More and more wine bottles are sealed with screwcap, according to a survey. The screwcap has increased its market share in the world by 13.2% from 2012. Today it has 29.6% of the world market. In total, 30 billion bottles are sold annually in the world, of which 9 billion are closed with a screwcap. […]
The Petra winery in Val di Cornia along the Tuscan coast is making a fresh start. Today, they focus more on elegance than power. Petra presented their new wines at the end of March in Milan. BKWine Magazine´s Åsa Johansson attended the tasting. “We aim for brighter, fresher wines that better reflect our terroir,” says […]
When we visited Château Pichon-Baron, grand cru classé in Pauillac, recently we saw a small canister in the vineyard that we have never seen before. This canister is called CheckMate Puffer and is a new way of distribute pheromones that protect against the grape worm with the method with the curious name “sexual confusion”. The […]
Gennaro Nasti left Naples for Paris, where in 2016 he opened Bijou, luxury pizzas in designer decorated restaurant. To give you an idea, Bijou was voted Pizzeria of the year in 2017 by the Italian magazine Gambero Rosso. Gennaro is an expert in fermentations, and his pizza doughs are famous for being perfect. He continues […]
Sulphur is something that is naturally present in our environment and it is a product that is allowed for all wine producers – organic as well as conventional – both to combat fungal diseases in the vineyard and as an antioxidant in the finished wine. However, there is a certain demand from organic producers for […]
It will hardly surprise anyone that Chardonnay and Cabernet are (still) the most popular grape varieties in the USA. The exiting newcomer on the podium is Pinot Noir that is now solidly in third place. This is not least due to the fabulous success it has had in Oregon. When it comes to which grapes […]
A very violent hailstorm with huge hailstones hit Bordeaux on May 26th. It is as yet unclear how many hectares of vineyards have been affected, but probably at least a few thousand in southern Médoc, Bourg, Blaye and in Charente, the Cognac region. Vines that would have been in bloom the following week have now […]
Chile is a very exciting wine country today, really worth visiting. When you come to Chile you will surely also come to Santa Cruz. Santa Cruz is a small town in the Colchagua Valley in Chile. It has around 40 000 inhabitants. It is the almost inevitable base-camp to explore the famous Colchagua Valley, and, […]
Armenia, Georgia, Macedonia and Moldova all make wine but they are completely unknown as wine countries to most wine consumers. They now work together to market their wines. The wine industries in the four countries have gained momentum in recent years, and now they want to develop both their exports and their tourism. Georgia is […]
The impossible and absurd objectivity No, it is impossible to judge wine after a neutral and objective quality scale. But first… Is it important for the wine consumer if a wine has a “medal” in a wine competition? Some think it’s irrelevant. Another point of view that we often hear is “a medal! Then at […]
The impossible and absurd objectivity No, it is impossible to judge wine after a neutral and objective quality scale. But first… Is it important for the wine consumer if a wine has a “medal” in a wine competition? Some think it’s irrelevant. Another point of view that we often hear is “a medal! Then at […]
Wine is found in all possible price ranges. One is as often amazed at how inexpensive wines can be as at how expensive wines can be. At what prices do different wine countries sell their wines in the export market? We recently saw some interesting statistics for 2017 that compare export prices for the most […]
Birgit Braunstein lives in the village of Purbach in Austria, located in the Burgenland region. Her family has a long tradition of growing grapes and making wine. The tradition goes back to the 17th century, but Birgit’s first vintage under her own name saw the light only in 1996. Since 2000, the farming has been […]
OIV, the International Organization for Vine and Wine, recently presented the figures for the wine production in the world in 2017. The world has now 7.6 million hectares of vines; this figure includes table grapes and raisins. The production of wine in 2017 was 250 million hectolitres. This volume is historically low due to the […]
Uncorked: Under this heading we collect various wines that we have tasted, and liked, recently. It can be wines that we have had during dinner at home, at wine tastings, press lunches, visits to vineyards, or other occasions. We describe the wines just with a few short sentences, tasting notes that we hope will give […]
We have just launched a new and really exciting travel destination: New Zealand. The country is best known for its white wines made from sauvignon blanc (and perhaps also its rugby team?), but there are many other excellent wines as well, for instance exquisite pinot noir and powerful syrah wines. It is also a country […]
Bag-in-box wines have shorter durability than wines in bottle. And the small sizes, 1.5 and 3 litres have the shortest. These sizes are now becoming more and more popular, also in France. At a recent bag-in-box conference, where Smurfit Kappa and other bag-in-box manufacturers participated, it was discussed whether it is possible to improve, at […]
“The artist” himself, Gunter Künstler, is CEO of the company since 1992. He presented in a very humble manner six rieslings from different years and places and two spätburgunders (pinot noir). Gunter told me that there are documents showing that spätburgunder has existed in the Rheingau since the 12th century. However, Weingut Künstler’s history in […]
Italy shot to the top position in 2012, as the country selling most volume of wine into Sweden, and is still there. Not threatened by anyone at the moment. In 2017, 56.8 million litres of Italian wine were sold at Systembolaget, the Swedish retail monopoly. France, in second place, sold a meagre 26.5 million. The […]
How many Sicilian olive varieties do you know? Here are five examples of excellent extra virgin olive oil made with five different varieties on the biggest island in the Mediterranean. BKWine Magazine’s Åsa Johansson goes olive oil tasting. The farm Mandranova is one of Sicily’s most appreciated olive oil producers. It is run by Giuseppe […]
Nine new grape varieties have been approved to be planted in the French vineyards. Five of them are old, almost extinct and forgotten grape varieties from the Southwest, from Gaillac, Fronton and other southwestern appellations: Bouysselet Blanc, Tardif, Verdanel Blanc, Gibert and Noual. The other four are so-called resistant grape varieties. These are new crosses […]
Pierluigi Tolaini bought a one-way ticket to Canada when he was twenty years old. When he returned to Tuscany it was for making wine. Of the highest quality. Join us on a journey between Tuscany and Canada. BKWine Magazine’s Åsa Johansson tells the story. Pierluigi Tolaini was only 20 years old when he left Tuscany […]
Flavescence dorée is a dreaded bacterial disease that spreads through a grasshopper. It was discovered for the first time in 1949. In France it is especially difficult in parts of the southern Rhône Valley and Provence. Here we can even see a decrease in the number of organic producers because it is mandatory in some […]
Autumn 2018 Champagne, September 26-30 Bordeaux, October 10-14 Douro Valley in Portugal, October 17-21 South Africa, November 9-19 Winter 2019 Chile-Argentina, January 20 – February 4, 2019 South Africa, February 16-24, 2019 New Zealand, March 11-26, 2019 For more information please contact us on email or on phone (we’re on French time), or go to […]
During our visit to South Africa at the beginning of March, the harvest was in full swing. The very difficult, and prolonged, drought in the wine regions of the Western Cape affects the grapes of course. But most of the producers we met told us that although the volume in most places will be small […]
Mexico is well on its way to become a very interesting fine wine country. It is true that much of the country is too warm and dry for wine growing, but if you know where to plant and what to plant you can make some very good wines here. Mexico does not have a long […]
France has 806,000 hectares planted with vines. This area includes about 70,000 hectares used for Cognac. Three grape varieties take up one third of this area: Merlot (112,000 hectares), Ugni Blanc (82,000 hectares, which is used mainly for Cognac) and Grenache (81,000 hectares). After the top three follow Syrah (64,000), Chardonnay (51,000), Cabernet Sauvignon (48,000), […]
This is not the story of the Sicilians that decided to stay and try to change things from within. It is not the story about those who decided to leave, trying to start over. Instead, this is the story of those who left, became successful, and chose to come back. Pino Cuttaia and the restaurant […]
Comité Champagne has published their sales figures for 2017. Champagne made a record turnover of 4.9 billion euros in 2017. 307 million bottles were sold, a slight increase compared with 2016. The sales record counted in volume from 2007 is still valid. 338 million bottles of champagne were sold that year. France is still the […]
Grenache is one of the world’s most planted grapes. Most of these vines are in France and Spain. In 1982, Rhône Valley enthusiast Randall Grahm at Bonny Doon Vineyards in California made his first Grenache wines. The term Rhone Rangers was coined to describe producers with a penchant for Rhône grapes. Grenache was on its […]
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