The year is soon coming to its end (we wrote at the end of December) and it will soon be time to plan what drink to finish it and celebrate the new year with. Or to have for dinner on New Year’s Eve (but you can have champagne anytime!). A champagne producer that we recently [...]
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Château de Chantegrive, Graves | BKWine Pick
Château de Chantegrive is one of the few really big chateaux in AC Graves (the other big ones are in Pessac-Leognan), with 90 hectares of vines. This is also the star of the Graves appellation (and one of our big favourites). The chateau is a family owned and is run by Hélène Lévêque. It was [...]
Château Franc-Mayne, Saint Emilion Grand Cru | BKWine Pick
This is a small and beautiful estate, situated very close to the pretty town of Saint Emilion. The wines here, made with merlot as the main grape variety, are classic Bordeaux wines that age beautifully for at least 12-15 years. We had a Franc Mayne 1995 for dinner the other day and it was delicious. [...]
Château Saint Jacques d’Albas, Minervois, Languedoc | BKWine Pick
Château St Jacques d’Albas in Laure-Minervois is run by Englishman Graham Nutter and his French wife Beatrice. They came here a few years ago, “when everything was in ruins” and now they have a beautifully renovated 80-hectare estate in the heart of Languedoc. We first got in touch with Graham about five years ago and [...]
Champagne Philipponnat | BKWine Pick
In the small village of Mareuil-sur-Aÿ a few kilometres east of Epernay, we find Champagne Philipponnat in a handsome house with a magnificent gate. Philipponnat is a small, high-quality champagne house. It owns 17 hectares of vines and buys grapes from approximately the same area to meet their needs. Around 700 000 500,000-600,000 bottles are [...]
COS – biodynamics and amphora in Sicily
“The vineyard is our bank savings so we must protect it,” says Giusto Occhipinti at COS winery in Sicily. He founded COS with two friends in the early 1980′s. “I had to go to school again and learn how to make wine. We took over an old cellar from the 1880s. In those days there [...]
Quality Beaujolais, Domaine des Terres Dorées | BKWine Pick
In the March Brief we said that Beaujolais needs promoting. And we would like to do our part. Because when a Beaujolais wine is of good quality it is really a very pleasant wine. One of our favourite producers in the area, Domaine des Terres Dorées, recently launched two wines at the Systembolaget in Sweden. [...]
Tenuta Regaleali – in the middle of Sicily
Tenuta Regaleali, or Tasca d’Almerita makes some interesting Sicilian wines It is a dramatic, mountainous landscape. In the distance the sheep are grazing quietly and olive and almond trees mix beautifully with the vines. We are standing here with Laura Orsi, oenologist and winemaker, looking out over the big estate of Tenuta Regaleali. “Here at [...]
Finca Flichman – a Portuguese in Mendoza
Finca Flichman is one of the wine producers in Mendoza with active European involvement. Sogrape has continued to invest in the bodega since the acquisition in 1997 and focused on improving the quality of the wines. Britt tells the story and talks to the winemaker Luis Cabral de Almeida. Several European wine producers have been [...]
Château Vignelaure – Cabernet sauvignon meets Provence
We taste wines back to 1970 from one of the most famous Provence estates A vineyard in Provence that also traces its roots to Bordeaux recently organised a tasting with wines back to 1970: Chateau Vignelaure in Coteaux d’Aix en Provence. Britt tastes the wines and meets the new owners. Château Vignelaure is not your [...]
Teddy Hall, Stellenbosch, South Africa | BKWine Pick
Chenin blanc is one of my favourite grapes and it is a grape that is grown, at least to any great extent, only in the central Loire Valley and in South Africa. In South Africa chenin wines are getting better and better. One person who knows how to make good wines with chenin is Teddy [...]
South African quality wines from Rickety Bridge
Those of you who drink South African wines regularly have probably noticed that the quality of the wines have increased dramatically in recent years. This is often due to hard work in the vineyards by young, ambitious winemakers and their will to experiment with different techniques. An example of this is Wynand Grobler, winemaker at [...]
Portuguese wines from Bacalhôa and Burgundies from Bichot
A number of exciting wines from the Portuguese wine producer Bacalhoa, white, red and sweet, and from the Burgundy négociant Bichot, white wines, chablis, and red pinot noirs at a tasting with the Swedish importer with a representative from each of the two wineries. Peter Modin reports on the best wines in the tasting. On [...]
The Meerlust range of wines, including Rubicon back to 1991
A tasting with wines from the famous South African winery Meerlust is an old and very established wine producer in South Africa. They also have a long history of supplying wines to the Swedish market. Their importer, Tryffelsvinet, recently organised a tasting of several of their wines led by Eddie turner from the winery. Peter [...]
Col d’Orcia – a winery in Montalcino, Tuscany
Col d’Orcia is one of the most famous vineyards in the Montalcino area in Tuscany, famous for its Brunello di Montalcino Tenuta Col D’Orcia is a giant compared to many other producers of Brunello around the village of Montalcino. Mostly, the more than two hundred wine growers in the area have just a few acres [...]
Château de Respide, vineyard in Graves | BKWine Pick
There is much talk about the expensive Bordeaux wines but when you know where to look you can find very well made and delicious wines for 10-12 euro. A fairly new acquaintance is Château de Respide, owned by Franck Bonnet. The chateau is in the southern part of Graves, just outside of Langon. Franck makes [...]
Château Fourcas-Hosten, Listrac – BKWine Pick
We recently had a Château Fourcas-Hosten 2003, bought a few days earlier for the sum of 12 euro. It was a fantastic Bordeaux – classic in style with cedar wood and firm tannins (despite the hot summer of 2003) – and the price was as fantastic. Who says Bordeaux wines are expensive? The chateaux in [...]
La Chablisienne – a high quality cooperative
There are a lot of wine cooperatives in France, some of them good, some of them bad. One of the best is to be found in Chablis. This cooperative is called La Chablisienne and you will find the wines of La Chablisienne easy enough, as the cooperative is responsible for about 25 % of the [...]
Château La Garde, Pessac-Léognan – BKWine Pick
Château La Garde in Pessac-Léognan is a beautiful small chateau in the style which in French is called chartreuse. The chateau was bought by Dourthe (big négociant in Bordeaux, now owned by Champagne Alain Thienot) in 1990 and the quality of the wines has improved enormously these past few years. The vineyard consists of 60 [...]
Mas du Soleilla, La Clape, Languedoc – BKWine Pick
Soleilla means sun in Occitan, the ancient language langue d’oc. Mas du Soleilla is beautifully situated, close to the sea, in the region of La Clape in Languedoc, not far from Narbonne. The climate is hot and dry, the soil very chalky and stony. The wines, which are both red and white, are generally of [...]
High Constantia, South Africa – BKWine Pick
At High Constantia winemaker David van Niekerk makes an exceptional Cap Classic (sparkling wines made by the traditional method) that gets at least three years of ageing on its lees (sur latte). The grapes grow up in the mountains where the climate is fairly cool. Whole bunches are pressed and he gets 400 liters out [...]
Weingut Nikolaihof, Mautern, Wachau, Austria
The oldest wine estate in Austria, dating back to 985, has for the past 110 years housed a unique family of vintners. The merchant Saahs family bought this run-down Wachau property from the church at the end of the 19th century. And for nearly four decades now, its driving force has been an environmentally conscious [...]
Champagne Tarlant – wine producer recommendation
You find Champagne Tarlant at the top of the small village of Oeuilly, a few kilometres west of Epernay. The view from their house is magnificent, as is their champagnes. Not only are they of high quality, they also have personality. “It is thanks to our passion for le terroir”, says Benoit Tarlant, the winemaker. [...]
Domaine des Terres Dorées, Beaujolais
One of our favourites in Beaujolais is Domaine des Terres Dorées. The owner and wine maker is Jean-Paul Brun and he has worked hard to make his wines some of the best in the region. The domain is situated in the south of Beaujolais, in the little village of Charnay-en-Beaujolais, not so far from Lyon, [...]
Premium wines from Trivento in Mendoza
We recently had the occasion to taste a range of premium wines from Trivento in Mendoza, Argentina. The wines have just been launched in the “on special order only” range at the Swedish monopoly but our comments may be of interest also to other than our Swedish readers. Trivento was created in 1996 and is [...]
Louis Sipp, Ribeauvillé, Alsace – producer recommendation
Louis Sipp, Ribeauvillé, Alsace Louis Sipp makes dry and elegant Alsace wines from grapes grown organically since a few years back. He got his organic certification in 2008. The balance in the most important thing in the wine, he says, and he gets it easier now, with organic grapes. “The grapes are riper and they [...]
Quinta do Vale Dona Maria, Douro Valley, Portugal – BKWine Pick
Cristiano van Zeller at Quinta do Vale Dona Maria is a well known person in the Douro-valley. He used to own Quinta de Noval which he sold in the middle of the 1990s to Axa Millésime. In 1996 Cristiano bought Quinta de Vale Dona Maria and spent some time renovating, investing and building a new [...]
Château Lagrange, Saint Julien, Bordeaux – BKWine Pick
This Grand Cru Classé was bought in 1983 by the Japanese beverage company Suntory which got a lot of attention at the time. A Grand Cru Classé in the hands of the Japanese! Almost a bit of a scandal. But being Japanese hasn’t really done Château Lagrange any harm. On the contrary. An enormous amount [...]
Domaine Senat, Minervois
Fifteen years ago Jean-Baptiste Senat moved from Paris to Minervois in the Languedoc. He started with just a few hectares, now he has 15 hectares and is one of the most interesting producers in the region. He makes drinkable wines with a lot of character, wines that are very pleasant to drink young, although some [...]
Mas Zenitude, Terrasses du Larzac, Languedoc
Being Swedish ourselves we always find it interesting to meet Swedish winemakers. Like Erik Gabrielsson, whom we met in September at his domaine Mas Zenitude, in Languedoc. Erik is from southern Sweden and works as a lawyer in Malmö. He bought Mas Zenitude, a domaine of 5 hectares, situated outside the small village of Saint [...]
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