Blog

Archive for Blog

LIDL FRENCH WINE OFFER – WHITE WINES

Image 11Lidl recently held a tasting of their next French offer, that will start on 22nd February. The offer will be smaller in size than Christmas or September, but there were some good wines. Red Wines tomorrow.

From the white wines my picks would include the following. The first two would be good for everyday drinking.

Alsace Pinot Blanc 2014 €9.99 – decent well-made crisp dry white wine.

Alsace Riesling 2014 €9.99 – a good crisp dry wine with clean green apple fruits.

Bourgogne Hautes-Côtes de Nuits 2014 €12.99 – some nice pears and a thirst-quenching stony minerality.

Bourgogne Montagny 2014 €14.99 – a little more fruit than the Burgundy above. Pleasant pears and white fruits, with a cleansing acidity.

Image 12

Posted in: Blog

Leave a Comment (0) →

Battle of the Pinots

We managed to make serious inroads into my Pinot collection last night. We had the Pike & Joyce first as it was the lightest, and a little too delicate for the roast shoulder of lamb that followed.
IMG_4308
Pike & Joyce 2013 Rapide Pinot Noir, Adelaide Hills, Australia
14%

Light easy and refreshing with good pure summer fruits – a very decent Pinot, probably best served cool when the temperature increases a little. A very tasty £12.75 or €18.95 from jnwine.

Ara Resolute Pinot Noir 2012, Marlkborough, New Zealand

Smokier with toasty oak flavours alongside layered rich spicy sweet plums. Powerful but silky fruit; I reckon this will improve still further. €29.99, imported by Grape Expectations.

Framingham F-series Pinot Noir 2008, Marlborough

14.5%

Rich and deep, maturing nicely with a lovely mineral core, great intensity and very good length. Black cherries with a savoury herbal note; delicious now but no rush to drink up. From Le Caveau at a very reasonable €27.90.

Felton Road Bannockburn Pinot Noir 2014 Central Otago
14%

Felton Road is one of the leading producers of Pinot Noir in New Zealand. Nigel Greening and winemaker Blair Walter are responsible for a series of well-crafted ageworthy biodynamically produced wines. The 2014 Bannockburn was closed at first but opened out nicely. Violets and black cherries on the nose and palate with supple soft easy youthful fruits, good acidity and a nice finish. Lovely wine. €33 from jnwine.

Posted in: Blog

Leave a Comment (0) →

Staff Party

One of the disadvantages of being self-employed is you don’t get to go to work parties; or maybe that is a benefit? Feeling slightly sorry for myself, I invited Joe Breen, a friend and my predecessor in the Irish Times wine column, around for our own staff party – lunch in my house. As we were eating a small roast of lamb followed by some cheese, I decided to open two Cabernets. Both were magnificent, and we spent a very happy afternoon righting the wrongs of the world over two delicious and very different wines.

DSCF6339

Ch. Léoville-Barton 1996, St. Julien

Ch. Léoville-Barton has always been one of my favourite wines of Bordeaux. The Barton family have remained true to the traditional more elegant style of claret, resisting the temptation to bump up the ripeness, alcohol and new oak to please some sectors of the market. They have also been restrained in their pricing; both Langoa and Léoville-Barton remain relative bargains when compared to their peers. The result is beautifully made restrained wines at affordable prices.

I have tasted the 1996 Léoville a number of times with mixed results. A few bottles have been distinctly barnyardy, but others were much better. This was one of the best bottles. Fully mature, with a wonderful fragrance and elegant blackcurrant, mint and cigar box. Classic St. Julien. Good length and still very much all there. It did not fade at all over three hours. A real treat.

Isole e Olena Collezione Privata Cabernet Sauvignon 2008 IGT Toscana

Isole e Olena is one of the greatest producers of Chianti Classico. Paulo di Marche also makes a few excellent varietal wines, including this Cabernet. It was an excellent wine, certainly superior to most of the rival Cabernet-based ‘super-Tuscans’ that I have tasted over the years.

A puppy when tasted alongside the Léoville-Barton, but this is a magnificent wine. Tight and tannic with masses of firm ripe dark berry fruits (and a healthy 14.5% alcohol) this needed the lamb to provide a foil for the tannins. It opened out beautifully over the course of a few hours.

Posted in: Blog

Leave a Comment (0) →

BERTHA’S REVENGE – a great new small batch Irish Milk Gin

150702-BHSCLtd-0al
Gin is enjoying a boom in Ireland almost on a par with that of whiskey, the key difference being that whiskey takes a minimum of three years to produce, whereas you can make gin in twenty four hours. Many of the new whiskey producers are offering gin (or poitín) as a means of financing their business until the whiskey is ready. Others are specializing in gin. Shortcross in Northern Ireland, Blackwater in Cappoquin, and Highbank in Co. Kilkenny all produce very good examples. They have been joined recently by Bertha’s Revenge. Bertha was the world’s oldest cow, a native of Sneem in Cork; she passed away in 1993 aged 48 years, having given birth to 39 calves. Her Revenge takes the form of a gin distilled from whey, gathered from local dairy farmers.

At the moment Bertha’s Revenge is made at Blackwater, but in the future it will be distilled in Ballyvolane House, a luxury guest house close to Fermoy in east Cork. The gin is the brainwave of proprietor Justin Green and a friend, Antony Jackson. Unlike some gin producers, they are quite open about the ingredients used in their gin, in this case, coriander, bitter orange, grapefruit, lemon, lime, liquorice, orris ( made from iris root before you look it up), angelica, cinnamon, cloves, cumin, almond, elderflower, alexanders, and sweet woodruff. Oh, and childish enthusiasm, love and laughter are all listed as ingredients!

IMG_0124

I liked Bertha’s Revenge a lot; it is a smooth, quite subtle gin with restrained juniper alongside notes of fresh orange peel and coriander and a lovely long spicy finish. I tried it with a drop of water, which was delicious, as well as in a beautifully textured martini and a gin and tonic. They also have a crab apple gin and a sloe gin being made ready for January.

Berthas Revenge social 03

Posted in: Blog

Leave a Comment (0) →

Turkish wines and fine Syrah.

DSCF6284Saint Joseph Cuvée du Papy 2013, Domaine du Monteillet
13%

Stéphane Montez is a talented winemaker based in the Northern Rhône. I am a big fan of his inexpensive white and red wines, so I was delighted to receive a sample of the above wine, made from the oldest parcels of Syrah grown on granitic soils, and then aged in demi-muids for two years. St. Joseph generally offers great value for money, with plenty of really good red wines between €20-30. 2013 was a mixed vintage in the Northern Rhône, but I would have no hesitation buying this wine. Fragrant and elegant with very fine harmonious black cherry and damson fruits, this is ready to drink now although another year or two might improve it further. I Coravined (is that a verb?) my bottle and will return to it this weekend. Sadly the importer has sold out of this wine, but I understand both Redmond’s in Ranelagh and Green Man Wines in Terenure have it for sale at €36.95. In fine wine terms, this represents very good value.

DSCF6261Carignan Premium Old Vines 2014, Côtes Catalanes
€10
Supervalu

Carignan does not have a great reputation. In her book The Oxford Companion to Wine, Jancis Robinson says ‘it is high in everything – acidity, tannins, colour, bitterness – but finesse and charm.’ Yet this was once the most widely planted grape variety in the Languedoc-Roussillon, itself the biggest vineyard in the world. Why? Well because it gave a massive crop of grapes, which in a market not very interested in quality, meant economic success. Derided for years as barely drinkable, more recently a few producers have shown that old vines grown in good sites can produce amazingly good wine. Hence the Premium Old Vines title above. My own favourite is Domaine d’Aupilhac, available from the Wicklow Wine Company. The wine above is made from very ancient vines planted in the Roussillon, close to the Spanish border. It is deliciously simple and fruity, with a smooth finish. Perfect for large dinner parties where volume is required.

Tasting wine from Turkey.
DSCF6326
Turkish Airlines held a wine tasting earlier this week. In fact it turned out to be more of a Christmas party for travel writers at the Turkish restaurant Keshk on Mespil Road. The food was very good. It was preceded by a somewhat hurried tasting and presentation by Gözdem Gürbüzatik of Kayra winery. I sat beside her over lunch and found her full of interesting information both on Turkish wines and the difficulties Turkey is going through at present. Who knew that Turkey is one of the world’s largest grape producers, but sadly only 2% goes into making wine? The rest become raisins or table grapes. Turkey vies with the U.S. to be the world’s largest producer of raisins.

Thankfully Gürbüzatik decided to concentrate on indigenous Turkish varieties, leaving the Chardonnay, Viognier, Syrah and Cabernet for another time. Instead we tried Narince, Kalecik, Karsai, öküzgozü and Bogazkeri. We tried six wines, two of which I thought were very good, two ok and two falling into the ‘interesting’ category. Should they become available in Ireland I will certainly give more comprehensive notes on each wine. If you go to one of the resorts in Turkey this year, I would certainly try out the refreshing white Narince and reds made from Oküzgözü. Kayra seem a well-equipped modern producer with vineyards in several regions of Turkey. They even have a consultant winemaker called Daniel O’Donnell!

Posted in: Blog

Leave a Comment (0) →

My week in wine (and other drinks)

I drank some very good wines this week. The highlight was the Brunello di Montalcino Reserva 2000 from Col d’Orcia, but a seven year old Beaujolais provided the nicest surprise. I went to the Tesco press tasting, which I found disappointing, as I had with Aldi the week before; lots of clean, correctly made wines, lots of big names like Chablis and Châteauneuf but very little to get excited about. A few euros more really does buy you a lot.
DSCF6276

The Black Boar Imperial Oatmeal Stout
This is made by the White Hag Irish Brewing Company, who are based in Sligo, and appeared in my Irish Times online article Take it Home. The company is uncompromising in its attitude ‘We don’t do an accessible red ale, stout and lager like most of the others. Our beers are big and bold, American style made using Irish ingredients where possible. We have a heather ale made without any hops. Our water comes from a bog and is very soft, ideal for stout. It doesn’t have to be treated, filtered or pasteurised.’ So said Joe Kearns, the brewer.

The Imperial stout was textured and packed full of flavour. I sipped a glass slowly one evening. Big (10.2% but never burns), bold and full of roasted barley and dark chocolate, with a lovely smooth texture, this demands careful contemplation on cold winter nights.

Image 2
Joe Kearns, brewer at The White Hag

Moulin-a-Vent Les Trois Roches 2008
Pierre-Marie Chermette, Domaine du Vissoux

That’s right, 2008. I had read reviews waxing lyrical about aged bottles of the above wine. As they are one of my favourite producers, I laid down three bottles five years ago. This was the first I have tried. Moulin-a-Vent has a reputation for ageing but I have only every tried old bottles on a few occasions. It was delicious, light and elegant, very Pinot in style, with wonderful aromas and delicate sweet fruits. The current vintage is available from www.terroirs.ie for €29.50.

Domaine de Sainte Marthe Syrah 2014 IGP Pays d’Oc

This is a wine I have followed for many years, and was once responsible for importing it into Ireland. It is made by the Bonfils family who own twenty estates in the Languedoc and another three in Bordeaux. Generally they make good quality modern wines. The Syrah is a very attractive smooth medium-bodied wine and excellent value at €10.50 from Dunnes Stores. One to cheer you up on a wet Wednesday.
DSCF6279

Copain “Tous Ensemble” Pinot Noir 2013
Anderson Valley, California

My sister Frances, who works as a chef in San Francisco, always brings me back an interesting bottle or two on trips home. This wine is from the cool Anderson valley north of the Napa and Sonoma Valleys. I travelled up there with Frances a decade or so ago, and loved the wild countryside and the laid-back winemakers. I remember a great visit to Navarro winery who mades some lovely wines and a very good verjus. We also visited Louis Roederer who have their highly successful American sparking wine operation here. Sadly very little gets over here to Europe.

This Pinot was light, juicy and very moreish with lovely succulent vibrant sweet cherry fruits. 12.5%. It is priced at $28 on their website. If only we could get more like this in Ireland.
DSCF6269

Brunello di Montalcino Riserva 2000, Col d’Orcia

I was fortunate to drink this at a corporate dinner with a leading firm of solicitors – I was doing the talking. It was an enjoyable evening with some great wines and some very knowledgeable solicitors.

I have never really ‘got’ Brunello, or at least the prices they charge. A few years ago, I spent a day tasting with Erin O’Keefe, Boston-Irish author of a great book on the subject, simply titled ‘Brunello di Montalcino’ published by University of California Press I felt I had advanced my knowledge if not my appreciation. We tasted the modern pumped up oaky sweet versions, which could have come from anywhere, and some deeply tannic, acidic young wines that really needed time. O’Keefe said they would eventually become almost Pinot-like with a cool savoury fragrance and elegant fruit. How right she was!

These magnums of Brunello were superb; the Riesrva is made from a single vineyard, Poggio al Vento, which in good years is released as a single vineyard wine. Pale in colour with quite delicate leafy mushroom aromas with some red fruits; the wine was fully mature with piquant red fruits underpinned by good acidity and light tannins on the finish. Very good with beef.

000qgsn03ldgr_375x500

Posted in: Blog

Leave a Comment (0) →

Jean-Claude Ramonet at Kelly’s Resort Hotel, Rosslare

The name Ramonet is revered amongst wine drinkers the world over. Recognised as one of the greatest producers of Chardonnay, his wines are sought after and fought over by collectors everywhere. An invitation to a tasting of his wines was therefore not to be missed. I had been to a spectacular tasting of his wines some years before in Kelly’s, so I knew what was in store.

A word about Kelly’s Resort Hotel in Rosslare, Co. Wexford and Bill Kelly. Bill married into the Avril family, proprietors of Clos des Papes in Châteauneuf-du-Pape. This provided him with an introduction to some of the finest estates in France and elsewhere. He now imports a large proportion of the hotel’s wines directly from the producer. His list is therefore quite incredible, and amazingly well-priced. I know wine-lovers who travel to Rosslare simply to enjoy the wines and food at very reasonable prices. Looking at the wine list in the bar, I saw Bourgogne Rouge from Rougeot, Mortet, and Benjamin LeRoux (who visited here last year), all at around €35.
IMG_4147
Jean Claude Ramonet is a modest man, a little ill at ease giving tastings in a formal setting; I hear his cellar tastings are a very different affair. He struck me as a very pleasant man, in many ways still a traditional farmer, and someone who wears his knowledge lightly. I enjoyed his company over dinner later that night, where we drank the red Chassagne Clos de la Boudriotte 2012. It was a wonderful light refreshing wine; gouyelant I think the French would say. He was accompanied by his daughter, Ann-France who is studying in Bordeaux University.
IMG_4135
Ramonet has 22 hectares of vines in Chassagne-Montrachet and Puligny-Montrachet, including small holdings in Bienvenue-Batard-Montrachet and Le Montrachet. He produces no less than 27 different wines each year. The average age of his vines is forty years. His grandfather arrived in Burgundy in the late 1920’s and gradually built up the estate. He runs the domaine together with his brother Noel, who looks after exports. The winemaking is deceptively simple, and sounds the same as you hear at every Burgundy cellar door. The result are not; I have yet to taste a disappointing wine from Ramonet, and most of the wines are superb. If you ever get the chance to try a bottle, don’t miss it.

We tasted the following wines:
IMG_4142

Bourgogne Blanc 2012 – made from vines within Chassagne, a delicious lively young wine with plump elegant fruits.

Chassagne-Montrachet 2012 – a clean fresh nose with herbs; lovely purity of fruit, nervy and long. Delicious wine and a definite step up the ladder.

Puligny-Montrachet 2012 – a little broader and richer on the nose, with a lovely cleansing minerality on the palate alongside some succulent pure fruits. Excellent.

Chassagne-Montrachet 1er cru Clos de la Boudriotte 2012 – 30% new French oak, although you don’t taste it, from a one hectare plot of 30 year-old vines. Classic Chassagne with wet stones, rich melon fruits and real power. Delicious.

Bienvenue-Batard-Montrachet 2009 – 1,500 bottles made. Wonderful honey and honeycomb on nose and palate, big and powerful with excellent concentration and length. Superb wine.

Chassagne-Montrachet 1er cru Les Chaumes 2004 – excellent mature white Burgundy. Waxy nose with developed palate of grilled nuts, old cupbaords and a creamy texture.

Le Montrachet 2010 – tried later that evening, a memorable treat. Huge young concentrated fruit with honey, acacia, and subtle new oak. Mouth-coating and textured but perfectly balanced. I would love to try it again in a decade.

Posted in: Blog

Leave a Comment (0) →

Wilson On Wine 2016

My new wine book is now out and should be available in a bookshop near you – two weeks earlier this year. I have lined up a number of tastings/signings including the following:

Monday 26th Dinner at Ballymaloe House. Places still available I think.
Tuesday 27th Tasting at 64wine.
Thursday 29th Spit tasting in Smock Alley – see spit.ie for details.
Friday 13th & Saturday 14th – O’Briens Wine Fair, Mansion House
Tuesday 24th Green Man Wines, Terenure
Wednesday 25th – O’Briens Beacon, Sandyford
Friday 27th Mitchell & Sons chq
Saturday 28th Baggot Street Wines
Friday 4th La Touche Wines Greystones
Saturday 5th 64wine Glasthule
Friday 18th Clontarf Wines
Sunday 20th La Touche Greystones

… and many others still to be finalised. Most are drop-in events, so feel free to come along and taste a few wines.

Image

Posted in: Blog

Leave a Comment (0) →

A Tale of Three Burgundies

A Tale of Three Burgundies

DSCF6102

This week has been full of Pinot Noir, always a good thing in my book. First up I drank a bottle of Burgundy from what I grandiosely call my cellar (otherwise known as the wine rack in the bathroom) alongside two supermarket Burgundies. The next day, I tried a Pinot from the Languedoc with a very hip presentation and an Australian back-label. Then the fascinating Nigel Greening of Felton Road arrived in Ireland for a tasting and talk. His Pinots are amongst the very best in New Zealand, and he is genuinely interesting to listen to. More about Felton Road in the future; today the three French Pinots.

Côtes de Beaune Villages 2013 Louis Soufflot
12.5%
€14.99
Aldi

Light, slightly scrawny redcurrant and cherry fruits with good acidity and a clean finish. I drank mine with salmon, and the following night, roast chicken, rather than the suggested partner of roast lamb. I think I got it right. I won’t pretend that this Côtes de Beaune tastes as good as one of the better domaine wines under the same name, but there is very little drinkable red Burgundy available for less than €15, and this was pretty tasty.

Mercurey 2013 André Goichot
12.5%
€18 down from €22
SuperValu

Tasted a little forced with a sweet spiciness and rough riper fruit. Not bad, but I preferred the fresh acidity and light fruit of the Côtes de Beaune. Also at €18 you can get some pretty good Bourgogne Rouge, such as the Domaine Cacheux (see The Irish Times) and the J.Regnaudot from Le Caveau. However, most of the bottle disappeared.

Bourgogne 2011 Domaine Guillot-Broux
12.5%
€23
Cabot & Co., Westport; On the Grapevine, Dalkey

From his organic domaine in the Mâcon region (Mâcon-Lugny in fact), Emmanuel Guillot Broux produces a series of excellent light refreshing red and white wines. The top Chardonnay (Mâcon-Cruzille Les Genèvrières) is stunning. I also love the Bourgogne Rouge, always brimming with crunchy wild fruits, and dark cherries. I suspect the above retailers have moved on to the 2013 vintage by now – I would certainly give it a try.

DSCF5879Bertaine & Fils Pinot Noir 2014, IGP Vallée de l’Aude
12.5%
€16
Ennis Gourmet Store, Co. Clare; Green Man Wines, Terenure.

Delicious go-go juice with very light cherry fruits, an earthy touch and a clean finish. Perfect drunk solo or with all sorts of lighter foods. This is a selection made by an Australian company that ships various French wines over to Oz. It is imported here by food distributor La Rousse, who have built up an impressive list of wines. This is nice wine, nicely packaged.

Posted in: Blog

Leave a Comment (0) →

FINDING WINE IN LONDON

DSCF6096

I just came across this handy map in a pile of papers that somehow never got filed. One day I’ll get organized. It was given to me by UK journalist Matt Walls while we were on a trip together earlier this year. It has a two-sided map showing all the best wine bars and shops around London. Alternatively he edited an app called The London Wine Guide – several friends have used both and given them the thumbs up. If you are traveling to London over the next few months, this could save you a lot of time and effort.

See www.bluecrowmedia.com for further details.
DSCF6097

Posted in: Blog

Leave a Comment (0) →
Page 12 of 17 «...1011121314...»