BKWine Blog
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 […]
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), […]
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 […]
“Burgundy… Say it. Feel it. Taste it. The word evokes a very special wine country and a very special wine. It makes me think of gently rolling hills. Vineyards all the way to the horizon. Winding roads. Small villages. Unique wines and superb French gastronomy. When I started tasting and drinking wine Burgundy was one […]
Vinisud, the big wine fair in Montpellier, took place earlier this year, on 18-20 February. Vinisud is about wines from southern France and other countries around the Mediterranean. If you want to meet good producers from Languedoc-Roussillon, Provence, the Rhone Valley, and more, Vinisud is an excellent wine fair, not least because many of the […]
Varietal or terroir? Or just “different”? The grape variety was not really important before the New World wines appeared on a larger scale in the 1990s. Well, of course it was important. But consumers did not care about which grapes the wines were made of. They bought a Bordeaux, a Burgundy, a Moselle or Rhine […]
It doesn’t stop raining in Bordeaux. As spring progresses, wine producers face problems. It is difficult to drive the tractor and to walk in a wet and muddy vineyard. This is inconvenient for those growers who mechanically remove the weeds. Maintenance in the vineyard, such as replacing the poles that hold up the wires, is […]
My taste and your taste We all have our own personal taste. We enjoy different styles of wines, not necessarily the same as our neighbour. Our opinion about a wine is always personal. It is virtually impossible to give a completely neutral, yet meaningful, review of a wine. In fact, to think that there is […]
Le Concours Mondial de Bruxelles (CMB) is one of the largest of the many wine competitions organized around the world. CMB constantly look at trends in the wine world in order to best organize the competition. China has increased both its consumption and its production of wine in 2017, and CMB believes that this increase […]
Les Outsiders is a group of winegrowers in the Languedoc-Roussillon in southern France, and in a few other places across France. They make some excellent wines, often with a lot of character. They are often focused on a terroir style of wine; they are often organic, sometimes biodynamic. And they all come from other places […]
We have also put together a few short city guides, which give you an introduction to some important cities in the wine world. First out are France and Argentina. They give you a little bit of a taste of the cities and maybe some tips on what to do when you’re out on a wine […]
We have collected a few more comments from our travellers on what they have to say about our tours: “I felt like an important VIP guest!”, said a traveller on a wine tour in Le Marche “A total success, what more could one wish for?”, said those who travelled on a wine tour in South […]
“Some of the most unique wines in the world – reds and white – come from Burgundy. A well-made red Bourgogne (or Burgundy wine if you prefer), made from the elusive pinot noir grape variety, is a wine of elegance, hardly found anywhere else. The fruity aromas are mixed with a hint of autumn leaves […]
A Swedish restaurant has for the first time been awarded three Michelin stars, or three macarons as one also says in France. The one who has manged this achievement is Björn Frantzén at his Restaurant Frantzén in Stockholm. Björn previously had a 2-star restaurant in Gamla Stan, the Old Town, but in 2017 he moved […]
Name can be a sensitive matter. Famiglie Dell’Amarone d’Arte, or Amarone Families, as it is commonly known in English, is an association founded in 2009, consisting of 13 family wineries in Valpolicella. The association wants to preserve Amarone as an exclusive and high-quality wine, with no compromising on quality. So far everything is fine. But […]
Are the good old days gone forever? Perhaps the wines were better before, in the good old days? If you want to go really far back in time, back to the 19th century you can long for the ungrafted vines that existed before the phylloxera came. Since then, almost all of the world’s vineyards have […]
It is often difficult to know a many of the “practical” things when travelling to a new country. For example, what is the common practice for giving tips (e.g. if one does not tip at least 10% in a restaurant in the US one risks being told off rather rudely)? What about taxi? Can you […]
In today’s tough competition, all wine producers must make every effort to keep customers and to win new ones. Not least is it important for the cooperatives. These are important for the French wine industry – they account for 50% of total production – but they have not had the best of reputations. “Together, we […]
To choose which tour operator to travel with is a bit like getting married. You don’t really know what kind of experience it will be until after you have made the decision. The only way to really know is to have travelled with someone previously (a tactic that is a bit more difficult, but not […]
Paul Bocuse, France’s most famous chef, died 91 years old on January 20. Paul Bocuse was the leading and emblematic figure of the new French gastronomy, but at the same time he was very attached to French culinary traditions. He received his first Michelin star in 1958 at the family restaurant Auberge du Pont de […]
During the winter pruning many tons of vine branches, more specifically about two tons per hectare, are cut off the vines every winter in France. Sarments as it is called in French. In some regions it is a tradition to burn the branches, in others to leave them in the vineyard as a kind of […]
They drink a lot of wine in French movies. We already knew that. But now it is also proven in a research report that has gone through 47 French success films that were released between 1970 and 2014. On average, a wine glass or a bottle of wine appear every twenty minutes in the movies. […]
The trend has been there for several years now. Demand for wines with lower alcoholic strength increases. However, it is not that easy to make low-alcohol wines. The simplest method, to stop the fermentation at an early stage, is of course not applicable. It would mean residual sugar in the wine. You can use techniques […]
Winter 2018 Chile and Argentina, January 27 – February 11 (full) South Africa, February 23 – March 5 (full) Spring 2018 Bordeaux, April 25-29 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, Jan-Feb New Zealand, March For more information please contact us […]
Chardonnay? Cabernet? Syrah? Or if you have done your homework (some while ago), airen? No, no, no, and no. But one might say that it is (to some extent) a trick question. The world’s most grown grape variety is not used to make wine. It is a Chinese grape variety. The second most grown variety […]
It is not every day one can enjoy a wealth of Austrian wines in Paris. It’s a pity. I’ve been to Austria several times and the wines I have tasted are fantastic. Outstanding whites and reds that are not so well know, from not so well-known indigenous varieties, that are also making great headway. And […]
Cook Magazine is a very beautiful glossy magazine for restaurants, chefs, and hotels in Belgium. As many publications in Belgium, it is bilingual and publishes everything in two languages. A bit like BKWine Magazine by the way. The difference being, of course, that for Cook it is Dutch (or Flemish) and French, two of the […]
In The BKWine Brief:
Enter your email to get it:
And us too. Share & Like this!
Time to book a wine tour?
Travel on a wine tour with us to Bordeaux, Champagne, Douro, Tuscany, Piedmont, South Africa, Chile-Argentina, and much more...
We know more about wine — and about organising exceptional wine tours — and will give you a better, more extraordinary wine and gourmet experience.
Book your wine tour here with BKWine Tours. Now!
