Mixed feelings  — I got ’em. I’ve wound up my wine, beer and cider columns in the Irish Examiner Weekend and the final ones appeared on Saturday October 20.

Hello…

More to the point, I hope you will join me in offering a hearty welcome to Leslie Williams who begins fresh new drinks columns in the Irish Examiner on Saturday, October 27. His survey of what’s what on the drinks shelves kicks off with his pick of the best from the National Off-Licence Association Gold Star Awards.

Thank you.

° Thank you to everyone who has read my columns, and to those who have responded with complaints or compliments, tips and suggestions.
° Thank you to the importers, distributors, retailers and PR people for supplying samples, pictures, information – and especially tasting opportunities.
° Thank you to groups as diverse as the Sexual Violence Centre, Cork Skeptics and St Luke’s ICA for hosting me at events where I attempted to help unwind the true qualities of our drinks from the sometimes misleading reputations that surround them.
° Most of all, I am indebted to the Irish Examiner’s editor Tim Vaughan and features editor Vickie Maye – and her predecessor, Fionnuala Quinlan – for giving me the freedom to explore this fascinating topic. It has been a privilege and a pleasure and I hope at least some of that enthusiasm has rubbed off on readers.

Not only are open-ended ‘silent’ wine tastings vital for any decent wine firm – they can be invaluable to us consumers too. Picture: Blake Creedon.

♦ Earlier this year I decided to bring to an end my regular columns about wine and beer in the Irish Examiner Weekend. It wasn’t a sudden epiphany — I had been coming to the conclusion that it was reaching the end of its usefulness. There’s also a practical purpose. I wanted to scale back, for now at least, my working week: Of the various things I do, these columns were the most neatly discrete component and thus the easiest to excise. And so they had to go.

It’s only when you shed the values imposed by branding that you get a feel for how good your beer really is.

♦ So here ends my affection for wine and beer? Eh… Hardly! I am hoping to continue doing as an amateur one of the things I’d been doing as a pro… I wasn’t joking all those times I recommended readers to go check out open-ended tastings. Seriously. When you begin to actively sniff and taste and compare wines a few dozen at a time, you step into another world. It’s a bit like sending your nose to the movies. To this end, I’ve requested drinks businesses to keep me on their mailing lists for non-tutored tastings. As some bloggers will know, for some time I’ve been encouraging bloggers to get themselves invited to such trade & media  tastings, and encouraging wine businesses to invite them – so at least I am being consistent.

♦ I am now tidying up the loose ends on this blog — firstly removing every instance of the now-redundant claim to be be the Irish Examiner’s wine columnist. In a week or two I will also be posting a few things which may be useful resource but which I hadn’t time to fire up recently.

♦ Apart from such voluntary bits and pieces, I don’t plan to recommence writing in any capacity in the near future. Nor will I be looking for work of any kind with any drinks business. I remain working at various roles in the backroom of the Irish Examiner.

♦ In only one way has dropping these columns been easy.  I believe I’ve been most useful as a map, assisting readers get a sense of the lay of the land, rather than as a signpost, directing them towards specific recommendations. Yes I do believe there is value in the latter, and stand over every bottle I’ve ever highlighted.  However, I think we are far too eager to hand our sovereignty over to whatever credible-sounding authority figure is currently at large — with ultimately disastrous results, as will be obvious to anyone observing the Irish economy, abuse cover-ups etc. What’s on your dining room table is hardly as grave an issue as those — but it does spring from the same credulity-versus-sovereignty spectrum. And feedback suggests I may not have been nudging readers towards a more sceptical outlook as much as I’d have liked. If I do lunge back into the field of taste again, that’s the area I’ll want to address.

♦ But enough about me. Columnists come and columnists go. Big deal. One party-goer may have leapt into a taxi wearing a lampshade on his head and zoomed into the night – but the party is only getting started back at the Irish Examiner Weekend where Leslie is wielding the corkscrew.

♦ While this post necessarily has dwelt on other details I’ll finish for now with the reminder that really it should all be about fun and flavour. I hope you will always have good quality and value-for-money stuff in your glass. Because you’re worth it.

I trust this post answers any questions you may have but if it doesn’t please drop me an email at blake.creedon@examiner.ie. ♦

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Click for details of Deveney’s festival, one of the events exploring Irish and international beers.

Wine, beer, cider and food are on the menu at all sorts of public events coming up all over Ireland – from highly structured tutored tastings and dinners through to the open wander-aboutery of fairs and festivals..

Many of them are great value, and give us consumers an invaluable opportunity to sample what’s out there. As well as being fun, you could think of it as tastebud gym.

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I highlight any I hear of here and in my columns in the Irish Examiner in print and online. If you’re organising an event, please email what, when, where, how much etc to blake.creedon@examiner.ie and put “Events” in the subject line.

█ Fri Aug 31 – Italian night in Cork

Curious Wines kick off their incredibly busy season of courses, dinners and tastings with an Italian night from 5pm to 9pm at The Bowery on Tuckey Street in Cork. It’s hosted by Francesco Riccardi of  Borgo Magredo, one of whose proseccos I reckon is one of the best-value bubblies around.

It’s a packed programme so for now here’s just the first month’s worth.

█ Thu Sept 6 – Australian Night with Peter Perrin (Bleasdale) at
Meades 126, Oliver Plunkett St., Cork. 7pm to 10pm. Admission free.
█ Fri Sept 21 – McLaren Vale with Scott Collett (Woodstock) at
Hayfield Manor, Cork. 7.30pm-9.30pm. Tickets €15.
█ Thu Oct 4 – Tapas Night w/ Ivan Acebes García, Castelo de Medina at
Cafe Gusto, Washington St., Cork.  7.30pm-9.00pm. Admission free.
I’ll add the rest and more details later.  And see curiouswines.ie.
 

█ Wed Sept 5 – Winemaker Dinner at Donnybrook Fair

César Morales Navia, the oenological manager of Emiliana in Chile is the latest in a pretty illustrious list of winemakers to host a dinner at The Restaurant at Donnybrook Fair at 89, Morehampton Road, Dublin 4. Emiliana produces some outstanding wines, principally the biodynamic Coyam which I’ve occasionally enjoyed down the years. With a well-established nous for making good wines, including a growing acreage under organic and biodynamic grapes, Emiliana’s reputation has been heading in one direction only. Check them out yourself at stockists including O’Briens and independents, or in pleasant company with a good dinner in Donnybrook, all presented by César.

It takes place on Wednesday September 5 at 7.45pm. Book (€60 a head or €100 for two) on 01-6144849, by email at restaurant@donnybrookfair.ie or online if you click here.

█ Sept 5 to 8 – McGuigan City Vineyard, Dublin

From Wednesday to Saturday, McGuigan Wines present their bold and imaginative City Vineyard project in Dublin. Open daily from noon to 7pm, it consists of dozens of living vines transplanted to a temporary perch in Meeting House Square, Temple Bar, Dublin 2.

Also there will be members of the McGuigan family who will present tastings of quite a wide range of their wines. The family’s been in wine business for decades — first under the Penfold’s marque but more recently under their own name, building to their present status as one of the big brands on the market. They’re imported by Barry & Fitzwilliam who mainly sell their Black Label range into independents, and also by Tesco which sells a more extensive range.

The city vineyard is similar to wine dinners: to wine firms, it’s an opportunity for deep marketing; to us, it’s an unusual (and in this instance, unique) opportunity for wine-related fun. If you haven’t gotten round to visiting real working wine lands, this could be a fun and interesting introduction — I reckon it would be particularly attractive to wine fans and gardeners.

It’s free, and you can just turn up. But make sure you check the conditions beforehand on this website. For one thing, no-one under 18 is allowed in, and that includes babes in arms or in buggies. You might brush the hair too as they may be filming for broadcast, and turning up implies consent to being filmed. Also, such is the persistence of the internet, there’s still some incorrect info around the place – the vineyard has been moved from the site originally mooted, across the river at the IFSC.

█ Aug 30 to Sept 9 – Irish Craft Beer Week
█ Sept 7 to Sept 9 – Irish Craft Beer Festival

After its brief turn around the IFSC, the annual Irish Craft Beer Festival returns to RDS in Dublin from September 7 to 9.

Beoir Chorca Dhuibhne, one of the breweries pouring good beers and ciders from cask, keg and bottle at the RDS.

This year, the bash in Dublin is the culmination of the first Craft Beer Week when participating pubs, off-licences and restaurants nationwide will have special offers, tastings and expert talks on Irish craft beer. The website below has details of both the week and the weekend festival.

At the RDS event, more than 20 of our craft breweries and cider producers will be showcasing beers and ciders for you to taste. They’re joined this year for the first time by some guest breweries from out foreign — a brilliant move in my opinion, as I think it’s vital for beer fans and brewers alike to keep comparing notes with the wider beer world as we reinvent the traditions we nearly lost.

The whole effect at the RDS is a bit like an Irish take on a Bierhalle, complete with live music and artisan food stalls. At the time of writing, the Irish contingent comprises O’Hara’s, Dungarvan, White Gypsy, Eight Degrees, Trouble, Franciscan Well, Porter House, Dingle and Beoir Chorca Dhuibhne aka West Kerry Brewery. There may be more.

The festival returns to the RDS again this year.

Guest breweries include Sierra Nevada and Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale. And the night before the festival proper, there will be a beer and food pairing event exploring the character of Irish beers and the food they go best with.
█ Festival tickets start at €10 per day and you can get them at participating pubs and shops or at Ticketmaster.
█ Tickets for the beer and food pairing evening on September 6 are available directly from info@IrishCraftBeerFestival.com.
█ For more information on both the Irish Craft Beer Festival and Irish Craft Beer Week, see their website at IrishCraftBeerFestival.com.

█ Sun Sept 9 – Clare comes to East Cork

At 6pm on Sunday September 9 at Ballymaloe, Winemaker Dave Palmer, Skillogalee Wines, Clare Valley, South Australia, and Birgitta Curtin, Burren Smokehouse, Co Clare come together to present their respective wine and food under the title ‘It’s a long way from Clare to here – A Taste of Clare in East Cork’.  Get tickets (€18) and more information from 021 4652531,  colm@ballymaloe.ie or www.ballymaloe.ie.  Other events there include…

[] Sun Sept 16, 4.30pm – New Zealand winemakers Larry McKenna, Escarpment Wines, Martinborough & John Hancock, Trinity Hill Wines, Hawkes Bay present a tutored tasting of their wines (€15).
[] Thurs, Sept 27 – Margaret River experience – surfing on Shanagarry Strand and cricket with the East Cork Cricket Club, followed by wine tasting and food with Australian winemaker David Hohnen, Ted Berner’s Wildside fire-cooking, and music. €35 all in.

█ Sept 13 to 22* – Oktoberfest Beag, Cork

Kudos to whoever came up with the name. The annual event at the former Beamish & Crawford Brewery on South Main Street in Cork centres on Paulander, one of the six Munich breweries which host the original Oktoberfest in their home city. And compared to that blow-out, it is small (‘beag’ in Irish). But it’s not to be sneezed at either, being eight days of, well, beer, food and drindl-und-lederhosen-themed entertainment.

It’s €11 in, including booking fee, but you also have the option of reserving seats (which must be taken up by 7pm). For instance, the Gold ticket for €26 gets you in, two drink vouchers, a substantial dish and guaranteed seating. You need a minimum of six people to book a table.

We here in Ireland and Britain tend to associate the great German breweries with just one or two styles (such as hefe and kristall) but they typically make a whole spectrum including seasonal one-off brews. Happily, the choice in off-licences has been flowering. And events like Oktoberfest Beag provide a unique opportunity to try out a wider range. As of now, as well of course as wine and soft drinks, the website only mentions the special Paulaner Oktoberfest Bier, and Paulaner Weissebier. By the latter I presume they mean the one we’re most familar with, the naturally cloudy Hefe Weissbier Naturtrüb.  I expect though that Oktoberfest Beag will in fact run out a wider selection of Paulaner’s dozen or so brews. If so, don’t pass up the opportunity!

* The festival runs from Sept 13 to 22 with the exception of Tues and Wed Sept 18 and 19, when it’s closed. Opening hours are 5pm to 10pm each day, apart from both Saturdays when it opens an hour earlier. For more information, phone 0867248284 (9.30am to 5pm), email reservations@oktoberfestbeag.ie and see oktoberfestbeag.ie.

█ Sept 15 – Deveney’s Beer festival

Deveney’s are clearly trying to put me off the scent. Their fourth annual craft beer festival has a new name, new venue and new date – but I’m on to them, the rascals. It takes place this year at Pembroke Square in Dundrum Town Centre on Saturday September 15 from 2.30pm to 10pm. It’s ticket-only and, naturally, over-18s only but you knew that.

One of the early adopters promoting Irish and world craft beers on a large scale, they promise to have hundreds of craft beers from around the world on offer in the garden marquee, live music, and beer-friendly food from some of the best restaurants in the area including Siam Thai, Harvey Nichols, Cortina’s Mexican, Wagamama and, of course, The Port House. Tickets (€20) include a festival tankard; three beer vouchers and a festival booklet. Book now at www.beerfestival.ie or their blog; by phone on 01-2984288; or in 3-D by dropping into Deveney’s of Dundrum at 31, Main Street, Dundrum, D16.

You can also get tickets at these off-licences and wine shops – Redmond’s of Ranelagh; Deveney’s of Rathmines; Jus de Vin Portmarnock; The Corkscrew; McHugh’s on Malahide Road; The Vintry, Rathgar and Martin’s of Fairview.

█  Fri Sept 21– Beer club in Cork

Paddy Cullen at the No 21 Off-Licence on Coburg Street (at the foot of St Patrick’s Hill) in Cork is still mulling over which beers to sample at the next meeting of the No 21 Beer Club at 7pm on Sept 21.
To give you an idea of what they do, last time round it was a tutored tasting led by Phil Tavey of distributor Four Corners of six beers from the USA (Brooklyn Brewery and Magic Hat) and Scotland (Brewdog).

Get more info and make your own suggestions in store or by emailing Paddy at no21offlicence@gmail.com or on Twitter at @no21cork.

█ Sat Sept 22 – Wine fundamentals in Cork

L’Atitude 51 wine café is kicking off a series of Wine Fundamentals sessions in its beautiful  upstairs room overlooking the River Lee on four successive Saturday afternoons from September 22 at 3.30pm. The price per session is €25, or book all four for €90. You don’t need any prior knowledge to take part. Full details are in a PDF on their new website at  www.latitude51.ie, phone 021-2390219, email them at info@latitude51.ie or just drop in to l’Atitude 51, 1 Union Quay, Cork.

█ Wed Sept 26 – Glassware comparative tasting

The size and shape of your glass has an enormous influence on your wine. Really. There’s more about that over on this post including the reasons I’m more than happy with one range of glasses costing only a fiver a go. But if you can stretch to €60, I think you’ll enjoy and benefit from a glassware comparative tasting hosted by Riedel from 6.30pm at The Miele Gallery, Citywest, Dublin 24. The ticket price (€60 from Mitchells on 01 6125540 or www.mitchellandson.com) includes a Riedel Vinum tasting set which normally costs about €96 apparently.  ♦

█ Weekend beer fest

This weekend (Friday to Sunday August 24 to 26, 2012) an Irish Craft Beerfest takes place in Doolin, Co Clare. Participants include Carlow Brewing; Dungarvan; Eight Degrees; Franciscan Well; Stonewell Cider; Trouble Brewing; White Gypsy. Tickets €5 at the door. Larks and antics a-baa. For more, see their website at www.irishcraftbeerfestival.com.

A well-chosen line-up of rosés at O’Brien’s most recent tasting. Click it to see my review in the Irish Examiner.

While I was revising the list of shops, the thought struck me that, like the dog in the night-time, many wine business sites are interesting for what they don’t do. I’m thinking particularly of stores which don’t trade online at all.

While obviously not of direct relevance to someone who wants to shop online right now, the thought is germane to people interested in wine, which is why I’m starting with that footnote.

Many retailers, large and small, are missing a trick. I wish those trading only from physical shops would put their wines on the net in the same way as online shops do. Even though we customers obviously wouldn’t have the opportunity to click through to a till, I think the shops in question would benefit greatly from proffering that virtual shelf online. And we wine fans (and perhaps wine itself) would benefit setting such information free.

Certainly, an online placeholder might be of some use to a retailer – a rudimentary site with a store finder, opening hours, contact details etc. But by not showing the actual wines, such stores are passing up on the unique opportunity presented by the internet. Browsing a wine business’ site which doesn’t have a proper database of the wines it sells is like walking into a carefully planned shop designed by architects, laid out by professional display artists and  illumined by lighting engineers – but which doesn’t show what’s on sale nor how much it costs.

I’m thinking in particular of big retailers such as Dunnes, and franchises such as SuperValu and Carry-Out.

Often the nearest you’ll get to wine range is a PDF of the current ‘special offer’ leaflet – usually headlined by big brands (led by spirits and slabs of lager) thereby sidelining the store’s own exclusive wines. At best you’ll see only a handful of wines, rarely kept up to date and often without key specific information such as vintage. I’ve encountered cracking wines from all and would love to be able to point to a link on their sites. And so would other shoppers. Look around at social media where people are sharing hints and tips: Even a shop’s biggest fan really couldn’t be arsed putting up a link directing their friends to a site which essentially says ‘buy from us, we’re great’.   No, we want the specifics. What customers are saying online is “Got a great sauv blanc from WineCo – here’s a link with the details”.

And then there’s the search engines. Shops looking at search engine traffic will quickly discover that, in general, we aren’t searching for what the wine shop thinks of itself

award-winning red… delicious wine… small, family-owned winery… serving Ireland since 1922… you’ve tried the rest now buy the best… enjoy a drink in relaxing surroundings…

We’re far more likely to be looking for terms specific to us, such as

chenin blanc… cava… Bordeaux available in Mullingar… Chateau Wotsit 2011 half bottle…

We’re not landing on the vague sites. Or if we are, we’ll find little or nothing about what the store is selling right now.

For all the foregoing reasons, I hope wine shops, wholesalers and shoppers alike take a look at the first site here – even though it doesn’t actually sell wine.

www.searsons.com

Searsons has been in the wine trade for about 90 years, having bought into the Davy family’s 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.

Unlike the wine stores listed below, the site is not a click-and-buy, but rather 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 nationwide. Crucially, it also has the full name, rank and serial number (well ok, full name, appellation and vintage) of every wine. As it doesn’t sell directly, the site can’t of course tell you what the retail price is: that contract is between you and the retailer. But it does helpfully give an rrp (recommended retail price) for each. It workd as an excellent support for the independent retailers the company supplies, and a wine-finder resource for us.

There’s no such restriction on big non-online retailers, which could easily offer all the specifics and, for instance, update special offer and multiple-buy info with a few keystrokes. (Indeed there’s no reason such publicly available info couldn’t be integrated with their stock control system).

And franchises could just as easily emulate the wholesaler Searsons. Some have gone part of the way. For instance, the Carry-Out site has an excellent, well-organised interactive map of all its 50-plus franchises with full contact details. Yes there’s a special offer leaflet as described above. But no indication of its basic range.

That’s a pity. There’s nothing preventing all the franchisees agreeing to stock say a dozen or twenty basics, each in an agreed, tight price band. Suddenly anyone – bloggers, columnists, Facebookers, tweeters, TV radio pundits – could feel confident in saying ‘cracking pinot blanc in Carry-Out for €x’ knowing that it actually means something to anyone, anywhere in the country.

Now on to the online wine retailers proper, starting with the top six that I would choose first if I were buying wine for delivery right now.

Irish online wine shops

www.curiouswines.ie

Curious Wines is an exemplary, comprehensively searchable and informative website.

Between their participation in big tastings, and snapshot samplings of parts of their range (most recently a handful of discounted wines from Bordeaux and Spain) I’ve found the store offers many terrific, good value wines.

http://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. 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.obrienswine.ie

The growing off-licence chain (with stores all over Leinster plus one-off outposts in Galway, Limerick and now also in Douglas, Cork) has a winning wine selection, and is also a great one-stop shop, as it also stocks a wide range of good beers and ciders too. Their most recent tasting  confirmed again its expertise with an imaginative well-chosen range including some cracking good value.

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.simplywines.ie

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.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.

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.onthegrapevine.ie

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

Bordeaux, try rich ripe Chateau Rauzan-Despagne Bordeaux Reserve 2006, €15.50.

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.superquinn.ie

Extensive range. Delivers only in the Dublin area.

www.terroirs.ie

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

the wine store

www.thewinestore.ie

The retail wing of importer Tyrrell & Co is a multiple award-winning site focusing on wines from France, Spain and Italy and, in particular, the Rhône valley.

Finally, it’d be pretty understandable if you skipped the long footnote that I opened with. But it is worth thinking about if you get a chance. Information belongs to all of us, rather than being in the gift of some presumed elite. As Tim Berners-Lee tweeted during the recent inspirational Olympics opening ceremony, ‘this is for everyone’.  ♦

Beerfest

This weekend (Friday to Sunday August 24 to 26 2012) Irish Craft Beerfest takes place in Doolin, Co Clare.  Participants include Carlow Brewing; Dungarvan; Eight Degrees; Franciscan Well; Stonewell Cider; Trouble Brewing; White Gypsy. Tickets €5 at the door.  See http://www.irishcraftbeerfestival.com/

Meet the Winemaker

l’Atitude 51 on the corner of Anglesea St and Union Quay in Cork.

As part of their Meet the Winemaker  series, L’Atitude 51 on Union Quay in Cork is hosting a tasting on Wednesday August 22 at 6pm. It features wines from Domaine de L’Hortus in the Languedoc, presented by Yves Orliac, and accompanied by bite-sized versions of their French, Italian and Irish influenced cuisine.  Tickets are €12 from L’Atitude 51 on 021 2390219 or at info@latitude51.ie.

The wines are imported by one of Ireland’s longest-established quality online wine shop, Wines Direct. Coincidentally, I’ve been looking at the online presence of wine businesses and have updated a guide to shopping online over here.

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“Whipping The Herring…” at the Crawford gallery.

ONCE upon a time, the butchers’ apprentices of Cork used to mark Easter Sunday — and the end of a slack month of Lenten no-meat misery — with music, mirth and wild celebrations. The centrepiece involved attaching a herring to a long pole which was paraded around the city walls, affording the town’s urchins an opportunity to flake the bejaysus out of it like some piscine piñata.

The traditional Easter celebration used to take place in various parts of Ireland. It’s depicted in this small but delightful painting, Whipping The Herring Out of Town  (c1760) by Nathanial Grogan, in the collection of the Crawford Art Gallery on Emmet Place in Cork. The painting was featured in the exhibition at the Crawford, A Question of Attribution: The Arcadian Landscapes of Nathaniel Grogan and John Butts which ended on April 7, 2012.

The picture is so vivid you can almost hear the racket. I love the detail. One lad is drawing back his cudgel to take a swipe at the fish. I imagine the child staring at the spectacle is about to burst into tears, terrified by the mad procession bearing down on him. The woman at the lower left who seems to have been upended by a runaway dog (and is that a pig running alongside?) is pure Beryl Cook.

By the way, the arched building you see in the background is an accurate representation of the city’s south gate, which survives only in the name of South Gate Bridge. The first picture of the bridge on that Cork City Library link is Nat Grogan’s more sober daytime illustration, complete with one of his signature flourishes, a romantic John Hinde-style overhanging tree, on the right hand side.

Apart from the river and the bridge, it doesn’t look much like today’s view. To orient yourself in that picture, you’re looking East from the intersection of Proby’s Quay, Crosse’s Green and French’s Quay — with St Fin Barre’s Cathedral behind you, and the Quay Co-Op on the right, further along the river. Yes, I will post a pic.

The Irish tradition depicted by Grogan reminds me of a Spanish custom which still takes place each year at the start of Lent. Around 1810, Goya recorded on canvas the Burial Of The Sardine parade in Madrid. The Wikipedia entry here includes a photo of the painting.  Well worth a look.

And for good measure you can find out more about Grogan and his picture of Cork’s whipping the herring tradition here on www.crawfordartgallery.ie. ♦

There’s another novelty about Angel: it’s a cleanskin. That is, the label doesn’t name the brewery in which it was made. It does say it was brewed in Cork though, so that narrows it down a bit and I can only think of one likely candidate.  While many cleanskins are own-label (where an existing product is rebranded in new packaging) Angel Stout seems to have been commissioned and made specifically for the people behind Elbow Lane.

It’s being marketed by two restaurants in Cork — the Castle Café at Blackrock Castle and Market Lane on Oliver Plunkett Street. At first I thought it was only going to be available in those places, but it turns out it’s also stocked by Bradley’s on North Main Street, which is apt as that shop is one of Cork’s two astonishingly comprehensive beer collections, the other being The Abbot’s Ale House on Devonshire Street North across the river from the Opera House. I’m not sure if the latter will also stock Angel. If they and further stockists are added, I’ll add that info here.

We’re more used to the cleanskin concept from the wine world, which is where the word comes from. For instance, once upon a time M&S didn’t disclose where their wines were made. Nowadays they do — to their advantage, I’d imagine, as there are some great names in tiny writing on back labels on their shelves. If I recall correctly, Aldi’s cracking O’Sheas Stout is also a clearskin – made by the aforementioned Carlow Brewing (aka O’Haras), a fact which I think isn’t disclosed on the label. Must check next time.

♦ Also today in The Irish Examiner Weekend, I’m picking out my highlights from a tasting through 50 or thereabouts wines at O’Briens. It was a pretty impressive tasting, and I’ll have to come back at a later date to a few more of those wines, as well as two interesting themes I just didn’t have room for in the column — namely ‘natural’ wines, and a whole lotta rosés. The latter requires a summer so that  might be on hold for quite a while. ♦

The show

Click here to view The Apprentice – English sparkling wine.

So is it about business? Or wine? Not quite. You could view the series as The Office staffed by volunteers or a fish-out-of-water sitcom with a cast of amateur method actors. The business challenge each week is the sit, while the com is provided by watching youngish, inexperienced people jump through hoops while subjected to outlandishly unrealistic constraints, all carefully edited for our slightly guilty viewing pleasure. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not dismissing the show, and it’s no Big Brother. I reckon The Apprentice could be a great experience – once you don’t mind coming across like a bit of a prat, which seems inevitable on much reality TV.

(If you’re not familiar with The Apprentice UK, it’s a weekly reality show in which contestants complete challenges set for them by entrepreneur Alan Sugar. A flock of camera crews film the contestants as they go about their antics – coming up with their plans, consulting with people who do know the field of business, and putting plans into action. The results are edited down to a package lasting perhaps 15 or 20 minutes. After this is screened, the contestants and Sugar are brought face-to-face in the ‘boardroom’ segment. Drawing on opinions of experts and the show’s in-house ‘aides’ who’ve accompanied the contestants, Sugar offers a pungent critique of each candidate before choosing one to eliminate with the catch-phrase ‘you’re fired’.)

And there’s comedy anguish aplenty.

For instance, one of the competing teams came up with the deathless slogan “Less fizz, more sparkle.” To my ears, this belongs to a genre of advertising prose that older readers may remember with a shudder: a calendar printed on an A3 card surrounded by adverts for pubs, chippers and taxi companies, each bearing some trite, gumpish legend. Enjoy a drink in relaxing surroundings. You’re tried the rest now buy the best. Less fizz more sparkle.

Two contestants are filmed stumbling around Tesco looking for the in-store wine connoisseur. Another of the contestants, Adam Corbally, is apparently pissed as a newt when interviewed after a wine tasting.

But for schadenfreude fans, the show’s highlight was surely the catastrophically, comically wrong advert depicting a bride gagging at the (presumably foreign) rubbish sparkling wine and declaiming this isn’t English Sparkling Wine she’d ordered. Boo. But the advert has a happy ending. Yay. Some guy proffering the desired porduct that no-one’s heard of. The whole thing is redolent of the hilariously amateurish, self-regarding and seller-oriented advertising pitches so mercilessly lampooned in Viz all those years ago. The ad on The Apprentice just about stopped short of saying “At last!!! An end to your lack of English Sparkling Wine misery!!”. It also scored a double by including a priceless tagline modelled on a horrific sexist trope along the lines of ‘what she needs is English sparkling wine’. Nudge nudge, wink wink.

The participants respond to Alan Sugar’s verdict.

So we conclude the contestants are thick? Big mistake. And unfair. While many episodes do seem to reveal some terribly naive misjudgments, I suspect it’s emphasised or even created by the programme planners (by the obstacles and time constraints on the contestants) and editors (for instance by deleting evidence of competence).

When Adam Corbally compared the taste of his sparkler to Christmas cake, Twitter erupted in derision. But hang on a minute. Let’s workshop this. Imagine someone who hasn’t tasted much wine, and now for the first time he’s coached to actively sniff it. Which he does. And he detects a vinous smell he associates with one particular vinous scent he is familiar with, a port-rich christmas cake…

I didn’t taste the bottle he tasted. I wasn’t there. But on the face of it, that soundbite sounds to me like an honest and I imagine a broadly accurate descriptor.  I’d be far less impressed with the guy if he’d parroted what he’d heard other people say. Or if he baulked, refusing to say what he thought, for fear of what others might think. As such, he seems to be doing precisely what I try to do, and what I advocate others to practise. On the evidence of that tiny clip, he appears to listen to what his nose and palate tell him, and reports it honestly. That right there – that’s what I want to see. If I’m right in my presumptions, he surpasses the professionals in France who were caught out a few years ago, describing the tannins in a white wine which had been dyed red. There’s every chance he’d excel as a sommelier if happenstance directed him that way, and he enjoyed a few years’ exposure to lots and lots of wines. I’d happily buy wine from him.

The Christmas cake scene lasted seconds. What was snipped out?  By any chance did his other comments display non-comedy competence? We don’t know.  And then there’s a cutaway to Sugar aide Karren Brady, smiling and shaking her head. She may have been smiling at that comment. Or she could just as easily have been filmed an hour earlier responding to a crew member making some silly gag. We don’t know.

Adam is later shown apparently drunk. At a wine tasting, you whizz through a great volume of wines in a short period, spitting out everything you sample. The spitting out thing doesn’t come naturally and has to be learnt.  So while it may look like he was irresponsibly drinking on the job, it may be that he hadn’t learned how to spit. Big deal.

The social media

For me though, one of the most interesting aspects of the whole experience was not in the programme itself but in responses on social media to it – for instance, the derision that greeted one team’s search for the sommelier in the wine aisle of Tesco. Many (most?) of such criticisms were spot on, pointing out that that’s simply not the way large volume stores work. But some of the comments seemed to be using the opportunity to take a lazy, snobbish pop at supermarkets such as Tesco and effectively the people shop in them.   Those big-volume stores do generally have wine experts working for them – but they’re to be found at head office, at tastings sessions, or visiting wineries, not manning the aisle. In supermarkets. You know, those (hint) self-service stores.

I could be mistaken but think I detected a subtext in some of the comments on social media: they seemed to me to support the oft-repeated calumny that wines sold in supermarkets are somehow ‘different’ and inferior to fancy-pants wine. They’re not: The supermarkets’ mission is to sell lots more of everything to a broader spread of the population than, say, specialist wine stores.

Tesco, Dunnes, Superquinn et al try to address a far broader band of people including, for instance, those who have to or want to shop primarily on price. Similarly, the big stores have to cater to popular tastes, many of which aren’t highly rated by sommeliers. But that range is broad in both directions,  and the supermarkets also sell some of the high-end, highly sought-after and expensive wines, just as the wine specialists do: Champagnes, cult winemakers, gran reservas.  Indeed sometimes they’re the same wines.

The wine

I do occasionally taste English sparkling wines – most recently in April of this year – and found almost all of them perfectly palatable and presentable. I’ve never highlighted any of them in my column, solely because they’re priced in the twenties, thirties and up. They’re lovely and all that but they’re just too dear. I reckon  there’s a niche market of people who have that kind of  money, don’t mind spending it. They are welcome to buy all of it, and I merrily raise a glass to them in the hope they enjoy it.

Which brings me, finally, to an interesting article here in the Daily Telegraph about English sparkling wines. It begins with an anecdote which yet again underlines one of the best-kept secrets in the wine world: Even after we’ve tried and judged a wine, our feelings toward it can be overruled by factors which have absolutely nothing to do with what our senses have told us. The power of suggestion – whether it’s on the label, in an ad, or in suggestions of wine salesperson – is astonishingly powerful, and because it broadly equates price with quality, it’s costing us money.

The Champagne myth is riddled throughout the media, and The Apprentice isn’t immune, right from the first act. The Eurostar terminal at St Pancras station in London, the voiceover breathlessly intones, has “the longest Champange bar in Europe” (meh) “boasting the finest French fizz”. Accompanied by a shot of some moodily-lit bottles including Perrier Jouet Belle Époque 1999. Here in Ireland it’s imported by Mitchells, and it’ll set you back €119. A bottle.

Ah no thanks lads, you’re grand. Really. Bye now.

In the anecdote in the Telegraph, the two factors are provenance and price. And the writer’s point remains true even when you broaden it beyond English wines. Just because a bubbly comes from Champagne and costs €20 or €100 doesn’t mean it’s as good as a well-made cava or Australian chardonnay pinot noir for a tenner. Overpriced wine, you’re FIRED!  ♦

The beer styles native to these islands are absolutely crucial to the Irish microbrewery boom. Yes, the types of beer which evolved on the mainland are certainly an important part of the mix — after all, the Franciscan Well, one of Ireland’s oldest brewpubs, made its name with a weissbier. But along with oh, you know, making a living, our small breweries are doing a great and barely celebrated service to our national cuisine by reviving and reinvigorating the beers characteristic of this corner of Europe. Mainly they’ve been exploring ales and stouts — but in this instance, a lovely bright, light little bitter.

Comeragh Challenger is also a moderate 3.8% alcohol so you can enjoy a few bottles — the perfect accompaniment to the surprise outburst of sunshine around some parts of the country. Hurrah for both, and hope it’s shining where you are. Pop over to Dungarvan Brewing Company’s website for a map and list of stockists nationwide. [Saturday, June 9, 2012]

Wine tastings and dinners – June 2012

Sadly I sometimes get information too late for inclusion over in the column in the Irish Examiner. If you’re hosting a beer tasting, wine dinner etc, please drop a line to blake.creedon@examiner.ie as soon as you confirm the date. Please put ‘events’ in the subject line. There’s no need to send menus, graphics etc – just an idea of what customers might expect, especially date and price, and perhaps also who’s involved, the number of courses etc.

[June 14] Italian class in Dublin

Liberty Wines, who are helping host the celebration at Fenn’s Quay above, are also behind this event on June 14 – a wine dinner with Giovanni Manetti of Tenuta Fontodi (Chianti Classico) at Ely Wine Bar, Ely Place, Dublin 2. Beginning at 6.45pm, it costs €65 per head and booking is open on 01-6768986. See http://www.elywinebar.ie/about/wine-apreciation/ely-wine-tastings/ for more.

[June 26] Spanish wine dinner in Donnybrook

Donnybrook Fair on the Morehampton Road, Dublin 2, is hosting a wine dinner on Tuesday June 26 7.30pm when Daniel Castano will present his wines from the Yecla denominación. It costs €60 per head or €100 per couple. Book now on 01-6144849 or email restaurant@donnybrookfair.ie.

[May 30] New Zealand wine dinner in Cork

Despite the warning at the end of investment adverts, I reckon past performance can sometimes be a useful indication of what to expect.

I’m not up to date on New Zealand’s Forrest Estate (imported by James Nicholson www.jnwine.com) – but my experience with their range prompts me to sit up and take notice any time they’re being poured. On Wednesday May 30 at 7pm, Annie’s Bar on Sunday’s Well in Cork, is hosting a New Zealand Wine & Dine Evening — a three-course dinner accompanied by wines made by Forrest Estate. (I believe the wines will be presented by someone from the winery, but I’m not sure who). The evening is a bargain at only €45 all told. Early booking, on 021-4398384, is essential.

The last time I tasted Forrest Estate’s wines, back in early 2009 – at the annual New Zealand wine tasting – I highlighted a remarkable three of their wines, along with other stars from the likes of Staete Landt, Glazebrook and Paddy Borthwick. To put it in context, that’s three out of what I reckoned to be the best dozen, having tasted perhaps 140 or 150 wines. (For the record, the ones I highlighted then were the Forrest Dry Riesling Marlborough 2006; Forrest Pinot Gris Marlborough 2007; Forrest Pinot Noir Marlborough 2005). But never mind them. History. Get along to an event in Cork this week to see what they’re pouring now.

[May 31] Celebrate a restaurant’s new wine list in Cork

On May 31 there will be a five-course wine dinner to launch the new wine list at Fenn’s Quay Restaurant, Cork. It promises to be a cracker as importers Liberty Wines, whose range is often featured in my column, are involved. Starting with an introductory wine tasting at 7.30 it’s only €45 per head. Book now on 021 427 9527.

Beaujolias in Cork

L’Atitude 51 is on the corner of Union Quay and Anglesea Street in Cork (the venue’s previous occupants range from Heaphy’s pub via The Lobby Bar to An Crúibín). The new occupants have been making quite a name for themselves. They’re making great use of the Vacuvin nitrogen system which permits any bar interested in doing so to maintain a significant wine list. As well as serving an extensive menu of interesting wines in varying sizes (so you can try a little of a few rather than a full glass of one) they’ve also introduced a dedicated wine tasting room upstairs.

l’Atitude 51 on the corner of Anglesea St and Union Quay in Cork.

Having already hosted events focused on New Zealand and the Rhône valley, they’re continuing with two further regions well worth exploring. On Thursday, May 10 (note the date, as some info in circulation about this event may be incorrect) they are hosting a Beaujolais tasting in association with Karwig’s Wines. Loic Teymond of Chateau de Chatelard which produces wines in the Fleurie, Moulin à Vent and Brouilly appellations, will present a tutored tasting of four of his wines

It takes place on Thursday May 10 from 7pm to 8.30pm. Tickets are €10 per person. Phone 021-2390219, mail them on info@latitude51.ie or click through to their website here www.latitude51.ie.

If you’re hosting a tasting event wine dinner, food festival etc open to the
public, please drop me an email about it as soon as you have the details.

Lebanese wine dinner at Star Anise in Cork

Star Anise on Bridge Street in Cork (www.staranise.ie; 021-4551635) is celebrating its 10th birthday this year and one of the events to mark it is a visit by Sami Ghosn from Massaya Wines in Lebanon’s Bekaa valley on Wednesday May 16. I can all but guarantee this will be a treat. Star Anise is top class in any circumstances. And while I need to catch up on their current vintages, Massaya has proved to be an outstanding producer: the menu on the night will include wines from the top ‘silver’ and ‘gold’ tiers of their range. After a sparkling wine reception, Sami will present a five-course dinner with matching wines for €65.

Many are surprised that wine is made in Lebanon at all. Well, that’s because we’ve very short memories: The Phoenicians – the forebears of the Lebanese people – introduced winemaking, probably from around Georgia and Turkey, to the region some 2,500 years ago, and went on to introduce this new-fangled technology to the Greeks and Romans. I’ve heard Sami speak about this ancient tradition, and about living and working in the recent past in that country, and it promises to be memorable evening.

The Riesling Revolution

The Grain Store at Ballymaloe, Co Cork from 7pm on Thursday May 17, 2012.
The world’s three great riesling regions are brought together for a unique tutored tasting. Join Carl Ehrhard (Rheingau, Germany) Tim Adams (Clare Valley, Australia) and Séverine Schlumberger (Alsace, France) for a tutored tasting exploring this great wine varietal. Book tickets (€25) on res@ballymaloe.ie or 021 4652531. For more information, contact Colm@Ballymaloe.ie or Ireland@wineaustralia.com.

Frankland River in Cork

On Wednesday May 23 (note the date as info circulated about this event earlier was incorrect) L’Atitude 51 will host a tasting of wines from the the Frankland River region of Western Australia in association with Wines Direct. Sandy and Rod Hallett of Alkoomi Wines will tutored tasting of six of their wines from 6.30pm to 8pm, and tickets cost €15 per person. Phone 021-2390219, mail them on info@latitude51.ie or click on their website here http://www.latitude51.ie. See the Beaujolias event above for more about the venue.

[June 7] Tasting the good life in East Cork

Today’s newspaper [Saturday May 29] comes with instructions as follows. Drive to nearest beach. Open the driver’s door and stick one leg out. Place newspaper over your head and nod off accompanied by the sports programme on the radio.

When you’re done with that, you might like to take a look at some of the delicious food and drink in the Weekend section. There’s a special feature by Joe McNamee on foraging for food; Darina Allen is championing offal such as liver and sweetbreads; Pól Ó Conghaile is dining out at The Copper Hen in Fenor, Co Waterford; Michelle Darmody is putting together a week’s worth of delicious meals from a single shopping trip; and, out in the garden, Donal Skehan is tending the vegetable plot.

As ever, I’m to be found hovering over by the drinks cabinet wondering if it’s wine o’clock yet, and kick things off by wishing a happy birthday to the Quay Co-Op on Sullivan’s Quay in Cork (www.quaycoop.com). Established in 1982, the worker’s co-operative has been providing resources and campaigning in a host of fields including feminist and LGBT issues. But it’s perhaps best known and loved by the people of Cork as a friendly wholefood shop and restaurant stuffed with all sorts of deliciousness. Many years ago when ‘local-and-in-season’ was neither popular nor profitable [© Flann O’Brien] diners at the Co-Op were tucking into delicious ice-cream made with milk from their own cow. That’s what I call traceability.

I picked up three of today’s featured wines at the Co-Op – all of them distributed in Ireland by Kenmare-based Mary Pawle Wines.

Mary is also behind a wine tasting event at the Grain Store, Ballymaloe, Co Cork on Thursday, Jun 7, at 7pm. Sunday Business Post wine columnist Tomás Clancy will be telling the tale of the ‘Wine Geese’, as featured in Ted Murphy’s book of the same name, the past and present generations of Irish people involved in winemaking around the world. Better again, his co-host will be winemaker and author Caroline Feely who, with her husband Sean, moved from Dublin seven years ago to Saussignac, a short hop from Bordeaux. That’s where they make highly-regarded organic and biodynamic wines at Chateau Haut-Garrigue. (www.hautgarrigue.com). The event costs €10, and there are special rates on accommodation. Contact Ballymaloe (021-4652531 or colm@ballymaloe.ie) to book or to get more information.

Buy directly from Mary Pawle Wines, Kenmare, Co Kerry (064-6641443) or online at www.marypawlewines.com.
Or buy from stockists she supplies including the following. Clare The Grainey, Scarriff. Cork O’Donovans; Quay Co-Op; Ballymaloe; Fields, Skibbereen; The Olive Branch, Clonakilty; Roaring Water, Schull; Organico, Bantry; Taste, Castletownbere; Manning’s, Ballylickey. Dublin Lilac Wines, Fairview; Liston’s, Camden St. Galway Morton’s; Connemara Hamper, Clifden. Limerick Nature’s Hand. Kerry Mannings, Killarney.

♦

http://www.winefoodbeer.com/

An oak barrel is fired at a cooperage in Ribera Del Duero, Spain. Picture: Blake Creedon

The flavour of lamb is really quite delicate, often augmented with savoury, sweet and bitter herbs and spices. Unlike beef, it doesn’t really beckon the astringent tannins you might find in a well-made cabernet merlot such as a Bordeaux. Take inspiration from the delicacy of the meat and its fragrance, and pair lamb with an elegant red. And one of the best quick one-stop-shops – good Spanish red. Generally it’ll be a tempranillo, often blended with other indigenous grapes such a graciano and mazuelo – and indeed sometimes with ‘international’ grapes, especially cabernet.

As I mention in the column, the character of tempranillo plus ageing in barrel and in bottle add up to one of the wonders of the wine world. While many countries in the new world permit their wine industries to throw around words like ‘reserva’ willy-nilly, this is serious business in Spain. There, the term really does mean something. The different Denominación de Origen (DO) regions of Spain have different rules but the broad outline of the ageing is as follows.

Joven (young) or Cosecha (literally ‘harvest’) wines are relatively rarely seen in Ireland — young, fresh, generally unwooded and unassuming. Roble (oak) is sometimes put on the label to signify that a young wine has spent some time in oak – but that it hasn’t spent sufficient time to qualify it for  the ageing system as follows…
Crianza literally means upbringing or breeding, and this is the rank at which you really see Spain’s super quality/value ratio. The wine will have spent at least six months in oak (or a year in the case of the Rioja and Ribera del Duero DOs. Be aware though that Sin Crianza means without such ageing.
Reserva is the next step up the scale. In the case of reds, the term means that the wine has spent at least three years ageing, at least one of which must have been in oak, imparting increasing complexity and colour to a wine. Rosado (rosé) and white reservas spend a shorter six months in a barrel and two years in a bottle.
Gran Reserva wines tend to be the top of a winery’s range, and only produced when they regard the vintage as particularly good. A red gran reserva will spend two years in wood with a further three long slow years maturing in the bottle. Whites and rosés get six months in barrels and four years in bottle.

While the longer-aged reds will often be luxuriantly complex, don’t presume a gran reserva will always be better than reserva or a crianza. In my experience tasting hundreds of Spanish wines side-by-side, the younger grades often achieve remarkable degree of subtlety.

One of the wines I recommend (a reserva at M&S) is a perfect example, being the middle tier of its range. At Lidl also, I’ve tasted a cheap-as-chips Joven which prejudice might suggest wouldn’t be worth looking at, but which my senses of smell, sight and taste suggest would be well worth putting on the dinner table.

Bear in mind personal taste. And shelf-life. While the longer-aged bottles are designed to be bought and enjoyed years or even decades after vintage, their lease isn’t limitless. Just like ourselves, they too will fade past their peak. And at any one time a less preposessing grade such as a crianza may outshine its posh gran reserva stablemate.

In-store tastings today in Carrigaline and Midleton

♦ Today (April 28, 2012) there are in-store tastings of Nugan Estate wines (including the super McLaren Parish Shiraz 2008 which I think is good enough value at its regular price of €17 but which is reduced now to €12) at the following venues.
SuperValu Midleton from noon to 3pm;
SuperValu Carrigaline from 3.30pm to 6pm.

♦  Also today (Saturday April 28) Chris Pfeiffer will introduce some of his wines, including a tremendous rich, sweet muscat that I love all day in Karwigs, Carrigaline.

Beer and curry in Lismore

On Friday April 27  O’Briens Chop House in Lismore, Co Waterford  is again presenting a four-course beer and curry feast in association with Green Saffron spices, and the Dungarvan and Eight Degrees breweries. It begins at 7:30pm and is topped and tailed by “homemade mango, chilli and ginger Bellini” (oh my) and chai to finish. €42.50 per person. Phone them on  058-53810 and see  obrienchophouse.ie.

Beerfest in Galway

The third annual Brewers On The Bay festival takes place in Oslo, Galway, on May 5 and 6.If you’ve visited this or similar events you’ll know the drill already – barbecue, music and the delicious beers being made by some of Ireland’s fine microbreweries. And if you haven’t dipped into such events yet, it’s about time you did. I’m shocked, shocked I tell ya, by the many people I meet who appreciate good food and wine but who are as yet oblivious to the revolution that’s been happening under our noses, solely because by habit they don’t associate beer with taste. Beer and cider are the wine of Ireland. And it’s time to take a hint from the url www.winefoodbeer.com and wake up and smell the hops.

At blind tastings, many consumers (the majority, I reckon) express a preference for crisp, fruity bubbly uncluttered, shall we say, by a certain yeasty breadiness commonly found in Champagne-style sparkling wines. Caused by the second fermentation in bottle, it’s prized by sommeliers and other wine aficionados who are used to tasting expensive sparklers.

But many of the rest of us find the flavour a bit intrusive. In part, this may be because many drinkers won’t have sensed it in any still wines, and it won’t be particularly pronounced in most good, approachably-priced sparklers. Indeed I believe many people actually misdiagnose it as a fault, linking it to not-entirely-dissimilar musty odours.

So consumers are wrong and must learn to like the bready style, spend more money ideally switch to expensive Champagne.  While the foregoing line is clearly a parody, it is not far from the way some people seem to think.  It is nonsense of course. Who’s in charge? You are, not some buff. Chacun à son goût. I don’t see why one person’s habituation (to bready styles) should trump another person’s (to clearer styles). And anyway, some people who do occasionally taste upmarket, bready, yeasty Champagnes prefer the less breadier styles. Me, for instance.

Mayne's is a new bar in a former chemist's shop

However, in small doses, I do find the effect delicious, offering a contrasting backbeat of grainy breadth to the acidity, adding an engaging and appetising extra dimension to your glass of bubbly. And that is a fair description of what I found in the Okhre Cava at last week’s tasting. I think it’s a terrific sparkling wine by any standards, and great value – but suggest you try one bottle before backing the car up to M&S and filling the boot. By the way, it turns out the branch nearest me (Merchant’s Quay in Cork) didn’t have this particular sparkler in stock on Friday. I expect they’ll have it back in again soon, and will amend this post when I know it’s back.

For now though, over here is a post about Arthur Mayne Pharmacist, a new wine bar in Cork with not one but two twists. And over here are the latest wine and beer tastings and dinners open to all.

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Moveable Feast at Brown Thomas

Searsons, one of Ireland’s old-skool family wine merchants has brilliantly made the transition into the 21st century. They’re hosting a smart wine dinner on Monday April 23 with not one but four chefs at Brown Thomas Dublin. Domini Kemp (The Restaurant at Brown Thomas), Ross Lewis (Chapter One), Paul Flynn (The Tannery) and Graham Neville (The Residence) is the all-star team preparing the five courses, each accompanied by wines from Searsons’ terrific list, presented by the highly entertaining Charles Searson. It kicks off with bubbly and canapés. At €120 per person it’s not cheap, but I reckon it’s really good value for what you’re getting. Book now on moveablefeast@brownthomas.ie.

If you’re involved in events related to beer, wine or cider, please email brief details to me as soon as you have them confirmed.  In general I get all of them onto this blog and /or my drinks columns in the Irish Examiner.  Thank you.

The Loire in Donnybrook

On Wednesday April 25, The Restaurant at Donnybrook Fair at 89 Morehampton Road, Dublin 4 presents a Loire evening in association with Tindal Wine Merchants. Paul-Henry Pelle will present his wines from the Sancerre and Menetou Salon appellations.  Book now (€60 per person / €100 for 2 people) on  01 614 4849 or at http://www.donnybrookfair.ie/therestaurant/winedinners

In-store tastings in Dublin, Carrigaline, Fermoy and Midleton

♦ On Thursday, April 26 from 6.30pm to 8.30pm at Baggot Street Wines (formerly Oddbins at 17 Upper Baggot St, Dublin 4, which was taken over and revived last year by a get-up-and-go team of former staff), Chris Pfeiffer will introduce some of his wines, including a tremendous rich, sweet muscat that I love. It’s free. Just turn up. Baggot Street Wines 17 Upr Baggot St Dublin 4. Phone 01-667-3033.
♦ And on Saturday April 28, Chris will be presenting his wines all day in Karwigs, Carrigaline.

♦ There are in-store tastings of Nugan Estate wines (including the super McLaren Parish Shiraz 2008 which I think is good enough value at its regular price of €17 but which is reduced now to €12) at the following venues.

Friday, April 27 – SuperValu Fermoy from 4pm to 7pm
Saturday April 28 –
SuperValu Midleton from noon to 3pm;
SuperValu Carrigaline from 3.30pm to 6pm.