Launch of
spring wine tour program 2009
BKWine
has launched the spring program 2009 with two new wine and food tours. The
destinations include Périgord (with truffles, duck and wine), and the wins
and food of the Alentejo in Portugal. The detailed programs are available on
www.bkwine.com. “The trend towards active holidays seems to continue”
says Britt Karlsson, founder of BKWine, “so I think that the two spring
tours will fill up quickly”. Britt continues: “I am particularly happy that
travellers have started to discover that springtime is also a good time for
wine and food travel. There’s no harvest, of course, but there are plenty of
things happening in the wine cellars. Plus summer is approaching with
brighter evenings and warmer weather”.
The two tours on the spring program are both classics:
- Truffles, foie gras and wine in the Périgord (south-west France),
including a real truffle hunt, a half day cooking workshop with duck and
foie gras, and wine of course, February 11-15
- The Alentejo in Portugal, a wine region that is on the forefront of
the modern winemaking in Portugal, with gourmet specialities like the pata
negra ham, March 25-29
New wine videos
We have published four new wine videos on BKWine TV, our channel on
YouTube. Did you know that you can subscribe to the new videos we publish?
Just click on ‘subscribe’ on YouTube and you will receive an email each time
there’s a new video online. And we’re particularly glad if you take the time
to write a comment on one of our videos or give it a rating. Here are the
new clips:
-
Chateau Petrus, a visual visit
-
Chateau Tour des Gendres in Bergerac
-
Truffle hunting with a truffle dog in the Bergerac (perhaps it will
tickle your taste buds and make you join our truffles hunting tour in
February…)
-
Domaine de l’Ancienne Cure in Bergerac and Monbazillac.
Robert Parker likes Austrian
wines
In the latest versions of eRobertParker David Schildknecht (one of
Parker’s collaborators) rates and comments on Austrian wines. Of the 500
wines that are covered just over 200 are rated as “outstanding” (i.e. gets
more than 90 points). All wines are from the 2006 vintage. Schildknecht
especially likes the Blaufränkisch wines.
www.weinausoesterreich.at and
www.erobertparker.com
The CEO of Systembolaget, the Swedish monopoly, to resign
Anitra Steen has announced her resignation, well in advance of May 2009,
which is the date she has set for the end of her term as CEO of the Swedish
monopoly wine and spirits retailer Systembolaget AB. At that date she will
have been in charge of the company for 10 years and will celebrate her 60th
birthday. 60 years is also the obligatory retirement age for a CEO at the
company.
Budget Travel
features Britt/BKWine: travel tips and Bergerac
In
the August issue of Budget Travel, an American travel magazine, they have an
article featuring the ten best travel tips for a wine tour traveller – based
on an interview with Britt (that hardly needs any further presentation
here). You can read the article here:
www.budgettravel.com
In the same issue they also have an article about one of Britt’s “hidden
gems”, a destination that is not so well know but definitely worth
discovering: Bergerac in the south-west of France, with plenty of good food
and excellent wine. Read the article here
www.budgettravel.com. And that’s also a region where you find the famous
black Perigord truffles that you can discover on BKWines Truffle Hunting
Tour in February!
http://www.bkwine.com/wine_tours/wine_tours.htm
The harvest has started in Bordeaux
The harvest will be later than usual this year, due to the cool summer. But
the ‘ceuillette’ for the white wines has already started. For example, at
Chateau Carbonnieux, a winery in Pessac-Léognan / Graves that makes both red
and white wine, the picking of the sauvignon blanc grapes commenced on
September 5. But they don’t expect to start the red grape harvest until the
beginning of September.
Mediterranean meeting for muscat with pudding promotion
Excuse us the heading – it is question of the third annual rencontres
for Muscat VDN wines (vins doux naturels) together with the ‘Le Roussillon
Dessert Trophy’ that will take place in Perpignan on January 31 to February
2, 2009 in Roussillon. It is an occasion for professionals, for wine buyers,
and for the public to meet the VDN winemakers and taste many of their wines.
The Dessert Trophy features the best VDN wine and sweets combinations and
the finals will take place in the famous international patisserie school of
Olivier Bajard. More info
www.vinsduroussillon.com
Best French sommelier competition on November 9 & 10 in Perpignan
The finals for the Best French Sommelier competition will this year take
place in Perpignan, hosted by the Wines of Roussillon. 12 candidates, double
up from the last issue of the competition in 2006 will for the trophy this
year. More info from the CIVR or ABCommunication.
Something ‘nouveau’ in the Muscat?
Since
2006 a Muscat de Noel (Christmas Muscat wine) is launched just in time to be
enjoyed around the Christmas tables. From this year it will be a special
designation available to wines within the AOC Muscat de Rivesaltes provided
they comply with the requirements: being a primeur wine and bottled before
December 1 following the harvest. It will certainly go better than a
Beaujolais with the sweets on the Christmas table. More info:
www.muscatdenoel.fr
The great tasting in Paris…
Le Grand Tasting they call it… It is a big wine fair and, yes, tasting that
is open to both the public and professionals and will take place this year
on November 21 and 22 at the Caroussel du Louvre in Paris. Numerous quality
wine producers from all over France will participate and this year there
will also be representatives from Italy and from Spain. More info
www.grandtasting.com and
www.bvizioz.com.
EcceVino.com – new French wine site with tasting notes
David Cobbold is a well known English wine writer based in Paris. Together
with a French colleague, Sebastien Durand-Viel, he has launched a new French
language site featuring tasting notes and commentaries as well as longer
articles on wine and also a wine encyclopaedia. Read more here:
http://www.eccevino.com
Champagne Light?
Champagne is bottled in heavy, solid bottles so that they will not burst
from the pressure inside the bottle. A typical champagne bottles weighs in
at around 900 grams, almost double a regular bottle. CIVC, the champagne
producers’ association, has asked Mumm Champagne to trial a lighter bottle,
weighing only 835 g, a reduction by a massive 55 g… The light weight bottles
should make transports easier and cheaper (you can fit more bottles on a
lorry if they weigh less). The trial has now been successfully concluded and
Champ Light might now be adopted by more producers, according to a report in
the Financial Times. However, Pommery/ Vranken already uses the lighter 835
g bottle and the empty Heidsieck bottle that we unfortunately had at home
(unfortunately, since it was empty) was at 845 g, so it does not seem that
much of a revolution. But according to Pommery there would be 3000 fewer
trucks on the roads if everyone used the lighter bottle. Just think of what
savings there would be with an aluminium bottle.
www.ft.com
Burgundy information
Are you looking for information about Burgundy? Or perhaps thinking of
making a trip? They it can be worth your while to visit the BurgundyEye.com
site with lots of tourism and wine info:
http://www.burgundyeye.com/
2008 – hot and dry in Roussillon
Many
European wine regions have had a cool and dreary summer, even if it has not
been too wet. Almost the opposite is the case in Roussillon in southern
France. They have had a hot and dry summer leading to an unusually early
harvest. Some wineries started picking as early as August 11 but the harvest
will continue for another few weeks (as we are writing in the first half of
Sep). There were a few rain showers on the last day of August and the
beginning of September but nothing that had any substantially negative
effect, thanks to the healthy grapes in the vineyards. Overall they expect
to have a moderate volume but excellent quality.
Draught in California
California is seeing the lowest water levels in 30 years in some of its
water reservoirs. If the lack of rain continues 2009 is likely to be the
driest year in Californian modern history. What consequences that will have
for California’s vineyards remain to be seen.
www.sfgate.com
Truffles and Pata Negra? - “It doesn’t get much better!”
For sure, it makes you happy. We launched the BKWine spring travel program
last week and it’s always nice if someone notices it, especially if it’s a
Google Page Rank 8 or Alexa Rank 86 site (for the non-nerds, this means one
of the web’s most popular travel sites). James Martin, one of the travel
editors on About.com GoEurope
picked
up our information on our truffles tour and our Portuguese tour (with pata
negra ham) - ”It Doesn't Get Much Better Than This!”. But it will be
difficult to fit both the pata negra and the truffles on the same trip so
you’ll have to go on both wine tours. Here’s the GoEurope story:
http://goeurope.about.com
Here’s a new BKWine TV video from our last truffle hunting tour. And it’s on
the schedule again in February so if you’re tempted to go ‘hunting’ and
tasting some wine you know where to find it:
www.youtube.com/truffles
Champagne harvest started on September 15
On September 15 the harvest began in Champagne. They have had a cool but
reasonably dry summer so the expectations are for a comparatively small
quantity but with healthy grapes. The maximum yield has been agreed to
13,600 kg grapes per hectare (exactly what that translates to in hl/ha is
difficult to say but it should be around 80-90 hl/ha).
http://www.winealley.com
Beaucastel buys Tourelles in Gigondas
Or
to be more precise, the Perrin family, owners of the famous Domaine de
Beaucastel in Châteauneuf-du-Pape, has bought the Domaine des Tourelles in
Gigondas. Tourelles is a highly regarded Gigondas vineyard with 9 ha of
vines.
www.vitisphere.com
Avignonesi in Tuscany sold to Belgian investor
One of the top producers in Montalcino In Tuscany has been sold to the
Belgian business woman Virginie Saverys. The Falvi family will retain a 10%
shareholding. Avignonesi has 109 ha of vineyards split on four estates, Le
Capezzine, I Poggetti, La Selva and La Lombarda in Montalcino, just south of
Chianti.
www.wine-business-international.com
Barca Velha 2000 – a new release of a mythical Portuguese wine
Barca Velha was long thought of as the only Portuguese table wine in the top
quality echelons. Today, there is much more company in that category in
Portugal thanks to the fabulous renaissance that Portuguese winemaking has
seen over the last few decades. But Barca Velha undoubtedly retain it’s
status as an almost mythological wine. It is made in the upper Douro valley
and belongs nowadays to the Sogrape Group, one of Portugal’s biggest wine
producers. The vintage 2000 has just been released in 26,000 bottles and
1500 magnums. The release price is €75.
wine-business-international.com
French wine beats Australian Shiraz to first place in Aussie competition
The
French have had to get used to hearing about the 1970s competition (recently
rerun, and filmed) where an American wine won first place, in front of some
of the top French wines. So it will no doubt warm the French heart when the
opposite happens in Australia. In the Australian competition “World’s
Greatest Shiraz” with 800 competing wines made from shiraz / syrah, first
place went to the French wine Château d’Ampuis Côte Rôtie 2004 from Guigal.
And Guigal also won the third place with Côte Rôtie Brune et Blonde 2004.
The Australians had to settle for a second place with Henschke’s Hill of
Grace 2004.
wine-business-international.com
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item you'd like to see here or have a news tip? Send me an email:
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