Leaving a troubled 2018 behind for a better 2019? Anniversary wines to go with it. Leaving behind a troubled 2018, both in vinous terms, with difficult weather, and for the world as a whole, it is time to think about 2019. What wines should you consider if you, or someone you know, have a 9 […]
Armenia is a little-known wine country although it is believed to be one of the oldest wine producing regions, with a history going back more than 6000 years. Recently, a new concept was launched to promote wine tourism and to make the wine regions better known both with locals and international visitors: The Wine Cube. […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Some wine consultants are world famous mega stars. Most work quietly behind the scenes and you rarely hear their name. Has the advent of oenologist wine consultant led to a stream-lining and more and more wines that just taste “the same”. No, definitely not! Has it led to that we have more and more good […]
Having an ideal wine cellar with a temperature of around 10-14 degrees year-round is not common. And the wine “fridges” that are available on the market are so expensive that hesitates to buy one when one figures out how much wine one could get for the money instead. Ageing wine under some “worse” conditions, for […]
—Wine producers usually see the production of olive oil as a problem and not as an opportunity. Here at Dievole, it is the first time I see a long-term ambitious project, says Stefano Capurso, General Manager of Dievole. Dievole is a farm located in the southern part of Chianti Classico in a landscape that is […]
It was a year that might turn even the most devout teetotaller to drink – unless their name is Trump In 2017, we witnessed the inauguration of a Twitter-obsessed reality TV star as US President (whose grandfather came from the Pfalz wine region in Germany); the ongoing tragicomedy of North Korea; shocking events in Manchester […]
Wine can be a cut-throat low margin business. There are also many “trophy wineries” launched by rich people who made their money in something else and then buys or creates a winery just for fun and life-style, without really needing to worry about profitability. It is all the more impressive then when someone launches into […]
More and more wineries and wine regions launch into wine tourism. All sorts and flavours of wine tourism projects pop up in the wine regions. This is not surprising considering how much money and reputation is involved. It is not easy to get good numbers on the economic effects of wine tourism but one estimate […]
Just a few years ago, or perhaps mainly in the mid 90s and early 00s, corked wines were a big discussion subject. Some people reported 4-5% cork defects in wine, sometimes even 10%. We started to see serious “alternative closures”, mainly plastic corks and screw caps. Today that debate has mostly disappeared (although not quite […]
Although there has been a clear revival in the popularity of gin, and an explosion of new brands, we have seen that the impact has been limited to the premium-plus categories. New and existing customers have traded up, leaving the lower-value categories to continue to decline. There is little evidence to suggest that the renaissance […]
Gin’s revival in popularity has been driven by many of the same factors that were important in gin’s earlier history – the role of marketing/brands, the impact of legislation, developments in flavours and the link to cocktails and fashionability. Four events have been particularly important. Marketing innovations by IDV led the way. In 1988, IDV […]
EU law defines three categories of gin:[1] “Gin” is the basic category. Flavourings, either natural or artificial, are mixed (cold compounded) with the base spirit and other approved colourings and sweeteners are added. A molasses-based spirit may be used (often cheaper), giving a softer feel. “Distilled Gin” is made by redistilling the mixture of diluted […]
The essay in four parts explores the history of gin up until 1985, its production, the revival in consumption over the past 30 years, and looks forward to how the market might develop over the next 10 years. This essay focuses primarily on the UK market although reference is made to other markets where relevant, […]
Sweden’s first website on wine? 20 years ago we started writing about wine online. “Wine on the internet since 1996”, as it says on our banner. We were – probably – Sweden’s first “home page” of wine. It was not called BKWine Magazine at the time, and a lot has happened since then. So this […]
It is sometimes said that the young people of today do not drink wine. It may be true or not, but whatever the case it is very different from one country to another. A recent market report shows surprisingly positive numbers from New York and London. An overwhelming majority of the young people in these […]
In many countries the annual wine guides wield a huge influence over consumers. In France, for example, you have Guide Hachette and Italy you have l’Espresso’s annual wine guide. But this year, there has been a revolution in the Italian guide. The editorial team has been completely replaced, the focus is changed and the first […]
2015 is a year that did not present any great surprises in the overall picture of the global wine production and trade. Vineyard area is stable, production is stable, consumption is stable, and world trade in wine continues to grow. Decidedly un-sexy and headline un-friendly. A few things can be worth pointing out. The USA […]
Why do we no longer drink sweet wines? The Swedish monopoly Systembolaget recently presented the market situation for sweet wines and fortified wines in Sweden. It is catastrophic. And perhaps illustrative of what happens in other countries too. Sweet wines disappearing? Over 25 years the consumption of sweet wines has fallen by around 85%. In […]
Sometimes you need to cool or warm your wine to obtain the right serving temperature. Which way is the best and how do you know how long it will take? An interesting little booklet was published in the 1960s in Sweden by a man called Haqvin Carlheim-Gyllensköld, known for his scientific approach to cooking. The […]
Co-operatives sometimes suffer from a less than great reputation in wine. Sometimes it is well-deserved, for cooperatives that focus more on quantity and volume production than on quality. Sometimes is it unfair. There is an important trend today in the cooperative sector in the wine industry to improve both quality and market orientation. This is […]
When you ask wine producers what their main export markets are you often hear things like Great Britain, the USA, Germany, today sometimes even China etc. And if you then ask “You mean you don’t export much to Belgium?” you get the reaction “well, yes, of course, that’s one of our most important markets. But […]
If you are a wine producer you might wonder what the rules are for selling to Swedish consumers. Or if you happen to live in Sweden, you might wonder if and how you can buy from producers or shops in other countries in Europe. The question is the same and we have done some research […]
Wine lovers often tend to simply ignore wine co-operatives or even look down at them as sources of not so good wine. This is a mistake. It is true that many co-operatives are not tuned for making small batches of high quality wine. And even worse that wine co-operatives are often very poor at marketing. […]
An unusual vodka, descended from the ancient Absolut, tasted by BKWine Magazine’s Roland Eriksson. Our traditional Swedish vodka Absolut became a worldwide success. This was also one of the reasons that the then Swedish government sold off its state-owned and highly profitable producer called Vin & Sprit, and with it our entire cultural heritage of […]
Mixed drinks, or cocktails, are becoming more and more popular to drink as an aperitif and you can hardly open a food or wine magazine today without reading about it, or getting the bartender’s best tips. What happened to all the traditional southern French aperitifs such as Byrrh, Dubonnet and pastis? Some of them were […]
Wine growing and wine making is agriculture. But if you look at the price of land for vineyards it does not have much in common with other types of agriculture, at least not in most wine regions. The average price for “appellation” (AOP) land in France was 136,000 euro per hectare according to statistics for […]
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