It’s nice to find a wine
article in the daily press that is a bit more thoughtful, and thought
provoking, then the regular “drink this or drink that” stuff. I recently
chanced upon one of those articles in one of Sweden’s biggest quality
dailies (Svenska Dagbladet) written by a PhD in biochemistry. Even nicer
was to meet the author, again by chance, at a wine tasting I led a few
days later. The article was a mixture of an essay on terroir and a
review of an interesting wine book, The Science of Wine by Jamie Goode.
It seems that the author would really like to find the “true” definition
of what terroir is, or means, but, alas, that does not exist. Sometimes
terroir refers to something that can be described as the ensemble of the
environment where the wine has been grown, the soil, the microclimate
and perhaps the local vegetation. Sometimes, as the author points out,
people also include other things, such as the grape variety (or
varieties) and wine making traditions. Personally, I would rather use
the first definition rather than the latter, but who am I to say that it
is right.
It makes me think of a wine
maker who once said that some visitors (and often Swedish actually) have
very technical and very precise questions when they come and visit her
vineyard. ”What is the grape variety blend in this wine?” – and an
answer such as “Well, this year it was probably 25% X, 30% Y and 45% Z,
if I remember right, but it varies much from year to year.” is not
welcome. Or “How much new oak do you use?”, then they are not happy with
“It depends. Sometimes we don’t use any new oak at all and sometimes
perhaps up to 50%.” Rather than thinking about how they wine expresses
itself in the glass they want to know all the technical details.
(Another aspect is that this reality – things are not clear cut – makes
life harder for wine writers…)
But to come back to terroir
– certainly it matters, and certainly it “exists”, but what it is and
how it influences the wine is more difficult to say, and more personal.
An example is if you visit a winery in Burgundy and the winemaker lets
you taste two different wines. Then he says “The grapes were grown some
50 metres apart. I have done identical harvesting, winemaking and
aging” and you have still two very different wine in front of you (Come
on one of our wine tours and you will see!). Another example was a wine
we had last night. It was a “classic Bordeaux” blend of Cabernet
Sauvignon and Merlot but very distinctly not Bordeaux with a very good
expression of Languedoc terroir (the wine, by the way, was from a very
interesting young producer in the Languedoc called Domaine de Terres
Georges).
Unfortunately – or perhaps,
fortunately – wine is often not very scientific.
Another question that the
author of the article talked about was “minerality” in the wine. Does it
come from the vine sucking up trace elements of minerals through the
roots so an a chalky soil you get chalky minerality because you have,
well, chalk in the wine? To me, minerality is simply a way to describe a
certain characteristic in the wine, a characteristic that is a bit
difficult to explain. It often implies that the wine has a high level of
acidity, a slightly ”hard edge” but well structured and clean taste.
Difficult to explain but easy to show in a wine. And yes, certain soil
types give more minerality to wines than others. But do I believe that
it is because small chunks of mineral have found their way into the wine
through the roots? No, not really. Not more than that I think that the
blackcurrant flavour of a Cabernet Sauvignon wine has to do with black
currants.
Special
offer to readers of the BKWine Brief
We
have the pleasure to be able to offer you, dear reader, an interesting
offer from our new partner: Bettane & Dessauve. Bettane & Dessauve are
two very experienced wine tasters and two big wine personalities in
France. They were previously the two leading persons in the French
Magazine La Revue des Vins de France but have recently started their own
activity. They publish a newsletter with extensive tasting notes, called
TAST (in French though!). To readers of the BKWine Brief they offer a
discounted subscription price of 55€ (instead of 80€); more than 30%
discount. You can find more information, and a sample issue, on their
site. Use the promotional code BKW07 to take advantage of this offer.
Click here for more info. Or you can
follow this link to download the sample issue TAST #11 (2 MB).
Vote for
the BKWine Brief
Please
continue voting for the Brief on the blog ranking on LocalWineEvents. We
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Wine
tours
As I said in the last
Brief: We are putting a big effort this year into developing our English
language wine tours and our tours with more educational focus. If you
are interested in our tours, or if you have some ideas or suggestions on
the tours, or if you might be interested in some kind of collaboration
around wine and food tours - we want to hear from you! We are glad for
any help from you to further develop our English language wine tours.
Tell your friends!
Spring tour
- Bordeaux, June 6-10
Autumn tours:
- Burgundy, September 26-30
- Portugal, Alentejo, October 17-21
Enjoy this month’s Brief
and don’t hesitate to send me comments!
Britt
PS: Recommend to your
friends to read the Brief or forward it to them !
All images are clickable!
All previous
issues of the Brief are here:
Archive
News from BKWine
Wine Tours
June
6-10: Bordeaux
For a wine lover a trip to Bordeaux is a must! Here 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.
More info
26-30 September: Côte
d'Or, the heart of Burgundy
Over the course of a long weekend we will take a close look at the heart
of Burgundy: la Côte d’Or de Bourgogne, the Golden Slope of Burgundy. Our
visits will give you expert insight into the important aspects of Burgundy
wines: soil, geology, viticulture, and vinification.
More info!
17-21 October: Portugal –
Alentejo
Portugal have been making great strides in improving wine quality over the
last decade and the Alentejo region is one of the most dynamic (albeit one
of the least known). There are many ambitious wine makers in the region,
both traditional Portuguese "houses" and modern ventures. And this is also
where you find the vast Portuguese cork oak forests and the delicious Pata
Negra ham.
More info!
Finnish
Wine Tours - Viinimatkoja Ranskan viinialueille!
A selection of
what we have tried, tasted or visited recently.
□
Producers
Domaine Couly-Dutheil,
Chinon One
of the better known wine producers in Chinon. Couly-Dutheil is a family
property dating back to 1921. They own 90 hectares. their wines show that
Cabernet Franc can, if well done, be a quite powerful wine that also ages
well. They have a shop in the town of Chinon where you can taste and buy
their wines and also admire their vineyard Le Clos de l’Echo.
Click here for address and more recommendations.
Clos Centeilles, Languedoc Daniel
and Patricia Domergue consider Cinsault to be the best grape in the whole of
Languedoc! And also the most typical. Grenache and Carignan are both
newcomers, introduced after the phylloxera crisis, they say. They bought the
run down Clos Centeilles in 1990 with 10 hectares of Cinsault, Carignan and
Grenache. Already the very first vintage they were impressed by the quality
they had from Carignan. Now they make tow Cinsault cuvées, Campagne de
Centeilles and Capitelle de Centeilles, as well as one more “traditional”
blend on Syrah, Mourvèdre and Grenache, the Clos Centeilles. Le Carignissime
is an original cuvée from 100% Carignan.
Click here for address and more recommendations.
Macéo, Paris 1 Macéo
is just next door to Willi’s Wine Bar and both are owned by the Englishman
Mark Williamson. Just like at Willi’s the wine list at Macéo is outstanding,
with an emphasis on the Rhône Valley. Elegant but relaxed atmosphere that is
a mix of classic and modern. Very good food of course. Set menus from 34
euro.
Click here for address and more recommendations.
Special
offer to readers of the BKWine Brief We
have the pleasure to be able to offer you, dear reader, an interesting
offer from our new partner: Bettane & Dessauve. Bettane & Dessauve are
two very experienced wine tasters and two big wine personalities in
France. They were previously the two leading persons in the French
Magazine La Revue des Vins de France but have recently started their own
activity. They publish a newsletter with extensive tasting notes, called
TAST (in French though!). To readers of the BKWine Brief they offer a
discounted subscription price of 55€ (instead of 80€); more than 30%
discount. You can find more information, and a sample issue, on their
site. Use the promotional code BKW07 to take advantage of this offer.
Click here for more info. Or you can
follow this link to download the sample issue TAST #11 (2 MB).
The big vodka battle? What is vodka? What do you think? Vote in the poll below. There is a
debate currently on which rules should regulate vodka production within
the EU, in particular what vodka should be made from. Some say that
vodka should only be produced from grain and potatoes (nor surprisingly,
this view is held mainly by the “traditional” vodka producers in
northern and eastern Europe who traditionally use those raw materials).
Others say that vodka could be made from other things too – perhaps not
too drastic a view taking in to consideration that it’s a spirit that
tastes mainly of, well, alcohol (and hardly of potatoes or grain). For
the moment EU regulators are leaning towards the more liberal
definition. The Swedish state owned company V&S Vin & Sprit, producer of
the best selling vodka Absolut, threw it’s weight into the debate with a
press release referring to a poll made with the Swedish public: 62% of
the respondents said that they thought that vodka was made from grain
and potatoes. “This shows that the Swedish consumer has a clear
understanding of what vodka is made from” said Peter Luksep, responsible
for EU issues at the state owned distiller, who was also the one who had
commissioned the poll… He contrasted that with that “only” 24% of the
respondents identified grapes as the raw material for cognac and 34%
correctly answered apples for calvados. Could that perhaps be because
many more people drink vodka than calvados or cognac? On also wonders
why the poll did not ask the question if people thought a law should be
introduced that limited vodka to be produced from grain and potatoes…
And one also wonders if V&S Vin & Sprit’s conclusion is that it should
be allowed to make cognac from other things than grapes. It is fun with
this sort of self serving polls, isn’t it?
Antonin Rodet buys Maison
Dufouleur Antonin, a big négociant in Bourgogne, has bought Maison Dufouleur Père
& Fils. Dufouleur is both a négociant and owns 10.5 hectares of vineyards.
The company has belonged to the same family for more than 400 years. Rodet
is owned by the French investment company Sequana Capital (sequanacapital.fr). They are probably
better known for owning the paper group ArjoWiggins.
wine-community.com
Gérad Bertrand buys Domaine
de l’Aigle in Languedoc At the other end, so to speak, Antonin Rodet sells the property Domaine
de l’Aigle in Languedoc (Limoux) to Gérard Bertrand. Domaine de l’Aigle was
created by Jean-Louis Denois who sold it to Rodet some years back. Dom. de
l’Aigle is perhaps too far away from Burgundy for the Burgundians to quite
grasp how to develop this not very well known property, but who makes very
interesting wines from Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Gérard Bertrand is one of
the “new and big” players in Languedoc. He already owns several properties
in the regions, e.g. the well known Domaine de l’Hospitalet.
vitisphere.com
” Can burying cow horns
filled with manure in your vineyard result in better wines?” That’s the starting point for an article on Bloomberg about biodynamic
wines. Biodynamism has for quite some time been popular with a small group
of dedicated winemakers – sometimes verging on philosophers – in France.
Lately it has become increasingly popular with biodynamism or similar
practices: “lutte raisonné”, organic etc. Disregarding the theories and
philosophy behind it, on can only conclude that many of these producer make
excellent wines but it is of course difficult to know whether it is due to
the philosophies or if it is thanks to the attention of the winemaker. Now
this trend is apparently spreading even to the US. Here are some examples of
American “bio-producers”: Robert Sinskey, Grgich Hills, Dark Horse Ranch,
Les Dijonnais, Cailloux Vineyards, Quintessa, Crane Vineyards. Read more on
Bloomberg.com
New Michelin stars This year’s edition of the Michelin Guide, or Le Guide Rouge as it is
also called, introduces several new stars. Five restaurants were promoted to
the top three star category: Le Meurice (Paris), L’Astrance (Paris), Le Pré
Catalan (Paris), Pic (Valence) and Lameloise (Chagny). Four lost their three
stars: Le Burehiesel, George V (Paris), Taillevent (Paris) and Marc Veyrat (Mégève).
Read more:
lemonde.fr, and
bonjourparis.com
FBI hunts fake wines at
auction FBI has contacted both wine collectors and leading auction houses in a
hunt for fraudsters who are selling fakes of exclusive wine bottles. The
auction houses are thought to be one of the outlets for the fake bottles. It
is thought that the price increases on the most exclusive bottles have lead
to that profit-hungry people with a flexible conscience have started
introducing forgeries on the market.
Money.cnn.com
Go back to GO: the new Cru
Bourgeois classification annulled A court in Bordeaux has declared annulled and invalid the new Cru
Bourgeois classification that was introduced in 2003. 77 chateaux that had
been excluded in the new ranking had taken the issue to court. The
classification has been nullified by the court because, it is said, the jury
included owners of some chateaux being judged – a classic case of being both
prosecutor and judge one might think. Cru Bourgeois will therefore revert to
the classification dating from 1932. The new classification had reduced the
number of classified chateaux from 444 to 247 so one can imagine that there
were a few discontent owners. Will this then have wider consequences. Almost
all ”juries” in the French wine world include what one could consider
partial jurors – both for classifications (such as in this case) and for
Appellation Contrôlée wines (all AC wines are subject to a tasting for
approval, called “agrément”).
wine-business-international.com,
decanter.com,
vitisphere.com
St Emilion chateaux question
the new classification Rapidly on the heels of the Cru Bourgeois debacle three estates in Saint
Emilion have put in question the new St Emilion classification. Chateaux
Villemaurine, Cadet Bon and Guadet-Saint-Julien have joined to argue the
case that their demotion in the St E classification was not correct. They
question if the process was fair and just in defining the new
classification. Will this be the next cancellation?
decanter.com
French wine export up It’s nice to report some positive numbers for a change. French wine
export grew by 13% in 2006. Exports to the USA, the biggest export market,
increased by 22% to a total of 2.4 billion euro. In second place, the UK, up
8.2% to 1.5 billion euro.
iht.com and more detail
vitisphere.com
Irrigation officially
allowed in France A new decree on December 6, 2006 officially and more permanently allows
irrigation in French vineyards. Irrigating the vineyards can be allowed
until August 15. It will even be possible to irrigate appellation contrôlée
wines but the regulations for AC vineyards is stricter.
vitisphere.com
Less fat mice... Researchers who have done trials on mice have discovered that
consumption of red wine may make fat mice less fat. Perhaps it may work on
humans too… Watch the video interview with the researchers on CNNMoney.com
(click on “Watch: Red wine wonder drug”).
money.cnn.com
Founder of Gallo dies Ernest Gallo died on March 6 in California. Enest Gallo founded together
with his brother Julio E&J Gallo winery in 1933. Today it is the world’s
largest wine producer. (Constellation Brands actually produces more wine but
it is a conglomerate of different brands created by acquisitions.)
cnn.com
The wine trade doesn’t care
about younger consumers? Wine X is, or was, a wine magazine for “young adults, the Generation X.
Wine X has now folded, well, been forced to close down. According to the
founder and editor, Darryl Roberts, they had to close mainly because of lack
of interest in the wine trade for the younger generation. Is the trade not
really interested in attracting younger consumers to wine? Could it be so
that the margins are higher on alcopops and spirits and the trade prefers to
keep younger drinkers on that?
decanter.com
Romantic wine tastings Fact #1: A glass or two of wine can make a simple dinner full of
atmosphere and romance. Fact #2: Dating sites on the internet have become
tremendously popular. Conclusion: create a dating site for wine lovers.
That’s exactly what an American entrepreneur has done:
WineLoversMeet.com
No more Brunello? In an article in the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera a journalist
speculates if the future is sombre for Brunello wines. Researchers at the
university in Florence have concluded that the climatic changes may make
temperatures too hot in Tuscany for making great wines and that wine makers
may need to move to colder areas further north. Perhaps time to come on a
wine tour with BKWine to Tuscany before it gets too hot?
Competition in grape growing
and wine production The American wine university UC Davies organises on August 8-10 a
conference on the theme ”Competitive Forces Affecting the Wine and Winegrape
Industries”. Call for papers: Authors are encourage to submit essays for the
conference. Deadline: March 26.
robertmondaviinstitute.ucdavis.edu
Wine show for Fenouillèdes
wines The small Fenouillèdes appellation in the southern French region of
Roussillon is not very well known but they seem to be very dynamic and
taking lots of initiatives to make it better known (perhaps simplifying the
spelling could be one?). In April they organise a wine show to present their
wines to the trade in Tautavel, not far from Perpignan.
vins-fenouilledes.com
On Provence Our Finnish readers may be interested to know of a new article on
Provence, written by BKWine’s Finnish partner Virpi Sorvisto, on
Toisi Sanoen
Conference on wine economics
in Trier in May From a press release by the Association of Wine Economists: “The first
annual conference of the American Association of Wine Economists will take
place in Trier, Mosel (Germany). The conference will be joint with the
Vineyard Data Quantification Society and the Society for Quantitative
Gastronomy. The "Call for Papers", as published in the Journal of Wine
Economics, is extended until March 15.”
wine-economics.org
World’s best Syrah wines The first ever competition for pure Syrah wines will be held in Ampuis
in the northern Rhône town of Ampuis (home to Côte Rôtie) on May 31 and June
1.
syrah-du-monde.com
New president of the INAO Yves Bernard has been appointed president of INAO, the French control
authority for (among other things) wine. Bernard comes from Champagne with a
long career at LVMH, who owns several champagne houses, e.g. Moët & Chandon,
and also wine estates, not least Chateau d’Yquem
Even more Provence – new
guest writer For those of you who are not so good in Finnish, we have even more to
offer on Provence: three new articles on our guest writer page, all written
by our new guest writer Ester Laushway to whom we say a big welcome!:
En français
We
have the pleasure to be able to offer you, dear reader, an interesting
offer from our new partner: Bettane & Dessauve. Bettane & Dessauve are
two very experienced wine tasters and two big wine personalities in
France. They were previously the two leading persons in the French
Magazine La Revue des Vins de France but have recently started their own
activity. They publish a newsletter with extensive tasting notes, called
TAST (in French though!). To readers of the BKWine Brief they offer a
discounted subscription price of 55€ (instead of 80€); more than 30%
discount. You can find more information, and a sample issue, on their
site. Use the promotional code BKW07 to take advantage of this offer.
Finnish
Wine Tours - Viinimatkoja Ranskan viinialueille!
For those of you who are not so good in Finnish, we have even more to
offer on Provence: three new articles on our guest writer page, all written
by our new guest writer Ester Laushway to whom we say a big welcome!:
