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Kaapzicht Chenin Blanc 2015, Stellenbosch, South Africa

Posted by on February 5, 2016
Kaapzicht Chenin Blanc 2015, Stellenbosch, South Africa

Image 1Kaapzicht Chenin Blanc 2015, Stellenbosch, South Africa
13%
€12.95

Available from Whelehan’s Wines, Loughlinstown

A big smiling mouthful of wine, refreshing and attractively fruity with a snappy dry finish. Perfect to sip on its own or with lighter fish and chicken dishes. Very good value for money too.

Chenin Blanc is the greatest chameleon grape of them all, happy to be made into sparkling sweet or dry white wine. In its home territory of the Loire Valley, you will find it in every style and in all its wonderful glory. But today we are in South Africa the only New World country to have significant quantities of Chenin Blanc. At one stage it made up a third of all vines planted. Familiarity seemed to have bred contempt, as for many years South African winemakers seemed completely uninterested in Chenin. This has changed over the last decade; you can now find some seriously good examples. You may come across the odd sweet wine but the vast majority are dry, ranging from light and crisp to rich and textured. Today’s wine could not be described as serious. It light and fruity, but I enjoyed the quality of the fruit; none of those confected fruit popsicle flavours you get from so many inexpensive white wines.

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Artuke 2014, Rioja

Posted by on February 5, 2016
Artuke 2014, Rioja

IMG_0005Artuke 2014, Rioja
13.5%
€15.70

Delicious wine; ripe strawberries on the nose; supple easy sweet ripe strawberry and red cherry fruit on the palate with surprising concentration and depth. Lovely easy-drinking wine and very much my style. Sadly the retail price of this wine increased to over the €15 mark at the last minute.

I love unoaked Rioja, mainly I suspect, because I like Tempranillo. Too often it is swamped with oak, and you cannot actually taste the grape. Artuke are a producer worth looking out for; based up in the Basque part of Rioja, Rioja Alavesa, Arturo and Kiki (hence the name) are sons of Miguel Blanco who set up the winery. They make a number of single vineyard wines, and Pies Negro, which featured in Wilson on Wine last year.

Available from: Liston’s, Camden St.; 64wine, Glasthule; Clontarf Wines.

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Wood Key Brewing, The Pilgrim Irish Red Ale

Posted by on February 4, 2016

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Left to right : Hugh O’Brien, Andrew Bourke, Brian Murphy, Simon Browne of Wood Key

Wood Key Brewing, The Pilgrim Irish Red Ale
5.6%

Brian Murphy and Simon Browne work in McHugh’s Off-licence on the Kilbarrack Road. McHugh’s were one of the very first shops to champion real beer, initially from abroad, and then Ireland when craft brewing took off. Not surprisingly they have one of the finest selections around, and an avid group of customers. One day, the pair were approached by one such customer, Andrew Bourke, ‘He had just finished his MBA’, says Murphy, ‘and he fancied the idea of setting up his own business. He asked himself ‘what do I like?’ and Who knows about it?’. And so he came to us’.

‘That was two years ago’, says Murphy; ‘we started over and over again, experimenting. We decided to take a serious approach to a red Irish ale. Some craft brewers just put together something red and hoppy. We saw a market for a traditional red ale with a difference’. The result was The Pilgrim Irish Red Ale. ‘We have been going seven months now and are struggling to meet demand. We got amazing support from McHughs, the owner, the staff and the customers. They now have nationwide distribution and have been listed in O’Briens.

At the moment they contract brew at the Independent Brewery in Galway with one of the team going down on brew day. They released a second beer, Raven’s rye ale, just before Christmas, and that sold out very quickly. ‘We will release a new batch this week, a lower in alcohol to make it sessionable’. The Wood Key Red Ale is a very nicely crafted easy-drinking red ale that still has a plenty of character, with an appealing smoothness lifted by a light hoppy tang. A very good session beer.

From the Irish Times, 3rd February 2016

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Ad Libitum 2014 Rioja (White, Organic)

Posted by on February 4, 2016
Ad Libitum 2014 Rioja (White, Organic)

IMG_0027Ad Libitum 2014 Rioja (White, Organic)
12.5%
€16.99

Normally I steer well clear of white Rioja; most of it either tastes of nothing, or has been aged in oak barrels, and therefore tastes of oak and little else. There are exceptions though and this is one. It is made from an obscure mutation of the Tempranillo grape by Juan-Carlos Sancha, professor at the University of Rioja, who discovered the grape and planted it in a small vineyard in Rioja Alata. Sancha also produces a very good red made from Maturana, another unknown variety.

This had unusual but very attractive textured fruits, good acidity and a good dry finish. A great price for an wine with real interest. Light enough to drink on its own, but excellent with white fish. I had mine with fried hake in a herb and lemon butter.

Stockists: Cabot & Co, Westport; No.1 Pery Square, Limerick.

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Señorío de Cuzcurrita 2008, Rioja

Posted by on February 4, 2016
Señorío de Cuzcurrita 2008, Rioja

Image 26Señorío de Cuzcurrita 2008, Rioja
14%
€20.99

Exclusive to Wines on the Green, Dawson Street, D2.

This was a standout wine in a recent Rioja tasting. The importer tells me that is from a single old vineyard (planted 1970) surrounding a medieval castle (take a look online). They also tell me that is cheaper here than in Spain, surely a reason to go out and buy it. I enjoyed it over three evenings and it showed no sign of tiring. Great wine.

This is gorgeous, mature, fascinating wine; ripe, sweet perfectly ripe strawberry and dark fruits laced with a soft, dusty earthiness and a definite minerality. A little oak on the finish and good length.

Stockists: Wines on the Green

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Irish Wine Prices: Well, how do we compare?

Posted by on January 31, 2016

First published in the Irish Times, Saturday 30th January, 2016

I often meet wine Irish Times readers who holiday in France and complain bitterly about the price of wine here. These are, I would imagine, mostly moderate drinkers whose budget is limited. I may be naive, but I continue to believe that most readers of this column enjoy wine in a healthy way. The price disparity between the two countries will grow further if the Government introduces minimum pricing, making the cheapest bottle of wine about €8.

It is relatively easy to compare prices around the globe through the internet. Most of us are aware that duties on wine in Ireland are among the highest in Europe. We pay excise duty of €3.19 on every bottle of wine, plus 23 per cent VAT on top of that. At the suggestion of several Irish Times readers, I looked at how much we pay for four wines compared to other countries. These are a sample; I looked at many more.

Excise duties tend to distort pricing by more than simply the duty, as importers and retailers incorporate the excise in the cost of their wine before they add their profit margin. It is not simply a matter of adding €3.19 on to the retail price. The difference between what we pay and what people pay in other countries varied according to each wine. However, Ireland is comfortably the most expensive country in which to buy almost all of the wines I looked at, including countries such as Denmark, Sweden and Canada, all known for having very high duties and, in the case of the latter two, run by state monopolies. The sole exception was the Tahbilk Viognier currently on special offer from Wines Direct.

Cepa Lebrel Rioja Joven
Reviewed here several times, this very decent easy-drinking red wine costs 3½ times more here (<€6.99) than in Germany (€1.99). The UK equivalent is €5.24 and Danes pay €5.35 a bottle. Guigal Côtes du Rhône
This is one of the most successful brands from the Rhône Valley. Red, white and rosé are all sound wines, well-made and widely available at about €16. By far the cheapest place to buy this was in Normandie Wines, a wine warehouse in Cherbourg known to many who go on the “booze cruise”, where it was available for €9.40, or €7.83 if you buy a case. In second place was the Netherlands at €10.25.This compares favourably with €15.07 in Waitrose and €11.80 in Majestic, both in the UK. Canadian journalists I meet on trips regularly complain about the swingeing taxes they must pay, but the state monopoly in Ontario (LCBO, one of the largest buyers of wine in the world) is still cheaper than Ireland at €12.61, as is the Swedish monopoly Systembolaget at €11.66. Even Australia is cheaper, at €12.

Tahbilk Viognier
Tahbilk is a historic winery based in Victoria in Australia. Its Shiraz is legendary and its Marsanne is one of Australia’s best white wines. Irish importer Wines Direct has this at a very keen €14.65 (down from €17) which compares favourably with the UK, where I found it at €18.34 and €17, with Amazon the nearest at €15.84. However, Dan Murphy’s in Australia is by far the cheapest, at €7.77.

Jacob’s Creek Sparkling Pinot Noir Chardonnay
This has been one of the best-value sparkling wines on the market. I suspect the exchange rate has not done it any favours and, of course, the excise duty on most sparkling wines is double that of still wine. The tax take on this wine is a staggering €9.84 (€6.38 excise plus €3.46 VAT) making the full price €18.45. The closest country to us was Canada at €14.95 (although British Columbia Liquor Stores was €12.49) followed by the UK at €13.12, then Sweden at €9.52. The place to party is Australia, where Dan Murphy’s sells it for €5.02, or €4.77 as part of a six-bottle purchase.

DSCF6401Tahbilk Viognier 2014, Nagambie Lakes, Victoria
14%
€14.65

Very nicely crafted wine with rich peach and nectarine fruits brightened up perfectly by a twist of citrus.

Stockists: Wines Direct, winesdirect.ie


DSCF6379Reyneke Vine Hugger Cabernet Merlot 2014, Western Cape, South Africa
13.5%
€17.99/£12.35

Full-bodied rounded swarthy earthy dark fruits. A welcome winter warmer on a cold night. Organic.

Stockists: jnwine.com


DSCF6298Insania Falanghina 2013, Cantina Bambinuto, Irpinia, Italy
13.5%
€18

Delicious textured tangerines and nectarines to pair with grilled scallops.

Stockists: Sheridans; 64wine; Green Man; Donnybrook Fair.

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A MONSTER MONASTRELL

Posted by on January 29, 2016
A MONSTER MONASTRELL

IMG_0030Casa Castillo Monastrell 2013, Jumilla
15%
€15.50

Available from 64wine,Glasthule; Clontarf Wines; Red Island,Skerries; Fallon & Byrne,Exchequer St, D2; Fresh Outlets.

A slightly gamey nose with plum fruits; rich and rounded with a herbal note, ripe soft plums and a subtle oakiness on the tail. Great value for money, even if it crept over the €15 limit for a Daily Drop, and a good winter warmer. Full-bodied and powerful but it handles the 15% alcohol very neatly.

Monastrell, known elsewhere as Mourvèdre or Mataro, originated in this part of the world. The wines are usually big, structured, tannic and rustic; certainly not wines to sip before dinner. However, over the last decade, producers in Spain and the south of France have been making increasingly fine wines from Monastrell. Casa Castillo has been one of the leading producers in Jumilla, a region in Murcia in south-east Spain for a decade or more.

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A BIG FAT CHARDONNAY

Posted by on January 29, 2016
A BIG FAT CHARDONNAY

Image 29Bodegas Fabre Montmayour Reservado Chardonnay 2014, Mendoza, Argentina
14.5%
€14.95 from Whelehan’s Wines, Loughlinstown

I was bemoaning the lack of big rich buttery Chardonnays in my piece in the Irish Times last week, when this wine appeared. David Whelehan promised an old-style ‘Dolly Parton’ Chardonnay. He was half-right; it is a powerful full-bodied wine with lots of tropical fruits, some oak and a touch of butter too. But it is actually more than that; this is a well-made wine, with good acidity and balance. The oak is there but doesn’t overwhelm and the quality of the fruit is pretty good. I can see it going very nicely with chicken and richer fish dishes.

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There is champagne, and then there is Krug….a tasting in Dublin.

Posted by on January 29, 2016

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Me and Krug go back a long way. My first wine job was with Mitchell & Son, who had previously been agent for Krug in Ireland. They still had a little stock remaining. I squirreled away a few bottles of the Grande Cuvée and a two of the 1979 vintage, the last of which I cracked open when we finally succeeded in buying a house some fifteen years later. It was magnificent, but then they had all been magnificent; full-bodied rich complex Champagnes. A few years later, when we lived in South Lambeth, then a rather edgy part of London, I discovered that my local off-licence, which specialised in out of date beer, had a small stash of ½ bottles of Krug Grande Cuvée for a bargain price of £10. I tried one out and then bought one every few weeks as a treat before Friday night dinner. I eventually opened the last ½ bottle when my son was born and dabbed a drop on his lips. He will always be able to boast that Krug was the second thing he drank, after his mother’s milk.

And so to a Krug tasting held in Dublin last month. It was tutored by Swiss/American Jessica Julmy, a very bright articulate women, who is Head of Business development for Krug. She pointed out that Krug is the only house that only makes prestige Champagnes, and also that there is no hierarchy in their Champagnes. The considerable differences in price are down solely to rarity and not quality. Sadly we did not get the opportunity to prove this as we did not taste the two single vineyard varietal wines, the Clos du Mesnil (Chardonnay) and Clos d’Ambonnay (Pinot Noir), which cost in excess of €500 and €1,500 respectively – a bottle!

There is no doubt that Grande Cuvée is a lovely Champagne; elegant and refined, with a very fine mousse, flavours of toasted hazelnuts, brioche, citrus, and peaches. The finish is restrained but long. I like it a lot. However, I suspect that it is not as rich or powerful as in the past. Possibly I was fortunate enough to taste mature bottles on the rare occasions when I drank Grande Cuvée, but I have memories of a bigger style. I questioned Olivier Krug about this a few years back, but he said the style has not changed. Jessica Julmy said there had been ‘a nose-dive in quality’ at one stage, but this had changed dramatically with the arrival of winemaker Maggie Henriquez. We tasted the Grande Cuvée alongside a bottle of 2000 Recreation, an aged version of the same wine, recovered from a cellar in Europe. This was my favourite wine of the day by some distance; a palate-enveloping honeyed, wine with complex toasted nuts, that opened out beautifully. Sadly it is not commercially available, but it does demonstrate the value of laying down Grande Cuvée (I am a big believer in laying down any decent Champagne for a year or two). Every bottle of Grande Cuvée now has a unique identifying code on the back label, showing the bottling date, which allows consumers to access full information on the wine – there is even an app with access to the Krug database; very useful if you want to lay down a few bottles. Grande Cuvée represents 80% of production and Krug do one bottling per year.

Image 30

It is now house policy to have two vintages on the market at the same time. We tasted the two current vintages, 2003 and 2000. The 2000 was majestic, rich and concentrated with toasted hazelnuts and brioche; different but to the Recollection 2000 above, but a very impressive wine. ‘A motorway of a wine, compared to a winding road (the 2003)’, according to Jessica Julmy. If so, I prefer an autobahn, as I found the 2003 less satisfying. We finished with the delicious crisp subtle rosé.

It was great to taste the Krug Champagnes after a gap of a few years. This house (now owned by LVMH) is painstaking in its efforts to produce the finest Champagne. They are responsible for less than 0.2% of total Champagne so they will always be expensive; the Grande Cuvée sells for around €200 in Ireland. I have one bottle of the Grande Cuvée in my collection that has lain there for 3-4 years. All I need now is a good excuse to open it!

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AUSTRALIA DAY TASTING – DUBLIN

Posted by on January 28, 2016

Australia was 228 years old earlier this month, or at least that is when the white settlers arrived, as Brian Walsh of Wine Australia observed. Vines arrived a little later. Wine Australia held Australia Day tastings in London, Dublin and Edinburgh. The Dublin one was well attended and had plenty of really interesting wines on show, and quite a few producers looking for homes for their wines. I spent most of the time tasting sub €20 Chardonnay and Shiraz, and found plenty to write about over the next few months.

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I also attended an excellent masterclass hosted by the erudite Brian Walsh, one of the most experienced Aussie wine hands, and John McDonnell who lent his own wisdom and a few good stories too. Great to see John back in the saddle, even if only for a day! We tasted twelve wines, six categorised as History and six Evolution. The stars for me were the first two white wines, along with a Chardonnay, a Pinot Noir and a Shiraz/Syrah from the Evolution section.

McGuigan Bin 9000 Semillon 2004, Hunter Valley

A mere 11%abv but a stunning wine; yellow apples, lanolin and grilled nuts, with a touch of beeswax. Still fresh and vibrant. Classic Hunter Valley, one of the world’s great wine styles. An amazingly cheap €19.99, although no stockists were listed.

Pewsey Vale The Contours Riesling 1999, Eden Valley

It said 2010 on the tasting sheet but we were treated to a mature version, probably by the agents Cassidys Wines. This wine is an old favourite; I remember one glorious sunny morning a decade ago, sitting in the back of an old pick-up with Yalumba winemaker Jane Ferrari, eating bacon and cheese muffins and sipping mature Contours, while looking out over the vineyard itself. Yesterday the wine was wonderful, clean and bright with complex ever evolving flavours that can only be Riesling. Sadly I do not think this vintage is still available. We will have to age our own stocks (the 2010 is €25.99) for a decade or so. But it will be worth the wait.

Vasse Felix Chardonnay 2013, Margaret River

Classic modern Aussie Chardonnay from one of the finest exponents. Fresh clean pure apple fruits, a lightly creamy texture and a subtle toasty touch. Good acidity and nice length. Very stylish, well-made wine. €24.90 a bottle.

Dalrymple Pinot Noir 2012, Piper’s River, Tasmania

Tasmanian Pinot Noir has improved massively over the last decade. There are now some serious wines (along with excellent sparkling wines and Chardonnay). A fresh nose with cool red cherries and raspberries and a touch of oak; the palate is surprisingly concentrated and muscular, almost trying too hard, with good just-ripe Pinot fruits. €43.99 Cassidys Wines.

De Bertoli Estate Grown Shiraz 2013, Yarra Valley

Made by Steve Webber, one of Australia’s best and most interesting winemakers, this is excellent cool climate Syrah/Shiraz with a lovely savoury elegance, some crunchy whole-stem fruit and tannins. Blanc cherries and damsons with impressive length.

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