This summer’s exceptional heat across Europe’s wine regions has been making headlines, and Metro UK turned to BKWine for expert comment. Metro is one of the Uk’s most widely read news sites, known for free print editions distributed across British cities as well as a large online readership. They don’t cover wine every day, so this was a nice recognition of BKWine’s expertise. This also shows how a wine tour with BKWine can add that unique extra value.
Journalist Luke Ashford interviewed Per about how the heatwave is affecting vineyards. The heat can hit vines in several different ways at once: drought stress, grapes literally burnt by the sun, and a loss of balance in the fruit as sugar, acidity, and flavour development fall out of sync. One might think warm weather is good for the ripening, but sometimes it leaves grapes under-ripe, sometimes over-ripe, depending on the vineyard and the variety. It’s a much more complicated picture than the simple “heatwave equals disaster” headlines suggest or “warm and sunny is good for the grapes”.
It’s a good reminder of why we spend so much time in the vineyards ourselves, on our wine tours and on other wine region travel. We talk directly with the winemakers who are living these issues and seasons. Understanding what’s really happening on the ground — not just the headlines — is part of what we bring to every tour. That complexity is exactly why we think it’s worth hearing it straight from the people growing the grapes.
That’s one of the things that make our tours unique.
On our wine tours, YOU don’t just taste the wines; YOU sit down with the winemakers themselves and can ask them directly how a season like this one is playing out in their vineyards, what choices they’re making in response, and how it’s likely to show up in the glass.
But a winemaker is always focused on HIS place, HIS grapes. What YOU also get on a BKWine wine tour is the decades of experience that Britt and Per bring to the tour, the global perspective on the wine business as well as the technical details that will make you understand wine even better.
Read the full Metro UK article here.
Read the in-depth article on BKWine Magazine on it: The consequences of the heat wave and extreme weather for winegrowers.
