Category: Newsletter

9 myths and 9 truths about organic, biodynamic, “natural” Organic wine continues to increase, it seems. Commercial success is well established in several countries already. We recently wrote about sales in France that have increased

Trend spotting at New Year’s Eve dinner party With Christmas and New Year dinners coming up you might be in need of a conversation topic. Why not try trends in the wine world 2019? What

Typical. Guessing right again…? They are easily counted, the times I have called a wine “typical” during the past year. But what is typical? Everyone who has attended a wine course has learned typical aromas

The most important factor for making great wines! We can’t control the weather. The weather determines the size of the harvest and, to some extent, also the character of the wine. The overall climate (the

Sweet dry wine and the taste police A dry wine should be dry and a sweet wine sweet. That sounds obvious. But considering the amounts of not-so-dry red wines sold in the world today, one

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

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

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,

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

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

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

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

“sans” – does it make sense? There is a new trend, still a bit discreet. But it will perhaps – probably – increase. We see it in France and it probably exists in other wine

Safe bets or daring chances? A question that is certainly important when choosing wines for New Year! But first, let’s start with … some publicity, now as a new year begins, to make a good

Wines for women? Recently, I heard about a survey about the alleged different tastes of men and women in wine. The report apparently killed that myth (but I have not read it myself). Anyway, we

Will there be a shortage of wine? The harvest this year will be the smallest one in a long time. It is the smallest production, counting the entire world’s volume, in around fifty years. Read

Wine myths… I recently wrote an article about a myth on wine that has been very difficult to kill. It struck me that it could be a good theme for a series of articles. There

First of all, if you have not yet “liked” BKWine Magazine on Facebook, please do it now. Much appreciated! Wine Country China …? Britt is in China this week. One of ten invited international wine

Superlatives, thirst wines, and ad masquerades If wine adverts (all too often masquerading as “journalism”) are to be believed all wines are fantastic, perfectly balanced and go with everything, from tapas to tandoori chicken. I

Terroir wine, industrial wine, natural wine, or technical wine? Terroir wines are often said to be the opposite of industrial wines (or volume wines). In short, terroir wines are wines where you recognize the origin

A gloomy spring… Wild or cultured? This month we give you quite a bit of reading and also a lot of videos. We have published several interesting (?) articles that you can read about in

Packaging or contents? We all know the importance of the label on the wine bottle. How it influences us to buy or not to buy. Most consumers are not so knowledgeable about wine, and even

White is (not?) as good as red Several times over the years I have been asked a question that has made me confused. “Can you have a wine tasting of white wines in the same

Is it time to scrap “New World Wine”? Not the wines of course but the generalising description of a group of wines using those words. “This feels like a New World wine” is something we

Streamlined or personal? What is it that makes a wine feel personal, as if it has a special character? It really has nothing to do with the price. Sometimes I get the impression that some

Sparkling trends It is popular to talk about upcoming trends at this time of year. An ongoing trend that certainly will continue in 2017 is the world’s unquenchable thirst for bubbles. In 2016 Prosecco and

Parisian café or Japanese sushi? How is the traditional Parisian café doing? Everywhere you look in the French capital, you see a sushi restaurant or a sushi takeaway where there used to be a café.

High or low alcohol Are you one of those consumers who think that the alcohol level in wines is getting higher and higher? Actually, this is an undisputed fact. Wine has more alcohol now than

Aromatized wine? Flavoured yeast? Luxury wines without oak? On our trip to the southern Rhone Valley last week we tasted the unfermented grape juice from freshly harvested Grenache. It was delicious and sweet. But it

Terroir, desirable or despicable? It is interesting to see how a word can be reassessed. Take the word terroir. A word that every wine lover uses about ten times a day. And always in a