This is shaping up to be an interesting and challenging year in the vineyards. An ice-cold spring until the end of June. Then one of the best summers in a long time, until the end of August. At the start of September it was as if a switch was turned off. Suddenly it was chilly, cold and rainy again.
Many wine regions expect that the harvest will be late, maybe two to three weeks later than usual. In France it looks to be a small harvest in terms of quantity. But for the quality it is still not quite certain. If it will stay cold and wet then it can become difficult. Rot. Mould. Difficult to work.
But right now it looks really good actually. We will have both sun and warm weather the next few days and also quite decent in the longer term. If so, we can probably hope for a good vintage even though you never really know until the wine is finished. We have recently drunk some wines from vintages that have been labelled as terrible to awful. But the wines have been perfectly enjoyable. If you buy wine to drink (and not as an investment) then there is really no reason to worry too much about, or to refrain from, “bad” vintages.
The beautiful weather in the coming weeks suits us really well. We have a lot of traveling going on right now. Over the next few weeks we will go on wine tours to the Rhone Valley, the Mosel Valley, the Piedmont, Veneto (with its ever popular Amarone), the Loire Valley, Alentejo, the Douro Valley and some more… We certainly hope that it will continue to be warm, sunny and pleasant! Both for all our travel guests’ sake and for the wine producers.
As you might imagine, there is quite a lot to do at this time of year (both for the wine growers and for us who organises wine tours). Therefore, the BKWine Brief will be a little shorter than usual. But we still have a lot of interesting articles for you to read. Follow the links in the news items below to read the full texts.
But before that, a brief reminder of upcoming trips :
This winter there will be two amazing longer wine tours. If you have ever been thinking about traveling to South Africa or South America now is the time to do it:
- Chile & Argentina, February 1 to 16
- South Africa, Feb 28-Mar 10
Book now!
We also have a spring tour to:
- the Douro Valley
Absolutely charming in spring. Perhaps we can tempt you with that?
You can find all the details on travel site!
Book now. It would be so nice to meet you on one of the wine tours!
Britt & Per
PS: Recommend to your friends to read the Brief!
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One Response
Goodmorning from the Chianti area !
We are The “Azienda Agricola Terra di Siena podere la Segolina “an organic winary in the Chianti colli senesi area near the castle of Monteriggioni half way between Siena and Florence, very easy to reach by car or bus.
La Segolina (www.lasegolina.it ) is an ecoagriturismo , menber of Siena carbon free , we have facility to host up to 15 pax overnighting in our gust hause s and appartaments.
We produce fine organic wines from sangiovese grape and SPIRITS like Aquavite d’uva , grappa barriches gold , and grappa sangiovese white fruit spirito from pear and peach ecc run wine tasting in english whith a profetional sommelier from F.I.S.A.R .
We wonder if you are interested in take into consideration la Segolina for your wine tasting tour
Regards
Antonio Mangiafico