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 […]
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 […]
Fattoria Bini is located not far away from Florence, in a small town called Empoli in the Chianti region. A villa from the 16th century is the centrepiece of the estate. It is surrounded by vines, olive trees and a rare variety of tree species. The Fattoria Bini Chianti wines have an unmistakable Sangiovese character […]
Currently, there are 5,835 organically certified wine estates in France. This is an increase of 11% since 2016. The certified vineyard surface is 61,048 hectares, an increase of 4%. The trend shows a continued increase. 17,617 hectares are under conversion. Of these, 3,369 hectares are in their third (and last) year of conversion, 5,588 are […]
In South Africa, around 100 different grape varieties are grown on an area of approximately 117,000 hectares (table grapes not included). This is quite impressive, although of course many of the varieties are grown in very small quantities. The most planted variety in South Africa is still Chenin Blanc with 19,000 hectares. This is still […]
Swedes are world champions when it comes to drinking bag-in-box wines. In 2017 box wines were separated from bulk wines in international import and export statistics. Up until then, everything over 2 litres was considered as bulk wine. So now we have statistics showing which countries export and import bag-in-box. The statistics show that Sweden […]
Chile has in recent years proven that it has an impressive breadth as a wine country. Producers big and small go exploring in all directions to find the perfect spot to grow vines. Here are three suggestions for good summer drinking from Chile: Emiliana VIGNO 2015 comes from Maule. It is made from 100% carignan […]
Sometimes it is said that statistics is an effective way to hide the truth. But often it is very interesting and sometimes surprising. New statistics – very detailed – were recently published on the wine production in France in 2017. In total, France has 745,044 hectares of vineyards. Of this, 446,000 hectares are AOP vineyards […]
The Argentinian wine farmers really needed this vintage. After small quantities due to severe weather conditions in 2016 and 2017, 2018 is a very good year both for quality and for quantity. The quantity is up 30% from last year. The growing season offered perfect weather. Not so much rain, hot days and cool nights, […]
Château Lestrille is a family-run chateau in Entre-deux-Mers, the region between the Garonne and Dordogne rivers. This is a region that most people only pass through going from Bordeaux to Saint Emilion. But if you stop you will discover a lot of good wine producers. One of our favourites here is Lestrille, located in the […]
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 […]
The coastal region of Toscana, called Maremma, is beautiful but not as well known for its wines as Chianti or Montalcino. But there are, in fact, a number of famous wines. In Bolgheri, Sassicaia started the Super Tuscan trend in the 1970s, a trend that totally changed the Tuscan wine industry. A bit further south […]
A purchase of a special wine from the cellar of a special house with special owners, a story told by BKWine Magazine guest writer, as well as exclusive wine expert at Vins Extraordinaires, Stuart George. Faringdon House is a 14,510 square feet house in Faringdon, Oxfordshire, England. The house is Grade I-listed, protected as a […]
Sometimes people as “Do you make wine in Sweden?” A fair question. The climate is obviously not ideal. The answer is “Yes.” I believe there is well less than 100 hectares in total, but quite a few producers. If you happen to be in the south of Sweden on July 27-28 you have a unique […]
A lot of champagnes are drunk at occasions when all that matters are the bubbles. But if you open a high quality champagne with a strong character it deserves more attention. It should actually be drunk as a “normal” wine. And why not with food? When you meet Alexandre Penet at Champagne Penet-Chardonnet in Verzy […]
Taste is by definition subjective, but that should not hinder us from using a more objective approach when discussing wine and winnings. What we tend to like varies. Some prefer to drink wine with a lot of maturation tones, others to drink wine young. And in addition, there is a whole spectrum of taste preferences […]
During our spring wine tours we have visited the small and interesting Champagne house Philipponnat. On our visit in early May we saw people working in their prestigious vineyard Clos des Goisses with knapsack sprayers on their backs. Obviously they were doing some kind of treatment. It turned out to be weed control with a […]
IWSR, an English company specializing in market research in the beverage industry, has published figures for global alcohol and wine consumption in 2017. Total alcohol consumption increased very modestly by 0.01%, but as it decreased in 2016, this small increase is still positive for the industry. It was mainly wine and cider that accounted for […]
Unusual grapes can pop-up when you least expect it. On one of our tours in Chablis in the spring, a little-known grape called sacy made an appearance during the tasting of Domaine Frédéric and Céline Gueguen. Of course, this was not a Chablis. Some Chablis producers, including Domaine Gueguen, also make wine outside the Chablis […]
To taste blind or not blind, that is the question. The answer is simple! Is it better to taste wines blind, semi-blind or open? That question has popped up several times lately. In recent months, I have been to wine tastings, wine seminars and in the jury of wine competitions, where that question has been […]
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