Nowhere else is the dominance of a few grape varieties as big as in Australia. Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay account for almost 60% of the total vineyard area of 149,000 hectares. Syrah alone accounts for 28% of the planted vines. But perhaps a diversification is in sight. Both Pinot Gris and Sauvignon Blanc are […]
It is not as bad as it sounds… We wrote some time ago about the role of wine in French films. We asked our readers for recommendations of “wine movies” and one of our readers took us up on that. She recommends a film she watched a few months ago called “Ce qui nous lie”. […]
Conversations with Alain Senderens, one of France’s greatest chefs In this episode: the people around him This is a video series in six parts: Senderens and wine Paring wine and food A long career in gastronomy Gastronomy, and the restaurant business People around Alain Senderens Inspirations and other countries The series is based on short […]
Handy tips on tipping customs, shopping hours, restaurant etiquette, taxi and transport, and more. One should perhaps not take too seriously rules about how to behave. On the other hand, it can be dangerous to be totally ignorant about local customs and traditions when travelling in a foreign country. So here are a few half […]
Chateauneuf-du-Pape and other Rhone wines from a famous family winery Domaine de Marcoux is not one of the biggest producers in Chateauneuf, but it is a very highly respected family winery with a history of making quality wines, with biodynamic principles. Their recent vintages have just arrived on the market in Sweden, but are also […]
Conversations with Alain Senderens, one of France’s greatest chefs In this episode: gastronomy and restaurants This is a video series in six parts: Senderens and wine Paring wine and food A long career in gastronomy Gastronomy, and the restaurant business People around Alain Senderens Inspirations and other countries The series is based on short videos […]
Method Cap Classique (MCC) is the name given to South African sparkling wine produced according to the traditional method, ie with a second fermentation in the bottle. The Cap Classique Producers Association (CCPA) was founded in 1992. The idea was to find a suitable name that would facilitate the marketing of the wines. To call […]
The wine maker needs a strategy, knowledge and experience, as demonstrated Oenoforo’s experiment About two years ago I was in Tuscany to harvest grapes. Syrah grapes. There are actually a fair amount of syrah planted in Tuscany. But this was a bit special. We were to harvest seven tons, which is about to one and […]
Conversations with Alain Senderens, one of France’s greatest chefs In this episode: Alain Senderens, a long career This is a video series in six parts: Senderens and wine Paring wine and food A long career in gastronomy Gastronomy, and the restaurant business People around Alain Senderens Inspirations and other countries The series is based on […]
The importance of origin New appellations are added to the wine world continuously. And not only in France and Italy. The New World has also realized the advantages of designations of origin. It is no longer just the grapes that are mentioned on the label, but also where these grapes have grown. And that’s a […]
The importance of origin New appellations are added to the wine world continuously. And not only in France and Italy. The New World has also realized the advantages of designations of origin. It is no longer just the grapes that are mentioned on the label, but also where these grapes have grown. And that’s a […]
Conversations with Alain Senderens, one of France’s greatest chefs In this episode: Pairing food and wine This is a video series in six parts: Senderens and wine Paring wine and food A long career in gastronomy Gastronomy, and the restaurant business People around Alain Senderens Inspirations and other countries The series is based on short […]
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 […]
Conversations with Alain Senderens, one of France’s greatest chefs In this episode: Senderens and wine This is a video series in six parts: Senderens and wine Paring wine and food A long career in gastronomy Gastronomy, and the restaurant business People around Alain Senderens Inspirations and other countries The series is based on short videos […]
The trend today is in most countries for very pale pink rosé wines, sometimes almost indistinguishable from a white wine, and for too often with a little bit of “RS” – residual sugar – in it. And not much taste. There is a different category of rosé wines, rosés that in my view are much […]
Some wine regions and even individual wine producers are incredibly keen, sometimes excessively so, to protect their names and brands. Champagne is the undisputed world champion in this sport. The most recent discussion in this topic is between Italy and Australia. The conflict is about whether the Australians should be able or not to put […]
Natural wines are the darlings of sommeliers and wine bars around the world at the moment. But what is a natural wine? For some people, it is a style of wine, a style that you recognize easier than the origin or the grape variety. Often the “style” is unusual, not to say odd, with wines […]
It gets warmer and drier in Languedoc, says Christophe Bousquet at Domaine Pech Redon in La Clape. This cannot completely be compensated for by irrigation. That’s why Christophe this summer is going to plant grape varieties that are used to an even warmer climate. He has chosen Nero d’Avola (!) from Sicily and the amazing […]
Portugal’s (and the world’s) largest producer of cork products, Amorim, is slowly changing the cork industry. Since 2013, a project has been in progress concerning the possibility to start harvesting the cork from the cork oaks earlier than at the age of 25, as is the case today. The solution seems to be an improved […]
The world drinks more rosé wine than ever before. Rosé consumption in the world has risen by 31% since 2003. The very light coloured style of rosé, such as they are made in Provence, is the highest fashion. The rosé trend has made Provence an extremely successful wine region. 89% of the wines in Provence […]
Antinori’s Le Mortelle and Rocca di Frassinello Maremma is the new kid on the block in Tuscany. The region received its appellation as late as 2014. But it is a region with a history with ties back to the beginning of the “super-tuscans” in nearby Bolgheri. BKWine Magazine’s Åsa Johansson met two of the pioneers […]
Discover the unknown Tuscany by the coast Maremma is Tuscany’s Wild West. Horses and cowboys. Rolling fields, quaint villages and gorgeous white beaches by the crystal blue sea. But also a wine region that offers a wide variety of wines. BKWine Magazine’s Åsa Johansson takes us to the wild vineyard landscape and to the wines. […]
The Swedish vineyard Fredholms Vingård has won a medal in a wine competition in Rioja, the International Wine Awards Spain 2018. And not just any medal but a Great Gold Medal. We say a big congratulations! The award-winning wine is ELSA 2017 and is a white wine made from the solaris grape. Solaris is sometimes […]
Few wine countries, if any, can compete with Italy in terms of the number of grapes used for wines. The ten most planted grapes account for only 38% of the total plantings. In France the top-ten account for 70% and in Spain 75%. “Other grapes” are thus planted on and extraordinary 62% of the total […]
It’s winter in South Africa and it’s raining, at last. A relief, but more rain is needed, says DP Burger, winemaker at Glenwood in Franschhoek, and others we have heard from. The draught in Western Cape, where the wine regions are, have long been a serious problem, but the situation is now improving. The water […]
Wine producers in France are now allowed to use vertical hail nets. After three years of experiments in Burgundy, the INAO has decided that the nets do not affect the maturity or quality of the grapes. The background is that in recent year hail has caused extensive damage and lost harvests in several wine regions. […]
Buying a vineyard in France is not getting any cheaper. On the contrary. All categories of vineyards are becoming more and more expensive. This is evident from numbers recently published by Safer, a governmental organization overseeing property transactions. The average price per hectare of AOP vineyards is 143,900 euros, an increase from last year of […]
I imagine hardly anyone needs an instruction on how to make a Gin-and-Tonic, or G-and-T. Could it be the world’s most popular drink? But there are different ways to do it. For example, in this video, they use a blood grapefruit. Personally, I prefer a slice of lemon or lime. Some use cucumbers, blueberries and […]
The various sparkling crémant wines produced around France are becoming more and more popular. Not least the Crémant de Loire, which has seen a huge boost for its exports. 2017 saw an increase in exports to the US by 9%. The wines are made mainly in the Saumur area but can also be made in […]
No, organic-biodynamic-natural is not at all like “in the old days” We often hear people say that organic (biodynamic, “natural”) wine growers work the way farmers did in the past. And that’s true in some ways. Synthetic pesticides – banned for the organic growers – have not always existed. However, crops have always been in […]
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