Calling all
wine bloggers: soon time for the European Wine Bloggers Conference
The
European Wine Bloggers Conference takes place on the last weekend of
October. It is a unique occasion to meet wine bloggers from all over Europe,
and even beyond. More than a dozen countries will be represented and the
organisers are expecting upwards to a hundred participants. Apart from
networking participants can learn about blogging techniques and technology,
marketing, video, monetization and much more. Plus, of course, many
occasions to taste excellent wines and visit wineries, either during the
conference or at the pre- and post-conference events with visits to wine
regions in Portugal. More information here:
http://winebloggersconference.org/europe/. An event not to miss for the
dedicated wine blogger – plus it would be nice to meet some of you in real
life in Portugal! You can get a taste of how it will be in our
Wine Bloggers Conference teaser slide show.
Can you trust wine competition
medals?
Is
it a sign of quality if a wine has been give a medal in a wine competition?
That’s the question that Robert T Hodgson asked himself, and decided to
investigate. His analysis, based on 4000 wines entered in 13 different
Californian wine competitions, showed that, no, it’s not a reliable sign.
His conclusion is based on that if a wine wins a medal in one competition it
is not a reliable indication of that it is likely to wine in another
competition. So, the medals seem to be given without much consistency
between wine competitions. if you want to know more you can read the full
article published by the American Association of Wine Economists:
An Analysis of the Concordance Among 13 U.S. Wine Competitions. But the
study is, we would say, based on the wrong assumption - that there is a
neutral and general "scale" for the "quality" of wine. But that is not the
case. Wine is a matter of taste and very subjective. On the other hand, what
one can say is that if a wine has won a medal in a competition, at least
someone has liked it.
Colours and shaps on labels;
Organic in Italy; Emilia-Romagna
Three other reports (working papers) have recently been published by the
American Association of Wine Economists, all of the interesting, if a bit
specialised. All are available for free on the AAWE site:
-
Message on the bottel: Colours and shapes of wine labels
-
Non-conventional viticulture as a viable system: A case study in Italy
-
The value of designations of origin in Emilia-Romagna
Photographing wine bottles
While researching some other things I stumbled over an old post by
Spittoon.biz:
How To Photograph Wine Bottles - 10 tips. Considering the quality of the
bottle shots you sometimes see in blogs this is definitely a post that some
bloggers could benefit from reading.
A wine cinematographer
disappears: Vininews
At least figuratively speaking. Vininews was a site that published video
interviews and reportage from vineyards and wine regions on their site
Vininews. But the latest message from them said that they are closing
down the site. A great pity. One wonders why. Too ambitious? Anyway, one can
find some consolation in the (rather more amateurish)
wine videos on BKWine TV.
The difference between
winemaking in Bordeaux and Burgundy
There
are very few vignerons who own vineyards both in Bordeaux and in Burgundy.
One of the happy few is Eduard Labruyère who owns Domaine Jacques Pieur in
Burgundy and Chateau Rouget in Pomerol. Jane Anson has interviewed him on
his experiences from the two regions. ”Burgundy is more about feeling that
you should do things a certain way, while in Bordeaux you know that you have
to do it because the university researchers have told you.” The whole
article is very interesting and can be found on
Jane Anson's blog The New Bordeaux
Rich and famous and
winemaker
”How
do you make a small fortune from wine? – You start with a big fortune.” So
goes the story. Many rich people (though not always famous) like the thought
of owning a vineyard. Apparently. Chateau Latour, as an example, is owned by
François Pinault, one of France’s richest person who also own a telecom
operator, TV channels, construction companies etc. More well known (at least
in wine circles) is Bernard Arnault who (part-)owns Chateau Cheval Blanc and
Yquem. Challenges, a French business magazine (obvious from it’s name, isn’t
it?), recently listed the top French fortunes cum - “winemakers”. Read the
details on the blog of
Cesar Compadre/Sud-Ouest
How much (or how little)
wine in Champagne?
There
have been lots of discussions in champagne this year on how much the growers
will be permitted to harvest. Curiously, the limit is not set until the
beginning of September. Wit the crash in champagne sales the big houses
wanted to limit the yield to 7500 kg/ha, compared to 13 000 kg/ha last year.
Almost halving harvest volume. They fear a glut of champagne, falling
prices, loss of the exclusive aura around the bubbly etc. Smaller producers
were keener on keeping the yield higher, perhaps more concerned about this
year’s revenue. The result was a compromise: the maximum yield was set to
9700 kg/ha. But as often is the case, this is not the whole story. On top of
that, there is an allowance for 4300 kg/ha to be set aside for the “reserve”
wine, theoretically used to even out years with lower yields. So, in total
we then have a yield of 14,000 kg/ha. Why do they count in kg/ha instead of
hectolitres/ha as everyone else in France? Don’t know. If you make the
calculation 9700 kg/ha is the same as 62 hl/ha and 14,000 kg/ha represents a
hefty yield of almost 100 hl/ha. Perhaps that’s why? Read more:
business.timesonline.co.uk One cannot help being amazed by this
blatant price fixing. It is not to improve the quality that the yields are
restricted (although that might actually be a good idea). Rather, it is
simply in order to artificially inflate the prices so that the champagne
becomes more expensive to the consumers and wine lovers than what it would
need to be. It would perhaps be a nice case for the EU competition and open
market authorities to put their teeth in?
Chablis celebration on
February 6-7
Saint Vincent Tournante is two days of wine tasting, good food and
festivities in Chablis. This time the event takes place on the weekend of
February 6-7. More info here:
www.saint-vincent-milly-chablis.com
Organic wine: Millesime Bio
on January 25-27
Millesime
Bio is a wine show that focuses on wine producers who work organically or
with biodynamic principles. It has grown substantially over recent years and
is now probably the biggest event for organic wine. the next Millesime Bio
will take place in Montpellier in the Languedoc on January 25-27 2010.More
info:
www.millesime-bio.com
Wine buying preferences
charted by Twenga
The price comparison search engine
Twenga has analysed how their visitors search for wine in different
countries. Here are some statistics:
- France: 86% of searches are for French wine
- Italy: 52% are for Italian wine, 43% for French
- Spain: 50% are for Spanish wines, 24% for French and 13% for Italian
- Germany: 40% are for French wine, 27% for Italian, and only 11% for German
- Great Britain: 64% French, 20% Italian
Some more details by country:
Top ten searches in the UK:
- Bordeaux
- Bourgogne (French Burgundy)
- Champagne
- Vallée du Rhône
- Loire
- Languedoc Roussillon
- Spanish Rioja
- French sparkling wine
- Italian Barolo
- Pinot Grigio Italy
Top ten searches in France:
- Bordeaux
- Bourgogne (French Burgundy)
- Champagne
- Vallee du Rhône
- Loire
- French sparkling wine
- Languedoc Roussillon
- Alsace
- Provence
- Jura
Top ten searches in Italy for Italian wines:
- Barolo
- Pinot Grigio
- Chianti Classico
- Amarone
- Nero d'Avola
- Syrah
- Gavi
- Marsala
- Prosecco di Valdobbiadene
- Montepulciano d'Abruzzo
Top ten in Spain for Spanish wines:
- Rioja
- Albarino
- Cava
- Crianza
- Jerez
- Rueda
- Ribeira sacra
- Ribera del duero
- Penedes
- Tempranillo
Top six in Germany for German wines:
- spatburgunder
- deutscher riesling
- dornfelder
- grauburgunder
- scheurebe
- weissburgunder
Evidently French don’t drink much else than French wine, Italians and
Spanish are a little more adventurous, Germans don’t seem to particularly
like German wines, and English wine drinkers are very conservative. More
info on the
Twenga blog
New sherry bodega launched:
Urium
It
is probably quite some time since someone launched a new sherry bodega. But
now it has happened. The Spanish Ruiz family, headed by Alonso Ruiz has just
launched Bodegas Urium. Undoubtedly a very ambitious and challenging project
in times when, unfortunately, sherry is not very easy to sell on the
international market. We wish them good luck and success! More info
www.diariodejerez.es and
jerezwine.com
New issue of the ezine Fine
Wine out
Issue nr 3 of the ezine Fine wine has just been published. In it you can
read about e.g. three Saint Emilion chateaux and a guide to the medieval
town, the Douro Valley, Tuscany and more. You can download it from here:
http://www.finewine.nu/
Follow the harvest
The Alsace producer Hugel has a blog where you can follow the harvest, not
quite in real time but frequently updated with text and with videos. You can
find it here:
http://blog.hugel.com/en/harvest/. Quinta dos Malvedos in Portugal’s
Douro Valley also has a blog where you can follow what is happening during
the harvest:
http://malvedos.wordpress.com/
Argentinean exports of
malbec up
The
exports from Argentina of malbec wines grew with 28% in value and 29% in
volume for the first six months 2009. Nice with positivie numbers for a
change these days! The biggest export markets are:
USA, 52 % of exports
Canada, 10 %
United Kingdom, 5%
Brazil, 5%
Netherlands, Switzerland, Mexico, Sweden, Denmark and Germany, all 2 % each
Source:
WineSur
Eight new Masters of Wine
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
New wine magazine launched
#1: Terre de Vins
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/
New wine magazine launched
#2: Palate Press
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/
Languedoc reading
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/
Pirate wine
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
Excellent harvest in the
Roussillon
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.
Keep track of your wine
cellar
Another wine cellar management site have seen the light of day:
www.vinut.com. In addition to keeping track of your bottles it allows
you to enter and read tasting notes (yours and from other sources), and to
find wine shops that stocks bottles you might be looking for.
Wine Alley/Vitisphere on the
Swedish market
Wine Alley/Vitisphere is a site and newsletter in French on wine. It is
widely read by the trade and wine producers. The recently published what
they called “expert’s opinion” on the Swedish wine market with the heading
“More than half the wine sold in Sweden is sold in Bag in Box”. But the fun
thing was that it is a quote from BKWine.
www.winealley.com We "experts" are delighted and honoured.
Three entertaining wine
videos
It’s quite some while since we had the time to update
BKWine TV, so here are three other entertaining wine videos:
-
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
- 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
-
What does the average Frenchman think about screw caps on wine?
Wine festivals in Zagreb
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!
Bordeaux exports drop
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.
Naked wine? Demonstrate nude
in the vineyards to save French wine
Greenpeace
and the artist Spencer Tunick will organise on October 3 or 4 an event /
installation in a vineyard in southern Burgundy. Specer Tunick is known for
his installations made from, well, naked people. It appears voluntary
participants are welcome. Don’t bring your secateurs – the harvest is over
and you might hurt yourself. More info:
fr-fr.facebook.com
and here:
www.greenpeace.fr/tunick/ (including illustration). Greenpeace has also
published
a report on the effects of climate change on viticulture available here.
Have a news
item you'd like to see here or have a news tip? Send me an email:
winebrief@bkwine.com
En français
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. 
