Sancerre Florès 2013 Vincent Pinard

13%
€29.50

A stunning Sancerre with lifted floral aromas, and a superb razor-sharp, clean refined mineral palate, finishing bone dry. Sauvignon at it’s best.

Vincent Pinard has 12-15 hectares of vines in Bué, where he crafts a series of excellent white wines using different techniques, as well as three red wines from Pinot Noir. All come under the Sancerre name. I have only once tasted the Pinot, but his white wines are amongst the very best in Sancerre.

Gigondas 2011 Domaine de la Bouïssière

15%
€31.45

A big warm ultra-ripe enveloping mouthful of refined smooth strawberries and dark fruits, with a lingering easy finish.

I had a bottle of this in my cellar and opened it to drink alongside the beef tortillas my daughter requested for her 16th birthday dinner. It was a brilliant match and a great wine too; I still haven’t figured out how Thierry Faravel manages to make a 15% wine seem elegant, but this combines soft rich fruit with a real refinement. The importer has now moved on to the 2012 vintage. which I have not tasted, but the stores below may have a bottle or two of the 2011.

Stockists: Drink Store, D7; Jus de Vine, Portmarnock; Donnybrook Fair; thewinestore.ie

Champagne Devaux ‘Cuvée D’ NV

12%
€59.99

A very fine floral nose; elegant lightly honeyed toasty peach fruits on the palate, and very good length. Delicious wine.

I posted a blog on a Vin Clair tasting held by Devaux last week. Devaux market two entirely different ranges of Champagne, the ‘D’ being the higher quality. I came away with a new respect for their wines; there were some seriously good Champagnes, the Cuvée D and the Ultra D extra-brut in particular. All of this range are aged for a minimum of five years before release. The Cuvée D has a low dose, around 7 g/l, of residual sugar.

Available from Thewineshop.ie; WineOnLine.ie; Clontarf Wines, Dublin 3; Donnybrook Fair, Dublin 4;Thomas’s of Foxrock, Dublin 18; Grape & Grain at The Leopardstown Inn, Stillorgan; Green Man Wines, Terenure, Dublin 6

Ata Rangi Pinot Noir 2012, Martinborough

13.5%
€59.99

A beautifully elegant wine with delicate savoury black cherry fruits, good balancing refreshing acidity and a nice finish.

Ata Rangi is one of the pioneering estates of Martinborough in New Zealand. Run by Clive Paton, his wife Phyll and sister Ali with winemaking by Helen Masters, this is one of the best producers of Pinot in the country. They also make a stunning Chardonnay – check out the Craighall 2013 if you get the opportunity. 2012 was a cool vintage so this is not the biggest Ata Rangi I have tasted, but I really liked the refined cool fruits.

Available from The Corkscrew, Dublin 2; O’Briens; On the Grapevine, Dalkey; Thewineshop.ie.

La Malkerida 2012, Utiel-Requena

12.5%
€15.95

This is an engaging wine with delicious plump ripe soft red fruits and light tannins. A great all-purpose wine to sup with nibbles and very fairly priced.

This wine featured in an article I wrote for the Irish Times about Bobal a few months ago. I had come across the excellent Clos Lojen (64wine) from Manchuela a few years ago, but in the space of two months I came across several other excellent wines made from Bobal, all at very reasonable prices. I met Spanish sommelier Bruno Murciano at a tasting by Quintessential Wines. He presented two Bobals from the same producer in Utiel-Requena; the La Malkerida above and the altogether more serious El Sueno de Bruno, a wonderful structured wine with great intensity.

Stockists: Black Pig, Donnybrook; Michael’s, Mount Merrion; Green Man Wines, Terenure; Power, Lucan; O’Learys, Cootehill; Quintessential, Drogheda www.quintessentialwines.ie

Greywacke Wild Sauvignon Blanc 2013, Marlborough, New Zealand

13%
€32.99

I have always liked this wine but didn’t realise just how good it was until I took part in a tasting of all five vintages earlier this week – see my blog for details. Kevin Judd, the man behind Greywacke (and Cloudy Bay before that) is a thoughtful and I suspect meticulous winemaker and it shows. All of the wines were very good and several great. This wine falls into the great category and I can see it improving further. But if you want to see how good Marlborough Sauvignon can be, treat yourself to a bottle.

Available from Jus de Vine, Portmarnock; Redmond’s, Ranelagh; Clontarf Wines; The Corkscrew, Chatham St.; 64wine, Glasthule; Blackrock Cellar; Greenacres, Wexford.

Ovilos 2012, Ktima Biblia Chora IGP Pangeon, Greece

14%

€23.99

Tomás Clancy, my colleague in the Sunday Business Post presented this wine in the discussion on Emerging Wine Regions at Ballymaloe Litfest 2015 (see my recent post on this event). I agree with his selection of both wine and area; Greece is a fascinating wine producing country, and this is a great wine – I featured it in my book Wilson On Wine 2016. Made from a blend of Semillon and Assyrtiko, a fascinating indigenous variety, this is made by two of Greece’s leading winemakers. I suspect they have toned down the oak in recent vintages. Certainly earlier years seemed to have more richness and toast, which, for once, I enjoyed. Either way, the wine is very good and worth the price.

This is a beautifully creamy textured wine with fresh crisp lime and peach fruits, and a very subtle toastiness. Drink with scallops or lobster.

Available from Wines on the Green, Dawson Street; Baggot St. Wines; Redmond’s, Ranelagh; Donnybrook Fair; Cases, Galway; Gibney’s, Malahide; Holland’s, Bray; Jus de Vine, Portmarnock.