Wine unplugged

The Wine Trials

This post is part of a collection of related links here, The Skeptical Wine Lover.

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IT should go without saying but… When you’re at the dinner table tonight, you and your companions are all alone with the wine in your glasses.
Reputation, history, packaging, advertising, back label blurb, descriptions, reviews, ratings and even language itself all vanish – boof! – leaving just you and your company with the sight, smell and taste of the wine nestling in the bottom of your glass.

It’s pretty wonderful. Like music, enjoying food and drink is an entirely sensual escapade. However, we’re forever interpreting, judging, and imposing language on what we experience. And that’s okay too. As humans it’s what we’re wired to do.

But ideally, we should all be assessing the quality of any wine based entirely on its colour, aroma and taste. And so too should any wine columnist or blogger. With certain limitations, I attempt to do this, thereafter factoring in other key criteria, most notably price and availability, when deciding to recommend wines.

Recommend? What’s that about? Isn’t that just a second-hand experience? Well like many another, half of my weekly column in the Irish Examiner is essentially me nudging your elbow saying, “here, try these wines, I think you might like them.” I’m not shy, and not reluctant to recommend wines I think offer both an interesting experience and good value. And (especially when taken cumulatively) I believe such commendations may be of value to the reader. Wouldn’t do it otherwise.

However, I believe many readers presume those recommendations are what I’m at, that I view them as the most useful end of the column. I don’t. To me, the lump of narrative accompanying the recommendations is actually where it’s at. It’s where I do my bit to debunk wine myths, encourage readers to delve into the experience, plead with them to make use of open, public wine tastings. Because it’s not about me, nor about wineries or retailers or anything else. It’s all about you on a Saturday night and the bundle of sensations nestling in the bottom of your wine glass. Sometimes I say this overtly and sometimes I hint at it: Among the phrases I most frequently use are “suck it and see” and “trust your tastebuds”.

So it was with delight that I plunged last week into one of the delightful, radical books about wine I’ve had the pleasure to read, namely The Wine Trials 2011 (Workman Publishing, NY, 2011) You can buy it online (at Amazon for Kindle) or order it at good bookshops including Waterstones and Eason.

The book is the latest edition of a project that grew out of “Do More Expensive Wines Taste Better?” an academic paper published in May, 2008 by Robin Goldstein which in turn was based on a battery of blind taste-tests. In essence, some 500 volunteers assessed wines they tasted blind. And not only was a disparity between price and quality, in general they preferred cheaper wine to more expensive wine.  This, some further double-blind tastings, and a host of references to peer-reviewed academic research make up the business end of the book. Part II of the book is its list, complete with tasting notes, of the ‘winners’ selected by the blind tastings at the inexpensive end of the market.

I was delighted to see many wines there I’d recommended – some of them modest numbers priced well below €10 here in Ireland which I’d suggest offer far more than their price point would suggest. But the most significant deja-vu I experienced was reading Goldstein plead with readers to invest more of their attention in Part I. Suck it and see.

Importantly, the book is rigorous and disciplined. While Goldstein and his contributors do engage in some pretty interesting editorialising, the authors provide clear evidence for every significant claim they make, and delineate carefully between those evidence-based findings, and broader notions they put forward or use to illustrate the science.

I’m coming late to all this. I’m not alone. Despite its direct and immediate application anywhere in the world, The Wine Trials has had scant attention on this side of the Atlantic. The whole economy, let alone the wine market, of the US differs significantly from Ireland’s, But the most interesting and most important aspects of the book are entirely transferable.

I was alerted to the book by Eric Asimov, the New York Times’ wine guy whose columns and blogs are always worth a browse.
Over the last three years or so, Eric has been having a dialogue in print with the authors of The Wine Trials, and his critique may add a further dimension to your understanding of what the book is all about. But, while Asimov is as fair and respectful an interlocutor as one would expect, I’d recommend you don’t read one without the other. Goldstein continues the conversation in this latest edition of The Wine Trials. For an unparalelled insight into us, and how we view our food and drink, I recommend you buy it and read it.  ♦

The skeptical wine lover

See below for a link to Tim Minchin's White Wine In The Sun.

I WAS delighted to raise a glass recently in honour of Cork Skeptics‘ first birthday. Part of the worldwide skeptics (or sceptics) movement promoting critical thinking, they meet monthly at Blackrock Castle Observatory and kindly invited me to their December event to present a talk, ‘Suck It And See’.

That title is intended to suggest that our best understanding of wine comes from our own senses, unmediated by a host of other voices from advertising through to the opinions of independent wine columnists and bloggers like me. The subheading, ‘everything we think we know about wine is wrong’ is a deliberately provocative overstatement…  But it can be a useful motto to adopt, leaving you refreshed, open-minded, and prepared for a delightful new journey into wonderful wine.

I said then I’d post links to some of the key issues I covered that evening. Here they are. Yes it’s a very long post (and it’s likely to get longer). But firstly, this isn’t a hurrah-here’s-a-wine-you-might-like kind of post and many of the points do need all that background and context. Secondly, this (plus the posts I link to) really comprise a compliation albubm plus extended remixes. I’ve mentioned almost all of the points, in one form or another, in my column in the Irish Examiner and on this blog.

Comments, questions and challenges are of course always welcome —but particularly to this post, and to the links on it.

Some background

The psychology and physiology of misunderstanding is a rich field, ranging from Richard Dawkins pointing out our difficulty in grasping evolutionary time, through to the exploration of the issues on Dr Brian Hughes’ blog. I don’t think anyone’s suggesting we should (or could) shake off our all-too-human perceptual shortcomings which seem to be a hardwired component of our makeup. But we can acknowledge and understand, and thereby work around, them. The components of misunderstanding — such as unwarranted or unquestioning faith in authority figures; misattribution; mistaking coincidence for causality — these are lenses which can interrupt or distort our understanding of the world around us. And, specifically in relation to wine, they can distort our perception of quality and value.

Cork Skeptics

There’s a second chapter to all this: the sometimes well-meaning and mistaken, but often deliberate, manipulation of our wobbly perception by others. Some newspapers profitably agitate readers with nonsensical stories which you could broadly divide into yay (something will improve your health) and boo (something will damage your health). Such stories are often entirely incorrect, or at least so misreported and decontextualised as to be even worse than lies — true-but-misleading. The same media also often presents specious made-up stuff from press releases as fact when reason suggests they know better.

And it’s not just the media. Among the matters previously covered on this blog are, for instance, the way retailers’ sales can distort our perception of value; how heavy, carefully-positioned marketing spend keeps upmarket wines such as Champagne high in our affections; and research suggesting we’re positively influenced by higher prices; a refreshing dose of reality from an unexpected source acknowledging the glut on world markets which suggests that broadly speaking the price of many wines may be artificially high. And here is an occasionally-updated post you may find useful for reference purposes — a list of the most common wine myths you may encounter regarding the likes of organic wine, sulphites and more.

The foregoing plus the following new links set out to illustrate some of our perceptual limitations and how they can be manipulated. And the underlying point of all this? I adore wine and want to help clear away some of the guff that surrounds it so we can drink better, and better value, in 2012. Happy New Year!

Start here

Dr Ben Goldacre is one of the most prominent debunkers of media pseudoscience. On August 7, 2009, in the wake of the swine flu panic, he appeared on BBC Radio 4′s satirical news/comedy programme The Now Show. In less than six minutes – along with the show’s anchors, Laura Shavin, Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis – he delivers a tour de force of what you could call fact-based comedy, filleting the travesty that is much of popular media science reporting.

Click to hear Dr Ben Goldacre's tour de force on a BBC Radio 4 comedy show.

It’s not all fun and games, and you may be angered by some of the evidence he provides of borderline psychotic media irresponsibility. Ultimately, the clip is an excellent piece of public service focusing well-deserved derision on the crap we let the media get away with.

The audio clip here on YouTube doesn’t even mention wine. But go on. It really is the best place to start. Follow that link and rejoin me here when you’re done.

Roll up! Roll up! Getcha magic beans!

Everyone from Sense About Science to the National Consumer Agency keeps reminding us that if something sounds too good to be true, it probably isn’t. True that is. Given that it’s panto season I might add that anyone who’s been to see Jack And The Beanstalk will know magic beans don’t work or, at best, are an expensive rip-off.
Click here to read my post on a palpably ridiculous comedy spoof dead-serious articles in two newspapers about a magic bean machine that will make your wine better. Really. It’s tempting to comment that ‘you couldn’t make this stuff up’. But they do.

Those wines are rubbish. But ours are fab. And good for you.

The belief that there is some kind of class system of wine wholesalers and retailers is, I believe, one of the worst and most persistent wine myths.

Wineupmanship: Pay us more than you have to, and look happy about it.

This is suggested to me by, for instance, wine fans practically apologising for buying wine in a supermarket or corner shop rather than a specialist wine store — even though they’re quite often buying better, or at least the same, as they would in a wine specialist. This impression is based on anecdotal evidence and at a later date I’ll look around for harder evidence of it.

While I percieve this bias being projected by us consumers, I suspect some wine traders may well practice wineupmanship, taking advantage of this misperception about the quality of their wares. For now though here’s an extreme example of wineupmanship you might enjoy.

Media boo!

The Channel 4 wine scandal

As a counterpart to media yay! (nonsense ranging from generic wine-is-good-for-you yarns to the magic bean machine press release above) the feral end of the media business loves media boo! stories too.

Dispatches, the investigative current affairs television strand on Britain’s Channel 4, has a reputation for tackling important issues head-on including, for instance, going undercover at a residential care home to expose abuses. On September 5, 2008, it broadcast a documentary named What’s in your wine? which set out to expose a scandal that we consumers ought to know about.

Click to view Channel 4's Dispatches programme on wine, presented by Jane Moore.

The programme does indeed point towards some issues which should cause us sceptical consumers concern. But it is so thoroughly compromised that it’s worse than useless. I do recommend viewing the programme, and I’d welcome your comments below. At a later date I intend putting up here a timeline answering each point raised by the programme. Some, such as the litter-strewn Champagne vineyard, do cause me concern. But the programme-makers have as many questions to answer as do the winemakers.

For now, let’s look at some of the broad issues that undermine it, starting with the promises made in the Channel 4 press release which should raise eyebrows even before you see a single frame of the documentary.

With wine consumption in the UK hitting record levels, Jane Moore investigates the many different substances — including fish and dairy products — that can be used to produce wine but which rarely appear on the label of the average bottle.

Anyone who has attended the most basic wine course will chuckle at this paragraph. Because they will know that since time immemorial, naturally-occurring compounds derived from sources such as fish (isinglass), egg (albumen) and clay (bentonite) have been used to refine and filter wines. Big deal. But those with enough interest and time on their hands to sign up for Wine 101 amount to a tiny minority of the wine-drinking population. And this TV programme which purports to inform and educate the public is achieving precisely the opposite, scaring people unnecessarily by couching widely-available uncontroversial facts in terms normally reserved for startling revelations.

Let’s try a more calm approach.

One of the great benefits of EU membership has been the introduction of standardised mandatory labelling on food and other packaging. I think the labelling information on wine could be much better: Processes such as chaptalisation (adding sugar) and the use of fining agents should be disclosed. And in particular, I think the presence of that most misunderstood of additives, sulphites / sulfites, should be disclosed by means of a parts-per-million measure rather than just blankly as “contains sulphites” (see the ‘Contains Sulphites’ entry in Wine Myths for more). Isn’t that a reasonable proposition? A wine buyer for the Co-Op retail chain makes similar positive suggestions in the programme. But, embedded as they are in the shriekingly fearful tone of the programme, such reasonable points may be misinterpreted as suggesting there’s some sort of wine conspiracy going on. Let’s go back to that statement from Channel 4.

The health benefits of the occasional glass of red wine are widely acknowledged but Dispatches reveals how a great deal of the wine we consume is enhanced, sweetened or flavoured, creating a drink that one critic describes as no better than, ‘an alcoholic cola’.

“Widely acknowledged” eh? Actually, the health benefits of an occasional glass of wine have never been demonstrated. And nor has the opposite contention. Again I refer you to the Wine Myths post. That sort of assertion is understandable at the water cooler. But this TV programme purports to have expertise in divining the truth about wine and informing us of it, and really should stick to the evidence rather than parading this wilfully ignorant OMGism.

The ‘alcoholic cola’ bit is a quote from veteran wine writer Malcolm Gluck. Which brings me to two aspects of the editing which oversell and undermine the film.
Selective editing. The film includes soundbites from two luminaries — former Guardian wine critic Malcolm Gluck and winemaker Randall Grahm. There are brief clips of both, their tone broadly condemnatory of much modern winemaking practice. But each soundbite is bracketed by voiceover from Jane Moore which seems to be levelling more serious charges. Further, we don’t get to hear the full interviews with either. Indeed, not once are we allowed hear the questions that elicited those quotes — not a major problem in a light entertainment show. But hardly best practice in a groundbreaking current affairs programme.

What did they really say? In full I mean. And what questions and prompts were put to them? Any chance Channel 4 would put the raw video online?

I believe their quotes were deliberately taken out of context, that the broad thrust of their comments was not to suggest that any, or even many, wines contain dangerous nasties, but rather to distinguish between the upmarket wines they might advocate, and more popularly-priced ones. It’s perfectly reasonable for them to profess that the latter are not good quality or that they’d prefer not to drink them. But that’s a world away from the panicky feeling induced by the frantic tone set by the two framing devices — Jane Moore’s commentary, and that wretched soundtrack.

[By the way - Apart from one accessibly-priced mourvèdre, I have never bought wines made by Randall Graham. I've tasted a few down the years and they did indeed rock, but they are way outside my price bracket. To give you an indication, here's a link to the nearest stockist of their wines I could find.]

Manipulative audio. Have you ever trawled YouTube for funny movie mashups? You should. Amateur auteurs take clips of popular movie and television hits, edit them together and post them as faux trailers for strange new imagined hybrid movies. Among the most popular are Sesame Street muddled up with Mean Streets (there’s a lot of swearing and violence in that one so you may want to avoid showing it when children are around) and classic horror The Shining as a romantic comedy. They’re a lot of fun – and they’re also terrific examples of how easy it is to manipulate meaning, and the viewer’s emotions, with a soundtrack.

If it weren’t so grossly misleading the public, the Dispatches wine programme would be almost as funny as those mashups. The film is accompanied throughout by a soundscape which is, frankly, distressing. Such manipulation has no place in any reasonable assessment of the issues involved.

But my ‘favourite’ sequence in the whole show is the startling revelation [cue spooky music; odd camera angles] made by a SCIENTIST [man in white coat; test tubes] about the level of residual sugar in various Champagnes and sparkling wines…

Good God, what a reveal! High fives all round the production office! We nailed Big Wine, eh?

Problem is, it’s not a revelation. The sugar levels in various wines including those bubblies are widely available; none of the ‘tests’ fouund any discrepancies from the stated levels; and not only does the process leading to that sugar’s presence in sparklers have a name (‘dosage’), but if you visit any winery making a champenoise sparkling wine, they will actually show the process to you as they proudly demonstrate the intricate business they have to set about to make this fascinating and often delicious wine style.

This programme has to be the most most cynical confection of weaselly, misleading crap about wine I’ve ever had the displeasure to endure. But there’s a positive message for us — we shouldn’t believe stuff just because it’s on telly, in a newspaper, or on a blog including this one: if they don’t provide clear evidence, what they’re saying is quite likely to be untrue or misleading.

And finally…

I’ll add more links as they crop up. For now though, let’s leave the topic as we began it, with comedy, sort-of. There’s a wave of top-class comics such as Dara Ó Briain who riff on and ridicule pseudoscience to devastating effect. Among the foremost is Tim Minchin, whose appearance at Cork Opera House this year was promoted by Cork Skeptics.

The Australian comic’s appeal to both our reason and to our funnybone is certainly reflected in this song, White Wine In The Sun. But it’s also a moving paen to the Christmas spirit, and an expression of love to those closest to us — and enjoying good wine in their company. I think that’s what wine should be all about. ♦

A carrot for Rudolph, a bottle for Santy

Click to browse 27 of Ireland's craft beers

WHAT are you leaving out for Santy? The kettle plus a teabag is a good option, as is a warming drop of port. But there’s never been a better time to choose a slice of cake and a bottle of good beer for the great man’s brief pit-stop. A growing number of bottle shops are stocking a wide variety of good Irish stouts and ales — and if you look harder you’ll find a handful of excellent, rich, limited edition winter warmers which seem particularly apt for this time of year. I detail two of them below.

I’d add to that list an all-year-round brew, the terrific savoury Porterhouse Oyster Stout (33ml / ABV 5.2% / around €1.90) which I think is perfect for when you want just a single bottle. Stockists include Drinkstore.ie online or in their store in Stoneybatter, Deveney’s of Dundrum, and Celtic Whiskey Shop.  Here’s a mouthwatering glimpse of Irish beers available to buy online at Drinkstore.

A hamper of Eight Degrees beer and glasses at Bradley's

Some stores are putting together ready-made hampers and some, including Deveney’s of Dundrum and my nearest beer-a-rama, Bradley’s on North Main Street in Cork, can deliver them too. Each stocks an enormous range of beers from hereabouts. If you’ve time, why not drop in and put together a mixed case yourself? You could pick one theme to explore – for instance all WISE pale ales. Or stouts. One tip though: include at least two of each. It’s always far more interesting if you’re able to revisit one that took your fancy, or pass on the second bottle to someone you think might appreciate it.
Here are two winter beers I’d recommend (These are revised versions of my beer-of-the-week reviews originally published in the Irish Examiner Weekend).

Eight Degrees Brewing
A Winter’s Ale

7.5% ABV / 330ml / about €2.50
eightdegrees.ie

In this assuredly rich and warming seasonal brew, the  Mitchelstown-based brewers have lifted a rich, earthy ale with orange, cloves and spiky star anise from Green Saffron.

Eight Degrees' A Winter's Ale

Eight Degrees off-licence stockists

Cork Bradleys Off License, North Main Street, Cork
Number 21, Patricks Hill, Cork
Reidys Supervalu, Mitchelstown, Co Cork
Centra, Mitchelstown, Co Cork
Costcutter, Amber Garage, Fermoy, Co Cork
Brookes Supervalu, Youghal, Co Cork
Donegal Dicey Reillys Bar & Off licence, Ballyshannon, Donegal
Dublin OBriens off-licences
Celtic Whisky Shop, 27/28 Dawson Street, D2
Deveneys Dundrum, 31 Main Street, Dundrum, D14
Deveneys Rathmines, 16 Upper Rathmines, D6
D Six Off licence, 163 Harold’s Cross Road, D6
Drinkstore.ie, 87 Manor St, D7
Martins Offlicence, 11 Marino Mart, Fairview, D3
McHughs Offlicence, 57 Kilbarrack Rd, D5
McHughs Offlicence, 25e Malahide Rd, Dublin
Mortons, 15-17 Dunville St, Ranelagh, D6
Next Door, 23-25 Sundrive Road, Kimmage, D12
Next Door, Old Swords Road, Santry , D9
Next Door, 294/298 Harolds Cross Road, D6
Redmonds of Ranelagh, 25 Ranelagh, D6
Galway Cases Wine Warehouse, Tuam Rd
McCambridges of Galway, Shop St
Laois Egans Offlicence, Peppers Court, Portlaoise
Limerick Desmonds Next Door, Raheen, Limerick
Waterford Number Five Off license, 5 Tyrone Rd, Lismore Park, Waterford City
Ardkeen Quality Food Store, Dunmore Road, Waterford
Wicklow Hollands Fine Wines, 78/ 80 Main Street, Bray, Co. Wicklow.

Dungarvan Brewing Company
Coffee and Oatmeal Stout 2011

4.5% ABV / 500ml / €2.99
dungarvanbrewingcompany.com

I’m hardly the only beer fan to gingerly sniff at beers with added extras, as I’ve encountered some pretty OTT numbers dominated, rather than supported by, flavours such as vanilla. But in this one, the natural savoury flavour palette of stout is augmented with a lick of coffee, and its texture boosted by the addition of creamy oats. Both additions are subtle and assured, and the whole effect is a gorgeous, rich middleweight stout.

Dungarvan Coffee and Oatmeal Stout

Dungarvan Brewing Company off-licence stockists

Cork Bradley’s Off Licence
McGovern’s Ballyvolane
Abbott Alehouse
Barry’s Off Licence Midleton
Dublin Redmond’s of Ranelagh
Drinkstore, Stoneybatter
Deveney’s Dundrum
McHugh’s Malahide Road and Kilbarrack
Sweeney’s Glasnevin
Baggot St Wines
Martins of Fairview
Dungarvan Tommy Power’s
Twomey’s Eurospar
Limerick Desmond’s of Limerick
Waterford World Wide Wines
Wicklow Hollands of Bray.  ♦

Christmas tastings + Suck It And See

Cork Skeptics wine event

[Update - Friday, December 16, 2011]

THE event below is now of course in the past tense. It’s rare for any more food and wine events to take place this close to Christmas, but if I hear of any I’ll stick details up here.

I will post links to a heap of original sources and/or opinion related to the issues I mentioned during my winey talk at Cork Skeptics’ December meeting. The idea was to highlight how we keep on putting barriers between us and what our perceptions actually tell us about the wine nestling in the bottom of our glasses.

I had intended to post these links on Wednesday and said so here. Unfortunately, one of life’s little wrinkles diverted my attention, and that was followed by a computer crash. And so I’m posting that material much later than intended. I apologise for the delay.

My column in tomorrow’s Irish Examiner Weekend (quite aptly linking in to the broad theme of skepticism) is looking at wine made using organically-grown grapes. Some of my conclusions may surprise you. And I’ll also be looking at another good bottle of beer to leave out for Santy.

As for the Skeptics event itself, a hearty thank you to everyone who endured my peripatetic conversational style. It’s why I generally stick to writing, and why the links I’ll be posting speak louder and better than I can. ♦

[The following was posted on December 6, 2011]

WE’RE coming up to the last few wine events of the year. As ever I’d suggest you check out my hints and tips for making the most of a wine tasting. The line-up of events includes a rare outing for me on Saturday with something completely different.

█ December 10 – Suck It And See, Blackrock Castle, Cork

PART of an international movement promoting critical thinking, Cork Skeptics live here (corkskeptics.org) and also at the splendid Blackrock Castle Observatory (bco.ie). Each of its meetings turns the focus on topics where sceptical evidence-based thinking has been *cough* absent or challenged — ranging from alternative medicine to moving statues, pyramid schemes, scams, GM Foods and UFOs.

A quick word about language: Skeptic is an alternative spelling of sceptic. More importantly, you may hear the words skeptic and cynic used interchangeably. Big mistake. They’re so different you could say they’re opposites. A cynic has all the answers, whereas a skeptic just keeps asking questions.

Anyway, this week Cork Skeptics kick off the festive season by turning their attention to wine, and have kindly asked me along to help. In a wide-ranging illustrated talk, I’ll be presenting a heap of evidence that our prejudices distort out perception of quality and value, and suggesting how we wine fans can suck it and see and learn to trust our own tastebuds.
The whole thing is meant to be provocative and fun and, reflecting the suck-it-and-see philosophy I try to promote in my column.

I was tempted to get the Cork Skeptics to advertise it as a stand-up comedy gig. I don’t presume that I’m funny – but much of the material certainly is hilarious in that cringey you-couldn’t-make-this-crap-up way.

Along the way I’ll explode some of the popular myths about wine. And while on the subject of memes and factoids, we will take a critical look at the media, with some eye-watering examples of both PR-driven non-stories, and misleading reporting regarding wine (and indeed all alcohol) and health. Even worse than misapprehending the science behind wine, I ask whether some media are deliberately misleading their readers on this topic? Come along, take a look at the examples I’ll be presenting and see what you think. I’ll also highlight an empirical study which I suggest makes nonsense of every wine health story.

It takes place at 8pm on Saturday, December 10. Admission is free, it’s open to anyone over 18, and see corkskeptics.org for more details. And you get your money back if not utterly delighted. ♦

Organic wines

IN this week’s Irish Examiner Weekend I’m looking at wine made with organically-grown grapes.

As I point out in my column, there’s every reason to be sceptical about the more fanciful claims made by some fans on behalf of organic wine. Even the people who make and specialise in selling them don’t claim you’ll live longer by drinking organic wines.  However, I am persuaded that wines made without pesticides and fertilisers may benefit from careful old-school husbandry of the soil and plants. organics and the half-related (and widely misunderstood) issue of sulphur dioxide, the use of which is limited by winemakers adhering to any of the various organic standards. There are signposts to the issues of organics and sulphur dioxide, among others, on this post on  Wine Myths.

Back to the tasting table! I picked today’s highlights solely on the usual criteria – I’m looking for well-made delicious wines at fair prices. Most of the ones I feature this week are imported by Mary Pawle Wines. You can buy direct from marypawlewines.com  who also supply the following stockists.

Clare
Next Door, Kilkee
Next Door, Ennis
The Grainey, Scarriff.

Cork
O’Donovans;
Quay Co-Op;
Harringtons, Ardgroom
Husdons, Ballydehob
Mannings, Ballylickey
Organico, Bantry;
Taste, Castletownbere;
The Olive Branch, Clonakilty;
The Lettercollum Kitchen, Clonakilty
Scallys Supervalu, Clonakilty
Roaring Water, Schull;
Fields, Skibbereen;

Dublin
Lilac Wines, Fairview D3;
Listons, Camden St, D2
Redmonds of Ranelagh
Sweeneys Off Licence

Galway
Cases Wine Warehouse
Connemara Hamper, Clifden
Mortons

Limerick
Nature’s Hand

Kerry
Mannings, Killarney
Milltown Organic Shop
Milltown Market (saturdays)
Waterford
World Wide Wines ♦

Making wine in Ireland

Stonewell Cider

I’M tacking a few paragraphs about Stonewell Cider on to a version of an earlier post for reasons that I hope will become clear. Sadly, Michael O’Callaghan, who is mentioned in the earlier post, has since died. I’ve left my comments about him unedited and in the present tense. May he rest in peace.

[July 2 2011] I’ve recently had the great pleasure of tasting Stonewell Medium Dry Irish Craft Cider 2010, the first release of Nohoval Brewing Company, which is named for its location near Kinsale in south Co Cork. Made with “regionally sourced” Dabinett, Michelin and Cox apples, it’s a crisp and fragrant medium dry cider. It’s a great beginning — although personally I’d prefer a drier style. I got mine among the great collection of British and Irish beers and ciders at Bradley’s Off-Licence on North Main Street in Cork. You can find it there or among the updated list of stockists at the Stonewell Cider website.  It’s featured in today’s Irish Examiner, along with a number of wines distributed by Wine Alliance.

As with wine, it’s interesting to see how a tipple fares alongside its peers, and I’d encourage anyone interested to do so. In this case I enjoyed the Stonewell in a taste-off against a number of others — Bulmers original cider (bottle, not draught), and two vintage ciders sold by M&S from Herefordshire and Somerset.

Although the advent of Stonewell – the first of its type in the republic – is the most welcome news from the drinks industry in years, I believe the rest of this post  still rings true. See what you think, and please share your thoughts. Okay. That’s the end of the update. Here’s the original post…

[January 11, 2010] WE WINE lovers tend to be pretty enthusiastic about the subject. If there’s one recurring motif that sums up our irrepressible optimism, and our affection for the ancient craft of winemaking, it’s got to be the frequently-heard question “so, is it possible to grow grapes and make wine in Ireland?”

The short answer is “yes”. The longer answer is a tortuously qualified yes (well summarised in this interesting and fun debate going on over at The Evening Hérault). But the best answer of all is another question — Why would you bother? Or to put it another way, what would Michael O’Callaghan do?

I first encountered Michael O’Callaghan at London Wine Fair a few years ago when the couple who run the stellar Staete Landt winery in Marlborough, New Zealand, named him as their Irish distributor. He was hand-selling their wines in small quantities to restaurants back then, more-or-less as an interim measure while they sought out a fully-fledged distributor. And, it also turned out, he was developing a vineyard at Longueville House near Mallow, Co Cork. Along with a handful of other pioneers in Cork, Waterford and north Co Dublin, he was defying our Atlantic climate to make wine.  The Vitis vinifera vine generally favour a continental hot-and-cold climate rather than the mousey damp mildness that prevails here. But O’Callaghan et al had determined to grow them here, and so they did.

Fast-forward to the end of the last decade to the really interesting bit, because what Michael O’Callaghan did next should provide inspiration to any green-fingered Irish wine lover — he rooted up all his vines and replaced them with apple trees. Even though he’s clearly not short of teaspaí, and had been been sufficiently inspired to live the fantasy life of Irish winemaker, he threw his hat at it and opted instead for a native species of fruit more suited to our climate.

Apples to eat, apple juice to drink — and there is a steadily growing band of good locally-made apple juices on the shelves of good grocers and at farmers markets. There’s also the prospect of a good cider, which can go beautifully with dishes such as roast pork. And of course the whole apples/juice/cider thing fits in perfectly with the local-and-in-season aspiration which has all but supplanted organics as the foodies’ touchstone.

Displaying his typical indefatigable industry, Michael O’Callaghan now distils, and has recently launched, an apple brandy in the style of Calvados. Better again, it was awarded a bronze medal in its category on its first outing at the International Wine And Spirit Competition. (However, the contact details on the IWSC site are incorrect. Eden Apple Brandy is available directly from Michael O’Callaghan on 00 353 22 27643. There are no plans to distribute it more widely.)

Seedsavers is still building its library of native British and Irish plants - including many vaireties of apples.

You don’t have to go as far as Michael O’Callaghan has, but I point him out as an example to anyone expressing an interest in growing wine in Ireland. If you love the infinite variety of flavours and aromas of wine; if you appreciate how wine puts you in touch with ancient food and drink traditions; if you ‘get’ the whole thing about wine and its heritage and history — plant an apple tree.

Get a few neighbours together to grow a tree each to ensure all are cross-pollinated. Better again, gather like-minded people together to turn a whole neighbourhood or town into a virtual orchard. (Green activists in Bandon, Co Cork, did precisely this during 2009. At the time of writing I haven’t been able to contact any of them for a progress update. When I can, I’ll update this post with details. If you’re involved or know more than I do, please email me).

Talk to your local nursery or garden centre. Or better still, get in touch with Seed Savers (00 353 61 921866. www.irishseedsavers.ie) and get a sapling from their growing library of traditional native Irish and British apples such as the Cavan Newington or Ballinora Pippin.

I’m not alone in getting misty-eyed over a delicious glass of wine. I love the stuff. I also love the accompanying local traditions. Bourgogne. Vacqueyras. Penedès. But think about it. A legion of wine fans is intimate with many, many grape varieties, and with their provenance, their terroir. So why in the name of Auntie Nora aren’t we similarly fluent in, for instance, Irish apples and their terroirs?

Check out The Apple Farm website here.

As I write, I’m crunching the second of two apples grown by Con Traas in Co Tipperary. They’re Elstars, delicately sweet and crunchy with a pleasant touch of earthiness. But I have to admit I’m relatively ignorant of the apple varieties native to these shores. I think the disparity of our knowledge of and attitudes toward grapes and apples begs many questions of our attitude to food and drink. And so fundamental are food and drink to who we are that I wonder if it says something about us. ♦

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STOP THE PRESS!*

Since posting this I see one of the main players mentioned in it is taking part in a very interesting event in Cork this Thursday. Here are the details.

GROW YOUR OWN FRUIT
Con Traas (The Apple Farm, Cahir, 2009 Eurotoque Food Award Winner) &
John Howard (Sunnyside Fruit Farm, Rathcormac)
present an evening of inspiration advice and guidance on how to grow strawberries,  apples, plums blackcurrents, raspberries etc.

Crawford Gallery Café, Emmet Place on Thursday January 28 at 7.30pm.

€6 including tea & coffee.

* old media meme. Ask your grandparents.

#rtefl

Suck it and see…

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Wine-tasting, horror movies, Madrid, advertising, lollipops and Salvador Dalí…

THE big noise on the Irish wine web seems to be all about the fab four Australian tasting opportunities in September – the Tim Adams Clare Valley event touring to Cork, Ennis and Galway, and Phil Sexton’s Yarra Valley evening in Dublin. I’d recommend them, and the details are here.

An equestrian statue makes eye contact with a sherry advert in Madrid

But if I were to choose just one wine event in September 2010, it would have to be the other tasting headliner next month, Wines from Spain – The New Way on September 9, 2010. Hosted by the Spanish Embassy’s commercial office, it’s going to be the biggest Spanish wine event ever in Ireland.

More than 200 wines will be available to sample, represented here and at the tasting session by 20 of Ireland’s most prominent importers including Approach Trade, Barry & Fitzwilliam, Febvre, Findlater, Gilbeys, Mackenway, Searsons and organic wine specialist, Mary Pawle.

Tutored tastings such as the Aussie ones are very useful as a spotlight. But big open-ended tastings like the Spanish event provide the floodlight. An open tasting is the best opportunity you will ever have to delve into grapes and styles and regions.  Trying a wine on its own will tell you much about that wine. But trying it side-by-side with its peers is far more informative and interesting, and can often provide a revelation about relative quality and value for money. To quote yet again that old advert for lozenges,  the message is to suck it and see.

It takes place on Thursday September 9, 2010, at the Shelbourne Hotel, Dublin 2, from 6.30pm – 8.30pm.  Book tickets (€20) from Sarah Currey on 01 240 5387 or scurrey@harmonia.ie and see the Wines From Spain Ireland  blog for more.

Here comes the bit about horror movies, Madrid, lollipops and Salvador Dalí

Edificio Carrión in Madrid

♦ THE picture at the top of the page is King Charles III’s horse eyeing up the advert for Tio Pepe sherry in Puerto del Sol in the heart of Madrid. There’s a bloglet about the history of the famous sign here.

I snapped it one day a few years ago, inspired by a new-found enthusiasm for giant outdoor advertising in Madrid… Well one advert in particular, the animated neon Schweppes sign in the nearby Plaza del Callao, left.

Unfortunately I can’t find that pic right now. The pic I’ve used here comes from Blog de Adolfo‘s post about Edificio Carrión.

I know little about horror films but greatly enjoyed a movie I stumbled upon some years ago, El día de la Bestia (The day of the beast) a fine horror / satire / comedy by Alex de la Iglesia. And that’s the source of my interest in the Schweppes sign.

It’s the location for a key chase scene which also features a hilarious literal gag. I’d recommend a look, and hope the trailer on YouTube here will whet your appetite.

That movie shares its affection for the geography of Madrid with another excellent film, Pedro Almodóvar’s Carne Trémula (Live Flesh). It’s a treat, not least for its metaphorical use of locations, many of which it shares with the Iglesias film, especially the twin leaning towers of the Puerta de Europa.

 

Dalí's original design

 

Now where was I? Oh right. Suck it and see. Which reminds me of a snippit of info about another bit Spanish commercial design.

You know that familiar logo for the Chupa-Chups brand of lollipop? Well it’s is an updated version of a design originally created in 1969 by none other than Salvador Dalí.

See here, here and here. Cool or what? ♦

Mixing grape and grain in Cork

THERE are so many tasting events coming up that it makes sense to group together a few by location, in this case my own stomping ground, Cork. They’re below the picture.  This week’s other post is about the fab Superquinn French wine sale.  There are also news/listings items on this blog about the season’s most promising open wine tasting, Wines From Spain and further nationwide wine tastings. Enjoy!

MontGras dinner at the Boardwalk

MontGras wines

AT the MontGras Wine Dinner at the Boardwalk in Cork on September 14, Andrea Ilabaca will present wines from Montgras to accompany a five-course dinner. I bet her selection will include three of my favourites from MontGras, as the line-up will be a selection from the winery’s reserva range as well as their organic Soleus wines — that’s one of them there lurking at the back of the picture with the watering can on the label. The evening begins at 7pm with a cocktail reception, followed by dinner at 8pm. Places are limited so get booking.

MontGras Wine Dinner, Tuesday September 14 at The Boardwalk Bar & Grill, Lapp’s Quay, Cork. Book tickets (€55) on 021-4279990 and also see www.theboardwalkbarandgrill.com.

Winemaker lunch at Ballymaloe

Silvia Allegrini of Allegrini Wines will present a lunch at Ballymaloe House, Shanagarry, Co Cork, at noon on Tuesday September 28. A wine tasting and presentation at noon will followed by lunch which will be paired with wines made by the Allegrini family in the Veneto region of Italy. Get more details and tickets, €40, from Ballymaloe on (0)21 4652531 or on www.ballymaloe.ie. The Allegrini range is imported by Liberty Wines.

Clare Valley wine with Tim Adams

Tim Adams is presenting an evening of wine and stories  from the Clare Valley in Cork next Tuesday, September 7. Quite brilliantly, umbrella representative body Wine Australia has decided to get a champion winemaker to come and talk about (and pour) not only his/her own wines, but also those made by the neighbours.

In this instance, the attraction for wine lovers lies in both the visiting winemaker (the world famous Tim Adams) and the region: Clare has earned itself an extraordinary place in the esteem of the wine world. For such a tiny community of a few thousand souls, the valley produces a heap of highly-regarded  names including Pikes, Wakefield, Leasingham, O’Leary Walker, Grosset and of course Tim Adams‘ own wines.

It’s a long way from Clare to here: an exploration of the Clare Valley wines with Tim Adams on Tuesday September 7 at Castle Trattoria, Blackrock Castle, Cork from 6.45pm to 8.30pm, €20. Book on 065 707 7264 or ireland@wineaustralia.com.

Note that Tim is bringing the same event  to Ennis on Wednesday 8 September at the Glór centre, and to Galway on Thursday September 9 at Café 8 in Galway City Museum. Same kick-off time, price and booking details apply as to the Cork gig.

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Beer tasting in Abbot Ale House

♦  THE Slow Food Cork City convivium is due all sort of kudos for their lively programme. Among their recent events was a Mystery Dining tour in July: They brought participants to a number of undisclosed locations around the city where they proceeded to ply them with tasty treats to within an inch of their lives. Apparently Prosecco in the Interior Living shop on MacCurtain Street was followed by a course each in Star Anise, Jacques and Club Brasserie. Yum.

You can read a report of that trip on the group’s blog here, where you will also find details of their next event, a beer tasting next Thursday presented by specialist beer importer Barry Fitzgerald. The focus will be on Trappist beers and some Irish beers, accompanied by finger food to match. It all takes place in one of the city’s best-kept secrets, the bar upsatairs at The Abbot Ale House which boasts dozens of interesting styles of bottled beers (plus a handful on tap) all set in a den of cosy sofas surrounded by gorgeous brewery adverts and beermats from all over the world.

By the way, you may be concerned that I’m mixing beer and wine on this blog, and believe that grape and grain should never be consumed together. Well, I’m convinced the reputed ill-effects of so doing belong firmly in the realm of wine myths.

Slow Food Cork City beer tasting, The Abbott Ale House, Devonshire Street North (off Coburg Street) on Thursday, September 9 at 6.30pm. €25 or €20 for members. Email corkcity@slowfoodireland.com to book your place. ♦

♦

Dunnes Stores Girls

IN this morning’s Irish Examiner I’m looking at the Wine Festival at Dunnes Stores which continues until September 28. There are reductions on some 150 wines including some classy numbers from the likes Antinori, Marqués de Cáceres, Errazuriz, Wolf Blass, Montes Alpha and Villa Maria. Here are some highlights from my shopping list.

Marqués de Cáceres Blanco (€9.99 €8).
A cracking crisp fresh value white.

Wolf Blass Yellow Label Chardonnay (€11.69 €9).
Citrussy acidity overlaid with warmer, richer tropical flavours.

Villa Maria Private Bin Sauvignon Blanc (€12.85 €8).
Aromatic and zingy sauvignon blanc, this is terrific value at this price.

Montes Alpha Chardonnay (€19.99 €12).
An enormous buttery chardonnay – and its companion cabernet sauvignon is similarly reduced.

Vina Maipo Gran Devocion Sauvignon Blanc (€14.49 €10)
As intense, crunchy and tart as a fresh Granny Smith apple, a mouthwatering sauvignon blanc that beckons seafood.

Antinori Santa Cristina Toscana IGT (€10.35 €8).
The word ‘bitter’ is often taken to be a pejorative term, unfortunately, which is why I use it sparingly in my column: It sounds like a turn-off. But this lovely, tart, sangiovese merlot blend is a fine example of mouth-wateringly attractive bitter dark cherry flavours.

Artiga Old Vine Grenache (€12.99 €6.49)
The Grenache grape gets a good-value outing in this bright aromatic red.

Tautavel Cotes de Roussillon Villages Reserve (€13.99 €6.99)
handsome spicy creamy red.

Errazuriz Estate Merlot (€9.99 €8)
easy-drinking but delightfully ripe and expressive merlot.

Siobhan O’Driscoll and Ann O’Leary in part 2 of the programme on the TG4 player.

WHILE you’re at it, The Dunnes Stores Girls is a 20-minute film which you can view in two parts on TG4. It’s about Dunnes’ first store, which opened at 105, St Patrick’s Street in Cork in 1944. The programme takes its name from singer songwriter John Spillane’s hit single, and features a rendition of it as a bonus.

It’s a warm, soft-focus piece, mainly chatty reminiscences of women who worked there. But among their stories of work and fun and camaraderie are some stirring memories about events of the 1980s.

On Thursday July 19 of that year, Mary Manning, a cashier at Dunnes in Henry Street, Dublin, told a customer that she wouldn’t check through some Outspan grapefruit. It was part of a new boycott of South African goods in support of the ANC’s battle for human and democratic rights under the Apartheid regime in that country.

You may have believed that the strike was mainly confined to the Henry Street Store, that it was joined by just one other worker, in a branch of Dunnes in Crumlin.

Not so it seems.

In part two of the short film, Siobhan O’Driscoll and Ann O’Leary (pictured above) recall organising pickets of branches around Cork including Mallow, Ballyvolane and St Patrick’s Street. A colleague, Dorothy Humphreys, recalls a line of women blockading trucks that were attempting to make deliveries.

It’s a fascinating and all but untold story that deserves to be told in greater depth. If you want to follow it up, the dispute was covered in an episode of the Scannal series – Boycott! The Story Of The Dunnes Stores South Africa Strike. Follow the link to details about that film on the TCD Irish Film database.

Also, here’s an interview with Brendan Archbold on the RTE website. A union organiser during the strike, he went on to join the EU team overseeing South Africa’s first democratic elections in 1994. His first meeting with Nelson Mandela – in 1985 when he was still branded a “terrorist” – contrasts with a later visit to meet the then ex-president in 2008.

And finally, there’s a broader account of the anti-Apartheid movement and the part the Dunnes workers played in it in this History Ireland article.

Dunnes workers march with the Irish Anti-Apartheid movement.

Eat Cork. Drink Canada Dry.

On Sunday night, September 26, Ross Lewis (Chapter One) and Pat Kiely (Les Gourmandises) present One Night Only - a banquet in Cork School of Music.

THE inaugural Eat Cork food festival is on from Thursday to Sunday, September 23 to 26, 2010.  It is founded by food writer Dianne Curtin, and food events manager Rose-Anne Kidney of Goldiefish Events.

Thursday sees the whole thing kick off with the judging of the second Grow Bake Cook awards in The Farmgate Café.

Friday and Saturday feature EATcork Nights Out, a pub and restaurant trail supported by Murphy’s [when you're planning what you're up to, don’t forget that Friday is of course also Culture Night].

Saturday includes the Foodies On Foot walking tour through the streets of Cork’s food culture past and present led by one of my heroes, food historian Regina Sexton.

Sunday is the big day, with The English Market open for a pretty impressive list of Free Food Workshops and demonstrations, while the Grand Parade will be abuzz with Cork’s first dedicated Street Food Market, with the focus firmly on locally-produced grub, and plates priced at €3 and €5.

EATcork details

As any festival-goer will tell you, the only way to finish is with a gala. The exclamation mark at the end of Eat Cork is Sunday night’s For One Night Only in Cork School of Music when Ross Lewis of Chapter One restaurant joins forces with Pat Kiely and Soizic Kiely of Les Gourmandises to present a one-off banquet. (I was delighted by the way to see their choice of venue – the beautiful award-winning building is a testament to Gerry Kelly and fellow campaigners without whose work it would never have been built). Get a summary of Eat Cork on Goldiefish or see complete details on the event’s Facebook page.

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While I have your attention (you are still there, right?) I think that, apart at all from the other festival elements, Grow Bake Cook is a significant date on the calendar in its own right. Supported by the Community and Enterprise department in Cork City Council, the aim is to seek out, reward and encourage potential new commercial food producers from among amateur enthusiasts.

It’s an excellent initiative, blending the best parts of traditional country fair competitions with the roots-up food enterprise culture celebrated variously by Dianne Curtin in her book The Creators, and by John and Sally McKenna in their Bridgestone Irish Food Guide.

The breadth of the award’s scope is, I think, hinted at in the examples of entrants cited by Dianne on her website:

…these included Alan Tennyson,  a special needs social worker who makes a variety of breads in his spare time, and sells them via a stall at Bandon Farmer’s Market, Carol Aherne,  a student on UCC’s Speciality Food Production course, who makes  yogurt products from the milk of her husband’s dairy herd, and Sherkin island resident Chris Dobbin, creator of speciality beers and wines from locally grown vegetables and wild fruits gathered from the island’s lanes and hedgerows….

I do like the concise name, Eat Cork. It condenses the activity and its whereabouts into just eight characters – or seven in their logo where it’s rendered EATcork.

The name reminds me of an apocryphal story about Brendan Behan. Arriving in Canada, the frequently congested writer was asked what he planned to do while there and replied, “well, I saw an advertisement in Dublin saying ‘Drink Canada Dry’ so I said I’d come over and give it a shot.”

Don’t forget, as I’ve already posted, On The Pig’s Back is organising a French Food & Wine Festival centered mainly in Douglas. ♦

It’s all in the best possible taste

If you are involved in importing or retailing wines and have a tasting or dinner coming up anywhere in Ireland, please send brief details to blake[dot]creedon[at]examiner[dot]ie as soon as possible. Ta!

 

 

Wine fairs and tastings

♦ Thursday October 28 —  Tuscan treats at Blackrock Castle Wine Club

Bubble Brothers is celebrating its appointment as agents for Avignonesi estate wines with a Blackrock Castle Wine Club session presented by Alessio Guidi. It all takes place at Blackrock Castle Bar & Trattoria, beginning at 7.30 pm. You can also avail of the special €20 deal to ‘dine before you wine’ at the trattoria from 6pm to 7pm.

These events do fill up fast so book now on 01 4316000 or www.bubblebrothers.com.  Non-members can join for one night for €25.

♦ Thursday November 4 — On The Grapevine Wine Fair, Dalkey

Another hundred wines (phew!) will be open for tasting between from 6pm and 9pm at Fitzpatrick’s Castle Hotel for On The Grapevine’s wine fair.  Tickets are €10.  The shop will be offering discounts of up to 25% on some wines  on the night. Drop in to the shop on St Patrick’s Road, phone 01 235 3054, or see www.onthegrapevine.ie for details.

Two dinners with wines from Bodegas Valdemar

Bodegas Valdemar wines are on show in Galway and Straffan

 

♦ Wednesday November 10 —  Bodegas Valdemar dinner at The g.

There’s luxury on a remarkably tight budget on offer at the g Hotel when Cristina Alvarez Flores presents a five-course gourmet wine dinner with wines from Bodegas Valdemar on November 10.

Wines from that most upmarket of posh Rioja houses will be teamed with executive chef Stefan Matz’s menu drawn from “exquisite organic Connemara smokehouse smoked salmon, fresh fish caught in Galway Bay and quality cuts of meat from McGeough’s butchers in Oughterard.”  Couldn’t put it better myself.  I don’t know the details of the menu but am drooling at the thought of McGeough’s succulent air-dried lamb which I think is particularly well suited to a well-made Rioja.

Tickets are a very reasonable €69 per person including a welcome reception and a five course meal with wine. To book, phone 091 865200 or see www.theghotel.ie.

♦ Friday November 12 —  Bodegas Valdemar dinner and B&B at Barberstown Castle.

Barberstown Castle’s website is a little less forthcoming on the details but broadly you can expect something similar to the above, relocated to Straffan, Co Kildare. They are offering a combined dinner and B&B package for €149 per person sharing. And while you can’t book dinner alone online, give them a bell and it’s yours for €75.

While you’re at it, take a look at some of Bodegas Valdemar’s Irish retailers  including James Nicholson and SimplyWines and of course the winery itself.

Valdemar's Alto Cantabri vineyard

♦ November 14 — Corkscrew Winter Wine Fair

This is the annual winter wine fair of one of the best remaining independent wine shops in Dublin city centre, The Corkscrew on Chatham Street. A hundred-plus wines will be open for tasting from 1pm to 6pm at the Westbury Hotel just around the corner. Tickets are €25, and proceeds go to Cheeverstown House, Templeogue, which offers education and support to children with intellectual and other disabilities from pre-school age up. Drop into the shop, phone 01 674 5731 or see www.thecorkscrew.ie for details.

♦ November 18 — Christmas Wine Fair – Cases Wine Warehouse, Galway

Fifteen importers will be pouring 120 wines and beers from around the world for your delectation. 6.30pm to 10pm in the store on the Tuam Road — which Tomás Clancy named his Sunday Business Post Wine Warehouse of The Year, no less. Tickets are €20 and all the proceeds go to Console, the charity which offers counselling and support to families who have lost a loved one to suicide. 091 764 701  www.cases.ie.

♦ November 18 — The 10th Cork Wine Fair

Hosted by O’Donovan’s, this annual event is a massive affair. This year’s takes place from 4pm to 9pm at the Clarion Hotel, Lapp’s Quay, Cork.  Some 400 wines from O’Donovans’ impressive list will be available to sample, along with beers and tasty food samples. Plus, for the really dedicated wine fan, there will be a handful of focused masterclasses conducted by Jean Smullen and John McDonnell.  Tickets are €10 and available from any of the 15 O’Donovans branches in Cork City and County. All proceeds go to the Cork Simon Community.

♦ November 24 — Gibney’s Wine Fair,  the Grand Hotel, Malahide

The people at Gibney’s of Malahide know what they’re talking about: This year they won the NOffLA Off-Licence of the Year Award for their third time, and their annual fair is one of the most highly anticipated wine events in the calendar.  Get tickets (€15) and further details in store, on 01 8450606, or via cheers@gibneys.com. All proceeds from ticket sales go to local schools.

♦ Late November / early December — Blake’s Favourite Fifty Australians

MY column and blog can never provide what they’re intended to inspire — the pleasure of enjoying  good company and a decent glass of wine. Well, here’s a rare opportunity for me to thrust a glass into your hand, saying ‘here, try this’.

Wine Australia, which represents much of the industry, has given me free rein to put together a list of wines from down under.  All 50 or so will be open to sample in a Cork city centre location (to be confirmed) for one evening only. Tickets will be €20 and booking opens in mid-November.

I’ve long been convinced by the depth and breadth of quality wines made in Australia. But the process of whittling down the prospective wines (it was at 90 or so just a few weeks ago) has come as an eye-opener even to me: Trust me, there are all sorts of treats on the final list. Scrap that. Don’t trust me – come along and suck it and see. It promises to be a fun evening.

I’ll be updating the details here as soon as it’s all confirmed.

♦ November 26 to 28 — Taste of Christmas, the Convention Centre, North Wall Quay, Dublin

This is a bit different to the other fairs. Sponsored by Marks & Spencer, it’s being run by the people behind the Taste Of Dublin and Taste Of Cork festivals.

The Convention Centre is the venue for Taste Of Christmas

The centrepiece is a 50-minute live show in the 2000-seater auditorium.  Presenter Hector Ó hEochagáin will be mixing it up with chefs Kevin Dundon and Gino D’Acampo and guests (including Heston Blumenthal) who will be demonstrating inspiration for cooking and entertaining.

There are also open-ended tastings organised along the lines of the Taste festivals where customers buy ‘florins’ to exchange for food and drinks. Tickets start at €19.50.  The whole thing is quite a bit more structured than regular wine fairs, so do phone 0818 30 00 30 or look up  www.tasteofchristmas.ie for details. ♦

 

 

 

++++++++++++++++   I’ve moved a handful of previous events down here just for the record an ting   ++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

♦ October bank holiday weekend — Pick your own Hallowe’en applesCELEBRATE Hallowe’en (and reconnect your concept of food to the field it came from) by taking yourself and the children to pick your own apples at Con Traas’ farm between Cahir and Clonmel over the bank holiday weekend — 10am to 5pm on October  23 and 24. These are the youngest, smallest trees on the farm, so the fruit are  easy to reach. You only pay for what you pick.  Phone 052 7441459 and see  www.theapplefarm.com for details.

If you’re still not convinced, or if you’re wondering why yer man is holding forth about apples  on a wine blog, please take a look at this post from earlier this year.

 

 

♦ TOMORROW, Wednesday October 20 , Cases Wine Warehouse, Tuam Road, Galway, is hosting a  food and wine night at Cava Restaurant, on Dominick Street, Galway. The focus is on the food and wine of Mallorca, with a five-course tasting menu of Mallorcan tapas, created by JP McMahon of Cava, accompanied by wines from the Anima Negra winery, presented by winemaker Miguel Angel Cerda.One of the many details that tickled my interest in this event is the dessert course. You can choose between a PX (that uniquely Spanish unctuous dessert wine made with the Pedro Ximénez grape) and a special edition Tyrconnell whiskey conditioned in Anima Negra wine casks. Cool or what?Dinner starts at 7pm. Get details and tickets  (€37.50) from Cases Wine Warehouse, Riverside Commercial Estate, Galway, 091 764701 or on www.cases.ie. 

 

 

♦ Tuesday October 19 — Blindfold tasting dinner, Augustine’s restaurant, Cork
Cork City Slow Food convivium is hosting a blindfold tasting dinner tonight from 6.45pm at Augustine’s restaurant in the Clarion Hotel on Lapps Quay. The idea is that by temporarily removing the cues we get from one sense, sight, we intensify our focus on the others — touch, taste, smell, and even hearing. After each course, chef proprietor Brendan Cashman and sommelier Frank Schiltkamp will discuss the dish with the participants.

Normally costing €25, this special edition of Augustine’s tasting menu costs €40, or €35 for Slow Food members, and it is accompanied by a glass of wine. To book, email Elke on elkepacey@hotmail.com and see www.augustines.ie.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Great value wines at Aldi and Dunnes

THIS is rather a long post, but the meat and two veg — suggested Christmas shopping lists for Aldi and Dunnes — are quite brief. So please scroll down to the recommendations picked out in blue if that’s all you’re interested in. If you have time you might like to take a sconce at the other bits which develop a few points arising and answer a few questions you may have.

IN today’s Irish Examiner (Saturday December 11) I’m looking at some of the best value wines in Dunnes Stores’ current wine promotion which runs until January 4. As well as listing my recommendations from Dunnes, I’ve also added in the highlights of a recent tasting of Aldi’s best, below.

Dunnes Stores, St Patrick Street, Cork.

But first a bit of a fógra oifigiúil.  Today’s column included a promise  to mention some further recommended wines reduced in price in Dunnes but unfortunately it turns out I’m unable to do that.

The list Dunnes sent me enumerates a number of bottles on promotion as being “Laurent Miquel”, reduced from €8.99 to €6.99 each. But the two Laurent Miquel ranges I tried at Dunnes’  most recent tasting (Pere et Fils and Nord Sud) were listed as having an “offer price” of €8 and €8.99. I don’t know if that refers to the then current price or the reduced price. So I don’t know which ones are on special offer now, whether they’re the ones I’d rate highly, nor whether I’ve tasted them at all.

Apologies for not being able to follow through with further wines as promised but clearly it’s better to omit  them entirely rather than inadvertently mislead you. I hope the suggested shopping list in today’s column provides enough inspiration for now.

Here are the Dunnes exclusives I’d particularly recommend.

Vina Maipo Gran Devocion Sauvignon Blanc 2009 DO Casablanca (€14.49 €10)

Chateau Longbosq Médoc 2006 (€12.49 €9.49)

Grande Reserve de Beau Rivage 2007 (€13.99 €6.99)

Chateau Bois Pertuis 2008 (€14.99 €8.99)

Clos Malverne Pinotage Reserve 2008 (€13.33 €9.99)

While I admire much of Dunnes’ exclusive portfolio, and find great value in some of their ‘sale’ items,  I’ve got to agree with this British commentator:

“One of my pet hates is seeing a wine ‘reduced’ from £7.99 to £3.99. How can consumers judge its real value?”

Some of the big supermarkets — especially Tesco and Dunnes — run a seemingly perpetual cycle of ‘sales’ that aren’t really sales, but a three-card-trick of raising prices and then dropping them (to the prices they intended to charge all along) solely to keep us consumers agitated.  They work only for the most canny and energetic shopper who has time and focus to build a shopping list of their target wines and carry out raids when the so-called sale begins. And yes by the way, these sales are lawful once they abide by certain ground rules.

So who is responsible for the quote above — A campaigning blogger or newspaper columnist? Or a consumers advocate agency?

In fact it was Aldi’s chief wine buyer, Danny Gibson. While I’m no spokesman for Aldi, and treat their wines with the same scepticism as I do every other retailer, he is correct in saying that what you see is what you get at Aldi. Generally there is no farting around with “sales”. So the numbers cited below are the stable, long-term prices for the wines in question.

Aldi has proved adept at sourcing quality wines and selling them cheaply, and there was further evidence of that at a tasting I attended in Dublin recently. Here’s my Aldi Christmas hit-list.

Aldi's great value NZ SB

Freeman’s Bay New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc 2010 (€8.49)

Contrasting wonderfully with the Sancerre below, this is New Zealand sauv blanc writ large: flamboyantly pungent, followed through on the palate with mouth-watering flavours tinged with crunchy green apple.

Cave de Monterail Châteauneuf-Du-Pape 2008 (€12.99).

Despite its grand reputation, the Châteauneuf-Du-Pape appellation often disappoints. This rich savoury red bottle, however, offers an affordable glimpse of the best side of that excellent tradition.

Râmon Lopez Murillo Rioja Reserva 2005 (€7.99).

Despite the price, this is a proper ‘grown-up’ medium-bodied dry tempranillo. An old favourite of mine at Aldi, it evolves beautifully into a glassful of red fruit cut across with spice and deliciously sweet topnotes.

Bushland Reserve Shiraz, South Eastern Australia, 2008 (€5.99)

Winemaker Michael Hope’s typically generous and creamy red is one of the best value wines on the Irish market. The welcoming scents of baked sweet red fruit follow through on the palate in a spicy, creamy texture.

Bushland Grape Selection Semillon Chardonnay, South Eastern Australia, 2008 (€6.99).

You wouldn’t normally expect to see these two grapes together, as they share a tendency to plumpness. But this is a beautifully blanced white, its full texture contrasted by fresh lemony acidity.

Selection les Terres Blanches Sancerre 2009 (€10.99)

This matches up pretty well to its often costly brethren from the Sancerre appellation. More importantly, it’s an excellent firm and savoury old world sauvignon blanc that could grace any high table at a great price.

♦

WHILE no retailer will get it right (or wrong) all the time, Aldi has certainly trumped Dunnes with regard to one appellation. Dunnes’  Chateauneuf-du-Pape (reduced from €25 to €20 ) is blown out of the water by Aldi’s €12.99 model.

I don’t think this particular instance is anything for staff or fans of one store or another to get het up about. If anything, it underlies the challenge wine buyers face, attempting to sate our lust for famous names including the likes of Champagne and Chateauneuf-du-Pape, at a discount price. In general, I’d suggest it’s time for us consumers — and in turn retailers — to get over the hypnotic spell that posh names like those two seem to cast over us.  Even when of good quality and heavily discounted — as done by both Dunnes and Aldi — they are generally too dear.

I love good Champagne and Chateauneuf-du-Pape. But in general, barring rare exceptions such as Aldi’s CdeP above, I have no intention of buying anything from either appellation, and find no reason to recommend any of them.  Both appellations routinely underdeliver on any sane price-quality quotient. To put it another way, both attract esteem far in excess of what they deliver.

I believe both appellations have been, in part, sustained by the purple economy.  This is the the market where people funded by lavish (and sometimes unvouched) expense accounts choose to enjoy hospitality they would never countenance if paying out of their own household budgets.

In the past I have occasionally recommended Champagnes only because I got feedback along the lines of ‘yes, we get that value-for-money thing but this is a special occasion so what do you think is the best value Champagne?’ I also recently tipped Dunnes’ CdeP in my column, but with the important caveat that I thought it was too dear. I did this in the mistaken hope / belief that it was due to be reduced from its lofty €20 price tag, which in fact turned out to be the destination price.

Yes, buying quality Champagne and CdeP makes perfect sense for people who belong to the shrinking minority of people who can afford the likes of it. Bless them, and may they enjoy it in good company. I raise my glass with a hearty ‘sláinte beo’ to anyone enjoying their wine, whether it costs an €8 or €80.

However I am not going to be gulled into contributing in any way to the myth promoted by the wine business and wine fans alike that there is something inherently better or special about over inflated appellations.

This isn’t the ranting of a recessionista. I’ve been broadly consistent in this view right through the co-called boom. We should by know have a rough idea of what happens when we spend money we don’t have on things we don’t need. As with houses so with wines, still or sparkling: think “property bubble”.  ♦

The only post about Lebanese wine you’ll ever read which is not headlined “Grapes Of Wrath”

FROM Bordeaux through various rutas de vino to new world destinations in New Zealand and South Africa, many corners of the world have become places of pilgrimage for wine fans: vineyards can generally muster pretty locations, a sunny  climate and of course good food and wine.

But if there’s one wine land that should have special appeal to wine bloggers and columnists, it has to be Lebanon. I haven’t been yet, but feel doubly indebted to the home of the ancient Phoenicians who gave us both the alphabet and viniculture.

While some European wineries proudly point to their thousand-year-old Roman (and indeed Greek) origins, those two great cultures had in turn learned the practical secrets of vine-growing and winemaking from the even more ancient civilisation of Phoenicia on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean.

Click to go to BBC iPlayer website

This prehistory of the wine in your glass is highlighted by a thought-provoking radio programme about the wineries of Lebanon. In Vines on the Front Line (click that link to listen up until the morning of Wednesday January 19) the BBC’s Middle East Editor, Jeremy Bowen,  introduces us to some of the key winemakers who have endured the appalling conflict that has all but torn that country apart in recent decades. He visits Chateau Ksara, an ancient vineyard which was revitalised by the Jesuits who owned the property in the 1850s; and introduces brothers Sami and Ramzy Ghosn who founded Massaya in the mid-’90s.

Although a newcomer, the latter winery’s location in the Bekaa Valley – between the Roman temple to Bacchus and the ancient city of Byblos – is an embodiment of words and wine and history.  And as if that weren’t enough metaphor for one place, Massaya is on the road to Damascus. Literally.

Generations of the Ghosn family had been farming grapes for the table and citrus fruit near Tanäil until, in the 1970s, war saw them unceremoniously booted out of their property. Brought up in France and the US, Sami still had unfinished business down on the family farm.

“I always felt we would do something with that land again one day,” Sami told me when I met him a few years ago.  “So in the early ‘90s I went back there to reclaim our land. Of course, people thought I was crazy. Our house was occupied, the Syrians were still there [as they were until recently] and then Bush goes and starts the first Iraq war. I bought a Range Rover and a Kalashnikov…”

The way he tells it, thus began an uneasy stand-off. He says he was greeted by the occupants of his home with hot tea and an edgy sort of hospitality.  Seven months later, he says, the occupants left peacefully.

The radio documentary brings the uneasy relationships between neighbours up to date – both within Lebanon and across its borders with Syria and Israel.

Back in the Bekaa, the Ghosns  began making arak and later bottling wine. But it’s with their later partnership with Domaine du Vieux Télégraph in Châteauneuf du Pape and Château Trianon in Bordeaux that their winery truly flourished. Just 1km inland, the Bekaa valley hangs about 1,000m above sea level between two snow-capped heights.  “Yes it’s hot,” says Sami, “but the altitude compensates for the latitude.” And after the short wet winter, some 300 days of warm sunshine are moderated both by the sea and by the cool night-time winds that whip in over the land from the Syrian desert to the East.

The French helped the brothers put land and winery to work — insisting on stringent monitoring in the growing and modern clean techniques in the winemaking.

The result at Massaya is a range of top-class wines. Ironically, despite predating western Europe’s wine history  by millennia, the Lebanese have an open ‘new world’ approach to wines, for instance creating blends of Bordeaux and Rhone grapes that one wouldn’t normally see together — certainly not in their homeland. Quality is admirably consistent across the Massaya range. Here are two of them.

Massaya Clasic Red Bekaa Valley 2008 (€15.25).
As poised as it is powerful, this is a ripe and spicy blend of cinsault, cabernet sauvignon and syrah.

Massaya Silver Selecton red 2005 Bekaa Valley (€19.50).
This isn’t cheap. But it’s well worth considering for a special occasion. A blend of cinsault, grenache, and mourvèdre, it’s a bright but extraordinarily concentrated  red.

♦ Massaya wines (www.massaya.com) are imported by James Nicholson Wines (www.jnwine.com) and you will also find bottles from the range at Lonergans of Clonmel or Kevin Parsons’ Wine Warehouse in Carrigaline. Restaurants stocking Massaya include Lily Mai’s in Golden, Co Tipperary and Star Anise in Cork.

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BBC iPlayer

♦ One last thing.  Look a little closer at the volume slider on the BBC iPlayer (left). Like Nigel Tufnel’s customised amp in This Is Spinal Tap, it goes up to 11. Just because.  ♦

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Generations of the Ghosn family had been farming grapes for the table and citrus fruit near Tanäil until, in the 1970s, war saw them unceremoniously booted out of their property. Brought up in France and the US, Sami still had unfinished business down on the family farm:

“I always felt we would do something with that land again one day,” Sami told me when I met him a few years ago.  “So in the early ‘90s I went back there to reclaim our land. Of course, people thought I was crazy. Our house was occupied, the Syrians were still there [as they were until recently] and then Bush goes and starts the first Iraq war. I bought a Range Rover and a Kalashnikov…”

The way he tells it, thus began an uneasy stand-off. He says he was greeted by the occupants of his home with hot tea and an edgy sort of hospitality.  Seven months later, he says, the occupants left peacefully.

The radio documentary brings the uneasy relationships between neighbours up to date – both within Lebanon and across its borders with Syria and Israel.

Making wine in Ireland (via Blake Creedon’s Wine Cork)

UPDATE, July 1 2011: A little over a year after the post below went up, I’ve had the great pleasure of tasting Stonewell Medium Dry Irish Craft Cider 2010, the first release of Nohoval Brewing Company, which is named for its location near Kinsale in south Co Cork. Made with “regionally sourced” Dabinett, Michelin and Cox apples, it’s a crisp and fragr … Read More

via Blake Creedon’s Wine Cork

Seafood, wine — and a cracking new beer

Howling Gale Ale

THIS week in the Irish Examiner Weekend I’m looking at food and wine matching, plus a smashing new beer brewed in Mitchelstown Co Cork. There’s more about Howling Gale Ale and Eight Degrees Brewing’s growing list of stockists below. First though, the food and wine…

PAIRING wine and food is like sex — both cause a heap of unnecessary anxiety, but with a bit of empathy and a light-hearted attitude they can bring untold pleasure and fun. I’m taking a look at it (wine matching that is, not sex) in today’s Weekend section of the Irish Examiner and you also can see it online here. For rhetorical purposes I’ve started by dismissing two extremes – the hopelessly general idea that a wine is “great with pasta” at one end; at the other, those terrifyingly specific lists you’ll see suggesting you simply must get a Domaine De Wotsit when shark toasties are on the menu.

I am suggesting some wines – five whites and one red – to go with some very broad types of seafood dishes, but I hope readers will regard these as inspiration rather than prescriptions.

It’s most helpful to view wine as an ingredient, working with the others on your plate. The wine will bring its own payload of contrasting and complementary elements to the other components via a heap of fruit flavours, but also through the key components of acidity, texture, sweetness and, in reds only, tannin.

One great lazy tip when matching wine to food: If the recipe is more or less ‘traditional’, look to its homeplace for inspiration. The most blindingly obvious of these has to be Boeuf bourgignon with pinot. So it is with seafood which is the topic I’m looking at today: you won’t go far wrong by trawling (sorry) the seafaring traditions along Europe’s Atlantic seaboard. Sailing from north to south, the highlights would include…

♦ Bordeaux blanc, surely the most versatile white wine for seafood
♦ the shamefully overlooked delights of soft Muscadet de Sėvre et Maine sur lie,
♦ Fashionable and therefore saucily-priced Albariño from Galicia and its counterpart,
♦ Alvarinho from Portugal which is sadly under-represented on our shelves
♦ Portugal’s other great white, modestly-priced, simple (and generally low alcohol) Vinho Verde branco

There are further delights when you plunge into the Med – such as the shamefully overlooked fish-friendly wine from the Coteaux de Languedoc, Picpoul de Pinet. Bubble Brothers have a cracking one for €12.

Needless to say these wine styles have been emulated with great success in the new world. For instance, by Bordeaux, I really mean sauvignon blanc & semillon blend wherever it is made (and, by red Bordeaux, cabernet sauvignon & merlot).

Finally, a word about red wines. The “red with meat, white with fish” isn’t the worst rule of thumb: Tannin (found only in reds) is certainly a friend to red meat. But some of the lightest reds can go beautifully with seafood dishes — especially the more robust tomatoey recipes, and in today’s column I’m suggesting a Tarrango made by Brown Brothers. You’ll often see pinot noir (particularly Bourgogne) suggested, as well as its southerly cousin, Beaujolais. This might be a helpful suggestion but remember it’s based on a somewhat out-of-date presumption: the breadth, alcoholic strength and tannicity of red wines from these regions has edged up in recent decades. But as I suggest in my column, please do experiment and enjoy.  ♦

ALSO this week in the Irish Examiner Weekend I’m suggesting Eight Degrees Howling Gale Ale as beer of the week. I’d certainly enjoyed the draught version at its launch during the Franciscan Well‘s beer fest at Easter. But my focus is exclusively on take-home beer and wine, so bottle is where it’s at. And Howling Gale is certainly there.

This isn’t just a promising first attempt – it’s a highly accomplished and beautifully-weighted ale. I’d certainly enjoy a bottle myself, and would expect dedicated beer fans to do likewise. But the singular achievement of this authentic beer is that it’s so simpatico: I’d be very confident that people more accustomed to mass-market beers would enjoy it too. See the brewery’s website at www.eightdegrees.ie for more.

Eight Degrees Howling Gale Ale is available online at www.Drinkstore.ie and in the stockists below. All of them may sell the beer to take home, but the ones in bold certainly do.

Cork

city & surrounding areas
Abbot Ale House, 17 Devonshire St, Cork
Bierhaus Cork, Popes Quay, Cork
Blairs Inn, Cloghroe, Blarney, Cork
Bradleys Off Licence, North Main Street, Cork
Fenns Quay, 5 Sheares Street, Cork
Franciscan Well, 14 North Mall, Cork
county
Costcutter, Amber Garage, Fermoy, Co Cork
Cronins Pub, Crosshaven, Co Cork
Springfort Hall Hotel, Mallow, Cork
Ballyvolane House, Castlelyons, Co Cork
Costelloes Malthouse, Clonakilty, Co Cork
The Clonakilty Hotel, Clonakilty, Co Cork
Fields Supervalu, Skibereen, Co Cork
West Cork Hotel, Skibereen, Co Cork
The Good Things Cafe, Durrus, Co Cork
Glandore Inn, Glandore, Co Cork

Dublin

central
Against the Grain, 11 Wexford Street, D2
Bull and Castle, Lord Edward Street, Christchurch, D2
Crackbird, 34 South William St, D2
Deveney’s Dundrum, 31 Main Street, Dundrum, D14 
The Village Bar, 26 Wexford St, D2
north
L Mulligan Grocer, 18 Stoneybatter, D7
McHughs Off-licence, 57 Kilbarrack Rd, D5
McHughs Off-licence, 25e Malahide Rd, D5
www.Drinkstore.ie, 87 Manor St, D7
south
D-Six Off-licence, 163 Harold’s Cross Road, D6
Redmond’s of Ranelagh, 25 Ranelagh, D6
Next Door, 23-25 Sundrive Road, Kimmage, D12
Claremont Railway Union Lawn Tennis Club, Park Avenue, Sandymount, D4

Galway

Cases Wine Warehouse, Tuam Rd, Galway

Waterford

Number Five Off-licence, Tyrone Rd, Lismore Park, Waterford
O’Brien Chop house, Lismore, Waterford

Wicklow

Hollands Fine Wines, 78 – 80 Main Street, Bray ♦

“Red wine with meat…”

THIS week in the Irish Examiner I’m looking at some inspiration for wines to go with the most common ways of preparing red meat. The odd-one-out is of course the white wine which I’d recommend with pork and bacon. 

Beef or lamb stew

Altos d’Oliva Gran Reserva Catalunya 2004 Dunnes, €9

 Tannin gets more subdued over time, making this tempranillo garnacha blend  rich, easy-drinking red a perfect foil for stews. You might also like to try Dunnes’ more snappily crisp Marqués de Chivé Reserva Utiel-Requena DO also at €6.99.

Steak from the pan or grill

Bushland Reserve Shiraz , South Eastern Australia
Aldi, €5.99

Made by Michael Hope (as in Hope Estate) this is one of the best value wines on the Irish market, an enormous fruity red in a beautiful creamy texture. The welcoming scents of baked sweet red fruit follow through on the palate in a spicy, creamy texture.

Roast pork / roast or baked ham

Tesco Finest Ken Forrester Chenin Blanc, Tesco, €10.99

Chenin and other middle-weight whites  go beautifully with pork and bacon. This outstanding example is a lovely middle-weight crisp and slightly spicy. Apart from lavishly sauced-up dishes such as barbecued spare ribs, an enormous range of recipes from roast pork to bacon and cabbage will do best accompanied with a white — such as Semillon and that most appley of wines, Pinot Blanc.

Another great match for pork we hardly ever seem to think of is cider. Think of most recipes for pork, and apples are rarely far away. By the same token, soft moist pork can be set off beautifully by a dry, crisp cider. Cider is particularly good with bacon and cabbage, as the combination of wine and brassicas can lead to an unpleasant metallic clash.

Roast lamb

Bodegas Muriel JME  DO  Independents, e13

Smashing overt tannins and generous bright cherry and berry flavours make this Rioja a fine foil for lamb.

Imported by Classic Drinks, stockists include Cork Barry’s Midleton; Pinecroft, Grange. Mulcahy’s, Charleville; O’Driscoll’s, Ballinlough; Matsons, Bandon; Cahill’s, Ballintemple; Kerry Stacks, Listowel; Waterford Ardkeen Quality Stores; Greater Dublin Magic Carpet D18; Jus De Vine, Portmarnock; Bin No 9, Clonskeagh; Hole In The Wall; Wine Boutique, Ringsend; Cellars, Naas Road; Townhouse Naas; Newtown in Maynooth; Galway Adare beverages Kilkenny The wine centre; Next Door, Thomastown.

€85,000 bottle of wine

THIS post is a longer version of an article published in the Irish Examiner on Wednesday July 27

While we’re at it, here’s an earlier post  along with the accompanying column in the Weekend section of the Irish Examiner in praise of sweeter wines — both the slightly off-dry styles (sweeties) and fully-fledged dessert wines (stickies). It includes a shopping list of accesibly-priced sweet wines and, I hope, adds a useful dimension to a colourful, fun story which is really more about PR than wine.

A FRENCH wine expert has splashed out a staggering €85,000 on a bottle of wine — a Chateau d’Yquem 1811  — making it the most costly bottle of white wine ever sold.  The buyer, Christian Vanneque, is a sommelier and restaurateur but the bottle is unlikely ever to be troubled by a corkscrew, serving instead as a talking point at his new restaurant in Bali which opens on Monday.

While ancient red wines — particularly from high-end parts of Bordeaux — do change hands on the millionaire market, It’s rare to see a white wine fetch such prices, or even to remain drinkable at such an advanced age. The explanation seems to be that the bottle in question is a Sauternes (made with semillon, sauvignon blanc and muscadelle grapes) which, being a dessert wine, would have naturally contained both high acidity and a lot of sugar, which may prolong its life.

The same vintage has attracted top marks in wine magazine reviews as recently as the 1990s. It was awarded 100 points by Robert Parker in The Wine Advocate, and by Per-Henrik Mansson (The Wine Spectator)
To put all this in perspective, the price of this particular bottle is of the order of 10,000 time the price we normally pay for a bottle of wine. The chairman of the Irish Wine Association, Philip Robinson (he’s also and marketing director at the Findlater Wine & Spirits Group) estimates that in the last two years, the average sum we in Ireland spend per bottle of wine has dropped from €9.20 to €7.70 — due in part to the 2009 reduction in excise duty, but mainly because we’ve been ‘trading down’ to lower-priced wines.

The fuss about this record-breaking bottle may encourage more wine fans to broaden their horizons and try out dessert wines. Dessert wine is an acquired taste, coming across more like liqueurs than what we’re used to: intense sweetness balanced by natural acidity and fruit flavours. Whether in a restaurants or at home, a small glass — perhaps alongside cheese and good coffee — is one of the most delicious ways to end dinner.

Australia has led the way — particularly with producers in Victoria and in South Australia’s Clare Valley, making wines whose quality matches precious European styles such as Sauternes and Hungarian Tokaji.

The idea that dessert wines from the ‘new world’ might attract such kudos shouldn’t come as a surprise to new owner of that €80k bottle of Sauternes. In 1976, then a fresh-faced young sommellier, Mr Vanneque was one of the tasters who took part in the now-famous Judgement of Paris wine tasting when — for the first time, and confounding all expectations — wines from the new world won the top place in every category ahead of all   the more expensive wines from France.

Should you feel like toasting 200th birthday this autumn, you might try, for example, two of the most widely available and accessibly priced dessert wines — Thomas Barton Sauternes at around 20 (750ml) and, from Victoria in Australia, Brown Brothers Orange Muscat and Flora at around 10 to 12 (375ml).  ♦

Autumn tastings

NB: I’m leaving this post with previous events up for reference only – if you want to see up-to-date listings of forthcoming tastings etc pop over here.

█ September 21 – Tinpot Hut winemaker in Cork
OH my. This is so promising. A tasting menu of some potentially top-class wines, presented by the winemaker, delivered at a very modest price and in a flexible way (to accompany a budget set menu or à la carte as you choose). It’s a pity it was set up at the last minute, as I’d have been there in a heartbeat if I could rearrange. So go and check it out for me.

While I haven’t tasted the wines in question, they certainly have a promising pedigree. Co-owned by Matt Thomson and Fiona Turner, the Tinpot Hut marque — comprising wines from both north and south islands of New Zealand — has picked up various posh awards.

Fiona is on a brief visit to Ireland and will be at Electric on the South Mall in Cork on Wednesday September 21. I don’t yet know if there’s a format but from 5.30pm, anyone dining from the early bird menu can also plug into her wines — a half glass each of the Tinpot Hut sauvignon blanc, pinot gris, grüner veltliner (gv), pinot noir and syrah. I’m interested in all of them, and am particularly intrigued by the gv which is rarely seen outside its native Austria. That’s five wines and your snap for €29. If you’d rather order à la carte, you can just add the wine bit as above for just €10. Ah come on, like.

You’ll find all the info about the event in Electric on their website here.  And again if you’re involved in such events, please drop me an email and let me know.

█   September 22 – Big tasting at Ely
More than 70 wines and cocktails on offer at Ely’s second BIG tasting. It’s €20 or, for a set three-course dinner, €35. 6pm and 8pm. Book on wineclub@elywinebar.com or 01 678 7867.

█  September 23 to 25 – The All-Ireland Beer Festival at the RDS
More than 40 beers and ciders (along some whiskies) will be pouring at this new festival which clearly aims to become a major annual fixture. It’s open on Friday (4pm to 12.30am; Saturday noon to 12.30am; Sunday noon to 6pm. Tickets are €10 per day or €15 for a three-day pass. You have to change your cash into festival ‘Beer Bucks’ to buy food and drink from the exhibitors at an exchange rate of €2.50 per buck, each of which buys you a half pint. Tickets are available at Ticketmaster.ie or from The Bull and Castle pub near Christchurch on Lord Edward St D2, and L Mulligan Grocer at 18 Stoneybatter D7. www.irishcraftbeerfestival.com.

█  September 23 Culture Night
There’s one deviation from the wine and beer events on this list, and it’s a biggie. On  Culture Night this Friday, hundreds of venues nationwide throw open their doors to the public late into the evening, many of them hosting special events, and all free of charge. Here’s the national Culture Night website.

Take my manor, Cork, as an example. There are 200 events in 75-plus venues, all quite rightly mashing up the arts — exhibitions, plays, film screenings, readings etc — with culture in the widest sense.

To give you a sense of the event’s breadth, you could…
♦ bring the littl’uns to the excellent Graffiti theatre-in-education in Blackpool,
♦ paddle your boat up and down the Lee,
♦ tour the innards of the Everyman Palace Theatre, a beautiful Victorian music hall whose stage was once graced by Miss Minnie Cunningham,
♦ join the Lord Mayor for City Hall’s open evening,
♦ be serenaded aboard the three Culture Bus shuttles laid on for the night,
♦ go to church for tours & talks by architectural and historical experts,
♦ drop in on rehearsals in the bandroom of the Butter Exchange Brass Band,
♦ visit the barracks that provided troops for conflicts ranging from the Napoleonic Wars through to UN peacekeeping missions…

And even if you got through that impossible itinerary, you’d still have experienced less than a tenth of what’s on offer. See what I mean? Download the PDF on the Cork Culture Night website or, better still, seek out the printed booklet in arts venues, libraries etc all over the city.

County Cork is weighing in for the first time this year, with a full programme of events at County Hall, right on the doorstep of the city. But there are also events going on from Beara in the west to Youghal in the east, and many points in between: Baile Mhuirne, Ballydehob, Bandon, Carrigaline, Castlelyons, Castlemagner, Castletownbere, Charleville, Coachford, Cobh, Crookstown, Cúil Aodha, Cullen, Eyeries, Fermoy, Freemount, Glengarriff, Goleen, Kilworth, Kinsale, Macroom, Mallow, Midleton, Millstreet, Mitchelstown, Schull, Shanagarry, Skibbereen, Youghal. So take a look at the County Council site above or ask around locally.

█  September 23 – Second International Grenache Day at elyCHQ
Grenache (aka garnacha) is the secret star of many beautifully-perfumed wines, particularly from southern France and northern Spain, but also from Australia and beyond. Here’s a whole evening’s opportunity to get up close and personal with the grape.
5.00pm to 6.30pm – seminar
6.30pm to 7.30pm – tasting
8.00pm til late – dinner.
Tickets are €65. For information and bookings, drop in to elyChq in the IFSC (www.elywinebar.com) or phone 01-6720010.

█  September 27 – Food producers & wine in O’Connell’s of Donnybrook
Wow. Even alongside some of the other rich pickings, this is likely to be an outstanding event. O’Connell’s have worked with several of their partner food producers and with wine importers Febvre to put together an enormously impressive and yet chilled-out food and wine evening. You will choose your starters in the style of a buffet – but you’ll be picking them up directly from the producers as follows…

Organic smoked salmon from Bill Casey Shanagarry Co Cork
Chorizo, Salamis and Cheese from Gubbeen
Organic Pork and Vegetables from Alan Pierce, Gold River Farm, Co Wicklow
Organic Chicken from Mary O’Regan, Enniscorthy, Co Wexford
Hereford Prime Steaks  Christy Broe, The Irish Hereford Prime Beef Society
Fresh fish from Shellfish de La Mer, Castletownbere, Co Cork

Then, the mains and desserts will be served to you at your table. And Carlos Martínez Bujanda from the top-class Bodegas Conde de Valdemar, Rioja, will be on hand to pour complimentary wines. There will also be a tasting flight of the winery’s wines at 20% off the normal price. Speaking of which, your final bill depends on what you order thereafter, including their €20.95 all-night early bird.  That’s good value.

Kudos for the imagination to put together an event that’s both useful and exciting, and also so accessibly priced. All the details are here on O’Connell’s website.  Go book.

█  September 28 – Latin American wines at The Merrion
The Merrion Wine Society’s second dinner this year is focused on wines from Latin America. The six-course dinner will be accompanied by wines from Chile, Argentina and Uruguay presented by Mary Dowey, wine editor of The Gloss. Book tickets (€90) now on 01-2755310 or email register@thegloss.ie.

Winequake, September 29

Several high-profile and otherwise worthwhile events are likely to compete for our attention on Thursday,  September 29.  I believe there may be more to follow but the first three confirmed are as follows…

█  September 29 – Yalumba tasting and/or dinner at Ballymaloe Co Cork
One of the best tutored tastings I’ve been at was conducted by Jane Ferrari. As she’d say herself, ultimately it’s what’s in the glass that matters most, and Yalumba does make terrific wines, from entry level to posh upmarket bottles.  But the presentations that Jane brings round the world are themselves superb — informative and highly entertaining.  This event is in two parts as follows
7pm  Jane will present a tutored tasting on various wines made by Yalumba (€10).
8.30pm Wine dinner, with each course paired with one of Yalumba’s wines, which Jane will introduce (€75). Book now on 021 4652531 by email to res@ballymaloe.ie and see www.ballymaloe.ie.

█  September 29 – Lohan’s Wine Fair Salthill Co Galway
Taste more than 100 wines as well as international beers, whiskeys and spirits, speciality cheeses, cakes and canapés at Lohan’s big annual wine fair – and as if that weren’t enough, there’s entertinment laid on too.
As ever, the entire proceeds go directly to local charities – Croí which supports families affected by heart disease and raises awareness of the issue; and Cystic Fibrosis, the most common life-threatening genetically-inherited disease in Ireland which has the highest incidence of it in the world.
Tickets (€20) are available from Lohans Bar & Restaurant, 232-234 Upper Salthill, Galway, 091-522696, or email goodtimes@lohans.ie and see www.lohans.ie.

█  September 29 – Wilson & Caviston in Greystones Co Wicklow
St Patrick’ Parish Centre in Greystones, Co Wicklow, is the venue for what promises to be a highly entertaining evening in a good cause featuring John Wilson, wines from Mitchell & Son, and food from Caviston’s – with all proceeds going to the Parish Fund.  Tickets are €15 and are available from the  parish office on 01-2010648.

█ October 19 – Malbec tasting dinner at Thornton’s

The Corkscrew on  Chatham Street presents a dinner showcasing Argentina’s finest with winemaker Mariella Molinari presenting some of the premium wines of Argentina’s Catena Zapata to accompany a five-course menu created by Kevin Thornton. Tickets are €120 per person. See www.thecorkscrew.ie or phone 01-6745731.

█ October 19 – Roger Ravoire at Donnybrook Fair

Olivier Ravoire will present wines from his family’s Roger Ravoire Rhone winery in The Restaurant at Donnybrook Fair from 7.45pm. Phone 01-6144849 to book.

█ October 20 – Mitchell’s October Wine Tasting

On Thursday October 20, from 7pm, Mitchell’s present a  tasting of new additions to their range in their CHQ shop. It’s an excellent consumer-friendly format that other retailers might consider emulating: You pay €10 to take part in the tasting — but you get a voucher for the same amount that you can redeem in store on the evening.

█ October 20 – Food and beer at Cornstore Cork

Applause please for what looks like a terrific five-course tasting menu, each course paired with a selection of German, English, Scottish and Belgian beers. To pick just one menu item…

Pan-seared Ballycotton sea bass with roast pumpkin, sautéed spinach, grilled baby sweet corn with carrot and orange emulsion accompanied by Schneider Weisse Kristall

That sounds both delicious and a great match, as does the venison with celeriac, kale and cabbage matched with a doppelbock. Some of the matches sound a bit surprising to me — for instance Fuller’s Honey Dew pale ale with the salmon — although the latter is cured with treacle… But preparing to be surprised is half the fun of it, and you are in safe hands at the Cornstore, and that assuredly confident menu. It ought to be a delicious, interesting evening putting beer back where it belongs, on the dinner table.
Cornstore, Cornmarket Street, Cork at 7.30pm on Tursday October 20.
Tickets (€45) from 021-4274777 or reservations@cornstorecork.com.

█ October 20 – Mas De Daumas Gassac in Thurles, Co Tipp
█ October 21 – Mas De Daumas Gassac in Ballymaloe, Co Cork

TWO Irish wine importers and retailers — Curious Wines in Cork and Red Nose Wine in Clonmel Co Tipperary — are collaborating to put on three great opportunities to meet wines and the people behind one of the Languedoc’s classiest names, Mas De Daumas Gassac. Samuel Guibert will present some of their wines at a dinner at Inch House, Thurles, Co Tipp, at 8pm on Thursday October 20 (60 from 052-6182939 or gary@rednosewine.com). And on Friday October 21, he’s in Ballymaloe, Shanagarry, Co Cork to present a tasting at 7pm (15) and a dinner at 8.30pm (85). Contact Ballymaloe on 021-4652531; Curious Wines on 021-4320233, or mike@curiouswines.ie.

♦

] Family of Four & Grenache 23 [] Nofla SIP 7 gold star wards 2 [] Pio Cesare Donnybrook September 28.   [] Portugal 24/10  []

Dingle Food & Wine Festival October 1 and 2. http://dinglefood.com.[] Cork wne fair 24/11  [] Taste of Christmas 25/11.

Tasty food and drinks events

Slow Food is hosting a wild food festival in co Wicklow.

The wine and food events listed here are in the past tense — click on this link to see the current lineup.

█ December 2 – Immigrant support groups’ wine tasting

NASC and Cois Tine are getting together to present an evening of delicious wine and food  from 6.30pm on Friday December 2 at Cois Tine, beside St Mary’s Dominican church on Pope’s Quay, Cork.
Michal Lewandowski will present a selection of wines (courtesy of O’Donovan’s off-licences) accompanied by grub from (drool) three fine food specialists in the English Market — On The Pig’s Back, Heaven’s Cake and Iago.

Tickets are €19.10 – a fee that wasn’t picked at random: that’s the weekly allowance asylum-seekers receive.

[] Cois Tine (pronounced kush tinn-eh, it’s an Irish language term meaning ‘by the fireside’ chosen to signify hospitality) is a Christian multicultural organisation working to promote “the integration of people from all communities, cultures and faiths”. It works primarily with asylum-seekers and refugees, particularly those of African origin. See www.coistine.ie for more.
[] Nasc (it’s an Irish word meaning ‘link’) is The Irish Immigrant Support Board. It links immigrants to their rights, and works across a wide variety of fronts including combating racism, promoting the Cork City Integration Strategy through to direct provision of services.  See www.nascireland.org for more.

█ December 2 & 3 – Curious Wines Christmas Wine Fair, Cork

THE Christmas Wine Fair at Curious Wines on the Kinsale road in Cork takes place from 4pm to 8pm on Friday, and from noon until 6pm on Saturday, with more than 100 wines open for tasting, along with tasty gourmet food. Tickets cost €10, and all proceeds go to Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind. Phone 1800-991844 or click here www.curiouswines.ie for more details.

This is precisely the sort of tasting I keep urging wine fans to check into. Yes, it’s a commercial showcase of one particular retailer’s range. But it’s also the sole opportunity you will get to dive in and sample any or all of this wide range of wines, free of commentary, advertising, and the suggestions of bloggers and columnists. And if you don’t often dip into such tastings, you may find some useful tips in my post suggesting how to get best use out of open wine tastings.

█ December 6 – Stickies and fortifieds at Hayfield Manor, Cork
█ December 7 – Stickies and fortifieds at Ely IFSC, Dublin

THERE’s any number of lesser-visited wine styles I’d urge everyone to check out. Off-dry riesling. Dry riesling. Portuguese wines (all of them).  Loire reds and whites.  Sometimes it feels like a hopeless mission to persuade people to try out dessert wines or port. Understandable really. After all, what more do you want towards the end of a good dinner than more of the same — a good white or red that you’ve been enjoying?

But discover how a dinner can be turned into a banquet — with tiny glasses of cold botrytis semillon as a beautiful foil to hot bitter coffee, or a rich round spicy port  on the couch — and you’ll never look back.

If you’d like some inspiration, there’s an event next week at venues in Dublin and Cork — Ely bar & brasserie, IFSC, and Hayfield Manor Hotel respectively — that you shouldn’t miss. Courtesy of Wine Australia Ireland, they’re hosting a tutored tasting presented by winemaker Chris Pfeiffer whose Rutherglen Muscat has featured in my column a few times. He’ll present a top line-up of Australian stickies and fortifieds, accompanied by nibbles. The tastings in both venues cost €20 per person and begins at 7pm.

For the Cork tasting, book on ireland@wineaustralia.com or 065-7077264.
For the Dublin event, book on wineclub@elywinebar.com or  01-676 8986.
And if you want any further information on either, contact John at the Wine Australia contact details above.

 

█ December 8 – Martin’s Christmas Crackers Tasting
(Note change of date)

Martin Moran MW (who presents movies and booze on Newstalk with Sean Moncrieff) has put together an event that sounds practical and inspirational in equal measure. He’s trawled the shelves of the major supermarkets and put together a shortlist of approximately 25 wines chosen to compliment seasonal foods and parties.
But as Martin explains on his site, there’s more to it than that and if you want it, he can customise your choices and give you advice on hundreds more wines from the supermarkets’ ranges.

It all takes place at Darc Space Gallery, 26 North Great Georges Street, Dublin 1 from 6.30pm to 8.30pm. Tickets cost €10, or €15 for two.

█ December 8 – Red Nose portfolio tasting, Clonmel

ON Thursday, December 8, Rudolph the Red Nose Wine Shop Red Nose Wine is hosting a portfolio tasting  from 8pm at Hickey’s Cafe, Westgate, Clonmel.   Tickets are €15, or free if you buy a €50 voucher – a handy money-saving idea. Click on www.rednosewine.com for details.  Last time I checked in, Gary was putting a list of the wines opening on Facebook – and says he’s open to suggestions from customers of further bottles to add to the tasting. Check it out!  ♦

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█ November 15 – Beer and food in Cork

EACH Tuesday in November, The Cornstore in Cornmarket Street, Cork is playing host to beer and food pairing events matching menu with beers such as Birra Moretti, Paulaner and Tiger, in association with Heineken Ireland. At each event a beer and food expert will be on hand to take you through the tasting of beers from around the world and how they match with the food on a specially designed menu. A three-course set menu with beer tasting is €24.95, it kicks off at 7.30pm and you can find out more on 021-4274777.

█ November 17 – Cases Wine Warehouse Christmas Wine* Fair

The great big annual wine* fair at Cases Wine Warehouse on the Tuam Road, Galway takes place from 6.30pm to 10pm on Thursday November 17. There will be about 120 wines open for tasting on the night, and there’ll be tasty food provided by Cava restaurant. Other antics include Cases annual blind tasting competition and live music….
*Kudos to Cases for putting good beer centre stage, as they’ve announced the tasting includes a range of delicious beers from Irish artisan beweries including Galway Hooker, O’Hara’s, Dungarvan Brewing and 8 Degrees from Mitchelstown. Tickets, €20, (with all proceeds going to Self Help Africa) from Cases on 091-764 701 or at info@cases.ie.

█ November 17 to 19 – Simply Wines tastings

SIMPLY WINES is probably best known as an online store but you can shop in person there too, and if you’re in the parish I’d strongly suggest you check out their wine fair. They’re holding it over three days with extended opening hours (until 9pm on both the Thursday and Friday, and until 7pm on the Saturday) to showcase more than 80 wines in their range.

You’ll find Simply Wines at Unit 2, Ballyogan Business Park, Ballyogan Road, D18, just around the corner from The Park retail centre, Carrickmines. There’s more details about the wine tasting opportunity here, and a map and stuff here.

And now for something completely different…

Foraging, fish and game are on the menu in Macreddin.

█ November 19 & 20 – Wild & Slow, Macreddin, Co Wicklow

This is big. The BrookLodge Hotel, Macreddin Village, Co Wicklow, is the HQ for a busy weekend of food inspiration from 11am to 8pm on Saturday and Sunday November 19 and 20. In addition to the food on sale from the stalls, there is a programme of wild-food workshops, tastings, talks and demonstrations around Macreddin presented by Slow Food and sponsored by Fáilte Ireland and Bord Bia.

♦ Harvesting hedgerows – what is available for free, where to look for it, and when it is best harvested.
♦ Photo safari in the National Park – a strenuous hike in and around Wicklow, to stalk and photograph the resident wild deer herd and game birds.
♦ Handling and plucking game – a masterclass with licensed game dealer Mick Healy, including a visit to the Wild Irish Game premises in nearby Glenmalure valley.
♦ Game tasting workshop – Taste pheasant that’s been hung for one, two and three weeks cooked for parallel tasting by Ross Lewis of Chapter One.
♦ Game tasting workshop – Tim Daly from BrookLodge presents a sensoray evalutation of three wild meats, rabbit, hare and venison.
♦ Matching game with wines – Martina Delaney, sommelier at l’Ecrivain  will host a workshop pairing gamey wines with these traditional meats.
♦ Wild fish workshop – Mick Murphy, licensed traditional snap-net fisherman explores issues of seasonality and sustainability and fisheries management.
♦ Herbalists Freda Wolfe & Clodagh Mulvey on foraging from among more than 400 plant species used in mainstream medicine and alternative therapies alike.
♦ The gamekeeper’s year – Keith Wooldridge, the retired head gamekeeper of Ballinacor Estate will talk you through the year from preparations in spring through to winter shoots, with an emphasis on habitat and environmental management.

For more, see
http://wildandslow.com
www.slowfoodireland.com

█ November 24 – Cork Wine Fair

THE 11th Cork Wine Fair, organised by O’Donvans Off-Licences, takes place on Thursday November 24 from 4pm to 9pm at the Clarion Hotel, Lapps Quay, Cork. About 400 wines as well as beers and spirits will be open for tasting, and there will also be samples of gourmet foods. Two masterclasses, led by two of Ireland’s leading experts, will take place in a side room during the show, featuring the wines of Australia (John McDonnell) and New Zealand (Jean Smullen). All proceeds from tickets (€10) go to the Simon Community in Cork. Booking/enquiries at any of O’Donovan’s 16 stores in Cork city and county or phone 021 4296060.

We are hosting this event in both Dublin (7th) and Cork (6th).

Would it be possible to include the Cork details also?
Tuesday 6th December: Hayfield Manor Hotel, Cork

█ Heineken Ireland is bringing beer and food tasting to top restaurants in Dublin and Cork. Ely Bar and Brasserie, Siam Thai and Roly’s Bistro in Dublin and The Cornstore in Cork will give food lovers and beer fans the chance to come together and sample the natural pairing of beer and food with beers from around the world like Birra Moretti, Paulaner and Tiger. At each event a beer and food expert will be on hand to take you through the tasting of beers from around the world and how they match with the food on a specially designed menu. So whether you’re a beer lover or have never even thought of drinking a beer with your food, there is a beer for you that will add a new dimension to the food you know and love.

Food and drink events 2012

♦ One of the first wine events of 2012 is a cracker – the northern Rhône wine dinner  at Donnybrook Fair, Dublin 4 on Wednesday [[January 25]] when Simon Tyrrell  will present wines from some of the most famous names of the region accompanied by a menu created by head chef Marcin Baziak. €60 per person / €100 for 2 people. Phone  01 614 4849 or see donnybrookfair.ie
♦ New Zealand is in the air with the wine fair from 6.30pm to 8.30pm on Monday  January 30 at the Radisson Blu Royal Hotel, Golden Lane, Dublin 8. Practically any New Zealand wine you’ve heard of will be there most accompanied by winemakers. If you want to know about wine start here. Tickets (€15) and further information from Jean Smullen on (086) 816 8468   or at  jean@jeansmullen.com.
With so many Kiwi winemakers in Ireland there are of course a number of other associated events as follows.

♦ On Friday  [[27 January]] O’Brien Chop House, Lismore, Co Waterford hosts  a dinner accompanied by wines of Greywacke New Zealand, presented by winemaker Kevin Judd.  See obrienchophouse.ie or phone 058 53810.

♦ And on Tuesday January 31, Jamie Marfell, winemaker with Brancott Estate (formerly Montana) will host a free tasting masterclass at 7pm in the Odessa Club, Dublin. Tickets are free and you can register for spaces by emailing Brancottestateireland@gmail.com with your name, date of birth and contact details.  Tickets will be allocated on a lottery basis and guests will be notified by next Friday.

Beer and food at the Cornstore

HERE’S an event promising delicious grub, great value — and an eye-opener if you only ever consider wine for the dinner table.
Food & Beer dinner in the Cornstore restaurant, Cornmarket Street, Cork, on Wednesday, January 18, 2012 at 7.30pm.
Reservations on 021-4274777 or reservations@cornstorecork.com. €24.95 a head. Also see www.thisisbeer.ie.

While wine is my main interest, overlooking good beer and cider as accompaniments to food is frankly nuts. Just like wine, beers grew up alongside the food traditions on these islands and elsewhere and can be  perfectly suited to the dinner table. I’m particularly thinking good ales and stouts, but really there’s a whole world of beer styles that can be perfect with food.  Fermented grape, fermented grain. Your call.

Each of three courses on Wednesday is matched to a selection of the international beers marketed by Heineken Ireland.  Some of the company’s previous food-and-beer promotions were tutored tastings. I’m not sure if that’s the case this time. But the info Heineken did send includes the tasty-looking menu below. To me this looks like a great value night out.

STARTERS

♦  Duck liver parfait with brioche, Wild mushroom and brown bread dumpling
♦  Goats cheese crostini with sundried tomato pesto
♦  Mini white bean and bacon soup
with Paulaner or Zywiec

MAINS

♦ Roast hake on braised leeks and sautéed samphire with a champagne, crab and coral sauce with Heineken or Tiger
♦ Chicken breast with a mushroom duxell, roast swede, scallion mash, savoy cabbage and truffle jus with Zywiec or Coors Light
♦ Slow-roasted pork belly  with roast potatoes, sauerkraut, candied walnuts and a cider reduction with Tiger, Affligem or Zywiec
♦ Braised lamb shank with roast orange sweet potato, celeriac and green beans with
Affligem or Zywiec
♦ Cannelloni of butternut squash with goats cheese, spinach and figs with sun dried tomato pesto, rocket salad with Birra Moretti

DESSERT

♦ White chocolate mousse with raspberry sorbet, flourless chocolate cake and lemon posset, with Paulaner or Affligem 

Finally, In my column in the Irish Examiner today (Saturday January 14, 2012) I’m looking at a fascinating book, The Wine Trials, which may change the way you view the wine world. I’ll be posting more about that book, as well as a guide to blind tasting later today.

It ties in with the approach to wine this blog strives to promote, so you might like to start here with this heap of links for the sceptical wine lover.  ♦ 

How to use a wine tasting

THIS post is a consumer guide to making best use of wine tastings, while over here is a list of forthcoming wine tastings and other related events. Okay, grab a glass and let’s go a-tasting….

ON one side, a wall of wine. On the other, a cacophony of voices, from bloggers and columnists like me, through to the people who sell wine, all happy to suggest what you might drink. And in the middle is you.

The single greatest favour wine fans can do themselves is to learn to ignore the likes of me and wine sellers. Sure, tasting lots of wines side-by-side can help you snout out a few specific bottles you like. But it’s also an exciting journey into what are arguably our least explored senses — taste and smell. Dive in, and you could end up with something far more valuable: an active, merrily sceptical attitude offering you independence from other voices, including mine and those of wine businesses alike. Time to stop listening to the voices and learn to trust your tastebuds.

What follows is a guide to navigating open-ended freestyle tastings (essentially the same type as those held for trade and press). I’ll follow up later with shorter posts on wine dinners and tutored tastings.

One of the tables at a tasting in Avignon. The point of a wine tasting is to ignore what I and the people selling the wines say - taste them all yourself!

Wine tastings and wine fairs

THIS is what I mean when I say ‘wine-tasting’: Not a gathering of fusty oul men peering at posh clarets over their pince-nez, and murmuring their verdict on them. Nor a roomful of red-carpet party people sipping and nibbling at some glittering launch. But something far better than either — an open-ended freestyle test-drive opportunity where we can try out dozens or even hundreds of wines.

They’re most commonly organised by retailers (such as O’Donovan’s Cork Wine Fair, or Lohan’s in Galway) or by trade representatives such as the Spanish Embassy’s commercial office which is behind the big event in Cork recently.

There will usually be a small fee (say €20) which often goes to charity: Either way, the organisers generally won’t be taking a bob on the night — they’re taking part to showcase their wares in the hope we’ll like what we find and buy them at some future date.

The tasting will usually take place in a biggish hotel room or conference centre. In general, on arrival you’ll be armed with a glass and a catalogue and left to your own devices. Each table is typically laid out with open bottles, a water jug and a spittoon, and is manned by someone from the firm that sells those wines.

Joe Karwig with some of his wines during a food fair in Carrigaline Co Cork.

Use the tasting

You know that frustrating feeling in wine shop or supermarket when you’re faced with a whole wall of wines? And you wish you knew what each was like? Or can’t remember which bottle was the one you enjoyed before? Well the big wine tasting is like that — except the bottles are all open for you to try.
Many people treat wine tastings as a fun social event, dropping anchor for a chat armed with a glass of something nice. Yes, that does sound like fun. But it’s a bit like going to a concert and putting in ear plugs after the first song so the music doesn’t distract you from texting your friends. Don’t waste the opportunity: among those open bottles may well be some stunning great value wines. Let’s go find them!

It's only rarely all those wines are open at the same time for us to compare - don't pass up the opportunity. Picture: Paul Sherwood (www.sherwood.ie).

Use the catalogue

The catalogue (anything from a few photocopied sheets through to a lavishly-printed bound booklet) ought to spell out the full name and vintage of each wine, and its price. And there’ll be space for notes. Don’t be shy about using this, with any notation you feel like.

For instance, you could put a big asterisk or exclamation mark near the wines that stand out, bearing price in mind, at each table. Do that and you’ll end up with an instant shortlist of candidates for your attention and your money. You could then go back and try, say, the three asterisked cabernets, one after the other, and that way settle on one or two of them for future reference.

Use the spittoons

The impulse to swallow food and drink is pretty powerful. In general, unless something tastes disgusting, down it goes. If you’re going to navigate wine tastings (as opposed to wine dinners or, um, drinking wine) you really have to unlearn that impulse and learn to spit. Obviously if you’re drinking the samples, you’ll end up langers half way through the tasting and may as well write off the opportunity to discover some great wines. What a waste.

If you haven’t tried it before, why not practice spitting into a basin or sink at home? Sniff it. Sip it. Pause to taste it. And then spit it out. Spelling out all this may seem pointlessly gumpish but spitting out wine (or tea or whatever) runs so profoundly contrary to our instinct that we do have to consciously do it.

So a wine-tasting is as dry as Tehran? Not quite. Often, what people do is hold off on swallowing until the end and then enjoy drinking a glass or two of their favourite discoveries. Often as not though, the drink of choice is a beer. Having been subjected to a sustained assault of high acidity, tannin and alcohol, there’s nothing your tongue would love better than to be bathed in a soft, delicious, 4% or 5% ale or lager or stout. Yum.

Use the water

Most people wouldn’t bother rinsing the glass between, say, two sauv blancs. But if you’re changing style, it’s no harm to give the glass a quick scoosh from the jugs of water on each table. Similarly, there’s far too much fuss about cleansing the palate: if we were incapable of tasting one flavour after another, hardly anyone on earth would know what rhubarb crumble tasted like. But given all that acidity and alcohol, a refreshing glass of water now and again can help keep your senses on track, especially if and when you’re switching from red to white. But even better, and true to the spirit of this post, why not listen to what your body is saying? When you need water, go fill up.

Big open wine tastings tend to fill up. Get there early and whiz round to get a proper sense of what wines are out there. And then chill with a glass or two.

Use the information

Some of the wines may be accompanied by brochures with information both hard (for instance the area under vines, yields, the technical specifications of each wine etc) and soft (comprising anything from text about the winemakers’ passion through to photos of the vineyard).

Information isn’t a burden, and I wouldn’t turn any away. However, when there’s a choice between tasting further wines, and pausing to read up on one particular range, you’re better served by moving on. Ultimately, the only two things that matter are what’s in the bottom of your glass on a Saturday night many weeks hence, and what you’ve paid for it in the wine shop. The memory of the accompanying brochure will be worth zero, so your taste testing ought to be in the driving seat. Anyway, most wineries these days have websites with much of the same sort of information so you can always follow that up at your leisure.

The same goes for conversations you can fall into with the people manning the tables. These invaluable people will usually know all there is to be known about their wines and are happy to talk about them, or indeed about anything. While it’s great to be able to check details, remember that there are likely to be similar wines and similar stories at most of the other tables. Keep going and get the big picture.

While we’re on the topic, here’s a hat-tip to the people who present wines at tastings. By time we meet them, they’ve been standing for hours on end: often the public tasting comes tacked on at the end of a trade tasting so they’ve been on their feet since morning.

Yes this is a long post but it’s possible I didn’t anticipate some questions you may have. Reply to me here or email me at firstsname.lastname@examiner.ie (with my name in there of course) and I’ll get back to you. ♦

Wine gifts and the groaning board

Ho ho ho

While it still feels a little too early to even mention C*****mas, now is the time to start planning your gifts, and indeed your own festive groaning board. So let’s make like an elf. This post is primarily about online wine shops — enjoy a leisurely browse at home of an evening and put your own cases together, or select one of their ready-assembled gift cases.

Wine, whiskey and beer…

However, please don’t entirely overlook bricks-and-mortar stores though. In my manor, Cork, that means O’Donovans’ dozen or so branches around city and county, and Bradley’s on North Main Street.

Both have cracking wine ranges of course but also, unlike most wine sites, also sell beers and spirits – meaning they market two uniquely Irish drinks gifts: top-class single pot-still whiskey, and the great new wave of Irish beers and ciders. Bradley’s has just become a whole lot more convenient now as there’s free parking in the car park just down the street in the run-up to Christmas (and you really have to see their wall of beers including well over 100 from Wales, Ireland, Scotland and England). Plus they deliver Irish foodie gift packs nationwide.

Clicking with confidence

Here is a list of the online wine retailers I’d recommend, arranged alphabetically. If you’re unsure about the security of buying from them, you may like to know I’d have every confidence in any of them. I’ve met the people behind almost all of them, and have bought from some. However I would suggest that before you touch that credit card you have a look at some hints and tips about buying wine online.

I’ll be updating this list as necessary before Christmas. If you spot a site you think is the berries, or if you’ve had a poor experience with one, please email me with your thoughts. blake[dot]creedon[at]examiner[dot]ie.

www.bbr.ie

400 years trading in London (and more latterly in Dublin) and yet Berry Brothers & Rudd have one of the most comprehensive and user-friendly websites about. Plenty of fare at the posh end of the price list, but lots of entry-level value as well including their own-label wines.  Having quit their beautiful preimses on Harry Street in Dublin, BBR’s Irish retail presence is now confined to this website.

www.bubblebrothers.com

Began exclusively with Champagne, hence the name, but now sells a wide range of classic wines. Also has a drive-in warehouse at Marina Commercial Park, Cork as well as its original store in the English Market in the city centre. The site is accompanied by Paul Kiernan’s highly enjoyable, personable and regularly updated blog.

www.curiouswines.ie

Curious Wines is an exemplary, comprehensively searchable and informative website and their prices seem relatively keen. But for me, the most important aspect of this new business is the choice they offer.

Many top-class wines imported by, for instance, Gilbey’s, are available in only a handful of outlets in Ireland. Many of the otherwise highly commendable wines I encounter at tasting sessions never see the light of day in my column in the Irish Examiner – simply because availability and convenience are a component of quality.

But now that Curious Wines have opened their wine warehouse on the Kinsale Road in Cork, they’ve put lots of otherwise unavailable wines within reach of shoppers in an enormous, densely-populated part of the country. Strictly speaking that point is irrelevant to online trading but is so hugely significant in terms of broadening the choice of quality wines that it deserves support.

www.FromVineyardsDirect.ie

The newish Irish outpost of a British online store. Highlights include a cracking value expressive plump tropical chardonnay from Burgundy, Saint-Véran Merloix Bourgogne Blanc 2007, €12.45, and crisp white Rocca di Tufo Orvieto Classico 2007, €11.45.

www.jnwine.com

Stunning list operating out of James Nicholson’s award-winning shop in Crossgar, Co Down. You’ll also find some of these at Parsons’ Wine Warehouse, Carrigaline Co Cork as well as in selected restaurants such as Star Anise on Bridge Street in Cork. In brief, Nicholsons sell a disproportionately large number of my favourite wines on the Irish market. Try peppery cherry-inflected Madfish Shiraz 2004, €18.83 (case bottle price €16.95) or one of Lebanon’s finest, Massaya Silver Selection Red 2005, €20.44

As far as I’m aware it has another distinction as the only site that allows you to buy and deliver anywhere in Ireland or the UK — I’ve found it a godsend for sending gifts to England. Finally, make sure you select the right jurisdiction in the “Delivery Location” tab on the opening page so you see the wines priced in the right currency.

www.karwigwines.ie

Award-winning wine list also sold from their store at Carrigaline, Co Cork. Smashing affordable wines from all over but I am particuarly fond of several of Joe’s wines from Italy, Germany and Portugal.

www.lecaveau.ie

Extensive list also available at its store in Kilkenny.

www.marypawlewines.com

Ireland’s longest-established importer of organic wines. I’m agnostic on the whole organic thing but believe that winegrowers and winemakers even aiming for organic certification  by definition lavish TLC on their plants which is where it all begins. Mary makes no specific health or even quality claims for wines made from organically-grown grapes – but rightly emphasises that she’s looking for good, carefully-made wine and there are several winners in her list.

www.mccabeswines.ie

Excellent online presence of the shops in Blackrock and Foxrock.

www.mitchellandson.com

One of Ireland’s most informative and interesting sites and a premium range of wines from the 200-year-old upmarket Dublin wine merchant.

www.obrienswine.ie

Dublin-based off-licence chain with lots of exclusives on its website.

www.onthegrapevine.ie

Long list touching the most important bases with some brilliant minority interest specials.

www.searsons.com

This site is a bit different. Searsons has been in the wine trade for about 90 years, having bought into Davy family’s high-end grocery business which had been operating around Dublin for most of the 19th century. They remain one of Ireland’s best importers and wholesalers, equally adept at posh high-end wines for special occasions and good solid wines at relatively approachable entry-level prices.

Rather than an online click-and-buy,  the site is primarily a shop window linking to retailers that Searson’s supplies. The site used to be the least sophisticated wine site in the world ever – merely a series of PDFs and a phone number. But it’s now a proper site allowing you browse wines and view a map showing stockists including for instance 1601 in Kinsale and the aforementioned O’Donovans in Cork. Well worth a look.  Highlights from its solid range of sparklers include Jeio Prosecco di Valdobbiadene Brut Bisol, €17.50. And reflecting the revolution in Bordeaux, try rich ripe Chateau Rauzan-Despagne Bordeaux Reserve 2006, €15.50.

www.simplywines.ie

As I write, this site is misbehaving a bit but Ian Dornan’s smashing list is very well worth returning to for its frequently top-class wines – backed up by a money-back guarantee.

www.superquinn.ie

Extensive range of good brands and exclusive goodies. Delivers only in the Dublin area.

www.terroirs.ie

Spin-off from the eponymous gourmet shop in Donnybrook, Dublin.

www.uncorked.ie

Good off-licence with an extraordinary money-back guarantee.

www.wineonline.ie

Excellent site featuring hundreds of wines from everyday sippers to special interest bottles.

www.winesdirect.ie

One of the first wine retailers online (now in its 20th year) Paddy Keogh’s site is excellent in terms of functionality and its wine-list. Check out Sticks Chardonnay, Viognier Yarra Valley 2006, €12.90 or rich ripe spicy Chateau Haut Rian Cuvée Prestige Premieres Cotes de Bordeaux 2005, €13.70. ♦

www.mitchellandson.com

Buying wine online

HERE’s a list of Ireland’s best wine websites and below are some  general guidelines to getting good wine delivered to your door in time for Christmas day. You should of course bear in mind all the usual caveats when shopping at an online wine retailer. The criteria I’d suggest you consider include…

1. The quality and value of the range of wines it sells;
2. Comprehensive information on each wine, including useful notes;
3. Free or reasonably priced delivery;
4. A range of styles sufficiently substantial to cope with different needs or occasions;
5. Ease of use of the site;
6. Fun and/or useful extras such as blogs, links and more information about wine.

There is also one overriding hygiene factor: clear and accurate information on price, delivery, terms and conditions made clear to the shopper before s/he starts the purchasing process. If any of those issues are in question, forget about it.

Specifically, any wine website worth looking at should be…

VERSATILE: Most sites offer two ways to buy: You can choose one of their pre-picked selections, or you can put together your own mixed cases will-nilly.

INFORMATIVE:It’ll list every wine’s full name, vintage and regional designation. It ought to have a little bit of further information about the wine’s producer and the region.

UNAMBIGUOUS: One of the things you should check immediately – that the site has unambiguous information about
1 minimum order
2 delivery charge, if any.*
3 extra costs, if any.
*The first two points can be related, as often delivery is free if you order over a certain value or volume.
The third point is ultra-important. There should be no extra costs, end of story.*

AUTHORITATIVE: If there are notes about the wines, ask yourself if someone has actually tasted the wine and tried to communicate something of its character. Or is it just vaguely positive-sounding blurb.

UP TO DATE: It’s quite possible that a site promising “sizzling bargains for summer 2007” might be selling top class wines at good prices. But really you’d have more confidence in the ones that have accurate up-to-date information.

I’d be highly sceptical of any site that pops in a cost such as insurance on top of the list price. In particular, watch out for VAT. It is an offence for a retailer to advertise consumer goods without its VAT component.

Yet one site, www.throughthegrapevine.ie, (which should not be confused with the estimable www.onthegrapevine.ie) promotes itself as supplying individual customers, providing wedding wines etc. However, it does not include VAT in its list prices, that component being added in later in the purchase process. Some people (yes I mean me) get a bit fuzzy about numbers when they go into three figures and I can imagine a less-than-alert wine buyer innocently clicking ‘buy’ without realising his or her wines have gotten a whole lot dearer.
How can this site justify this? Well it also sells business-to-business and as such is entitled to show ex-VAT prices. But by rights they should emulate those flyers from Dell which clearly show both prices for business and private customers.

Through The Grapevine may not be doing anything illegal but really it is a bit cheesy to say the least and you don’t need people like that in your life. Puh.

El Coto Crianza

Oh and apart from all that, the corporate or private shopper may do better elsewhere anyway. Last time I compared, Through The Grapevine listed El Coto De Rioja Crianza 2004/05 as €120 for a 6-bottle case. Add in €25.80  in VAT and the total comes to €145.80, meaning you’re stumping up over €24 every time you brandish your corkscrew. A high-end premium wine then? Break it out for special occasions?

Well hang on, look up another site,  www.karwigwines.ie, and there it is, El Coto Crianza [not to be confused with the Gran Reserva] the same wine for €14.15 a bottle straight up, VAT included. Delivery is free if you buy the right quantity. And even if you’re buying less than that, the €9.50 delivery charge is swallowed up by the 5% case discount  or the 10% discount on orders worth more than €200.

The point is — tame your credulity and shop around. If you’ve any comments or questions, please drop me a line at blake[dot]creedon[at]examiner.ie. ♦

AUTHORITATIVE