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Welcome to the
BKWine Brief nr 61, August 2008 |
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The sports hysteria is now
in full bloom. The Olympic Games have just started… and what has that to
do with wine, you may ask? Not much, but it serves as an excuse to talk
about China and that it is becoming one of the world’s larger wine
producers even if statistics are still quite unreliable. Some Chinese
wines have even started to appear on the export market: Dragon Seal,
Great Wall Winery and others. A couple of years ago I had the
opportunity to visit several wineries in China when I was in Beijing to
be part of the jury in a Chinese wine competition. Some were completely
local organisations but many had Western involvement, either having a
European winemaker or in some cases being part-owned by foreigners. The
wines were still far from being world class wines but many were well
made, showing that there may be greater things to come. So if you have
the opportunity to taste a Chinese wine I can certainly recommend that
you try it.
We had recently more
opportunities to taste ‘Olympic wines’ when we were on a wine tour in
Greece. We’re spending vacation this summer in Sweden and we’ve taken
that as an opportunity to do a follow-up and go through the selection of Greek wines here
in Sweden. They have quite a long list of Greek wines in the monopoly
stores ‘Systembolaget’. Unfortunately when you want to order this or
that wine it often turns out to be out of stock. They joys of a monopoly
market. But we’ve managed to go through a decent selection of the Greek
wines and some of them are certainly very good. Surprisingly, it is
often the whites that have been most interesting. And it certainly is
not retsinas! (As a matter of fact, during our ten days in Greece we
didn’t taste a single retsina. Perhaps we should have…) If you can find
some Greek wines at your local wine merchant now is certainly the time
to try it. Why not organise an Olympic dinner. And you can enjoy some
good food and wine and forget about the television.
One of the great joys of
wine, at least for me, is to try new wines – wines that I have never
tried before. I’ve never quite understood people who every day drink the
same wine. Seems just a touch boring. Like eating the same food every
day. Or always watching the same episode of a television program. On the
first day of our vacation (that is soon over) we went to the local
monopoly outlet and bought a box of wine – not the ‘box wine’ (bag-in-box
that accounts for more than 50% of sales in Sweden) – but a real case,
with 12 bottles. And not two bottles of the same wine in the selection.
So this month’s recommendation from me is to buy a case of wine and make
sure that every wine is different. And don’t worry too much about what
some wine critics say about the wines or what their “rating” or “score”
are. Just get what you think might be interesting or fun and see how it
turns out. I am sure that you will get some pleasant surprises (and an
enjoyable time).
Britt
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All previous
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News from BKWine |
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Autumn 2008
program
 Douro
is one of the world’s most famous wine rivers. Here, in this dramatically
beautiful landscape in northern Portugal, grapes are grown on steep,
terraced slopes. The climate is dry and hot and the grapes are picked
perfectly ripe. These grapes are made into port wine and increasingly into
a full bodied, tasty red table wine.
More info on the Douro wine tour!
 Champagne...
Luxury, celebration and of course excellent wines. But champagne is not
just wines. There is also an outstanding gastronomy that we will pay
special attention to on this trip. We will visit some world famous
champagne houses and some small high-quality family producers. And we will
enjoy the Champenoise gastronomy at our dinners (in a one-star
restaurant!) and at the lunches, some of which will be with, and as guests
of, champagne producers. Is drinking champagne all through a meal a good
idea? Decide for yourself!
More info on the Champagne wine tour!
Spring 2009
program
Here are the dates. Detailed
programs will be available soon.
 | February
11-15: Truffle, wine, duck and foie gras in the south west of France
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| April
25-29: Alentejo in Portugal, one of the most exciting and modern
Portuguese wine regions |
Finnish
Wine Tours - Viinimatkoja Ranskan viinialueille!
Tours
on the schedule (in Finnish):
| 3.-7. syyskuuta 2008:
Pohjois-Rhônen-laaksoon
|
 Nauti
pidennetystä kesästä ja tutustu samalla Syrah- rypäleen salaisuuksiin.
Täällä Pohjois-Rhônen –laaksossa tuotetaan lähinnä punaviiniä, saamme myös
tilaisuuden tutustua alueen kukkaisiin Viognier- viineihin sekä
täyteläisiin Marsanne/Roussanne-viineihin. Lisätietoa !
More info here!
You can find the pictures on
www.bkwine.com/wine_pictures/photo_galleries.htm |
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News from the Wine World |
World’s
biggest selling wine brands
 - Gallo – 19 250 (thousand cases @ 9l)
- Hardys – 11 000 (owned by Constellation)
- Yellow Tail – 11 000
- Concha y Toro – 10 465
- Beringer – 9 900 (owned by Foster’s)
- Robert Mondavi – 9 800 (owned by Constellation)
- Lindemans – 8 600 (owned by Foster’s)
- Jacob’s Creek – 8 200 (owned by Pernod Ricard)
- Blossom Hill – 6 400
- Banrock Station – 4 000 (owned by Constellation)
(Source: The Drinks Business)
World’s biggest selling
champagne
 - Moët & Chandon – 2640 (thousand cases @ 9l) (owned by Moët Hennessy, LVMH)
- Veuve Clicquot – 1658 (owned by Moët Hennessy, LVMH)
- Nicolas Feuillatte – 750
- GH Mumm – 600 (owned by Pernod Ricard)
- Piper-Heidsieck – 588
- Laurent-Perrier – 571
- Taittinger – 458
- Lanson – 417
- Pommery – 417
- Perrier-Jouët – 200 (owned by Pernod Ricard)
Which means that LVMH, who owns the top two brands, sells more than all the
others on the list put together.
(Source: The Drinks Business) The top ten sellers add up to 100 million
bottles. From memory (and this may not be entirely accurate - we're on
vacation without library access), 300 million
bottles are sold each year. If so, the top two LVMH brands (not counting
other brands they own) account for 15% of all champagne sales.
World’s biggest selling
spirit brands
- Smirnoff – 24 300 (thousand cases @ 9l) (ägs av Diageo)
- Bacardi – 19 200
- Johnnie Walker – 16 050 (owned by Diageo)
- Absolut – 10 730 (owned by Pernod Ricard)
- Jack Daniel’s – 9 075
- Captain Morgan – 7 800 (owned by Diageo)
- Baileys – 7 700 (owned by Diageo)
- Cuervo Tequila – 7 260 (owned by Diageo)
- Ballantine’s – 6 170 (owned by Diageo)
- Jim Beam – 6 140
(Source: The Drinks Business)
Wine is good for your health
– especially with food
Researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have discovered that
wine is particularly good for your health if you drink it with food. It has
previously not been quite understood why wine is good for you. Wine, in
particular red wine, contains polyphenols, which are powerful antioxidants
that can counteract cancer and heart disease. But why that is so has been a
mystery since little of the antioxidants find their way into the
bloodstream. The researchers, led by Dr Joseph Kanner, have discovered that
the secret may be in the stomach. When you eat fat food, e.g. red meat,
harmful oxidising toxins are released, in particular one called
malondialdehyde (MDA). MDA is thought to contribute to various diseases,
such as arteriosclerosis, cancer, diabetes and others. Dr Kanner's research
has shown that if you drink wine at the same time as you eat this “bad” food
(a juicy steak perhaps) the amount of MDA released is much reduced compared
to if you don’t drink any wine with the food. Fruit after dinner has a
similar effect. So it is in the stomach rather than in the blood that the
wine does its good work. At least according to the experiments done on mice.
As reported in The Economist.
Italy may allow DOC in
bag-in-box
Italian authorities have decided to allow wines of the quality appellation
DOC to be packaged in bag-in-box. The top level wines with DOCG designation
will still have to be bottled in, well, bottle.
New York Times
The world’s oldest Veuve
Clicquot
When Chris James bought the Torosay castle on the Scottish isle of Mull
it came with the furniture. In a cabinet that had no key but that he
eventually managed to open James found what is believed to be the oldest
bottle of Veuve Clicquot. The vintage on the bottle was 1893.
Vitisphere.com
Chateau Montelena in
California to be sold to a Frenchman
Michel Reybier already owns the famous Chateau Cos d’Estournel in Bordeaux.
Now he is extending is chateau collection with Chateau Montelena in
California’s Napa Valley. The vineyard covers some 80 hectares and is
perhaps best know for having produced one of the American wines that were
part of the “Judgement of Paris” tasting that took place in 1976 and where
the two American wines came in front of many famous French wines. The price
of the transaction is not known but is rumoured to be in excess of $100
million.
pressdemocrat.com and
SFGate.com and
Vitisphere.com
French government launches
unsuccessful anti-alcohol campaign
 The
French government has launched a campaign targeting youngsters that wants to
discourage young people from drinking. According to reports in
Decanter, the reactions from youngsters seem to indicate that the
campaign has had questionable success. They report reactions as ranging from
‘I have not seen it and I don’t care’ to ‘I have seen it and I don’t care'.
The video shows a beach party that as the evening progresses degenerates
into violence, rape, drowning and vomiting…
Watch it here.
Pernod Ricard to sell wine
assets?
According to a report in the Financial Times, Pernod Ricard plans to sell
large portions of its wine portfolio in a streamlining of its brands
following its acquisition of the Swedish wine and spirits company V&S Vin &
Sprit (including the Absolut vodka brand). Also the very long standing and
traditional own-label cognac called Grönstedts is expected to be sold.
However, analysts expect that PR will keep its Australian wine brand Jacobs
Creek.
Financial Times and
Vitisphere.com
UK retail chain Oddbins
sold. Again
Oddbins used to be a leading British retail chain known for a good wine
selection and unusual shops. A few years ago it was sold, following a period
of difficulty due to the tightening of the UK retail scene, to the French
company Castel, itself one of France’s biggest wine producers. However,
Castel have struggled to develop Oddbins and make it profitable. In a
surprising move Oddbins has now been sold to Ex Cellars, an English company
with currently only two wine shops.
wine-business-international.com and
winealley.com
The St Emilion circus
continues…
 Well,
you cannot call it much else but a circus… At the beginning of July a court
decided that the ‘new’ Saint Emilion classification should be annulled. This
was the third court to deal with the issue and was thought to be the final
word. Not so. The French Senate has now decided that those chateaux that
were classified in the previous classification will be allowed to use that
classification “until such time as a new classification has been
established”. Initially this is valid for the vintages 2006 to 2009. It is
part of a package called “the law for the modernisation of the economy”.
Believe it if you will. Perhaps they should care a bit more about the
consumers instead of internal jockeying and questionable prestige labels.
winealley.com
Have a news
item you'd like to see here or have a news tip? Send me an email:
winebrief@bkwine.com |
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Agenda |
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- -
France:
- -
Sweden:
- - UK,
Belgium, Switzerland, Spain, Denmark,...:
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14-16/8, Oregon: Wine
Economists Conference,
www.wine-economics.org |
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15-16/8, Karleby / Kokkola,
Finland: Wine and gastronomy show,
www.vistovin.fi |
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20/9, Copenhagen: Rhone Festival,
www.rhonefestival.dk |
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17-19/10, Florens: MeetingWine,
wine buyer show,
www.meetinginternational.it |
Wine auction
agendas:
Something we've missed? Send us suggestions for events to be added here:
winebrief@bkwine.com |
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Post Scriptum |
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Share with other wine enthusiasts
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 Copyright
©
Britt Karlsson, BKWine
www.bkwine.com
info@bkwine.com
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