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Welcome to the
BKWine Brief nr 68, March 2009 |
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Last month we suggested
that you try a wine from a not so well known wine region every once in
a while. So, here are some suggestions for wine regions that can be
worth discovering (and that merit more attention from wine lovers):
Chenin blanc, but primarily
the dry white wines from the middle Loire Valley (they often have more
personality than the South African versions, even if they can be good
too). For example: Vouvray, Savennières or quite simply a dry white
Anjou. One of the most underrated white grape varieties.
Red wines from the south
west of France, le Sud-Ouest, with the two major districts Madiran and
Cahors. Powerful wines that in modern winemakers’ hands also has lots of
fruit and flavour.
Jurançon. Jura-what? No.
Jurançon is a small district on the edge of France towards Spain, not
far from the Atlantic Ocean. They make wonderful white wines, quite
full-bodied with a very refreshing acidity from the grapes petit manseng
and gros manseng. They come in both dry and sweet versions. You must try
a dry one. Excellent and original.
Jura. Yes, why not also
mention Jura, a mountainous region in eastern France. Know for its vins
jaunes (yellow wines) made in an oxidative way reminiscent of sherry
(with flor). But they also make “normal” white wines from chardonnay and
savagnin. They too often have a hint of the nutty sherry style, but not
as much. Perfect with a gruyere cheese or the local comté.
Sherry. Let’s jump to
sherry then. A hidden gem. Above all the magnificent dry fino and
manzanilla, and the somewhat more full-bodied amontillado. Make sure you
serve it very dry and well chilled, to, for example appetizers (tapas,
of course) or perhaps a flavoursome starter, say smoked salmon or
gravlax. (Or have it on its own a sunny summer afternoon.)
Greece, but forget the resiny retsinas and look for one of the small and ambitious quality
producers. You can even find excellent white wines (albeit reds are more
common) from e.g. the assyrtiko grape. We’ve written about them before
here.
Austria: Supposedly a very
trendy wine country at the moment but wine lovers seem not yet to have
discovered it. A great pity since they make excellent whites from gruner
veltliner and other grapes. (see more further down)
Lombardy: a neighbouring
district to Piedmont, not at all as well known. They also make splendid
reds from for example the nebbiolo grape.
Galicia in north-west
Spain, which is virtually the origin of the albariño grape, producing
interesting and refreshing whites (see more on the grape further down).
Or if you prefer to be more
classic and less exotic:
“Petits châteaux” in
Bordeaux: Put the “great” châteaux, costing a fortune, to the side and
look for smaller, less well known producers. There are many that make
excellent wines, both reds and indeed whites that are good value for
money in the range of €5-20. E.g. in Premières Côtes de Bordeaux,
Entre-deux-Mers, Graves (not Péssac-L), Côtes de Bourg etc.
The southern Rhône Valley:
“simple” Côtes du Rhône is a big district and there is a wealth of good
producers making wine at a fraction of the price of the famous Rhône
appellations (forget Cote Rotie, Hermitage, Chateauneuf... for the
moment). You can also try some of the lesser-known appellations
such as Vacqueyras, Gigondas and Costières de Nîmes, or simply the Cotes
du Rhones.
And this is just a few
suggestions. There are many more.
The only challenge with
this is that you need to know which producers to choose. Not all wine
producers in (for example) Greece are worth your attention. You have to
choose your supplier/wine producer with care. But you already read the
BKWine Brief (and no doubt other recommendations) so you’re well on your
way to finding new discoveries. We try and help you find the most
interesting wines instead of the run-of-the-mill producers.
We also try and help you
find the best producers more literally, which leads me to our wine
tours. We put a great deal of attention into choosing which producers to
include on our tours. (And we’re there on the tours ourselves, and we
certainly don’t want to go to any not-so-interesting places.) It’s easy
to find a producer to visit but it’s not obvious that it will be a good
visit (just like it’s easy to buy a bottle of wine, but requires a bit
more of attention to make sure it’s good). We visit both of us (both
Britt and Per) some 200 wineries each every year. (We sat down and
counted and, yes, that’s about the right number.) And then we meet
perhaps as many other producers on wine fairs, tastings etc. And we
taste perhaps some 3-4000 wines in a year. So we have a bit of research
to lean on when we plan our tours.
Take a look on the autumn
program further down.
Britt & Per
PS: WANTED: We are looking
for someone to help with a web development project. Preferably: based in
Paris, reasonably fluent in English, knows a bit about web design and CMSs (preferably a bit of Joomla). If you know someone (or know someone
who knows someone…) who might be interested, please let us know.
PS 2: Recommend to your
friends to read the Brief or forward it to them ! |
Britt
Per
All
previous issues
of the Brief are here:
Archive |
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News from BKWine |
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Wine Tours
Spring 2009
program
 | March 25-29: Alentejo in
Portugal, one of the most exciting and modern Portuguese wine regions |
Autumn 2009
wine tours
| October
14-18: Bordeaux Confidential Châteaux Wine Tour |
 In
Bordeaux 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. On this trip
we will visit both some big, famous Grand Cru Classé-châteaux and smaller
ones that are less known, but very quality conscious.
More info on this wine tour to Bordeaux.
| November
14-18: Bordeaux Confidential Châteaux Wine Tour |
 In
Bordeaux 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. On this trip
we will visit both some big, famous Grand Cru Classé-châteaux and smaller
ones that are less known, but very quality conscious.
More info on this wine tour to Bordeaux.
More info on the BKWine wine tours here!
Custom wine
tours
 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. We’ve done tours for wine clubs, for
sommelier educations, for corporate events, for wine importers, for wine
course study groups… just to mention a few.
You'll get a tour designed exactly according to your requirements and
tastes, made by one of the most experienced wine people in the business. We
personally visit some 200 wineries and taste thousands of wines every year;
we write on wine for various wine magazines (we had more than 30 articles
published last year); in 2007 we published a ground breaking book on the
wine of the Languedoc and this year we have another one coming. And we have
organised hundreds of wine tours over the years. More info on the BKWine wine tours here!
Wine tours in Finnish
| September 30-October
4: Alsace |
| November 4-8:
Languedoc |
More info on the
Finnish wine tours here: Viinimatkoja |
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Recommendations |
| A selection of
what we have tried, tasted or visited recently.
□
Producers
Monte de Penha, Portalegre,
Alentejo, Portugal
 To
the north in Alentejo you can find Monte de Penha. Francisco and Veronica
Fina made their first vintage in 1999. The winery is not far from the town
of Portalegre, 100 km from the famous city of Evora. The region is
mountainous and the vineyards are at high altitude on granite soil. The
climate is a bit cooler than the rest of Alentejo. Monte de Penha use
traditional regional grape varieties. “Why would we use grape verities that
everyone else has?” as Francisco puts it. One of my favourites is Monte de
Penha Reserva made from trincadeira, aragoñes and alicante bouschet. Their
2002 has wonderful fruit, very good structure and pronounced but smooth
tannins. Long and elegant.
Click here for address and more recommendations.
Read about more recommended
producers on the site:
Favourite Producers
Anteprima – BKWine goes to
Italy to taste Chianti Classico
By Åsa Johansson, BKWine’s reporter in Italy
BKWine recently participated in the annual tasting of to-be-released Chianti
Classico wines. The tasting is held in Florence in February every year in an
ex-railway station called Stazione Leopolda, a beautiful setting for a wine
tasting. 148 producers were presenting their wines to the trade and press,
showing more than 358 different samples.
The vintages on show were Chianti Classico Reserva 2006 (at least 24 months
aging before release), and Chianti Classico 2007 (can be sold after October
1 the year following the harvest). Some 70 producers also brought
tank/barrel samples of the 2008. (It will be released at the earliest the
coming autumn.)
The 2008s were very promising. The growing season was excellent and very
healthy grapes were brought in at the harvest, with good levels of acidity
and good quality. What remains is that the winemakers nurture the infant
wines to a finished wine before anyone can really declare it to be “an
outstanding vintage”.
Here is our pick of producers to look out for:
Castellinuzza e Piuca
A very small winery with only 2 ha at 300 metres altitude not far from Greve
in Chianti. Giuliano Coccia, the father, and Simone, the son, stick to the
local traditional grape varieties, such as sangiovese, canaiolo and colorino.
Winemaking is also traditional indeed, in concrete vats and with no barrel
aging. This results in a splendidly drinkable food wine with plenty of fruit
that, without being overly complex, will give you pleasure at the table.
Villa di Geggiano
They farm their vines organically. They only make a Chianti Classico in
years when they consider the fruit and quality to be sufficiently good and
rather skip a vintage than make an average wine. Chianti Classico Geggiano
is made from 90-95% sangiovese with a small addition of cabernet. The wine
is aged in ‘tonneau’ (500 litre barrels) for 18 months. An elegant and
complex wine to drink for example with game or matured cheese.
Fattoria Le Filigare
They make a wide range of wines. Filigare’s Chianti Classico is
excellent value for money. The owner, Carlo Burchi, explains that one of his
biggest problems is that he has named his wines after all his grand-children
and there are more and more of them. He has run out of cuvees and don’t know
what to do for the youngest grand-daughter…
-Åsa Johanson, BKWine's
reporter in Italy
□ Wine
Bars and Restaurants
Paris:
Le Bon Bec, Wine Restaurant
Bistro, Paris 15
 A
wine restaurant/bistro that offers a wide selection of wines by the glass
(indeed rare in Paris), sometimes even some very exclusive wines. The couple
who runs the restaurant happens to be great wine lovers and has invested in
one of the big (and expensive) “wine organs” that allows you to keep opened
wines under neutral gas so that they keep well even if not finished in a
day. The food is very good in a classic French bistro style. Expect 30-40
euro for a meal. Well worth venturing to this far corner of Paris 15, if,
for example, you happen to be at the big exhibition area near Porte de
Versailles, to discover this small neighbourhood restaurant (‘resto du
quartier’) with wine ambitions (she who is in charge of the wines happens to
also be a Korean wine writer).
Click here for address and more recommendations.
Antibes:
Restaurant La Forge, Antibes
In the old city in Antibes you find this newly opened restaurant. It is
small, nicely and traditionally decorated and the welcome is warm. It is
mainly the Mediterranean kitchen that is on the menu of course (mussels,
fish, vegetables…) and the kitchen’s ambition seems to be to be well ahead
of the average local restaurant. Price levels are moderate and the overall
impression is very good. Expect 30-35 euro for a dinner. The wine list is
not exceptional but has a few interesting items, reasonably priced.
Click here for address and more recommendations.
□ Wine
of
the Month
Criteria: an interesting wine
(not too cheap) and one that you can enjoy with dinner or friends (not too
expensive). And very good!
Åsa’s Italian wine of the
month:
Pojer e Sandri Nosiola 2007, Trentino Alto Adige
Now is perhaps not the right time for white wines, in particular with the
cold weather we’ve had. But if you want to brave the climate and have a
white, for example as aperitif or a lighter fish dish you can try this wine
from Trentino alto Adige in northern Italy: Nosiola 2007. The wine is made
from a grape variety with the same name and is very fresh and fruity, light
and elegant with aromas of apple. It also has an interesting touch of hazel
nut on the finish. Hazel nut is ‘nocciola’ in Italian, which explains the
name. The producer I Pojer e Sandri, a name worth taking note of.
- Åsa Johansson, BKWine’s taster in Italy
Britt’s French wine of the
month
Chateau de l’Engarran 2005, Languedoc, Grès de Montpellier
Very nicely balanced with good fruit and good structure and body. Excellent
to drink now but can be kept for another few years in the cellar. It is
dominated by syrah, but there’s also some grenache, carignan and mourvèdre.
Château l’Engarran is a beautiful 18th century chateau just west of
Montpellier. It is run by the sisters Constance Rerolle and Diane Losfelt
and is a producer of consistently well made Languedoc wines.
Read more recommendations on
restaurants and wine bars on
my Restaurant and Wine Bar page. |
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News from the Wine World |
Albariño comes
to France
 The
albariño grape variety is best known from Spain and Portugal (alvarinho)
where it produces refreshing wines with a citrus tang. But it is not allowed
in France. This is about to change. Earlier this month the new list of
permitted grape varieties was published and albariño is on it, one of the
surprise newcomers. It has been added on the initiative of some Languedoc
producers who put it up for inclusion (rumour has it that it was added in
record time – not much more than three weeks!). It is hoped that this may
become a new signature grape for the Languedoc. The well known négociant
house and winemaker Laurent Miquel is one of the producers who is in the
starting blocks to plant it in 2010, so we can perhaps expect a first taste
in 2012.Cocaine
cheaper than wine
British authorities report that it is now cheaper to get your kicks from
cocaine than from quality wines or beer. Perhaps this can lead to that those
who consider wine to be a hateful drug focus their attention on other
substances instead. More on
Telegraph.co.uk
Wine MBA
 If
you want to combine wine and business you can do a wine MBA in Cirencester
in England. At the Royal Agricultural College they offer a course in “wine
business management”, including some wine tasting and wine making knowledge
of course, but mainly focused on the business aspects of wine: about the
industry, business planning, retail and distribution etc. The next program
starts in October so now is the right time to take a closer look if you are
interested. More info
rac.ac.uk
American wine exports pass
the $1 billion
 $1,008,259,000
is the number, so the billion was passed with a whisker. That’s the value of
American wine exports in 2008 which was an increase with 6%. More than 90%
of the wine comes from California. Wine is, according to Linsey Gallagher,
marketing director at The Wine Institute, California's second largest export
product. USA is now, according to the WI, the world’s fourth larges exporter
of wine. Half of the exports go to the EU and a quarter to Canada. The Wine
Institute seems particularly proud of the fact that they have reached second
position in the ranking of wine suppliers to the UK, relegating France to
third place (Australia is biggest). Fifteen years ago exports were a modest
$196 million.
15% of all wine bottled with
screw cap
 According
to the screw cap producer Guala 15% of all the world’s wines are now sealed
with screw cap, thanks to an increase of 25% for the metallic closure in
2008. According to Nomacorc, who produces plastic corks, the market for
screw caps is 2.5 billion, dwarfed by the plastic cork market of 4 billion
units. Amorim, who makes natural cork, estimates the screw cap market to be
somewhat smaller than that.
Decanter.com
Water to wine
 950
litres of water. That’s what’s needed to make one litre of wine according to
a new book “The World’s Water 2008-2009” by Peter Gleick. The water is
needed e.g. for cleaning and cooling (perhaps they also count irrigation).
1120 litres of water is what is needed to make one litre of coffee, but only
some 100 litres for tea (never knew the Brits were such closet
conservationists. But on the other hand, they don’t exactly have a shortage
of water). Allegedly, at the time around 0 AD the water requirements for a
litre of wine was less.
Irrigation
 When
on the subject of resource consumption, we were surprised to read that two
thirds of the world’s fresh water is used for agricultural irrigation (not
just wine) in an ad from Monsanto. (But that 60% of the world’s agricultural
produce comes from non-irrigated land.) It would be interesting to know how
the picture is for wine growing. There are big regional differences. In e.g.
Australia and Argentina there are wine regions that would not exist without
irrigation (and also in California water resources and distribution is a big
issue), whereas in other regions water is used more sparingly. Even in
France irrigation is now permitted (under certain conditions) in the
vineyards. Monsanto also writes that one of their goals is to develop seeds
that produce the same quantities but with 30% less water consumption.
Genetically modified vines
To continue on the subject of the environment: Genetically modified grape
vines are not allowed for production within the EU, but some experimental
plantings exist. There are for example some 70 vines planted in the Alsace.
One can think that from an environmental perspective it is bad with
genetically modified grapes, but the issue is not simple. One of the main
reasons to work on GM vines is to develop plants that are more resistant to
diseases (in the Alsace planting they hope to avoid “court-noué”). If this
is successful it would mean that spraying in the vineyards with chemical
substances could be dramatically reduced, which would be a good thing. So,
what should one prefer?
Chinese oak in Rioja barrels
 Toneleria
Magrenan is a Spanish cooper in the Rioja. They have started a collaboration
with a Chinese supplier of wood from Mongolia (quercus mongolicus oak). They
are making a first batch of 40 000 barrels that should be available
sometimes this year. More than 20 winemakers are involved in the initial
test (40 000 barriques means a lot of wine…), amongst those Miguel Torres.
According to our information, the objective is not to get cheaper barrels
(they cost about the same as French ones) but to get a different taste
profile compared to French or American oak.
Laser detects fraud in old
wine bottles
As expensive wines get dearer the problem with wine fraud increases. A team
of researchers at the Centre d’études nucléaires de Bordeaux Draguignan (CENBG)
has developed a method that will make life more difficult for fraudsters:
Using a laser and studying how the light is reflected from the bottle they
can identify when the bottle was made. The dating of the glass bottle has a
precision of one or two years. So if you are going to fake a wine in the
future you had better find a bottle that is as old as it claims on the
label.
BKWine TV: Willy
Brundelmayer, a top wine producer in Austria
 Willy
Brundelmayer is one of the big wine producers in Austria. They are (in an
Austrian perspective) one of the biggest producers, but, and more
interestingly, they are also one of the top quality producers. A while back
we met Willy Bruendelmayer, the owner and winemaker and made an interview
where he talks about his wines (many) and his way of making wine. Watch the
interview with Austrian winemaker Willy Brundelmayer on BKWine TV.
BKWine TV: Domaine du Grand
Tinel, Châteauneuf du Pape
 Domaine
du Grand Tinel is a sizeable property in Chateauneuf with 75 hectares in the
appellation and in Côtes du Rhône, plus 14 ha under the name of Clos Saint
Paul. It is not so well known, perhaps because it is only relatively
recently that they have started to market their wines themselves. BKWine met
the oenologist, who has previously worked in Mendoza in Argentina. Watch our
interview with Olivier, Domaine Grand Tinel’s oenologist in Châteauneuf on
BKWine TV (in French).
BKWine TV: Domaine du Vieux
Télégraphe, Châteauneuf du Pape
 Domaine
du Vieux Télégraphe is certainly one of the best known and well-respected
wineries in Chateauneuf. The name comes from an old telegraph tower that is
on a hill on the property. The property is owned by the Brunier family. When
we visited the domaine we made a short video with Daniel Brunier, one of the
owners, who talks about some of his wines and shows us around the cellar.
Watch the
video with Daniel Brunier at Domaine du vieux Télégraphe in Chateauneuf du
Pape on BKWine TV.
Champagne looking backwards
or forward?
 We’ve
just received this month’s scoop, before it is released to the press,
according to the press information we just received from Perrier-Jouët’s
agency. The past weekend Perrier-Jouët flew a dozen world famous champagne
glitterati to Epernay from all over the world (China, Japan, Scandinavia,
England, USA…). They were invited to taste what is said to be “the world’s
oldest champagne”, a Perrier-Jouët 1825 (and 19 other vintages). Each sip of
the liquid would have cost hundreds of euros, if it were available for
purchase, it is claimed. The purpose of this recession-time splurge (we
would be curious to know how many hundreds of thousands of euros it cost)
was, we assume, to bring attention to a more recent wine, the just-launched
2002 vintage of Perrier-Jouët. Which we have now contributed to. (No doubt
we will soon see a series of articles on the wines. Which will make it a
well worth investment.) And how it tasted? We don’t know. It’s not mentioned
in the press information and we were not there.
Widget for wine
Natalie Maclean is a productive Canadian wine writer who also has an active
life on the internet. She has just launched a new wine and food matching
“widget” for social media. What it means? Well, it’s a small piece of code
that one can use if one has a blog or a web page. By putting the code on
one’s page one gets a little frame on the page with a food and wine matching
tool to help you match the best wine with food. You can discover many things
with the widget, sometimes quite amusing. For example, that if you’re
serving baguette the perfect match is Monbazillac (a sweet white wine from
near Bergerac) or Merlot. And if you want to finish a bottle of Bandol, you
could serve grilled vegetables.
Try it yourself here.
South Africa’s wine exports
up 30%
Wine exports from South Africa grew with almost 32 % in 2008 to reach 4
million hectolitres. The biggest export market is Great Britain where volume
growth was 22%. South Africa has reached fifth place among wine suppliers to
the UK with a 10% market share. The other big export markets are Germany,
the Netherlands, and Sweden.
Vitisphere.com
Red + white = rosé. True!
 Blending
red wine and rosé wine has been prohibited in most of Europe (except in
Champagne where it is common). This is about to change: On January 27 the EU
approved a proposal to allow the blending of red and white wine to make
rosé. However, it is likely that each region will have the possibility to
locally continue to prohibit this practice.
Vitisphere.com
French wine exports stable
Wine exports from France reach in 2008 virtually the same level as in 2007,
counted in value. The total value of the exports reached 6.8 bn euro. If you
look at the volume, though, exports fell with 10% and reached 13.7 bn
hectolitres.
winealley.com
Champagne exports down 5%
It’s unusual to hear negative numbers from Champagne but in 2008 exports
fell with 4.8% to reach “only” 322 million bottles. Counted in value it is
estimated to have added up to 4.5 bn euro. 45% of sales go on export (51% if
counted in value). In spite of the decrease 2008 is one of the top three
years ever in champagne.
Vitisphere.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:
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Sweden:
- - UK,
Belgium, Switzerland, Spain, Denmark,...:
Wine auction
agendas:
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winebrief@bkwine.com |
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Britt Karlsson, BKWine
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