written by the well known British wine book author Rosemary George, who happens to have a summer house in the region. Recommended reading here: Taste Languedoc http://tastelanguedoc.blogspot.com/ (And when we're talking about the Languedoc we also must mention our own book on the wines from that very dynamic region: The Languedoc Book)

New wine magazine launched #2: Palate Press

2009-10-15T09:14:00.000+02:00

An interesting initiative: Palate Press. It is an entirely internet based “magazine” that works like a collaborative project. The articles are written by a group of wine bloggers. “By harnessing the power of the internet […] we are able to have an ‘on the scene reporter’ at every wine-related event on the globe” they say in their introduction, not without a certain (unintended?) hyperbole. What their business model is is not quite clear. Advertising revenue perhaps? And on the other side paying fees to the journalists? Read it here: http://palatepress.com/

New wine magazine launched #1: Terre de Vins

2009-10-14T09:45:00.001+02:00

It’s not every day, with the implosion of the advertising market, that a new wine magazine is launched. To be fair, Terre de Vins has existed for quite a few years, but as a magazine solely dedicated to the wines of the Languedoc-Roussillon. With backing from the Sud-Ouest publishing group they have reshaped the magazine and made it into a national wine mag, with even international scope. So now we will be able to read about wines from all of France as well as some “foreign” wines in Terres de Vins. It uses very good quality photographic material and the articles are generally well written and easy to read. http://www.terredevins.com/

Eight new Masters of Wine

2009-10-14T09:37:00.000+02:00

The total has now reached 280 with the addition of eight new Masters of Wine (MW) in the latest round of diploma attribution. MW is a much coveted British diploma that shows that you know quite a few things about wine. Here are the eight new MWs:

- Susie Barrie MW, a freelance journalist, author, television and radio presenter from Winchester, UK;
- Michael Collier MW, a wine consultant based in Surrey, UK;
- Roman Horvath MW, managing director of Domäne Wachau, Austria;
- Isabelle Legeron MW, a French-born educator, event organiser and television broadcaster, living in London, UK;
- Tim Marson MW, a wine buyer for Bibendum in London, UK;
- Tuomas Meriluoto MW, managing director of WineState, an importer in Finland;
- Frank Roeder MW, founder and chief executive of VIT, a wine distribution company based in Saar, Germany;
- Mai Tjemsland MW, owner of GastroConsult, a restaurant, catering and wine club group in Oslo, Norway.

More info: www.mastersofwine.org