A Dark Day

It's been a tough few months for the Irish wine consumer, with the closing of a good few wine stores throughout Dublin (Berry Brothers, OnTheGrapevine Booterstown, Claudios). Today marks another black day with the following announcement on the Irish Wine Boards website:

30th June 2009

Wine Board of Ireland - Announcement

Due to a precipitate decline in student numbers a decision has been taken to cease the educational activities of the Wine Board of Ireland from 31st July 2009. We greatly regret this decision and the impact it will have on our employees, tutors, members, students and all other stakeholders.

The Directors of the Wine & Spirit Education Board, the governing body of the Wine Board, would like to thank the staff and tutors of the Wine Board for their dedication and support over many years. They would also like to thank the thousands of students who have advanced their wine and spirit education through the Wine Board and consequently raised the standard of knowledge in the Irish marketplace. The wine and spirit trade have also provided excellent support and guidance, which is greatly appreciated. It is unfortunate and regrettable that current economic circumstances and the decline in student numbers do not permit the maintenance of the valuable service given by the Wine Board over many years.

Current students and those who have booked courses will be contacted shortly to make suitable arrangements.

For further information contact:
Mike Finegan, Director, Wine Board of Ireland.
Tel: (01) 475 7580
Email: mike@wineboard.ie

It's easy to see the amount of strain being felt by the entire wine industry in Ireland and I think consumers have to take a certain amount of responsibility for this strain. If we are not going to get out there and support our local wine shops/producers/merchants/organizations then the whole wine culture that has been built up in Ireland over the past few years is destined to crumble. It's time to get out there and support the businesses that are worth supporting!

Enowine Burgundy Tasting

Last Thursday evening saw the most recent Enowine ‘ICON’ wine tasting. This was to my mind the best ICON tasting so far as the wines on show were an exceptional range and pretty much all of the wines were showing excellently. I arrived for the tasting a few minutes early and, to my amazement, the shop was empty. I worried that the attendance might be poor but after a few minutes the place filled up (I think there were about 40-45 tasters in total). I took the opportunity of an empty tasting hall to grab 8 empty glasses and poured samples of each of the ICON wines and arranged them on a table. I did this in order to let the wines breath a bit so that I could give them a fair tasting (the tendency sometimes with Enomatic machines is to pour, taste and move on). The smell wafting up from the glasses was mesmerizing and it took an amount of will power to abstain from tasting right away. I took the chance to make a few notes on colours and aromas before the tasting began.

The tasting kicked off with a short talk (~30 mins) from the ever enthusiastic John Dowling, who gave a very interesting background into the region and its wines. He poured out some 2003 Grand Cru Chablis (Herve Azo Bourgros) from Magnum to get everybody’s palates wet before unleashing the masses onto the tasting machines. I found the Chablis a bit simple for a grand cru but at least it was refreshing (despite the vintage), it was a nice wine to start on but there were far more interesting things to come. I tried one more white wine, a 2003 Meursault Genevieres from Darviot Perrin, before moving onto the reds. This wine was a big disappointment, especially from such a lovely terroir, as it was dominated by the vintage character. All burnt sugar and no acidity or tipicity, on the plus side it was quite powerful and long but the flavours weren’t good at all for my palate.

After the two whites I was ready for the ICONs. First up was Lucie & Auguste Lignier Gevrey Chambertin 2004. This was probably not in a great place for current drinking as it was a bit light and acidic without much fruit poking through althoughthe finish was good. The nose was quite pleasant with good width and some coffee and red fruits though so perhaps the future will be better than the present for this wine. Next up was the 1999 Jean Boillot Volnay 1er Fremiets; this was a stonking wine from the excellent 1999 vintage. I've read a few comments recently that 1999s have yet to shut down and this wine was wide open with quite a bit of primary freshness. It had a lovely perfume of minerals and sweet red berries but it was on the palate where this wine shone. Huge texture and mouthfeel along with lovely grip and length, it was thoroughly delicious to boot. Despite the power in the wine it still had some elegant Volay femininity too.

The next wine was much lighter in the glass and quite a bit older looking, despite being a yougner wine and a more rustic terroir (obviously a producer influence). Joesph Voillot Pommard Rugiens 2000 was another cracker of a wine. It had a really beautiful colour in the glass, and was a little light and candied on the nose but this changed every few minutes and showed strawberries, fresh cut flowers and minerals at different stages. On the palate this screamed for some food as the texture was a little acidic but the flavour was delightful. It was bright and fresh and a lovely contrast to the first wine. This is a wine that is definitely in its perfect drinking phase.

With the next wine we moved to the Cote De Nuits and onto the first of three absolute cracking wines. 2001 Robert Arnoux Vosne Romanee 1er Cru Les Suchots was a big step up in aromatic complexity with sweet fruits, coffee, chocolate and a touch of exotic spice. On the palate this wine was pure class, minerals,coffee, berrys, spice all in a gentle harmonious frame that builds on the palate for up to a minute and leaves a wonderful aftertaste. 2002 is a top rated Burgundy vintage for reds and whites and the next wine was a good Grand Cru from this vintage. 2002 Daniel Rion Echezeaux was initially a little closed on the nose but with some coaxing and time this gave some real joy. This was spicier on the nose than the previous wines but I think another 10 years would bring out more nuance. The balance, freshness and acidity were perfect on this wine although it is obviously far too young. It had big Grand Cru mouthfeel and length although didn't have huge complexity at the moment but all of the componants are here for a long and successful future.

Despite the quality of all of the wines on the tasting this evening one wine stood out by a mile on the evening. 2001 Meo Camuzet Clos Vougeot was a really cracking bottle of wine, the nose alone was worth the price of admission. The colour/shimmer of the wine was mesmerizing and the rich, sappy, pinot nose was intoxicating. This is the kind of stuff that makes burgundy such a desirable treat, if only all bottles smelt this good. I actually savoured the aromas of the wine for about 30 minutes before tasting the wine and as a result the taste was a little bit of a disappointing, only relative to the nose though. It was rich, complex and perfectly structured and a lovely aftertaste, it's only bad point was a little bit of lacking complexity due to it's youth.. I'd love to have a case of this stashed away in my cellar.

All in all a superb tasting, in a lovely atmosphere! Good job Enowine, again!

A Whole Lotta Beef

Last Friday night kicked off in a very light and sophisticated fashion but after about 7 O Clock or so the night descended into a beef fuelled evening of extravagance and it didn’t let up very much when Saturday rolled around either. We started off on Friday at the wonderful Riesling & Co. Wines Of Germany tasting in the Westbury hotel. I had the misfortune of arriving a little late and I didn’t bring a pen with me so I tore around the tasting like a whirlwind without taking any specific notes. I woke up the following morning wondering very much which wines were which. There were some excellent wines on show though, along with some seriously mediocre examples, and the whole event was great fun. There was something for everyone at this tasting but the stand out wines for me were the Max Ferd Richter wines shown by Ben Mason (Wicklow Wine Company), showing exceptional balance/definition/refinement (The wines, not Ben). The 2008 Veldenzer Eilzenberg Riesling Auslese even managed to bring a smile to the face of 3 confessed Riesling haters, the 2007/8 Wehleher Sonnenuhr spatlese was exceptional too. This was another simply brilliant event, showing 100+ wines with 20+ producers over 3 hours in a very relaxed friendly atmosphere and all for €15. Hat’s off to the organizer of this event (and the organizers of the Wines of Portugal and Wines of New Zealand tastings earlier this year).

After the tasting we were released into the evening with a serious hunger brewing in our stomachs (not to mention a considerable amount of German wine) so we went in search of some sustenance. Fortunately the proprietors of La Maison granted us a table. We had had enough white wine at this stage so we ordered 2 bottles of red wine, a robust, hearty Languedoc and a 2006 Simon Bize Bourgogne. The Languedoc was rich and a little hot but decent value for money but the Bize was a little underwhelming afterwards, a nice drink but nothing more. Our food was a mixture of good and bad. Out starters of crab ravioli were quite pleasant, a main course of vegetable tarte fine was good, the roast lamb was tasty but the cocoa beans that came with it were dull and a Cote De Boeuf for 2 was feast for the eyes but a little bit underwhelming on the palate, being a little too fatty. In theory a huge rib eye for 2 should have been a great dish and we left a little unsatisfied but full non the less.

What better way to celebrate a Friday evening, after a fine wine tasting and nice meal, than to tackle a number of cocktails. Our first attempt in a bar with no name failed miserable, as we were served crappy, sickly sweet excuses for drinks. Fortunately the Fitzwilliam Bar came up trumps, order after order of delicious, well prepared cocktails. Due to the volume I’m not sure of the names of all of them but the Gimlet was a star (lime, marmalade, gin and vodka). We followed the cocktails with a few more drinks, a rickshaw ride across the city, a bit of a boogie before falling home at a ridiculous hour. Of course the following morning I awoke with pangs of regret and a serious headache. I didn’t have long to feel sorry for myself as the first Lions test match was on early. I grabbed a quick lunch and survived the match by consuming litres of water. The final result of the match was disappointing but I had another big night on the cards so I didn’t feel despondent for too long. After a shower I met up with my brother and father and we head into Dublin in search of a bit of food and wine. Our travels brought us across the street performance world championships, which looked like a fun event before settling in Ely wine bar for a bottle of prosecco to settle ourselves.

Once finished in Ely we head off towards Shanahans in sea

rch of a decent steak. Shanahans is renowned in Dublin for extremely high quality (if expensive) beef, so we looked forward to trying out this Dublin institution. We were seated in an upstairs dining room, which was remarkably elegant if a small bit dated. I ordered a half bottle of 2006 Sauzet Puligny village for starters. The wine was tasty, elegant, textbook Puligny but was served a little too cold, once it warmed up it showed good weight and length. We were brought a little loaf of freshly baked cheese bread and a chilli amd corn muffin to nibble on. After a short wait our starters arrived, a crab sandwich and a lobster salad. Both were delicious & fresh, a good start so far and we hadn’t even hit the steak yet. To match our steak I ordered a bottle of 2005 Catena Alta Malbec from the shortish winelist (I had expected a more substantial list). The wine was tight and short upon opening but after an hour or so in the decanter it sang. Black as the ace of spades in the glass with a bright purple rim this was a real youngster. Despite it’s youth the wine was remarkably elegant, obviously a huge fruity wine but with lovely texture and length. I was very impressed by this and would love to taste an older version.

The steaks are served in the centre of a big white plate with nothing else on it, all with a lovely char on the outside and oozing bit meaty aromas. Cutting into my rare fillet I can see it is perfectly cooked and the first bite brings me to heaven. This was easily the best cooked, tastiest fillet steak I have ever tasted. If I were to be critical I would say that it wasn’t the most tender, but the flavour was awesome! My brother ordered a sirloin medium, but it came more medium well, but my fathers fillet was perfect too. The sides are more of a distraction than anything else and not really worth talking about (even the famous onion strings are overrated). We all derived great pleasure from our meaty bliss, and the malbec was a superb accompaniment. We all passed on desserts, mainly in order to keep the beefy flavour on our palates but also because the choice was a little underwhelming.

One thing to note about Shanahans, people always complain about the price of the place. The fillet steak I had actually cost the same as the Cote De Boeuf for 2 in La Maison and was probably the same size. The fillet steak was infinitely better though. Fair enough, I wouldn’t go to Shanahans on a regular basis nor would I eat a steak that large regularly, but if you have the urge for a decent piece of beef you’d be hard pressed to beat Shanahans!

Needless to say I still have the meat sweats 3 days later.

Some tasty treats

I took a few days off work this week in order to make the weekend long and in order to celebrate I drove south and spent a couple of days in Cork and Kerry. As tends to happen on these adventures I sampled a few delicious treats in both counties. First up was a bottle of Vilmart Grand Cellier, which was delightful. I really enjoy this champagne, even if it is not the most complex of wines, it is a real joy to drink. I reckon I could drink bottles of this in one sitting, but I managed to contain myself and tried some other wines too. Next up was a 2003 Domaine De Montille Bourgogne Rouge, which was showing some typical roast 03 fruit but this wine is still a baby and could blossom into something more interesting with another 3-5 years. The wine was insignificant when compared to some beautiful honey/mustard marinated BBQd fillet of beef. This was served with a simple side salad which left the steak take its rightful place of centre stage. The next day we roused late and hit the beach in order to try our hand at some surfing (not very successfully, but we had fun). After a lazy afternoon we head into QCs in Cahirciveen for some delicious Shellfish (possibly the best lobster I have ever had).

Having filled ourselves with joy in Kerry we head back to Cork for some more decadence. We kicked off the evening with a bottle of Gimmonet Fleuron 2002. This was far more serious than the Vilmart wine and incredibly tasty, one astute taster reckoned it was better than Dom Perignon, I only wish I had some more bottles (especially at the price). For starter we enjoyed some fresh garden produce, I seared some quail and served it on a bed of home grown rocket and baby beets. This was a delightful salad, improved by the fact that the salad and veg was so fresh and tasty. We had some great wines with dinner, starting off with a 2005 Philippe Chavy Puligny 1er Pucelles, which is still far too young. Despite it's youth it was really good Puligny with impressive mouthfeel length and breath of flavour. 2006 Denis Mortet Bourgogne Rouge is really shining at the moment, with bright Gevrey fruit and fully open for business (this is more impressive than his Gevrey VV tasted a few weeks ago). 2002 A.F.Gros Beaune 1er Montrevenots wasn't a bad drop either. This was certainly classier than the Mortet and had some nice refined minerality to accompany the fruit. This was a very elegant bottle of wine. We had some more BBQ'd beef for dinner along with a little home grown spinach, truffle mash and fresh veg. Just in case we hadn't had enough wine I opened up a bottle of 2001 Bongran botrytis to drink with dessert. This is an incredibly impressive bottle of wine with huge amounts of botrytis, residual sugar, fruit and acid. It has the structure to last for a lifetime but is really delicious at the moment too.

All in all not a bad long weekend!

Tasting glasses at the ready

I remember when I first came to Dublin and for a couple of years thereafter bemoaning the lack of options with regard to wine tastings available. I would read notes of superb tastings in London that seemed to occur on an incredibly regular basis and wish that I had those options. Things seem to have changed considerably in the last year or so. There are some excellent tastings coming up in the next month or so.

First up at enowine, there are always some interesting wines available for tasting on their enomatic wine machines, but at the moment there are some great 2004 Bordeaux on the machines (Rauzan-Gassies, d’Armailhac, de Fieuzal, Leoville-Barton, Troplong-Mondot) and even a 1996 Ornellaia. This is a lovely shop with friendly staff and a vey relaxing atmosphere, make sure to check out these fine wines if you get a chance. On a more formal basis they are having a Burgundy evening on Wednesday 24th June. This should be an excellent evening with a quick talk on Burgundy and a super range of wines available for tasting (Including the following: Davirot Perrin Meursault-Genevrieres 1er Cru 2003, Maison Champy Corton Charlemagne 2005, Meo-Camuzet Clos de Vougeot Grand Cru 2001, L Boillot et Fils Volnay 1999 1er Cru "les Freimets", Robert Arnoux Vosne-Romanee 1er Cru “les suchots” 2001, Domaine Daniel Rion Echezeaux Grand Cru 2002, Domaine Lignier Hubert Morey St Denis “vielles vignes” 2004).

Secondly, the Irish Wine Board is putting on some really excellent at the moment. Last year there was an excellent series hosted by the excellent Nigel Donnan but this year the Wine Board have ramped up the lineup further. They have made a concerted effort to drop the prices too which doesn't hurt. Over the next few weeks they have New Zealand evening (featuring wines rarely seen in Ireland), an alsacian masterclass with Jean Trimbach (sounds awesome), a 4 part Aussie masterclass series, a chenin masterclass featuring Richard Kelly MW not to mention the rescheduled Salon tasting with multiple vintages of Salon champagne. Jaucqie Steadman is playing a blinder trying to bring more and more tastings at the wineboard and Dublin based wine enthusiasts are the big winners here.

Lastly, but certainly not leastly Jean Smullens wine diary is a great place to spot up and coming events like the Wines of Germanys 'Riesling & Co' tasting that is happening next Friday (19th). This tasting sounds simply wonderful. In the Westbury hotel from 4pm until 7pm, 23 wine growers will show 100+ wines all for the bargain price of 15 Euro. Personally I couldn't think of a better way to spend 3 hours on a Friday evening. Over the past few months Jean Smullen has brought some great tastings to Dublin (or at least has advertised them) like a New Zealand tasting featuring hundreds of wines and a Portugese wine tasting with even more.

Who knows how long these opportunities will last for so get out there and enjoy them while they are available!

Lignier Portfolio Tasting:

I kicked off my bank holiday weekend with a trip to Irish Wine Board in order to taste John Dowlings (Vin De Garde) portfolio of Lucie & Auguste Lignier wines from Morey St Denis. Lucie & Auguste Lignier is the new domaine that used to be the famed Hubert Lignier domaine, now run by Kellen Lignier who was recently widowed by Roman Lignier (Huberts son). Friday evening focused on 2 vintages, 2004 & 2005, which were the final 2 vintages in which Hubert Lignier had a hand in making. Given the beautiful sunshine outside most people who attended were in good form, which lead to an enjoyable relaxed tasting that proved very interesting and informative. We kicked off the evening with a fine Australian chardonnay, the 2002 Art Series Chardonnay from Leeuwin Estate in Margaret River. To my mind the Leeuwin Estate is the finest new world chardonnay available on the Irish market and the 2002 was pretty good. Not the best vintage of this that I have had but pretty tasty none-the-less, my tasting companion thought it was a nice Puligny.

After a short while we kicked off with the real tasting. John gave a quick talk about the Lignier estate and about Burgundy in general. I had a quick sniff through the glasses in front of me (which were all poured in advance) and didn’t get much aroma and worried that the wines would be totally shut down. During his talk he spoke about the ageing curve of these wines and as a result of this curve he had brought along a range of wines that had the best opportunity to shine on the evening, even if they were not the overall top wines in the Lignier portfolio (which would require another 10 years of ageing to show well). We started off with the 2005 Aligote, which was very nice for an Aligote. Quick salty and sharp as one would expect but with surprising depth and mouthfeel that took me a little by surprise. This is one aligote that certainly shouldn’t be used for Kir. Next up we started with the 2005 Morey Clos Sionnierres, which had completely blossomed in the glass. At this stage it had some lovely coffee, chocolate and caramel aromas blended in with minerals and some red fruits. It would be fair to say that most of these aromas are wood derived but the integration and balance was impressive.

Next up we were hit with a mini vertical, 2004 Morey Vielles Vignes and the 2005 Morey Vielles Vignes. I really enjoy vertical tastings as it gives a great opportunity to get a style of a wine and also the vintage influence over the wine. The Vielles Vignes was a good step up from the first wine in both structure and breath of flavour. It is a really cracking village level wine, extremely well made. The 05 wine was obviously younger in the glass and also much tighter on the nose. The 04 was much more relaxed and could even be drunk in the short term with pleasure. Fortunately none of the 04s on the evening even hinted at the vegetal green aromas/flavours that are running the reputation of the vintage. The next flight of wines was another mini vertical, this time 04/05 Chambolle Bussiere. These were really super wines, that pointed more to Morey than chambolle on the nose but had lovely lithe chambolle red fruits on the palate in combination with the super fine Lignier tannin. Again the 05 was the more impressive wine structurally but the 04 will drink better for at least the next 3 to 5 years.

The final wine of the evening was stood head and shoulders over the rest of the wines. 2004 Lignier Morey 1er Chaffots. Although this was a 2004 wine it had much more going on than any of the previous 2005 wines with much greater length, complexity and structure. To my mind this was a good example of terroir coming to the fore. One thing to note about this tasting is that most of these wines were showing their absolute best as most were quite closed (given their current age) but regardless of this they were all wines of undoubtable class and I think they will be magnificent when mature.

Once the structured tasting was complete the bottles were handed around where everybody could have another taste of all of the wines and chat around. Overall this was an excellent tasting and I would thoroughly recommend checking out both these wines (available at enowine) and tastings in the irish wine board (www.wineboard.ie) Jacquie (from the wine board) mentioned some super tastings on the cards for the next few months so make sure to keep on eye out on their website!

After the tasting we head off for a quick bite to eat before continuing on for a few more beverages. It was late enough and there weren’t a lot of places still open but we were greeted with open arms at ‘La Maison’ on Castle Market St. This is a newish restaurant sitting on the former Maison Des Gourmets coffeeshop. It’s been receiving pretty good press so we were happy to give it a go. The prices on the menu were very reasonable and the dishes are simple French classics (Coq au vin, Andouilette, Lamb Shank etc..). The service was informal but friendly and the winelist is compact but decent enough. We settled for Pot Au Feu (Beef Shin Stew) and Lamb Shank along with a bottle of Bourgueil. The wine was a bit disappointing (but it was always going to be after the tasting) but the food was perfect for our needs. Tasty, hearty and very well cooked. The meat in both dishes could have been eaten with a spoon. The desserts were also delicious and revived us enough to give us motivation for a few more drinks on the town. Yet another fun Friday evening promising a slow Saturday afternoon.

A fine weekend in the ..... city

Bank holiday weekends are normally a great excuse to get out to the countryside especially when the sun decides to shine. Events conspired this weekend to keep me in Dublin but I didn't mind so much as there was plenty to keep me entertained. After a wine tasting on Friday night (to be detailed in another post) and a day of recovery, I was just about ready for some serious gastronomic enterprises. Fortunately there was already an evening in the offering that would allow a certain amount of experimentation in the kitchen and the imbibement of some delicious wines.

When we arrived at our friends house the champagne was already flowing, a 2002 Beaumont Des Crayeres Fleur Noire. This bottled had been recently disgorged and was showing very young. Not really giving away much in the way of aromas or the breath of flavours that I would have expected from a Blanc De Noir, it was very tasty none the less. I think this bottle could probably have done with a little more bottle age to settle down. After a glass of this I got cracking on our starter, a baked crab salad. I mixed some lovely crab meat with a host of asian spices (ginger, chilli, garlic, lemongrass, lime, soy, fish sauce) and then mixed through an egg and some breadcrumbs. I then spread the mixture over a baking sheet and baked until the crab was crisp, I then cut this into slices and mixed with some dressed leaves. The end result was lovely and summery and went very well with our second wine. Philippe Chavy 2007 Puligny Montrachet Rue Rousseau. This was the first chavy wine that I have tried since arriving home and it is magnificant. Pure puligny aromas and flavours with great structure to age, the last glass was by far the tastiest, to my mind this is pure Summer in a glass.

The main course was the real triumph of the evening. An immaculately prepared beef wellington, with fresh summer asparagus topped with a poached egg and some parma dust. The beef was so tender and packed with flavour it was a delightful dish. The side of asparagus and egg was a lovely combination of flavours and textures which had lovely balance. We served a bottle of 2004 Mischief & Mayhem Gevrey 1er 'Crazy Love' alongside the beef. This was a superb bottle of wine, in a lovely drinking phase. Aromatically it was so pure and delightful, the texture of the wine was silky and lithe and the wine was pure gervey on the palate with lovely raw black fruits, with hints of minerals and spices. Only 360 bottles of this wine were made and it was a pleasure to enjoy one on this evening.

Keshk & Ely:

I had been looking forward to Friday night all week; I had been planning on heading along to Thorntons restaurant to try out their canapé tasting menu, followed by a Salon champagne tasting at the Irish Wine Board. All in all it was shaping up to be a memorable evening. The whole thing fell apart in the early afternoon when an e-mail floated into my inbox from the Wine Board; our tasting had to be cancelled due to an unfortunate scheduling error. This threw the whole evening up in the air and somehow as the pieces settled a devious plan was hatched! Instead of poshing it up with Thorntons and Salon it was decided to dine recessionista style. In order to celebrate our quick thinking my brother and I opened a half bottle of NV Vilmart Grand Reserve Champagne at my place in order to pick out some bottles for our next destination.

Our first stop of the evening was the delightful Keshk Café on Leeson St. This is a very unassuming little restaurant that offers one huge benefit to all of its customers, free BYO wine! Dublin in general isn’t a good town for BYO but Keshk bucks this trend with gusto. The great thing about BYO is one can enjoy great wines in a restaurant environment without breaking the bank. I brought a 2003 Katnook Prodigy Shiraz (huge wine, little acid, lovely mouthfeel and very impressive) along and my brother brought a 2007 Droin Chablis 1er Vaillons (Salty and fresh). These wines would probably cost in excess of €150 in a restaurant but the total cost to us was a third of that. The atmosphere in Keshk is very relaxed, it’s a great place to kick back and have a chat. The food certainly isn’t fine dining but it’s excellent quality for what it is and very tasty to boot! We started with chicken wings and falafel, both of which came with a generous salad. We had grilled lamb and grilled chicken for our main courses, which came with spicy potatoes and more salad. All of the food was prepared beautifully, worked well with our wine choices and tasted great. A great start to the evening. An espresso and a very reasonable bill (€45!) later we were on the road to our next stop.

It was a lovely evening and the Sun was out in force so we decided a few bottles al fresco was our best course of action. I made a quick call for re-enforcements and before long we were sitting out in the Sun enjoying a bottle of Contesse Prosecco. This was a lovely fresh bottle of prosecco, not complex but very enjoyable all the same. We followed this with a very interesting bottle of 2005 Domaine des Baumard Savennières Clos de Saint Yves, which was a lovely nutty floral round wine with good minerality to boot. Our drinking companion decided to take care of his hunger pangs with some delicious Moules Frites, which looked and smelt great. We followed this up with a nice fresh 2007 Georg Breuer Riesling Sauvage, again on the simpler spectrum of wine but none the less enjoyable. Hanover Quay has to be one of the more interesting places in the city to hang out and it’s great to see a good buzz about the place, as was evident on Friday evening.

After Ely we reckoned we had enough wine in our systems so we into Dame Street to check out Le Cirk Basement Jazz bar for a couple of beers. There was a great little band playing some entertaining tunes and the bar was full with a nice friendly crowd. The evening got a little fuzzy at this point but there was certainly some more wandering done after le Cirk and possibly even a little dancing, it’s hard to be sure. All in all it was yet another successful Friday night, diametrically opposed to our intended destination but equally as much fun!

A Fine Weekend Of Food & Wine:

This weekend just passed Paul & I convened in Killarney for yet another sacrifice to Bacchus (The God of Wine, and inspirer of ritual madness). We try to convene a few times a year in order to eat some good food and drink some very fine wine. After a quick flurry of e-mails a couple of weeks ago we realised that we both had a free weekend so decided to meet up in Killarney on Friday afternoon. We’ve both been buying a few wines of late so we decided that it would make a good opportunity to check the status of some of these young wines (unlike the mature Mouton/DRC dinner we had over Christmas).

I arrived in Killarney in the late afternoon and after opening, tasting & decanting (we both reckoned these wines needed a good decant) the evenings red wines we head off for a long walk to stir our gastric juices. We also picked some lovely wild garlic that was growing all over the place in the park around Ross Castle. We arrived home and started popping more bottles and decanting where required. As there were only 2 of us present for the evenings revelry (we had tried to conscript extras but the short notice hampered our efforts), we were limited in our capactity but the availability of half bottles made sure that we had a good range of wines to taste.

We started with a half bottle of Vilmart Grand Reserve, served with some rustic bread and a couple of dips (red pepper hummous, wild garlic pesto). The champagne was a lovely treat after our walk, lively in the glass this was a very elegent champagne with hints of oak, lemon, apples with nice body and depth. Next up was a real cracker of a bottle. 2006 Sauzet 1er ‘Combettes’. This is Etienne Sauzets top 1er cru and I actually opened it in error (I had meant to bring the Perrieres), but wasn’t sorry that I had opened it. This was a perfect bottle of chardonnay in my mind, super lithe and elegent with smoke, lemon, honey and a great mouth feel. It built on the palate in waves and lasted for minutes on the palate. We served with this pan seared scallops with pancetta on a bed of samphire and wild garlic flowers dressed with lemon, aged balsamic and truffle oil. The dish was really tasty and matched up beautifully with the wine, but as tends to happen with these lovely pulignys the wine disappeared all too quickly.

After the starter was done we moved onto the serious end of the evening. The two red wines were unbelievably tight on opening but 5 hours later they were starting to sing in the decanters. The last time Paul roasted some beef he completely overcooked it but this time he served up the most deliciously rare rib of beef. He pared this with a nice mix of wild mushrooms and new potatoes. I attempted some roast carrots but got carried away with the vinegar so they mostly remained uneaten. The first wine up was Denis Mortet Gevrey Chambertain ‘Vielles Vignes’ 2006. This opened up nicely with the time in decanter but was still very tight, showing a very dark hue in the glass. Still a little oaky and raw this was full throttle gevrey with a mix of red and black fruits. This wasn’t as impressive as the 2005 ‘Mes Cinq Terroirs’ at a similar age, as it didn’t have the same complexity, but was still a very nice drop. Next up was a half bottle of 2005 Freddy Mugnier Nuits St George 1er ‘Clos Des Marechales’, which was even tighter on opening. This also opened up nicely with the decant (I feared it might not have opened at all) and was really delicious. Possibly bigger than Mortet in the mouth with a lovely balance between fruit, tannin, acid and minerality. It also had lovely fruits and little hints of spice. This will be a cracking wine when it comes out of its slumber that it is obviously heading towards at present.

After the heavy beef dish and serious red wine we were in serious need of something light and sweet to cut through the meal. Fortunately I picked up a raspberry crème brulee (their name not mine) in Heavens cakes in the English market in Cork before I came down. This was an extremely tasty treat as was the matched wine, 2007 Urziger Wurzgarten Auslese Goldkapsel from Dr Loosen. This is a delicious young wine, with lovely fruits and superb minerality. This bottle disappeared in minutes too! We had a small nibble of Willies Delectable Cacao after dinner, which again was quite pleasant.

We didn’t finish dinner until a horribly late hour but we didn’t let this perturb our revelry, as after a quick Gin Martini we head into the town of Killarney for a bit of craic. I imagine the inhabitants of The Grand Hotel wish we hadn’t bothered as we were in extremely jovial form, we didn’t mind at all. A couple of hours later we arrived back home and decided that a bottle of 2005 Philippe Chavy Muersault Blangy Sous Le Dos D’Ane was the order of the evening. We probably should have bothered with that one! We finished off our evenings revelry the following afternoon over a thoroughly delightful lunch in The Aghadoe Heights hotel. Now that is a great place to recover from a hangover.

Burgundy/Champagne 09: Getting Home

We woke up the following morning more than a little groggy but comfortable in the fact that we had 10 hours or so to make the estimated 5 hour drive to Roscoff. After checking out of our hotel we hit the road and resolved to determine a pit stop en route. For the most part the trip was uneventful, except for a couple major traffic jams (one around Paris for 2 hours and another around Rennes for a couple hours). As a result of the traffic jams we didn't have time for any fancy lunches or dinners and just drove straight to Roscoff and arrived at the Ferryport with an hour or so to spare. After a quick chat with the ladies in French customs and passport control we boarded the boat and let our bags down in our cabin.

The boat home didn't cast of until about 11pm so we decided to tuck stright into a bit of food and cracked open a magnum of 2001 Pavelot Savigny Les Beaune 1er 'Dominode'. The food was barely mediocre but the wine was spectacular, showing lovely red fruits a little bit of poop, smoke, caramel and some sweet wpices. It constantly shifted over the course of the evening, one minute being very tight and short the next totally open and long. It was a great wine and a lovely way to finish off our trip to France. When we finally stood up once the bottle was empty we realised that the journey was quite rough with a good roll each time we went over a wave. Fotunately the magnum of wine took away our cares and we just went to our cabin and passed out.

The next morning we woke up the to sight of the Irish coastline. Cork harbour is a lovely place to sail into as you pass by cove, crosshaven etc.. Once docked we head down to our van and drove off the boat. We were a little bit worried about passing through customs as we knew we were a good bit over the allowed limit of wine (the limit it about 100 bottles a head I think). As anticipated customs pulled us over to have a little bit of a chat about the volume of wine in the van (~70 cases). Fortunately, once we had explained our journey and produced all our receipts (with VAT paid) they sent us on our way. Another great thing (for us) about arriving into Cork Port was that it was a very short drive home to drop off our stash of wine. All in all it was a highly successful trip. We bought all kinds of excellent wine, met some great people, ate some lovely food, furthered our knowledge of wine and most importantly had a great time.

That's the end of the this series of posts, thanks to everybody who followed along and left comments on the way. If anybody is thinking of organizing a similar trip and has any questions feel free to pop a comment below.