Archive for Top Drop
14.5%
€21.99
Available from Redmond’s Ranelagh; Thewineshop.ie
The label says ‘delicate fruit aromas, fresh fruit flavours…an exceptionally elegant wine with soft rounded tannins’. Utter rubbish! This is a big tannic swarthy number with a backbone of steely minerals and firm, ripe, almost baked dark fruits. I like it a lot but you would certainly need food.
The last barbequed steak of the summer?
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€15.90
Available from Le Caveau, Kilkenny; Baggot Street Wines; Blackrock Cellar; 64 wine, Glasthule; Green Man Wines, Terenure.
Very nicely textured wine with subtle toast, grilled nuts and tasty ripe tropical fruits.
With lightly spicy chicken or prawns.
Chile produces some pretty good Chardonnay, but its not every day that a proprietor pulls you over to urge you to try one. But this happened to me recently, and I now know why; this is a very well-made wine with some real interest. As an aside, it is getting hard to find a Chardonnay with oaky flavours – all of the Aussies and Chileans seem to have gone down the lean and crisp route. It is nice to have a Dolly Parton every now and again, although this does not qualify. This wine is made by Frenchman Denis Duveau who sold his property in the Loire Valley and instead began advising producers in France and elsewhere. In 2002, he set up a winery in the Curico valley in Chile, determined to make terroir-driven organic wine. The Chardonnay stands out as something special.
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€17.50
Available from 64wine, Glasthule.
A fascinating and intriguing wine – warm, earthy and herby, with soft ripe red fruits – plush and rounded yet light and elegant at the same time. It tasted even better the next day.
I imagine something Italian and homely – sausages with lentils or beans
Allessandro Dettori, based on the island of Sardinia, is committed to non-interventionist natural wine making, using organic grapes, wild yeasts, ageing in cement tanks and using as little sulphur dioxide as possible. This is made from Cannonau, aka Grenache, something of a speciality in Sardinia. I am not a fan of all natural wines but I really enjoyed this a lot.
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13%
€19.99
Available from O’Briens
Also from O’Briens, the latest vintage of Etoile from James Kinglake of Domaine Begude. I am a big fan of his Le Bel Ange (great value at €12.99), but this Chardonnay is his finest wine yet. Impeccably balanced peach and orange fruits, with a touch of toasty oak, plush but refreshing with excellent length. A seriously good wine at a bargain price. I tried it alongside a very posh Puligny-Montrachet, both from the same vintage. At this stage the Etoile comfortably outclassed it at a third of the price.
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14%
€16.95
Available from Searsons Wine Merchants, Monkstown.
This is a young wine with real concentration and length; never too big or alcoholic, but full-bodied with masses of dark fruits and liquorice. Worth every penny.
Drink with substantial stews and casseroles or roast venison
Côtes du Rhône comes in all shapes and sizes; this vast area produces huge quantities of inexpensive glugging wine at very cheap prices. The more ambitious producers aim to make far better wines with real character, and charge a little more. Some offer great value. Domaine St. Gayan, with vineyards in the posher areas of Rasteau, Sablet and Châteauneuf-du-Pape, is one such producer.
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12%
€18
Available from On the Grapevine,Dalkey; Cabot & Co, Westport; One Pery Square, Limerick.
Fresh crisp Riesling with light exotic fruits – pineapple and peaches, with a good dry finish.
Sip before dinner or with crab salad.
I am reliably informed that this is what Dalkey is drinking this summer, and possibly Westport and Limerick too. I can only admire their good taste. Phillip Wittmann produces some of the finest wines in Germany from his small estate in the Rheinhessen. The top wines cost over €30 a bottle, so I usually go for his Trocken at around €22. This is new, an entry-level dry Riesling. A hügel is a hill, and nothing to do with those people in Alsace.
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Viognier 2013, Terre d’Eglantière Vignerons Ardechois, IGP Ardèche
14%
€16.95
Available from Red Island Wine, Skerries; Hole in the Wall, D7; Deveneys, Rathmines; The Wicklow Wine Co.
Sumptuous rich textured peach and apricot fruits overlaid with grilled nuts and toast and a hint of honey. A nicely balanced full-bodied wine that coats the mouth with flavour.
Try with rich fish and seafood dishes, or roast pork with apples or plums.
Les Vignerons Ardéchois is a large company, made up of fourteen co-operatives and over 1,500 growers. It produces almost 60 million bottles of wine a year. Despite its size, it succeeds in making a series of sound reliable wines at keen prices, and one or two real gems such as the Viognier above.
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13%
€22
Available from: 64wine, Glasthule; Clontarf Wines.
Essence of Blaufränkisch – lovely vivid blueberry and damson fruits with no tannins and a very appetising freshness.
This would go nicely with most chicken or pork dishes.
Claus Preisinger is an interesting guy and an inquisitive winemaker, trying out all sorts of natural and amphorae wines. Some are remarkably good. He also makes an excellent range of ‘normal’ wines. I have usually been more impressed with his white wines, but earlier this year I tried several tasty reds, including one of the finest Zweigelts I have tasted. Today though, his Blaufränkisch.
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12%
€15.99
Light apple and quince fruits with a clean refreshing acidity. Perfect sipping wine or with salads and lighter fish dishes.
Pinot Blanc generally gets a pretty bad press, rated lower than Pinot Gris/Grigio, which isn’t saying much. ‘Useful rather than exciting’, according to Jancis Robinson. I think this is a little unfair; I have to say I enjoy the soft easy fruitiness you get from Pinot Blanc and its cousin Auxerrois. I usually prefer them to Pinot Gris/Grigio and they make great party wines, guaranteed not to offend and very likely to please.
Available from The Vintry, Rathmines, Redmond’s, Ranelagh and wineonline.ie
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13%
€16
Enticing floral aromas with refreshing juicy dark fruits and a tannin-free finish. Great with lighter meats – pork, chicken or charcuterie.
Having arrived back from holiday, with delayed flights and lots of waiting around, I grabbed a bottle of this to drink with a hastily-prepared dinner of chops and salad. It was delicious. Zweigelt can be the Beaujolais of Austria, light refreshing and very gluggable. There are some winemakers who try a little too hard, ageing it in new oak barrels and extracting heavy tannins. To me that misses the whole point; Zweigelt is there to be drunk and enjoyed for its pure free-flowing fruits.
Available from Red Island Wines, Skerries; Listons, Camden St.; On the Grapevine, Dalkey, Cabot & Co. Westport.
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