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English Wine Tours

Tours on the schedule:

For info, contact me on winebrief@bkwine.com or +33 (0)6 80 45 35 70 or check the site: http://www.bkwine.com/wine_tours/wine_tours.htm

Finnish Language Wine Tours - Viinimatkoja Ranskan viinialueille!

 Tours on the schedule (in Finnish):

For info, contact me on winebrief@bkwine.com or +33 (0)6 80 45 35 70 or check the site: http://www.bkwine.com/suomi/viinimatkoja/viinimatkoja.htm

Wine and Food Tastings in Paris

With BKWine’s friend Melba Allen-Buillard. For more information and registration contact Melba directly on ph 06 61 60 35 70 or allen_melba%hotmail.com (swap the % with a @ to get the email). Melba is an American living in France since many years and has taught wine at various schools:

All tastings: time: 19h00 (7PM). Place: Le Garde-Robe, 41, rue de l’Arbre Sec, 75001 Paris, M° Louvre-Rivoli. Info and booking: 06 61 60 35 70 (Melba). Don’t forget to mention that you’ve found it in the BKWine Brief.

 □  Producers

Château Roubine, Valerie and Philippe Riboud, Provence
Valerie and Philippe Riboud bought the beautiful Château Roubine with the adjoining 75 hectares of vineyard in 1994. Neither of them had much experience of wine growing at that time. Valerie had been working in the hotel and restaurant sector and Philippe was a sportsman (six Olympic medals in fencing!). So they had to learn everything from scratch. As for all growers in Provence rosé wine is important for Chateau Roubine. It accounts for 45% of production and is a high quality rosé, in particular the prestige cuvée “Philippe Riboud” made exclusively from the unusual but interesting grape variety Tibouren (~12 €/bottle). It has concentrated fruit, some smokiness and some touches of lemon and orange peel. Also the red “Philippe Riboud” (14€), predominately made from Syrah, and my favourite among the white wines, Cuvée Bargemon (~12€) made from Sémillon and slightly oaked, are very good. All are Appellation Contrôlée Côtes de Provence.
Click here for address.

Domaine Pierre Gaillard, Condrieu and Saint-Joseph
A short drive away from the river, uphill along winding roads with breathtaking views you will find Domaine Pierre Gaillard. Pierre started his career at Vidal-Fleury (now owned by Guigal) in Ampuis a short distance away. While at Vidal-Fleury he was planning his own wine growing business, bought some land and planted some vines. In 1987 he made his first Saint-Joseph. His property has now reached 20 hectares including Saint-Joseph, Condrieu, Côte Rôtie and Vin de Pays des Collines Rhodaniennes. Certainly one of the best wine estates in the region both for red and white wines.
Click here for address.

Read about more recommended producers on the site: Favourite Producers

 □  Wine Bars and Restaurants

Paris:

Le Porte-Pot, Bistrot à Vins, cave, épicerie
A nice wine bar and wine shop in the centre of the Quartier Latin (Latin Quarter). It just opened in February (2005). Nicely decorated with a dominant red that contrasts with the old wooden beams. The choice at lunch is “today’s special” (served hot – all other dishes are served cold) (12€) and salads (8€), smoked trout (12€), charcuterie or cheese platters (11€). In the evening they offer a wider choice of hot food. The wines are well chosen and reasonably priced. You even have a choice between 7cl glasses or 15cl glasses. Good option if you want to try several different wines. In December they had two Alsace wines as the special of the month: one surprisingly powerful Pinot Noir 2003 from Seppi Landman, the hot vintage giving the wine the extra punch (2.20€ for 7cl) and the same growers fruity and well made Riesling (3.90€ for 15cl). Open Mon-Fri 12.00-14.00 and 19.00-22.30.
Click here for address.

NEW: Guest Writers on BKWine
It’s been one of our projects for some time now… And now we have the Guest Writer section live on BKWine.com. First guest writers are:

-- Grahame Martin
-- The Coteaux du Lyonnais – All 380 hectares of it!
"Living in France has many advantages for wine lovers. One of the most rewarding can be seeking out the lesser known wines of the smaller Appellations…"

-- Richard James
-- Armagnac
"Watching Marc Saint-Martin stoke up Marie-Jeanne’s fire with chunks of dry wood evokes romantic images of steam trains and times gone by. It’s actually the name of his “probably at least 100 year old” travelling still…"

-- Wine World Tour (already featured in the Brief):
-- Schramsberg
"Jamie Davis était émue, quand en 1965, elle et son mari, quittèrent Los Angeles. Jeunes parents trentenaires,…"
-- Central Otago
"Vue d’Europe, que nous évoque la très lointaine Nouvelle-Zélande ?..."

-- Virpi Sorvisto
-- Alsace, eleganttien valkoviinien maakunta
"Ajaessa autolla Strasbourgista etelään voi ihailla upeaa maisemaa, kauniit viinipengermät kohoavat Vosges – vuorijonon rinteille, tunnelmaa täydentää auringonlasku vuorten taakse..."

The Wine and Dine Moment podcast features BKWine
The American web radio The Wine and Dine Moment with Lynn Krielow Chamberlain features the BKWine wine tours and the Brief in a newly broadcast program. Listen to the feature here. Listen to the podcast here.

BKWine will be interviewed in the Wine & Dine podcast from 8 January
The WineFairy.com (Lynn Chamberlain) will feature an interview with Britt the week starting January 8. Listen to it here:
-- www.winefairy.com
(the link in the centre just under “Listen to the current Wine & Dine Radio Show”)

The 1976 Paris Tasting – a revolution
In 1976 a blind tasting was organised in Paris (by Steven Spurrier if I remember correctly). It pitched, blind, some top French wines against top Californian wines. The Californians came out on top. A book on the event written by the only attending journalist has just been published (George Taber: Judgment of Paris: California vs. France and the Historic 1976 Paris Tasting). Read a long interview here: A long interview with the author here.

Last Minute Christmas Gifts
There’s still time (depending on when you read this of course) to get some last minute Christmas gifts from BKWine:
-- Free 2006 Wine Calendar, download and print it
-- Free Wine Screensavers for the computer
-- A wine tour or contribution to a wine tour – get a gift voucher from us
-- A subscription to the magazine The World of Fine Wine, special offer for the readers of The Brief (Subscription offer. Big pdf to download here)

And even if it won’t arrive in time for Christmas, take a look here:
-- Wine Calendar, Wine Notebook (for your tasting notes?), Greeting Cards, Framed Wine Photos – all with wine motifs.

Bordeaux wants to pull up 10 000 hectares of vines
The goal is to pull up 10,000 ha of vines in Bordeaux, which represents around 10% of the total area. Those who pull up can receive up to 15,000€ per hectare. The vignerons have until December 31 to submit the dossier. At the end of November only 500 ha had been identified.

▼  ---------------------------------------------------------  BKWine Partner    ---------------------------------------------------------▼

Vinisud 2006 – The wine fair for ”Mediterranean wines” in Montpellier 20-22 February 2006
Vinisud is a wine fair about wines from around the Mediterranean. At the last Vinisud there were 1391 producers present. In 2006 they expect more than 1500 exhibitors. The world’s fourth largest wine show after Vinexpo, Vinitaly and Prowein. Worth a visit.. www.vinisud.com

▲  ---------------------------------------------------------  BKWine Partner    ---------------------------------------------------------▲

EU will allow oak chips
Contrary to previous reporting the EU has decided to allow the use of oak chips at a meeting on December 12. The decision was taken on a proposal from the Italians but quite a few French producers have been positive too. Some other wine technologies were also approved: wider use of ascorbic acid; a new type of protein to stabilise wine; limited use of active coal for red wine (previously only allowed for white); use of dimethyl-dicarbonate (?) (DMDC) to stabilise primarily sweet wines. More info on Vitisphere.com.

Wine and Food Blogs
It is becoming more and more popular to blog. Have you tried? There are both very interesting and, hrrmm, less interesting blogs. Here is a selection of wine and food blogs to keep you busy over the holidays:

English Blogs
-- An American in Spain - Catavino
-- Wine Whys – Two women in wine
-- Appellation Australia

French Blogs:
-- Vins de Loire
-- Sommelier-consultant, Paris
-- C’est moi qui l’ai fait!
-- Patrick Chazallet

Some Wine Producers' Blogs:
-- Champagne Tarlant
-- Jean-Luc Thunevin (Château Valandraud m.fl.)
-- Marc Perrin (Château de Beaucastel)
-- Hervé Bizeul (Clos des Fées)
-- Iris Rutz-Rudel, Lisson
-- Dupéré Barrera

And our own BKWines Blogs:
-- BKWine Brief Blog
-- Monopolbloggen (Swedish)
-- Wine Pictures Blog

Correction
JEAN-MICHEL Cazes in Bordeaux/Languedoc expands in Portugal and in South Australia
Jean-Michel Cazes, owner of Chateau Lynch-Bages in Bordeaux as well as a few other wine properties i Bordeaux and Languedoc (where he makes a wine called Circus), has established a collaboration with a producer in Portugal to make a wine called Xisto which recently was named one of the ten best wines in Portugal. Cazes also has a collaboration with Bollinger (25% each of the capital) and Brian Croser to make a prestige wine in South Australia called Tapanappa. (We mistakenly originally attributed this to (the equally dynamic) Domain Cazes in Roussillon. Apologies to Jean-Michel Cazes as well as to Domaine Cazes. A case of mixed Cazes? Many thanks to an attentive reader who spotted it.)

Fitou – quality in southern Languedoc
Fitou is at the very southern edge of Languedoc, just before it changes to Roussillon. It is a region that has since long tried to keep a high quality profile. This region, basking in sun, with mild winters, was consequently the first to get an Appellation Contrôlée for red wines in the Languedoc. They were awarded AOC status already in 1948 when the rest of Languedoc was busy making cheap table wine.

Today Fitou covers 2,500 hectares, stretching almost from the seaside up to the mountains, the Massif du Corbières. The Carignan grape thrive in the poor and dry soils here and produce quality grapes, giving the wines a good structure. The Fitou growers are keen to keep Carignan, elsewhere often considered a poor grape. In addition to Carignan they use some Grenache, giving finesse and some softness, and two relative newcomers, Mourvèdre and Syrah, to add complex aromas and tannins.

There are some 500 growers in Fitou (not all of them on the picture, right) but only 35 individual producers, so the co-operatives play an important role. There are five coops, for instance the well known Les Vignerons du Mont Tauch (picture), making excellent wines like for instance the Cuvée Les Quatre (12€ at the winery) and Terroir de Tuchan. Another co-operative, Cave des Vignerons de Fitou, makes a spicy, well balanced and elegant wine called Domaine de Roc Nègre. Among the individual producers you should look for, for example, Château Wiala whose Cuvée Tradition 2003 is round and full with a good structure and aromas of cherries and cherry pits giving it a nice additional punch, or Château des Erles made by the omnipresent (it sometimes feels like) Lurton brothers Jacques and François. Their prestige cuvée is very full-bodied and you can also look out for the somewhat less expensive Cuvée des Ardoises.

New boss for wines at Vin & Sprit V&S
V&S Vin & Sprit AB, the state-owned largest Swedish importer of wines and spirits have appointed a new manager for the business area V&S Wines: Andreas Carlsson. Carlson leaves his job as CEO of Fuijcolor in Sweden. He has previously been with e.g. Stepstone and Unilever

Guilty verdicts in the first bribery judgement in the scandal involving Systembolaget
All accused were found guilty in the first of several trials in the bribery scandal around the Swedish alcohol monopoly Systembolaget involving in total around one hundred persons. 18 people were fined, two from one importer, Vin-Trädgårdh, and the rest ex-employees (ex-shop managers) at Systembolaget. More info here from SR. Or The Local.

5,500 euro for a bottle of Hock 1727
One bottle of Rüdesheimer Apostelwein 1727 was recently sold by Christie’s in Amsterdam for more than 5,500€. According to Michael Broadbent it had a taste reminiscent of apples and of an old sherry, according to tasting notes from when he tasted the wine in the 80s. It has hardly, relatively speaking, aged much in the 20 years since.

Wine agreement between the EU and the US
The EU commission voted to approve an agreement between the EU and the US on wine trade on December 20. Exactly what the agreement will mean is unclear to us at this moment. It is said to be just the first step in a process that will continue with a negotiations on a wider agreement soon. The purpose is a mutual recognition of e.g. appellations and wine making practices that will facilitate trade. Germany, Portugal and Austria voted against and Greece abstained. International Herald Tribune, La Journee Vinicole.

Unwins in liquidation
We just learned that Unwins, one of the UK’s leading chains of wine shops (380 shops, 24 employees) has been put in liquidation after a long period of uncertainty. It would be easy to crack a joke on the term but it is sad that a big merchant has been forced to close its doors. BBC News

L’Exploitation Vitivinicole – statuts, commercialisation, sécurité
Edition Dalian
This tome is not something to read from cover to cover. And certainly not in bed. It is a reference book for he who grows and makes wine, or wants to buy a vineyard. The book (or actually, the binder) gives him guidance to the jungle of agricultural rules and regulations in France, what he should not forget in terms of safety installations, how to do the administration, how to deal (administratively) with employees etc… But it also gives recommendations on how to market the wines, what wine shows you can participate in, how to deal with journalists, how to export and much more things a winemaker needs to think of.

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