Irish Wine Contemplations

A Cote De Beaune Tasting

2011-10-31T14:52:00.003Z

All served at Nigel Donnans Dublin wine school (http://www.dublinwineschool.ie/) tasting last week. Le Cave wine bar on South Anne Street was our venue once more in an attempt to getting a better understanding of the Cote De Beaune. The villages from the Southern half of Burgundy (proper) are generally more famous for their white wines but they also produce some very high quality red wine (if not quite up to the standard of the Cote De Nuits).

2005 Nicolas Potel Volnay ‘Vielles Vignes’
This negociant wine from the much heralded 2005 vintage was looking very young in the glass. It had a some dark fruits and brown sugar on the nose but for the most part is still tightly coiled. In the mouth it had very good structural elements (acid, tannin) but is a little harsh and vegetal at present, although the finish was quite impressive.

2005 Fernand & Laurent Pillot Volnay
This was a little bit more open on the nose with some creamy fruit. On the palate this wine was quite odd, it starts off very tart and astringent with some red fruits but has a lovely long, delicious, finish and super balance. Still too young but I think this will be lovely in a few years.

2005 Vincent Dancer Pommard ‘les Perrieres’
This wine on the other hand is superb now. It has a stunning nose of rustic red fruits and some spice. It has less concentration in the mouth but has a wonderful balance between lightness and perfume that fills the entire mouth with red fruits, spice and floral scents and flavours. This wine is in a great place at the moment but I don’t have any reason to think that it won’t continue to age gracefully.

2006 Volnay Michel Lafarge
A little bit browner in the glass than the previous 3 wines but tighter and more closed down than them too. It’s quite concentrated but has elegance to it as well. It has lots of structural elements at the moment and some spices but needs quite a bit of time. A sip later in the evening showed that this wine opened up a little over time.

1996 Camille Giroud Santenay Gravieres 1er Cru
This wine was a massive surprise. It looked quite old in the glass as it was very brown and quite watery at the rim. On the nose and palate it was superb though and full of life. It had tons of mature tertiary characteristics (sous bois, forest floor, Asian spices) and great acidity keeping the whole package fresh. Apparently previous bottles of this over the past 10 years have been tight and unyielding; it would appear that this wine has just opened up.

2002 Gagnard Delagrange Chassange Montrachet 1er Cru
This wine is also entering a maturing phase but was also open for business. Sweet ripe fruits on the nose intermingled with some caramel tones. A big wine on the palate, although not very refined, it was quite impressive and had good length.

1996 Comtes Lafon Volnay Santenots Du Millieu 1er CruNot the cleanest sample as it was quite cloudy in the glass. Initially there was plenty of farmyard stink and beef stock on the nose but thankfully this blew off over time. This was a very impressive wine. Lots of sweet & rich red fruits and spices layered across a very powerful palate all held together with a great line of acidity. This had superb length and was really delicious.

1998 Comtes Lafon Volnay Santenots Du Millieu 1er Cru
This sample was much cleaner. It had a blacker profile on both the nose and the palate. It didn’t have the same structure as the 1996 and was a little sweeter. This was a very sexy wine for drinking now. It was a tough choice between the 2 Lafons but I think the 1996 just about shaded it for me in the end

1997 Michel Lafarge Volnay Clos Des Chenes 1er CruThis was a superb wine. It’s very different in style to the Lafon being much more elegant and, dare I say it, more typically burgundian. It had a superb nose of red fruits, earth, brown sugar and spices. The flavours were more mature on the palate and incredibly elegant and refined. If I had 1 complaint it would be that the finish was a little short relative to the Lafon wines.

1999 Comte Armand Pommard ‘Clos Des Epeneaux’
Primary, tight, closed. Wait 10 years and come back to this. It seemed to have some impressive stuffing underneath the sheath of structure but was a total waste on the night

1996 Domaine Faiveley Clos Des Cortons-Faiveley
People were worried that this would have been tighter than the Armand wine but fortunately we were in for a treat. This had a lovely burgundian nose of red fruits, barnyard and minerals and was immensely impressive on the palate. Sure it had a ridiculous amount of tannin but it also had plenty of fruit, spice and acidity and was perfectly balanced and incredibly long and delicious. I don’t think I’ve ever had this much tannin in a burgundian wine but it didn’t impede the joy at all.

A family affair

2011-10-23T12:20:00.008+01:00

Last weekend the entire family had a get together in Dublin for the first time in almost 6 months. Busy lives and competing priorities mean that these meetings, where everybody is present, are a sporadic occurrence these days so it was important that we made the most of it. Ely Bar & Brasserie was our venue of choice and they were kind enough to concoct a superb menu to match our wines. It was a very busy night for Ely, as it was the final Saturday night of Oktoberfest in Dublins IFSC but in our tranquil private room we had little sense of the mayhem that was ensuing all around us. Amelie, Rakesh and the rest of the team pulled off a blinder on the service front. It can't have been easy during an incredibly busy evening but the team pitched their levels of service perfectly and didn't miss a beat.

We kicked off the evening with a couple of delightful champagnes: 2002 Dom Perignon & 1999 Vilmart Cuvee Creation. The Vilmart was much more developed and mature on the palate with hints of dried fruits along with the rich toasty flavours. The DP was incredibly precise and impressive but far more austere. On the evening, the Vilmart was the tastier wine but there is no question that the DP was the finer wine with much more potential. Ryan cooked up a super dish to go with these wines: Marinated langoustine & scallop, avocado puree, lime crème fraiche, toasted almonds, micro-herbs. This was a clever dish, perfectly executed that was both delicious in its own right but brought out subtle nuances in the wines.

Our second course was a pair of Grosses Gewaches Riesling: 2004 George Breuer Schlossberg & 2008 Emrich Schoenleber Frulingsplatzchen. The Breuer was much more evolved and in a great drinking phase with petrol tones on the nose and hints of sweet fruits along with some structure. The Emrich Schoenleber was a much better wine though with lots of fresh fruits along with searing acidity and minerality that delivered razor sharp precision on the palate. We had an old favourite Ely dish served alongside these wines: John Dory with tea-smoked duck OR Duo Of Duck, fondant potato, fennel puree, bordelaise sauce. The fishermen dropped in some huge John Dory earlier in the even so Ryan gave us extra large portions of this dish, which was delicious.

We had three 2007 chardonnays served up next: 2007 Comtes Lafon Meursault Clos De La Barre, 2007 Tappanappa Tiers Vineyard Chardonnay (Australia) & 2007 Philippe Chavy Puligny 1er Folatieres. This was an interesting flight after the Riesling as the wines came across a little fat an blowsy initially. Over time my palate recalibrated and this turned into a good flight. The Tappanappa stood out like a sore thumb with awkward oak and alcoholic heat, although on it’s own it might have been a good wine. The Lafon was far too young at the moment with too much oak on the palate. The Chavy was the finest and the most refined and developed of these wines and was simply delicious. We had an interesting food pairing with this course: Confit lamb loin, globe artichoke barigoule, Jerusalem artichoke & Dijon puree, sage salt. In a strange way this dish worked well with the chardonnay (although I think a light burgundy flight might have been better suited). The barigoule was the element that tied the white wine and the lamb together.

We only had 1 red course on the evening but it was a pretty good pair of 2002 Charmes Chambertin: 2002 Domaine Drouhin Charmes Chambertin &2002 Arlaud Charmes Chambertin. This was a fascinating pair as the wines showed similarity (spice notes) yet were very different. The Drouhin was a burgundy to die for, it was a very elegant wine with delicious red fruits, minerals, earth, farmyard and lovely length. The Arlaud was a much deeper darker proposition and seemed a little overworked for me. I much preferred the Drouhin wine but the Arlaud worked better with the food: Organic Burren beef fillet, lightly smoked with beech, morelles & bone marrow. The beef was a little over smoked for some of the diners and the dish lacked a little carbohydrate for others but I thought it very good and it worked well with the wines.

The final course was a real cracker, there was only one wine but what a wine: 2006 Schloss Lieser Niederberger Helden Riesling Auslese Lange Goldkapsel. This wine is still in its infancy but ohh-my is it delicious. A mix of citrus and tropical fruits, lovely spice all wrapped up in an elegant package delivering waves of flavour on an incredibly long finish. The dessert course was easily the best food course of the evening: Pear & almond tart, port-poached pear sorbet, candied toffee pear. The lightness of touch and complexity of flavour in this dish was remarkable and this is easily the best dessert I have had all year. It worked well with the wine too.

The whole evening was mighty craic but flew too quickly by as we enjoyed wave after wave of food and wine with an accompaniment of raucous laughter.

Too Much Food

2011-10-22T14:37:00.006+01:00

Due to a small scheduling snaffoo, I was at a loose end a few weeks ago so arranged an impromptu Saturday evening rendezvous with my brother along with a few quiet drinks. I picked up my bro early in the afternoon and we head off to various local suppliers for treats to enjoy. By the time we were finished foraging it was still early so we went for a quick bite in the French paradox in Ballsbridge (a decision that we would regret later in the evening). A plate of cheese, rillettes and charcuterie and a few glass of kir were a great idea at the time but left us with less room in our bellies than we required.

We kicked off the meal proper with a few local oysters and a glass of champagne. The bottle of NV Raymond Boulard Rose was my last of a stash procured almost 4 years previously and was in dire need of drinking up. This wine was fully mature with hints of earth and mushrooms, which while not unpleasant were a million miles away from the delicious strawberry summery notes that I associate with a fresh bottle of this wine.

We followed up with a delicious plate of seared scallops and fresh baby squid. The dish was really tasty but the portion size was too much and we filled up fast. The 2007 Philippe Chavy Meursault Blagny served along was delicious though. It’s still a youthful wine with tons of fresh citrus and prickly acid but there are hints of complexity coming though. At a guess I think that this wine will start drinking well in another year or 2.

The next course, a roast rack of spring lamb with a spiced sweet potato patty and braised cabbage was very tasty but was a little too heavy for our requirements. We made a good stab at the dish but didn’t quite manage to clear our plates. The 2000 Chateau Clerc Milon Pauillac served alongside was pretty good but cemented my recent malaise for all things Bordeaux. This was a good grand cru from a very good vintage but yet again it was missing the wow factor that I expect from these wines. It still has lots of structure and is just about starting to show some secondary characteristics but I don’t think that it will ever be a great wine.

We attempted to finish off with an assiette of desserts from Rolys Bistro but barely managed a few bites. We did manage a glass of 2001 Donnhoff Niederhauser Hermansholle Auslese Goldkap, which was easily the best wine of the evening. This wine is really strutting its stuff at the moment as it still has plenty of energy but is showing some lovely complexity. It has a wonderful mouthfeel and really impressive length.

All in all a fun evening but just too much food, which left us a bit full at the end of the evening. So much so that our attempt to enjoy a few after dinner drinks was pretty much thwarted, due to lack of space
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A Bordeaux 2001 Tasting

2011-09-27T19:03:00.005+01:00

All served at Nigel Donnans Dublin wine school (http://www.dublinwineschool.ie/) tasting last week. A group of 15 enthusiasts gathered in le Cave wine bar on South Anne Street to investigate the merits of this ‘lesser’ red Bordeaux vintage. 2001 in Bordeaux fell very much in the shadow of the great 2000 vintage but some recent reports suggest that these wines are turning out to be much better than initially anticipated.

2001 Chateau Moulin Riche St Julien AC
This is the second wine from Leoville Poyferre. This was a pleasant start to the evening. It was pretty typical Bordeaux on the nose with cedar, some iron and cassis. On the palate it was fresher than I was expecting (in a good way), medium bodied with black fruits and a little liquorice, earth and hints of chocolate. This was an nice wine, drinking well at the moment, but at the current price I don’t see any value here.

2001 Chateau Haut Marbuzet St Estephe AC
This had a bit more going on than the previous wine with a little more of the structure I expect from Bordeaux. It had good acidity and plenty of fruit. This is drinking well at the moment but there is no rush to drink up. Again, I liked this wine but it didn’t really impress me and at this price point I would like to see something more interesting.

2001 Chateau Chasse Spleen Moulis AC
This was classic Bordeaux on the nose with lashings of tobacco, smoke and some cassis. It was medium bodied with good grip and a nice finish. It had a darker profile than the previous 2 wines and was quite classy in an understated fashion.

2001 Chateau Dauzac 5th Cru Classe Margaux AC
This was much darker than the previous wines and was a much bigger more extracted wine on the nose, with lots of black fruits and a little tomato juice. It was quite a big fruity wine on the palate with rough tannins but good balancing acidity. This was more buxom than the previous wine but probably not as good.

2001 Chateau Ferriere 3rd Cru Classe Margaux AC
This wine was a big step up from the previous offerings. It was an extremely elegant wine with red fruits a little icing sugar and very fine tannins on the palate. It was quite closed on the nose but had a lovely long finish and great balance. This really was a lovely wine and actually really good value (wine-searcher indicates this is under €30/bottle)

2001 Domaine De Chevalier Pessac-Leognan AC
This was much more savoury on the nose and palate with very fine tannin and lovely black fruits, hints of tobacco and just a little spice. This was very fine and was wine of the night for the majority (although not for me). Traditionally this has been great value but I fear it is heading in the same direction as the rest of Bordeaux.

2001 Chateau Magdelaine St Emilion Grand Cru Classe AC
The group liked this wine quite a bit but I didn’t quite get on with it. It had a very dense nose but was quite aggressive on the palate for me with lots of rough tannin and red fruits. It did have a lovely finish though. I think this wine really needs more time to integrate and could be a very good wine once it does.

2001 Chateau Lynch Bages 5th Cru Classe Pauillac AC
This wine is remarkably giving at the moment. It’s wide open on the nose with red fruits, iron and some cigar box. On the palate it was very giving too but is a little one-dimensional at present and perhaps lacking a little structure. There is certainly no value here in my eyes.

2001 Chateau Hosanna Pomerol AC
This is a very well constructed wine indeed. It’s quite dense and tight at the moment but showing black fruits and coffee notes with fine tannin, good texture and nice length. This is a very nice wine but I struggled to detect a soul within its well crafted construction. This was another incredibly expensive wine that I just couldn’t understand.

2001 Leoville Las Case 2nd Cru Classe St Julien AC
This is simply a superb wine. It had a lovely nose of minerals, blackcurrants and cedar, superb structure, a very full mouthfeel and great length. It’s really lovely but at least 10 years too young at the moment. This will be a great wine but I just hope it manages to restrain its cedar notes while calming down and gaining complexity

Overall, this was a really good tasting that was very interesting to me as I rarely drink wines from Bordeaux. I was surprised by the freshness shown by all of these wines, which obviously makes them very good food wines. 2001 has delivered a really nice vintage in Bordeaux for people who enjoy classic claret flavours and wines that can be drunk (as oppose to purely collected). I absolutely cannot for the life of me figure out why people would pay so much money for these wines though. I would gladly drink most of these wines but all of the wines (except for the Leoville Las Cases) lacked any kind of wow factor that would justify the extortionate prices that these wines and their counterparts in Bordeaux now demand.

Kicking Back

2011-09-21T10:38:00.008+01:00

After a year of study culminating in a pressurized August/September I decided that I needed a fun weekend to blow off a little steam. Fortunately, my good pal FionnersG was in town and he helped me unwind with a fine meal and a few good bottles. Our evening was arranged hastily but after a brief consultation and some visits to the cities finest food outlets we settled on a five course meal with wine parings for each course. This was all fine and dandy, except that there were only the 2 of us to work through a large amount of food and wine (for most of the courses).

We started out with a bottle of 2000 Tarlant Vigne D’Antan. This is a fascinating wine made from ungrafted vines, which was purchased in 2007 from the domaine. I have not been overly impressed by this domain’s wines over the years but this wine was one of the finest champagnes to have ever passed my lips. It was incredibly precise and fresh with flavours of lemons, chalk, piecrust and little hints of nuts (almost like a dry lemon meringue pie). It was incredibly persistent on the palate and got better and better with each glass. This was paired alongside scallops, chorizo & parsley. The sweet scallops brought out a note of the sea from the wine and the pairing was a delightful opener to our meal.

Next up was a 2009 JJ Prum Wehlener Sonnenuhr Kabinett, opened 10 years too early just to see what this wine is all about at the moment. Quite sulphurous bordering on faulty on opening but with a 6 hour decant this blew off leaving a remarkably light, fresh and delicious wine. Great fruit and balance coupled with nice minerality, structure and definition. This will be a superb wine in a number of years but is a little awkward at present. The wine worked very well with a Lobster & Papaya salad, which was really good in its own right but the portion size was too big.

The final white course was a bottle of 2001 Louis Latour Corton Charlemagne. This wine is the polar opposite of the Prum with tons of weight and just about entering a mature phase. It is starting to develop some dried fruit (oranges and apricots) and nut characteristics but still has plenty of lemon, butter. With air this broadened on the palate but somehow became a little less interesting, lacking a little bit of acidity and freshness. This wine was paired with a lovely fresh piece of turbot simply pan fried and served with some crisped potatoes, wild mushrooms and a morel sauce. Again, this dish was delicious and worked well with the wine but the portion was too large. As a result, after this course we were pretty full and considered passing up on the rest of the meal.

After a bit of a break and a brief stroll we decided to forge ahead with a truncated version of our next course. We served up a small portion of slivers of rare, massaman-marinated BBQ beef. This was paired with a magnificent bottle of 2006 Comtes Lafon Volnay 1er Clos Des Chenes. I was expecting this wine to be big, foursquare and serious and worried that it might be a little closed (as some 2006s are showing at present). This wine turned out to be a wonderful surprise. It was almost transparent in the glass and waves of delicious red fruited burgundy emanated from the glass as soon as the wine was poured. The aromas were deep, multilayered, complex and incredibly beguiling and the flavours followed suit. It was lithe and fresh yet deep and engaging, which is pretty much everything one could hope for in a young burgundy. Lots of red berries (strawberries & cherries), dusted with icing sugar and a little bit of earth. It was mouth filling with super fine tannins and good length. The asian beef brought out some spicy notes in the wine too.

Finally we attempted to eat some apple and blackberry crumble but at this stage out bellies were full and our eyes glazing over. A glass of 2007 Dr Loosen Urziger Wurzgarten Auslese gave us a little bit of zip with it’s fresh, delicious, spicy and tropical notes but at this stage of the evening we had consumed far too much food and wine already to enjoy the pairing fully. As a result we set forth into the city to engage in some victorious celebrations following Irelands magnificent victory over Australia earlier in the day and continued late into the evening.

A few bottles

2011-08-16T21:12:00.006+01:00

I've been quiet of late as a result of a hectic study schedule but I managed to break free and had the pleasure of enjoying a few lovely bottles of wine on Saturday night in Ely Bar & Brasserie (IFSC) with a few friends.

2004 Raymond Boulard Les Rachais, which is probably a year off being quite ready. Started off very fresh with the chardonnay component to the fore but as the wine opened out the pinot shone through. This wine went really very well with some delicious Kilkee Oysters.

2006 Mischief & Mayhem Corton Charlemagne, which was served way too cold. This was quite a tight showing from this wine, which is either a very light Corton or was shut down. Lots of fresh minerals and lemon on the palate with small hints of the vintage tropical fruits. A nice wine, but not up to the level of this producers Pulignys I think.

2004 Mount Eden Estate Bottled Chardonnay, which was really very good. This was a real slut of a wine with tons of fruit, oak, extract and even some structure. Normally notes like this would make me cringe but this wine was just about held in check and was great fun to drink. According to Kevin these can also age for 20 years or so, I’d love to try an older version. I’d also like to try this alongside a Leeuwin Chardonnay as I feel it would show favourably.

1993 Comtes George De Vogue Chambolle Musigny was really superb. The essence of chambolle, with lovely dusty red fruits, all held together with a remarkable amount of structure. Each time I try a De Vogue wine I remind myself that I really should buy more of these (and then I see the prices...).

1976 Robert Ampeau Volnay Santenots I think this wine was suffering from a bit of travel shock (it had travelled over from Philly with Kevin). Quite murky in the glass and a little flat on the palate. It’s amazing to think that this wine was 35 years old, as it looked and tasted less than 10 years old. It’s a very nice wine with good flavours and textures but was over shone by the De Vogue on the evening.

2008 Montesquieu Grappe D’Or Really delicious and very fresh. It doesn’t have the complexity of a great Sauternes or sweet Riesling but was lovely in its own right and a great QPR.

Ely were on good form, yet again, and very accommodating to us. They have some superb wines on bin end (e.g. 01 Grillet @ €65) in the restaurant at the moment so if you are in Dublin soon make sure to check them out! Pints and Whiskey afterwards were a good idea at the start but the volume imbibed ensured one of my worst hangovers in years. Good fun all round though.

#Goutfest Mark2 #Dublin

2011-07-04T22:23:00.006+01:00

We had another food and drink filled Gouty session on Saturday night, fortunately this week it was in Dublin so I didn’t have to contend with any nightmare 6-hour drives home afterwards.We started off with canapés of oysters, and smoked salmon, with picked cucumber & Lemon mascarpone on soda bread. I had hoped to pair this with a 1979 Diebolt Vallois Blanc De Blanc, which was unfortunately oxidised and over the hill. We drank a 2002 Philipponnat Grand Blanc instead. Initially I thought this was a flawed bottle but after a bit of time it opened out into decent but not great champagne.

Our first course for dinner was Lobster Spring Rolls with spicy Asian herb salad. This was a deliciously fresh start to the meal, which we paired with 2004 Comtes Lafon Meursault ‘Clos De La Barre’. This wine took some time to strut its stuff but once it opened out it proved to be a cracking wine and a lovely foil to the Lobster. It had tons of flavour with butter, spice, lemon, oil and floral notes and was very composed yet forceful at the same time. I poured 2004 Antinori Cervaro Della Sala blind alongside the Lafon and it got pretty much eaten up in the wake of the Lafon wine. It was a classy enough wine but didn’t have any character beyond its oak profile.

The next course provided probably the most interesting (although not the best, in my eyes) wine of the evening. I served up Pan Seared Scallops with a Pancetta crust on a bed of samphire. We poured a 2001 Chapoutier Ermitage Blanc L’Oree with this dish. Initially I feared this might have been oxidised but a few hours in a decanter did wonders for this wine. It held onto its oxidative character but impressed with a myriad of complexity and flavour on the palate. Nuts, Citrus peel, oil, sweet spice and minerals on a velvety palate with great power and length. Most didn’t like this very much but I thought it intriguing, if not entirely enjoyable. Sean poured a 2009 Treloar Terre Promis blind after the Chapoutier. This was an intriguing wine and very tough to place blind. In the end I stumped for a very good Macon or an Aussie Chardonnay but without the OTT Aussiness. It was a delicious wine and a great QPR.

The first red of the evening was my WOTN, 1976 Domaine J. Bitouzet Volnay. This wine was a beautiful hue in the glass, mesmerizing on the nose with hints of sous bois, raspberries, horse hair and truffles, delicious on the palate with superb texture and tons of life left. I served up roast black pudding stuffed chicken breast on a bed of mash with a Morel sauce. The chicken and morels worked a treat with the Volnay and it was a pleasure to enjoy a really mature burgundy.

After this we moved onto a pair of exciting St Emilions, Tertre Roteboeuf 1988 and 1993. I served a roast fillet of beef with sweet potato chips and a bordelaise sauce alongside these 2 great wines. I much preferred the 1988 out of these 2 wines but both wines were lovely in their own right. The 1988 Tertre Roteboeuf was quite austere but all the better for it, with a wall of super fine, velvety tannin keeping the wine in check. It was a big delicious mouthfilling St Emilion that worked very well with the beef. The 1993 Tertre Roteboeuf was much younger than but not as fine as the 1988. It still had some plumy fruit but showed a bit of greenness that took away from its overall package. We tried these wines with some fine Irish Cheese (Durrus, Gubeen, Coolea, Cashel Blue, Ardrahan) but the wines were better with the previous course.

Finally we poured some 2005 Alois Kracher =9 Scheurebe Tba Zwischen Den Seen Schreube with apricots in rosewater and lavender biscuits. The wine was really lovely, the dessert was far too sweet though. The wine was extremely concentrated with tons of everything, botrytis, fruit (citrus and tropical), sugar, acidity. It was incredibly long and luxurious. Unfortunately by the time the meal was over it was too late to head to town so we settled down with a couple of glasses of whiskey to finish out the evening (Green Spot and 17 YO Old Pulteney). The whiskeys were delicious, the green spot being much more refined and the Pulteney being much more character. All in all another cracking evening of indulgence.

#Goutfest @ #Patchmountain

2011-06-27T20:16:00.003+01:00

The weekend just gone proved to be one of great excess. It’s been a while since I had a proper knees up with a couple of good chums, so this one was well deserved. Although given the levels of excess it may well be a while before we deserve another go at it.

I drove from Dublin to Cork for on Friday evening to break up my journey to Kerry a little and tucked into a nice bottle to relax after a tough week at work.
2007 Patrick Javilllier Meursault Clos Du Cromin Initially this was a little hard work and I thought I had popped the cork on this too early. After about half an hour or this opened up nicely and started to deliver. The wine had a nice mouthfeel, good length and typical Meursault power. Tons of 2007 minerality on the palate combined with good fruit and spice.

The next day we enjoyed lunch in Killarneys ‘Pay What You Like’ restaurant where we had some fresh pizza and a chorizo and sweet potato taco. Fortunately they allow BYO, so we brought along a tasty little number
2009 JJ Prum Wehlener Sonnenuhr KabinettFresh, fruity and a little spritz but with an ethereal lightness makes this a lovely luncheon wine. The low alcohol means that you can have a few glasses and still get on with your day. This wine is way too young yet and after a while heavy notes of sulphur come to the fore but it is still a delicious wine
Next up we went to the spa in the Europe Hotel for a spot of purification before the onslaught that was to come later on in the day. A few hours of swimming and steaming in a stunning location left us fortified and refreshed just in time to kick off our session of excess at #Patchmountain.
We rolled in and unloaded the car before being greeted with a glass of
2005 Zind Humbrecht Gewürztraminer Wintzenheim
This is a big, complex glass of wine. It had a powerful nose of rose petals, oil, honey, sweet fruits and spice but with a big kick of alcohol. It’s a very impressive wine but too big to kick off the evening. Some Hot smoked Frank Hederman Salmon came out to tame the wine and it did a good job to tame the wine and get our gastric juices flowing.

2000 Roederer CristalInitially very precise and tight but this opened out nicely over the course of a few glasses. It’s a great champagne but is still very young. Needs time but is still enjoyable.
We had a few Ballycotton Oysters with the champagne and they brought out lovely saline notes in the wine.

2010 La Bota Manzanilla No 22We shifted up a gastronomic gear with the next course. Patch delivered up a northern Spanish treat with a plate of toasted almonds, air dried ham and dried pork as well as mussels with a roast pepper dressing. The La Bota 22 was the best sherry I have ever tasted. Salty, nutty with caramel coated apricots and lemons on the refined palate, and a wonderful line of acidity this wine shifted and changed on the palate. It tamed the 15% alcohol very well and worked great with the food.

1985 Leroy Meursault Genevrieres
Things ramped up again with the next wine. Initially a bit stinky and burly upon opening, this wine was a simply incredible white wine. It’s brilliantly fresh and vibrant for such an aged wine but the flavour profile was mind blowing. It still has remnants of its youth with powerful lemon and mineral but this is overlaid with preserved fruits (oranges and apricots), spices and the most luxurious texture and great length.

This wine was served with a dish Pan Roasted scallops and freshly harvested samphire that was simple yet deliciously fresh and tasted of the sea.

2006 Leflaive Puligny Montrachet I was afraid that this would be blown away by the Leroy but a few hours in a decanter helped bring this wine out of its shell. Still a good lick of oak showing but its well integrated with a very classy wine. Considerable power on the attack with plenty of acidity, fruit and spice. This was a mouthwatering wine that was built along the same lines as the Leroy.
We enjoyed a superb dish of sweet pea, asparagus and langoustine risotto with this dish. The risotto was to die for, cooked to perfection and incredibly wine friendly.

2008 Roumier Chambolle 1st Les Cras
Ohh so young but ohh so delicious. Fresh strawberrys and cream with a silky palate. This was very full and round yet had remarkable subtlety and class. The finish went on for minutes on the palate. Delicious.
Almost as delicious as Paudis slowcooked rabbit ragu with parpadelle. Paudi spent 12 hours making a meat stock for this ragu, involving 8 or 9 different cuts of meat, and we reaped all kinds of pleasure as a result. It was the best dish of the evening, in an evening full of remarkable food.

2001 Vina Ardanza La Rioja AltaGutsy, rustic but full of flavour and pleasure. This was packed with fresh red fruits but was also meaty, feral and had hints of spice. It wasn’t as refined as some of the previous wines but was very tasty none the less. This was served as an interim wine as we waited for the main course to be served.

1978 Leoville Las CasesThis was quite herbaceous on the nose with lots of leather, dust and cedar. It still had plenty of life on the palate with a big mouthfeel and some good tannin. Old school Bordeaux, fully resolved and quite savoury.
It worked nicely with a simply roasted forerib of beef and roasted garlic.

1999 D'Yquem
Dessert was eschewed in favour of a glass of D’Yquem and a few slices of cheese. The D’Yquem was a botrytis filled, big, luxurious glass of tropical fruit juice. Incredible complexity and length that goes on and on.

Fonseca 10 Year Old TawnyThe half of D’Yquem didn’t last long so we moved on to a glass of Fonseca Tawny to enjoy some more cheese. This tasted like warm Christmas cake layered with caramel and nuts. It was a very complex mouthful of wine.

After dinner we went off for a few beers before coming back home to finish off with a couple of glasses of whiskey (Tyrconnell & Green Spot).

The next morning our heads were very sore and bodies very tired. We decided that a solid brunch (Hanger Steak, fried mushrooms, homecut chips and light salad) was the only thing for us, so we settled in for a couple hours of food preparation and sipped a few more bottles.

2009 Loosen Dr L RieslingWas another lovely fresh Riesling. Not as complex as the Prum the day before but simply a delicious, refreshing glass of wine.

2000 Lascombes
Initially on opening, I found this to be a bit too green but after a couple of hours it opened up nicely and turned out to be a really lovely, well balanced wine. Nice fruit profile on the palate blended against an austere, dusty streak and good structure and minerality.

A tale of 2 villages

2011-06-05T11:56:00.007+01:00

I had the great pleasure of attending a white burgundy tasting in Ely Bar & Brasserie last night organized by Conor Richardson (of Burgundy Direct fame). The theme for the tasting was Puligny vs Chassagne Montrachet. Conor started organizing this a couple of months back and when we gathered last night he had amassed 15 willing participants who had the tough task of tasting 17 different wines from Puligny & Chassagne ranging from village wines right up to grand cru. Needless to say I was very excited in anticipation of this evening.

The wines were arranged into 7 flights all designed to give a different take on the villages. The first flight was 3 2006 village wines, 2 from Chassagne and 1 from Puligny. This was a good opening flight but one wine stood out from the others
2006 Chassagne Montrachet, Bernard Moreau – This was a cracking start to the evening. The nose was full of exotic tones of coconut and orange rind but the palate was very mineral and steely as well as having some oak derived tones. This was a very complete village level wine that was a step above the other 2 wines in the flight
2006 Puligny Montrachet ‘Miroy’, Pierre Janny – This wine showed the most vintage character, with tropical fruits on the nose intermingled with pear and minerals. On the palate this was quite taut and firm but had a tasty, persistent finish
2006 Chassagne Montrachet, Domaine Bachelet – There was a bit of debate as to whether this wine was ‘correct’ or not. Initially I thought it was spoiled but as it opened up in the glass it began to show a bit more character. In the end it was a light, mealy wine with lots of oaky tones and a sour finish.

The next flight was a pair of Pulignys from the 2008 vintage. This flight served to show that these types of wines need at least 2/3 years in the bottle before broaching to give them a chance to fill out a little.
2008 Puligny Montrachet ‘Trezins’, Marc Colin – Lovely wine, but very young. It’s a bit gawky at the moment with plenty of oak, acid, fruit and minerals on show but not at all integrated. One to revisit in another year or two.
2008 Puligny Montrachet, Moillard-Grivot – I didn’t enjoy this wine as much. The use of oak was a little obvious and the wine was lacking sufficient fruit to balance out the acidity. As the wine opened out it became more enjoyable though.

The third flight was a superb flight, 2 Drouhin Puligny 1er Cru Folatieres but from different vintages. There was a noticeable step up in quality from village wines to the 1er crus.
2007 Puligny Montrachet ‘Folatieres’ 1er Cru, Joesph Drouhin – This was a superb wine showing very well. It was a big wine but carried itself very elegantly. It had superb mineral cut and thrust and a complex range of flavours. The oak in the wine was noticeable but added to rather than distracted from the overall wine
2005 Puligny Montrachet ‘Folatieres’ 1er Cru, Joesph Drouhin – This wine was a little tighter than the 2007 but incredibly refined and complex. It didn’t have quite as much mineral cut but the overall package was knee weakening. Both wines were superb examples of a forward style of Puligny.

The fourth flight was a bit of a let down after the fireworks of the previous flight and none of the wines did Chassagne any favours. In theory this should have been a great flight of 3 wines from the same vineyard in 3 different vintages from 2 different producers.
2005 Chassagne Montrachet ‘Morgeots’ 1er Cru, Louis Jadot – Prematurely Oxidised! Sherry on the nose, sherry on the palate. Quickly dumped into the spittoon.
2006 Chassagne Montrachet ‘Morgeots’ 1er Cru, Vincent Girarden– Lots of oak on the nose, quite unrefined but definitely white burgundy. Not as distinctive a step up from the village level chassagnes. A little short.
2007 Chassagne Montrachet ‘Morgeots’ 1er Cru, Vincent Girarden – Quite tight. Too much oak, not enough fruit. A pleasant wine but nothing more. Better length than the 2006
Both of the Girarden wines got a bit of a short shrift on the evening due to being book ended by much better flights. In reality these wines would probably be lovely on an evening on their own with a nice dinner but they didn’t shine at this tasting.

The next flight promised so much, 2 great 2005 Chassagne 1er crus, but again started off with a disappointment before revealing 2 top notch wines.
2005 Chassagne Montrachet ‘Champ Gain’ 1er Cru V&F Jouard– Corked, unfortunately. This should have been a superb wine.
2006 Puligny Montrachet ‘Champ Canet’ 1er Cru, Louis Carillon – This wine was opened as a back up for the corked Jouard. This was wine of the night for many of the tasters. It was a complete wine, drinking perfectly and a pleasure to taste on the evening. It had superb minerality, fruit, oak, acid and great balance and length. The precision to the wine was key as it delivered understated complexity in waves across the palate. A truly superb wine.
2005 Chassagne Montrachet ‘La Romanee’ 1er Cru Vincent Dancer – This wine was coiled up tight but still delivered great pleasure. It had a superbly plush mouth feel and great length. It felt as if it was holding back a little as behind a deep core of fruit was a steely, mineral wine.

Flight 6 was another cracker, 2 great 2005 Puligny 1er crus, but one wine stood head and shoulders above the other
2005 Puligny Montrachet ‘Pucelles’ 1er Cru, Philippe Chavy – This was a bit disappointing initially after the previous 2 wines. It was a bit oaky and a bit flabby in comparison with the others. It’s a very forward wine that’s giving its all at the moment but was just a little outclassed on the evening. After an hour or so it opened out nicely though and was a little more refined and less obvious.
2005 Puligny Montrachet ‘Perrieres’ 1er Cru, Louis Carillon – Cut from the same cloth as the 2006 Champ Canet. The minerals soared out of the glass onto the nose and followed through the palate. This is an incredible wine, full of energy, with plenty in reserve. I’d drink the 2006 Champ Canet now but would rather have a case of this in the cellar.

The final flight was really superb with 3 contrasting wines, which all showed great quality.
2004 Puligny Montrachet ‘Combottes’ 1er Cru, Jacques Prieur – This was the only fully mature wine of the evening. It had amazing flavour and complexity on the palate but (arguably) lacked a little energy as a result. It showed lovely flavours of dried apricots, orange rind and sweet spice all sitting on top of a bed of minerals. Yum!
2002 Chassagne Montrachet ‘La Romanee’ 1er Cru, Vincent Dancer – I thought this wine was wonderful, but others were disappointed as the felt it showed better a few years ago. Superb mouth feel, great minerality and lovely length. This isn’t as taut or refined as the better Pulignys but is a great wine in its own right
2005 Chevalier Montrachet Grand Cru, Vincent Dancer – Just as the 1er crus were a step up in quality from the village wines this grand cru was another step up again. Still very young and very tightly coiled this wine just flattered the palate with great power and complexity. It delivered waves and waves of different flavours as it washed across the palate and settled down, cosied up and flirted with your taste buds. Simply divine but possible not the best wine of the evening.

All in all a great evening, with some wonderful wines and good insights. The importance of producer rang clear to me on the evening. The pureness and cut of Puligny stood out from the most rustic nature of the Chassagne wines. The difference in quality between the tiers was evident and it shows (unfortunately) that you have to pay for the best experience in white burgundy. The risk of Pox is real and a great shame as catching these wines at the right time is very difficult, but at least they deliver pleasure right through their lifetimes.

A White Burgundy Tasting

2011-05-11T20:29:00.002+01:00

All

served blind at Nigel Donnans Dublin wine school (http://www.dublinwineschool.ie/) tasting last night. A group of 14 enthusiasts gathered in le Cave wine bar on South Anne Street to be humbled and ridiculed by the mysteries of blind wine tasting. No hints were given although Nigel was more than happy to guide us around on one wild goose chase after another to ensure that we made a fool of ourselves. We were all given a stern warning regarding the risks of premature oxidation (see here: http://oxidised-burgs.wikispaces.com/ for more details on this).

2006 Clos De La Crochette Macon Chardonnay, Les Heritiers De Comte Lafon
This was a good start to the evening. A pleasant young wine with good minerality and length on the finish but was a little simple and indistinctive. The texture was also a little unrefined which pointed towards a lessor terroir. Guess: St Aubin 2006 (first of many wrong guesses)

2006 Puligny Montrachet, Etienne SauzetThis was a very disappointing showing from a wine I actually own some of. Quite light and watery on the palate but with buttery tones on the finish, this fades quite quickly leaving more than a hint of alcohol. Guess: Bourgogne Blanc from a decent producer 2003

2006 Chablis 1er ‘Montee De Tonnerre’, La Chablisienne
I liked this wine most of the first 3. Clearly well made, this had some nice yellow fruits on the nose as well as quite a bit of sulphur (Nigel argued that this was in fact Oak). Good mouth feel and body with a long mineral finish and a hint of the sea. Guess: Chablis 1er 2004

2005 Meursault, Domaine Des Comtes Lafon
This wine was the first that had a hint of oxidation. It was quite deep yellow in the glass and had hints of sherry on the nose as well as good minerals and a sweet fruit profile. It’s really quite delicious on the palate and probably drinking at the best that it will. It’s probably lacking a little bit of acidity though so probably better on it’s own rather than with food. Guess: Chassange 2005

2002 Chassagne Montrachet 1er ‘Cailleret’, Vincent GirardenThis was a serious step up in class from all of the previous wines. It had a very deep nose with citrus fruits and hints of nuts. On the palate this was a delicious savoury wine with a beam of fresh acidity. Guess: Meursault 1er 2002

2002 Chassagne Montrachet 1er ‘Cailleret’, Domaine Jean Noel Gagnard
Same vineyard as the previous wine and same vintage but a very different wine. This was much riper on the nose with hints of mint, eucalyptus and ripe fruits. It had a luxurious mouthfeel and a great mineral (if a little astringent) finish. The previous wine is perfect now but I think this wine would be better in a few years. Guess Meursault 1er 2001

2002 Puligny Montrachet 1er ‘Perrieres’, Domaine Louis Carillon
This wine was my (and the group majority) wine of the night. This looked very young in the glass with a pale gold hue. It was a little tropical but very appealing on the nose. This wine sang on the palate with superb integration of all aspects of the wine (fruit, spice, mineral, oak, acid) and the finish went on for minutes on the palate. This for me was a near perfect wine that I could drink every day. Guess: Puligny 1er Cru 2002

1996 Beaune 1er ‘Clos Des Mouches’, Domaine Joseph DrouhinThis wine was the oldest of the evening but was showing serious signs of its age. It wasn’t clear to me whether this was premature oxidation or just the natural ageing curve for this wine. It had a very complex nose of nuts, sherry and some fruit although it wasn’t overly pleasant. On the palate this wine was quite aggressive and unrefined but was quite complex with hints of nuts, fruit and metals. I wasn’t a fan of the wine but some people in the room enjoyed it for what it was. Guess: Grand Cru 1996

2004 Chablis Grand Cru ‘Preuses’, Domaine William Fevre
Faulty. Not corked, not poxed but showing some kind of spoilage that smelt like sulphur and cheese to me and stripped the wine of all of its pleasure.

2002 Puligny Montrachet 1er ‘Clos De La Mouchere’, Domaine Henri Boillot
This wine was a replacement for the wine above. It had a very interesting greeny gold colour in the glass. I think this wine was still too young and perhaps a little closed down. It had a big mouthfeel and good length and great acidity but was relatively non-descript and simple. Guess: Corton 2007

2002 Corton Charlemagne, Domaine Des Heritiers Louis Jadot
This wine had the most complex nose of the night by a mile, showing a mix of Orange Peel, minerals, mint, tobacco that evolved as the wine sat in the glass. It was a big, broad wine on the palate with good minerality and a herbal edge. This was a lovely wine that smelled evolved on the nose although not on the palate. Guess: Batard 2000

Overall, it was a great tasting that once again showed the value in blind tasting for me personally. It was quite frustrating whilst tasting through the wines but in the end there were some great takeaways. Sauzet and Lafon very much disappointed. Carillon & Jadot blew me away (again). There is a big step up from village to premier cru level in white burgundy

There are bargains everywhere, if you know where to look (Recent Wines):

2011-04-01T16:40:00.003+01:00

One of the benefits of having an interest in wine is that you develop the ability to spot bargains a mile off. The 2 champagnes below were purchased from recent Supermarket sales and the other wines were all drunk in restaurants in Dublin. I certainly wouldn’t recommend buying wine in the supermarkets (for the most part) and there were plenty of less well priced wines on the restaurant lists but it’s great to know that you don’t have to spend the family jewels to try some truly great wines. The wines below certainly aren’t cheap by any stretch of the imagination but fortunately they were serious bargains and purchased for well under normal retail market prices. It was brilliant to be able to enjoy these wines in lovely settings and drunk alongside appropriate food.

NV Taittanger Folies de la Marguetterie – Purchased in a recent Superquinn sale for €27 or so. This was a powerful champagne but very dry. Not my favourite style of champagne but still a very nice wine.

2004 Didier Dagueneau Buisson Reynard – Enjoyed in Ely Wine Bar & Brasserie for under current retail price. This truly is sauvignon blanc at its finest. Incredible layers of aromas and flavours this was intensely pleasurable. It showed honey, gooseberry, citrus, minerals, grass and green herbs with a viscous, almost oily texture and wonderful acidity and length. It was very powerful yet finely balanced. It’s a pity that more Sauvignon Blanc isn’t like this and that Didier is no longer with us to produce more of this wonderful wine.
2000 Domaine De La Janasse C9DP Vielles Vignes – Enjoyed in Ely Wine Bar & Brasserie for around current retail price (if you can find it). This was a very impressive wine. It’s a big beast but everything is just about in proportion and there is a lovely cool minerality running through the wine that keeps it fresh. It was all about dark black fruits, liquorice, spice and rocks. It had an incredibly long finish and got better and better as the evening wore on.

NV Taittinger Brut Reserve – Purchased in a recent Tesco sale for €25. This wine had a lovely nose but the palate is still a little aggressive from my palate and would benefit from year at least in the cellar.

2002 Roulot Meursault 1er Cru 'Perrieres' – Enjoyed in Patrick Guilbauds, for 1/3 of the current retail price. This was a really lovely wine. It was initially served a little warm and came across flabby but when chilled down a couple of degrees this wine really shone. This wine is so fine and so well made its like having silk in your mouth. The flavours were multi layered and the wine was dense yet precise. This is just at the beginning of a long life and I’d really like to try it again in another 15 years because I think it would be wonderful.

1993 Domaine Leroy Savigny 1er cru 'Narbontons' - Enjoyed in Patrick Guilbauds, for under 1/2 of the current retail price. If ever you get a chance to try some mature Leroy wines, take that opportunity. This wine was simply gorgeous, well outperforming its appellation. It showed lovely mature burgundian flavours of sous bois, sweet spices and red fruits all wrapped in the finest silk. This wine was a joy to behold both on the nose and in the palate. Funnily enough this wine got younger and younger as it opened up and by the end of the evening I would have guessed it as a 4/5 year old wine. It’s in a super place at the moment but with a very long life ahead of it.

Ode to a missing diner

2011-03-20T10:04:00.012Z

For offlines to happen over here, it requires a lot of effort from each of the participants. Last Friday a couple of gents flew over the channel earlier in the afternoon, another chap drove down from Belfast at warp speed, A dandy doc flew in earlier in the week and even some of the local participants had to travel 50 miles. Fortunately it was easy for me , as I strolled across the river to the restaurant in 15 minutes. It was great to have a good group together and I appreciate everybody making the effort to come along. Unfortunately we had a couple of drop outs at the last minute, One lad got stuck in New York and another (who was the initial reason for organizing this dinner) got stuck in work, but that’s the nature of organizing offlines. In the end we had 7 participants and 14 wines, which was a good number as we got decent pours from each of the wines. Unfortunately one of the oldest wines on offer (Pichon Baron 66) had to be pulled due to one of the missing diner.

We started off with an aperitif of NV Bruno Paillard Blanc De Blanc, which had a couple of years post disgorgement ageing. It was a nice, clean aperitif wine, with lots of citrus, chalk and cream, that went down very well.

Our first course proper was Champagne:
1985 Champagne Le Mesnil Blanc de Blancs
1990 Vilmart Coeur De Cuvee
1996 Bruno Paillard Blanc De Blanc

Served with Open lasagne of queen scallops & yellow chanterelles, wild mushroom foam & truffle oil.

This was a lovely flight of wines that ranged from fully mature, through maturing to achingly young. The 85 Mesnil started off slowly with tons of mushrooms on the nose and palate but opened up and evolved to show orange, caramel & tons of minerals along with the mushrooms. The 90 Vilmart was simply delicious, with tropical fruits, brioche minerals, citrus and some sweet oaky notes. The food really brought out the best in this wine. The 96 Paillard is just a baby, but a very impressive baby. Loaded with structure and energy this wine impressed me with its precision, power and length. This was a superb flight where I stuggled to pick a favourite as each of the wines were so different.

Our white wine flight was the most eclectic of the flights:
2007 Dog Point Section 94 Sauvignon Blanc (served blind)
1998 Pape Clement Blanc
2005 Henri Boillot Puligny Montrachet 1er Cru Les Perrieres

Served with John Dory, with tea-smoked duck, fondant potato, fennel & parsley puree and bordelaise sauce

The food was the real star of this flight. The dish was truly top notch and incredibly wine friendly. Nobody got close to guessing the Dog Point, but everybody enjoyed it a lot more before they were told it was a NZSB… It was too sweet for me and not at the same level as the other wines in the flight. The Pape Clement was really singing though. It’s a superbly complex wine in a great drinking phase, perhaps lacking a little bit of structure at this stage but it’s poise and length were lovely. The Boillot is a great white burgundy but despite a good decant it took a while to open up. The Boillot was my favourite wine of the flight but the smoked duck and John Dory were the real stars.

Things started to hot up greatly when we moved onto the red wines starting with red burgundy:
1988 Daniel Rion Chambolle Musigny 1er Cru Les Beaux Bruns
1990 Hubert De Montille Pommard 1er Cru Les Grands Epenots
1990 Domaine Leroy Nuits St George 1er Cru Vignes Rondes

Served with Butter poached pheasant breast, with baby leek, roasted prune and a Bulmers and celeriac puree

This was a superb flight of wine. The 88 Rion is fading a little but was still a tasty wine. The nose was a little bloody maryish but the wine was very pleasant on the palate with a lithe structure and some red fruits, mineral and good length. It was blown out of the water by the other 2 wines though. The Montille and Leroy were 2 great examples of the ying and yang of great burgundy winemaking. The Montille was everything that burgundy should be. It was Gutsy and beguiling on the nose with a little hint of animal along with the sous bous, spice and developed fruits. The palate was incredibly fresh and clean yet complex and thought provoking and most importantly delicious. The freshness in the wine was what differentiated it for me on a night with some great wines. The Leroy was a voluptuous and seriously sexy wine. The mouthfeel and texture of the wine were mesmerizing. On the nose this is definitely burgundy but on the palate I’m not sure I could guess it as burgundy blind. It was seriously delicious though and a real treat to taste.

Next up was a great flight of red bordeaux
1988 Chateau Haut Brion
1989 Chateau Cos D'Estournel

Served with Rose veal fillet bourguignon with carmelised shallot and parsley oil

The Veal fillet was a great piece of fillet cooked to perfection. It demanded some really good, full bodied red and that’s just what it got. The Haut Brion was surprisingly bigger than the 89 Cos. The tannins in the Haut Brion were super smooth and silky and the wine was simply delicious. It had all of the typical Bordeaux flavours that you’d expect but wrapped in a ridiculously high class packaging that couldn’t fail to impress. The Cos was a little gutsy and rustic alongside but was also a superb wine. It had a distinct sweetness in its fruit and spice on the palate that was delicious.

The sweet wines were a little lost on me as I was still focussed on the reds when they got poured
2003 Huet Vouvray Le Haut Lieu Moulleaux
2003 Donnhoff Niederhauser Hermannshohle Riesling Auslese Goldkapsel.

Served with a chocolate fondant, nougat & apricot, fig and nougat ice-cream

The fondant was to die for and the nougat ice cream was both interesting and delicious. Both of the sweet wines were good without being remarkable for me. Neither was lacking acidity due to the vintage though.

Last weeks dinner in Ely Brasserie was my favourite wine dinner to date. The quality of the venue and service and the subsequent relaxed atmosphere are the perfect setting for these types of dinners. Amelie and the rest of the team in Ely really pulled out the stops for us last night and the result was a brilliant offline. The food really took a step forward aswell and it worked beautifully with the wines. The wines were an interesting and ultimately, delicious selection.

All in all it was a superb evening, despite the missing diners, of lovely food, great wine and stimulating company. Unfortunately all good things have to come to an end and after 4 hours or so we left Ely, with smiles on our faces and wandered into the night. Hopefully we’ll get to do it all again sometime soon.

*A special note of thanks to Wanderley Massafelli (wanderleymassafelli@ymail.com) from Ely, who contributed these great photos to this post. He's an excellent photographer and is available for private event photography.

Hanging with the Hardons

2011-03-03T18:44:00.009Z

Aoife and I were kindly invited up to Belfast for a meal on Saturday evening. Our Host cooked up a storm, although there were plenty of mishaps in the kitchen along the way . The standard of the food was top notch, better than most restaurants I have eaten at so far this year. The quality of the wine was pretty good too although the quantity was a little worrying.

First up we were served some delicious duck rillettes with peas. The rillettes were simply delicious, meaty and rich yet very fresh. I also brought along some Sally Barnes Wild Irish smoked salmon and hot smoked tuna, both of which were a little underwhelming. 06 Jobard Bourgogne Blanc
Light nose, still quite tight an unyielding. It had a little butter on the palate with some fresh citrus and minerals. This wine is still a baby and needs time or time in a decanter to unwind. 2002 Louis Roederer Blanc De Blanc I’m a big fan of this wine. Sweet fruits and chalk on the nose and simply delicious on the palate. Tons of chalk and minerals along with a broad mouthful of sweet citrus fruits. It’s very elegant yet extremely approachable. Almost too easy to drink, I’m going to have to restrain myself from finishing off my stash. Blind Wine 1: 2003 Chambolle Musigny Digioia Royer Fully open burgundy nose with lots of development. Stinky farmyard, sweet spice and great fruit make this a very interesting wine. The palate is a little different though, firmer with rough tannin and plush mouth feel although lacking a little acidity. The nose was pointing towards burgundy but the palate is hinting further South. In the end I guess 2003 Gevrey. It’s revealed as a 2003 DG Chambolle and I’m impressed by the quality and approachability of the wine. Blind Wine 2: 2003 Aldo Conterno Nebbiolo Il Favot The nose has lovely floral scents along with deep black fruits and a little mineral and spice. It has a big mouth feel with relatively abrasive tannin but drop dead gorgeous fruit and length. Our host guesses 2005 Vosne village, which isn’t a bad guess considering he assumed it was a burgundy (I may or may not have lead him in that direction)

We should have taken stock of our consumption at this point, considering we were through 4 bottles without even starting dinner but at the time we didn’t care. The first course of the evening was a lovely turbot dish. Pan Fried turbot with sautéed leeks and wild mushroom duxelle . This was a superb dish, the turbot was a nice piece of fish cooked simply and paired with 2 robust flavours. The duxelle in particular was to die for. I believe that some roast langoustines were due to be included in this dish but ended up in the trash due to neglect . 2002 Leeuwin Arts Series Chardonnary It had a nice bright yellow hue in the glass. It had a lovely integrated nose of sweet tropical fruits, minerals and a nice whack of oak. This was simply delicious on the palate with all of the elements of the nose coming though but also delivering a plush mouth feel and great length. This got most votes for WOTN. Blind Wine 3: 2005 Louis Carillon Puligny Montrachet Tight, tight, tight. Not much on the nose apart from some light minerals. On the palate this is all about minerality and structure. I think that this wine is still fast asleep. It was very austere and savoury after the Leeuwin and needs a few more years to unwind.

The next dish to be served was roast quail en croute with madeira sauce, quails eggs, asparagus and hollandaise sauce. The quail and the sauce were really delicious and worked really well with the next wine. The consumption was taking it’s toll on the cook too as I believe that there were some confit quails legs to come with this dish but they ended up in the trash due to neglect . 2001 Hospices de Beaune Mazis-Chambertin Cuvée Madeleine Collignon Henri Boillot This wine showed beautifully. It’s showing a little development on the nose but wide open at the moment. This is a complex and multifaceted wine that is maturing beautifully. The balance between the fruit, structure and acid was a joy to behold. Great stuff, wish I had a case in the cellar. This got my vote for WOTN.

The next dish to be served was roast fillet of lamb with pickled beets, green bean and parma parcels with a parsnip puree. Again, the cook got a little distracted and the lamb was shown a little neglect but the end dish didn’t suffer. The lamb was delicious as were the accompaniments. Of course the lamb required Bordeaux so our host opened the next wine. 2000 Chateau Trotanoy
I had thought our host was opening the 99 Trot but was delighted to see the 2000 on the table when we arrived. It was typical Bordeaux on the nose for me with hints of plummy cedar and cigar box. The initial attack on the palate was very impressive as this had an incredible mouthfeel and length but I think this wine still has a little bit of developing to do. A selection of fine Irish cheeses made their way to the table next and although we had loads of open wine, Our host reckoned that we needed another bottle. He dashed down to the cellar and opened the following. 2005 Daniel Rion Nuits St Georges 1er cru Terres Blanc This was a much better showing than the 05 Carillion. It had the sweet fruit that I would expect from 05 in abundance. It had good structure too but isn’t as elegant as its Cote De Beuane cousins. This was a really delicious wine and I was surprised when our host informed me that it was made from Pinot Blanc.

Our host whipped up an enticing dessert for the evening. Caramelised Pineapples with a lime posset and basil cream. At this stage of the evening the volume of food and wine was making its presence felt and we struggled to eat any more food. The dish was very tasty though. 2000 Pieropan Recioto Di Soave La Colombare Like the dessert, this wine barely got a cursory glance as we had already probably had enough food and wine at this stage. No note as I have little recollection beyond the fact that this was a sweet wine.

My first taste of 2009 Burgundy: Vincent Rapet (Pernand)

2011-03-02T17:59:00.007Z

I attended a fun tasting last week of a selection of 2009 burgundies from Vincent Rapet (Pernand). Vincent commented that he is trying to make wine in a clean, fruity, modern style. No machines in the vineyard, minimal intervention, soft pressing and gentle extraction in the hopes of creating pleasant, fruity wines that will bring great drinking pleasure. Vincent Rapet commented that 2009 is a very good vintage overall, especially for the reds. They should drink well from the off, not shut down and continue to drink well throughout their lives. (like the 1985s by all accounts)... The wines were very good and, if priced right, potentially great value.

The 2009 whites were all ripe and fruity but had good structure and grip. I didn’t sense a lack of acidity or freshness in these wines. The 2009 reds were very approachable. It looks like a good vintage for buying and drinking. It doesn't have the structure of 2005 but has plenty of ripeness.

Vincent Rapet Pernand-Vergelesses ‘Les Combottes’ 2009

The village wine was quite fine, perfect for immediate/Summer drinking. It’s clean and almost clear colour in the glass and showing white blossoms and minerals on the nose. The palate is also clean and refreshing with good minerality and grip. It’s delicious on the palate and would make a good summer drinking.

Vincent Rapet Pernand-Vergelesses 1er cru ‘Sous Fretille’ 2009
The 1er cru was probably the sweet spot for price/quality offering a little more of everything than the village wine. It showed a a nice paradox between rich and mineral. There was also a god bit of spice on the palate. Vincent said it needed another couple of years to settle down before broaching.

Vincent Rapet Corton Charlemagne Grand Cru 2009
The grand cru Corton Charlemagne was very impressive. It was very tight and unyielding yet very rich, deep and showed good balance. Despite the richness this wine has a streak of minerality running right through the entire wine. This needs at least 5 years to come together but is a good wine.

Vincent Rapet Corton Charlemagne Grand Cru 1992 - Magnum

A deeper colour than all of the previous wines but still not all that dark. Amazing nose of petrol, green apples, melons, grilled nuts and minerals. It kept shifting and evolving in the glass. The palate was a little bit of a let down in comparison though, still very impressive but not showing as much interest as the nose. Full bodied, with a very mouthfilling mineral character and great length. This is a wine that demands food. It was fascinating to note the evolution in this when compared to the 2009.

Vincent Rapet Pernand-Vergelesses ‘Les Belles Filles’ 2009
A tough act to follow after just tasting the 09 Corton Charlemagne. It’s a very pretty wine, with crushed red berries, cherries and strawberries, overwhelming the nose and the palate of this charming wine. It’s quite simple but very delicious already.

Vincent Rapet Pernand-Vergelesses 1er cru ‘Les Vergelesses 2009
The 1er Les Vergelesses was wonderful. Very ripe with sweet fruit yet not OTT, and already had the complexity of savoury nuances. Raspberries and cream on the nose. Great mouthfeel and length and simply delicious.

Vincent Rapet Aloxe-Corton 2009
Quite rustic wine, especially after the Vergelesses. Deeper and darker in profile but very structured. Needs some time to unravel. Lots of minerals on the palate

Vincent Rapet Corton Grand Cru 2009
The red Corton was also superb, a real serious wine with good density. Lovely clean red fruits on the palatewith impressive structure and great length. I don't think it has the complexity and excitement of Cote De Nuits Grand Crus but is still a superb wine and priced fairly.

Vincent Rapet Corton Grand Cru 1985
Simply awesome. Incredible everything, texture, flavour, complexity, length.... Same line as the 2009 and still a little rustic but a mind blowing wine... It is still remarkably young in colour with wild strawberries, farmyard, leather and some spice on the complex nose. This wine is drop dead gorgeous at the moment but still has structure to hold out for another 10-20 years yet.

Vincent Rapet Corton Grand Cru 1978
Also had a sip of a corked 1978 Le Corton (Rouge) that was well... Corked... tasted like there was a good wine under there somewhere though.

These wines are being offered by Conor Richardson (Burgundy Direct), who is currently offering 2009 burgundy from Vincent Rapet and a whole host of other top notch burgundy producers. I'd highly recommend checking these wines out!

Glorious Gevrey

2011-03-01T17:52:00.005Z

All served blind at Nigel Donnans Dublin wine school (http://www.dublinwineschool.ie/) tasting last week. All we were told was that all wines were from Gevrey and there was a mix of traditional and modern producers.

2008 Javillier Bourgogne Oligocene:
Light gold colour in the glass, white flowers and minerals on the nose. Lemons and minerals on the palate with a lick of butter. Very clean and fresh and with a long finish. Guessed decent Macon (Pouilly Fuisse?) from 08.

2002 Armand Rousseau Gevrey Chambertin
Looks young in the glass. Mix of red & black fruits on the nose with minerals, earth and a little bit of leathery funk. Very clean juicy red fruits on the palate with good length. Guess: decent village 02.

1999 Armand Rousseau Gevrey Chambertin
A little cloudy in the glass and showing more age. Quite closed on the nose. More full bodied on the palate but showing a little flat for me. Some sweet spicy development and very good length. Guess: decent village 00.

1999 Denis Bachelet Gevrey Chambertin Vielles Vignes
Much younger colour here. A hint of green on the nose which suggests 04 to me. Lovely red fruited wine and lovely length though. The hint of ceder adding complexity rather than detracting from the wine. Guess: lesser 1er 04

2000 Denis Mortet Gevrey Chambertin ‘Au Velle’
Browning at the edges. Nice, complex nose with good fruit and development but lots of oak. The oak is completely overpowering on the palate and leaves a desperate sandpaper finish. Not a good wine. Guess: Denis Mortet village 98

1997 Domaine Heresztyn Gevrey Chambertin ‘La Perriere’ 1er
The most brown so far. Ripe fruit with sweet spice on the nose, very attractive. Great length, fills the whole palate with a complex, sweet yet savoury wine. Lacking a little bit of acidity if I was being harsh but in reality this is very much in its sweet spot. Good wine! Guess: Decent 1er ‘97

1999 Denis Mortet Gevrey Chambertin ‘Lavaut Saint Jacques’ 1er
Dark purple in the glass showing little age. Red fruits, minerals & leather on a tight nose. Primary on the palate with purple fruits. Very structured wine but with a very big mouth feel and a long finish. Could almost be 05 due to its primary nature but it’s a little further along the evolutionary trail. Guess: Serafin 1er ’99 (surprised when Mortet was revealed, much better than the 00 showed earlier)

1997 Armand Rousseau Gevrey Chambertin ‘Clos Saint Jacques’ 1er
Quite brown in the glass again. Incredibly complex nose with lots of development. Lithe on the palate with red fruits, spice and incredible length. The balance and integration in this wine was incredible. Lovely acid structure to the wine carrying the flavours across the palate and lingering for an age. Yum!Guess: Decent 1er ‘93

2000 Armand Rousseau Gevrey Chambertin ‘Clos Saint Jacques’ 1er
Very primary. Much younger than the previous wine. Very well made wine with lots of structure. Some similarity to the previous wine with it’s acid balance but just too young. Guess: Jadot ’99 Grand Cru

2001 Louis Jadot Latriceres Chambertin Grand Cru
Bright red with a little bit of age around the edges. Very tight and unyielding on the nose. Showing very little on the palate too. Lovely finish and good density but too young for assessment. Guess: Grand Cru

2001

Domaine Louis Jadot Chambertin Clos De Beze Grand Cru
Very young colour. Lovely nose with tons of minerals and good complexity, although still tight. Showing little on the palate but bigger and more impressive than the previous wine. A little out of balance at the moment but this wine has lots of everything; it just needs time to integrate. Guess: Clos De Beze (but only due to it being the last formal wine of the tasting and the structure)

2003 Louis Jadot Gevrey Chambertin ‘ Cazatieres’ 1er
This was initially brought as a back up bottle but was served out of order at the end of the tasting anyway. Young colour in the glass. Totally different on the nose. Black fruits, fruit of the forest scents. Almost new world in it’s profile. Very opulent mouth feel with lots of fruit and a good amount of drying tannin. Very little acidity though. Quite a pleasant wine but a little jarring after the previous wines and not very burgundian. Guess: Modern Producer 1er cru ‘00

Elys 'Big Tasting'

2011-02-28T18:59:00.003Z

I went along to 'The Big Tasting' in Ely (IFSC) last Friday (18th Feb) night with a few friends and had a great time. We went to the 'late session' tasting from 7.30 til 9.30 and then stayed on for dinner afterwards. The tasting itself was really well organized. For €15, we got to taste through an eclectic, high quality, selection from across the world. Erik Robson also opened a few crackers from the Ely vaults. The wines' importers showed the wines for the most part and what became very obvious was that Ely deal with a bunch of very passionate importers. I enjoyed most of the wines greatly and got to try a few wines that I've never even heard of (Sankt Laurent from Germany?). The Ely staff were great too, a young bunch but obviously very passionate and proud of what they do. The vaults under the CHQ building are an amazing space too, it's incredible what Ely have done down there. The atmosphere was convivial, relaxed and great fun.

The tasting showed a huge range of wine but some of my favourites were:

2010 Greywacke SB

2007 Ogier Condrieu

2005 Lafarge Beaune Aigrots 1er (Blanc)

2006 Lucien Crochet Sancerre Rouge La Croix Du Roy

2007 Chateau Ste. Michelle Cabernet Sauvignon Cold Creek Vineyard

2006 Kanonkop Paul Sauer

2007 Weingut Schumacher Sankt Laurent

2005 Lafarge Volnay

2006 Pape Clement

After the great tasting we settled down to dinner with a a couple bottle of wine. There was a special 3 course set menu on for the event with suggested wine pairings by the glass. Between the 4 of us we ordered most of the menu. I had devilled kidneys for a starter which were delicious but a little overcooked for my preference. The others all order prawn and crab salad, which they all enjoyed. I had a sirloin steak with goose fat chips. The chips were lovely and the steak was perfectly rare (as requested), the veggie gnocci were declared a triumph but a tuna steak was a little overcooked again. All in all though I felt the food was great value for money and the atmosphere in the restaurant, the service and the quality of the wines made up for the heavy hand on the grill... All in all a superb evening, I really think that the basement in Ely is one of my favourite places in the city! Their winelist is definitely one of the best in the city and easily the best value with some bottles coming in under retail price. Hopefully they will organize other tastings like this in the future.

A few photos

2011-01-27T20:57:00.007Z

We had a great weekend in Kerry over the Christmas break where we met up with some good friends, ate, drank, wandered about and dressed up. Here are a few photos:

Restaurant Noma

2011-01-26T20:34:00.005Z

I Had a great meal in Noma (Copenhagen) a few weeks back. This restaurant was voted no1 in the world last year by San Pellegrino and I can see why. Below are some brief impressions but if you want pictures and full details on the food etc.. have a look at some of the blog reports online which are pretty consistent with our experience (although our menu was totally different to the reports I’ve read as the menu changes drastically to match the seasons): http://www.thecriticalcouple.com/noma.html

We Went for the 7 course tasting menu but got served a hell of a lot more than that. We got roughly 10 'snacks', including sardine doughnuts, pickled and smoked quails eggs, a whole leak and edible moss amongst a huge variety of delicious treats that were a hell of a lot tastier than they sounded as well as being great fun. This followed up with about 10 courses (we got a couple of extra courses as we got on very well with a couple of the chefs) of incredibly delicious, innovative and surprisingly healthy food. Most of the courses seemed surprisingly simply, like onion with tapioca and lemon thyme but the complexity and clarity of flavour was mind blowing. Our main course was the tastiest duck I have ever had the fortune to consume and the sea steamed oyster was also truly excellent. We finished up with incredible petit fours including smoked bone marrow caramel which has to be one of my all time gastronomic highlights. 4 of us went along, with 2 of us on the wine pairings and the other 2 on the juice pairing. Both of the matchings were incredible, with the sum of the 2 parts far outweighing the single elements. The wines were a very interesting mix, mainly from biodynamic producers, we even got served a white pinot noir (which I had never experienced before) from south of Chablis that was quite odd but worked very well with it's food pairing.

The service was the best I have ever experienced. The chefs actually come out and serve the food to the guests, which I think is a great idea. It really improved the overall experience as it really felt like we were guests in the restaurant for the evening, just like visiting a friend’s home. This must be incredibly difficult for all of the chefs (about 15 or so in the kitchen on Saturday night), who not only have to get each dish perfect but they also have to have excellent people skills and interact and develop a connection with a variety of customers. Interestingly, besides Rene Redzepi (who wasn’t in the kitchen on Saturday) there is only 1 other Danish chef in the kitchen the remainder coming from all over the world. There is an Irish chef working there, Trevor Moran, who kindly gave us a tour of the kitchens after our meal aswell, which put a cherry on the whole experience.

A great way to kick off the year and erase the January Blues!

Christmas Drinking

2011-01-19T20:36:00.008Z

I had a great break over the Christmas period and was lucky enough to enjoy a few decent bottles. These got shared over Christmas and new years as well as a couple of super days in Kerry.

Champagne:

Vilmart Coeur De Cuvee 1999: Really lovely at the moment, still robust but great complexity and flavour

Vilmart Grand Cellier D’or 2002: Fresh, chardonnay driven, really chalky, delicious

NV Vilmart Cuvee Rubis Rose: More suitable for a Summers day but worked well on Christmas eve too.

NV Boulard Rose: Quite earthy and developed. One glass was enough

1999 Bollinger Grand Annee: Big, powerful, almost overwhelming.

1998 Veuve Cliquot Grand Dame: Rounder, softer but very complex

Germany

2007 Donnhoff Oberhause Brucke Spatlese: Delicious, light and ethereal. I could drink this all day

2007 Willi Haag Brauneberg Juffer Auslese: Not as precise and a little clunky as a result, still really good

2009 Donnhoff Hermanshole GG: Wow! Intense, mineral, full throttle, super complex, I wonder what age will bring

2006 Fritz Haad Brauneberg Juffer Sonnenuhr Beerenauslese: Incredible. Possibly the best sweet wine I’ve had the pleasure to enjoy

2007 Loosen Urziger Wurzgarten Auslese (1/2): Delicious, light and ethereal but not quite top drawer. Needs time.

Burgundy:

2002 Javillier Meursault Les Tillets (Magnum) - Sleeping hard, and not very impressive at the moment
2005 Philippe Chavy Puligny Folatieres - Tight, yet delicious with lots of complexity
2007 Philippe Chavy Puligny Corves Des Vignes - Very racy, but perhaps a little simple
2007 Philippe Chavy Puligny Pucelles - I thought it was a little fat, my drinking companion thought there was too much acid, still awkward and needs a few years
2001 Chandon De Brailles Corton Bressandes - Needed a good decant to open up and the last glass was the best. Getting there on the nose but the palate is a little behind at the moment. Give this a little more time and it should be lovely
2003 Potel Clos St Denis (Magnum) - Delicious, obviously too young but a very pretty wine not showing any vintage characteristic
2006 Roumier Chambolle - Delicious, silky texture. Not wow, but very impressive

2006 Roumier Morey Clos Des Bussiere - Deeper and longer than the roumier but less buxom

Bordeaux:

2000 Chasse Spleen: Developing nicely, although a few years off its drinking window

2000 Hauts Bages Liberal: Prettier than the chasse spleen but also needed a serious decant to open it up.

1996 D'Yqeum: As good as it's suppose to be, only problem was that half bottles don't last long enough.

On top of this we also enjoyed a bottle Ballantines 17 Year Old, which was recently voted by Jim Murray as his Whisky of the year 2011.

The Ledbury Shines In London

2010-12-13T20:24:00.008Z

I flew over to London from Dublin on Thursday afternoon and arrived at the Ledbury for a Louis Jadot dinner a little weary but Brett Grahams cooking simply blew me away. This was my third time in the Ledbury this year and I think the food has come on leaps and bounds (and it was great the last time I was there). The amuse bouche of katafi quails egg with chestnut puree and black truffle was simply delightful, as was the 1990 Pol Roger rose. I was expecting this to be somewhat tired but in fact it was full of vigour and exuberance. We started with Raviolo of Grouse and Partridge before moving onto Milk Fed Lamb with Jerusalem & Chinese Artichokes, and had roast pidgeon with pickled walnuts, chanterelles and muscade pumpkin for mains. Each course was better than the last but I thought the passion fruit souffle with Sauternes ice cream was simply sublime!

The white wines were lovely, maturing white burgundies. Both a real joy before I even smelt or tasted them due to the fact that they weren't premoxed. The 97 Chevalier Demoiselle was drinking beautifully, a seriously complex and delicious white burgundy just starting to stretch its legs. The 1996 Corton Charlemagne was much younger in its profile. Quite a bit of oak on the nose but very integrated on the palate. Thanks to DW, a glass of 2004 Montrachet came across to our table. I was very surprised by the lack of oak in this wine. It was one of the most pure expressions of chardonnay that I have ever tasted and was very very long. Even in its infancy, this wine was WOTN for me. The red wines were quite a bit of work. The 99 MSD Clos Des Ormes was very primary and young, the 97 Beaune Clos Des Ursules was the most ready of the evening and even this has plenty of life yet. Remarkably even the 1991 Vosne Suchots wasn't in a great drinking phase. The 2000 Clos De Beze wasn't a great bottle, which was disappointing as this wine was lovely a month or so back. The 2001 Clos De Beze hinted at class but was very closed. A glass of 2000 Bonnes Mares also came over from the other table and this really impressed, still primary but at least drinking well. One thing about the wines though that was obvious was the quality of the winemaking and transparency of terrior. I'd love to come back and do this exact tasting again in another 10-15 years. I'll certainly be leaving the rest of my Jadots at the back of the cellar for a long time.

Although the Jadot dinner in itself was enough to make me want to go over to London, I was fortunate enough to be back in The Ledbury on Friday afternoon for the December WIMPs lunch. This was simply a superb lunch that blew the previous evenings dinner out of the water! This really was the most fun that any wine-O / gastro-O could ever have. Amazing wine, amazing food and 50 other, really nice like-minded people with whom to share the experience. Each of 6 tables had their own them and paired menu for the theme, ours was champagne and chardonnay. Yum!

Our menu was really brilliant. Again, the quality of this meal was so much better than my expectations I was shocked. The freshness of the scallops (Ceviche of Hand Dived Scallops with Seaweed and Herb Oil, Kohlrabi and Frozen Horseradish) and the integration of the other flavours was brilliant. The buffalo milk (Hampshire Buffalo Milk Curd with Saint Nectaire, Truffle Toast and broth of grilled onions) was so simple yet incredibly complex and amazingly concieved. This dish reminded me of Heston Blumenthals mad hatters tea party dish, yet this was better. The truffle toast alone I will dream about. Our main (sea bas with broccoli stem natural yougurt and brown butter with indian spices) was quite lovely and worked really well with the wine. I really enjoyed our dessert too, which was wonderfully refreshing and light. It's not quite as good as Bretts Passionfruit Souffle but I was glad to get a different dessert to the previous evening.

Our wines couldn't have been better. We had a superb mix of individual, idiosyncratic wines that were just simply delicious and worked incredibly well with the food. We started with 3 superb wines, Roses De Jeanne Haut Lemblee, Tattinger Prelude & Bereche Reflet D'Antan. The Cedric Bouchard 'Haut Lemblee' blew me away and had it not been for the Bereche Reflet D'Antan this would have been my wine of the day (and I tasted both the 1967 Conterno Monfortino and the 1934 Montrose from other tables). The way this wine whispered it's way so authoritatively was a wonderfully intriguing paradox. Even though the Bereche wasn't a perfect bottle it was still pretty eye opening for me. So much delicious, unique flavour makes this a really stand out wine in my mind. I'll search long and hard for a bottle of this. The next flight was also cracking, Duval Leroy Authentis Clos de Bouverie 2002, Moutard Champagne Cuvee des 6 Cepages 2002 & Philliponnat Clos des Goisses 1996. 3 Very serious champagnes with the Goisses just about winning this round. Next up was Chardonnay, Neudorf Moutere Chardonnay 2007, Meursault Clos de la Barre Comtes Lafon 2004 & Puligny Montrachet 1er Cru Le Cailleret 2004 Yves-Boyer Martinot. The Lafon stole the show in this flight but the Neudorf from NZ gave it a good fight. The puligny wasn't quite right and was a little disappointing in the end. We finished our meal with a bottle of Jacques Selosse Cuvee Exiquise Sec NV. I thought this was lovely, although not a patch on the bottle that I enjoyed earlier this year, different disgorgements perhaps?

Above the food and the wine was the chance to share these things with such lovely people. We had great fun at our table and also it was a pleasure to wander around after lunch and chat to some old friends and some new ones too.

Meeting up with old friends

2010-11-30T21:10:00.007Z

After a good few weeks of hard work and attempts to avoid listening to any news updates on the state of the economy it was time to kick back and relax. Two good buddies were flying in from London for the night and I took the opportunity to open a few decent bottles and cook a nice meal. Heavy snowfall on Friday evening almost scuppered our plans but fortunately the lads made it to Dublin on Saturday afternoon, only a couple of hour late. We then took a drive out to Howth to pick up some ingredients for the evening and ended up staying on a bit longer than planned with a shellfish platter and glass of wine at Ivans Oyster Bar. The bounty on the platter was a bit mixed in quality. The Oysters, Langoustines and scallop ceviche were incredible, the clams and mussles were tasty but the crab claws and tiger prawns were poor. A glass of Droin Chablis helped wash the shellfish down nicely though.

We had a lot of prep work to do for the evenings meal so we popped a bottle of 2002 Roederer Blanc De Blanc to keep our spirits high. This is a real joyful wine, as is is so delicious it doesn’t stay in the bottle long. It’s so fine and balanced that each sip begs for another until you look down and the bottle is empty. Just as the prep work was complete the ladies arrived and we kicked off our meal proper. First up was @FionnerGs surf and earth dish of pan fried scallops with chanterelles and garlic dressing served with Roederer Cristal 2000. The dish was lovely with a mixture of sweet scallops, earthy mushrooms and a powerful citrussy garlic dressing. This worked very well with the Cristal which was a tighter and more serious version than the 02 Blanc De Blanc.

Next up we moved onto the wine of the evening, 2000 Patrick Javillier Meursault ‘Clos Du Cromin’ en Magnum, served alongside Smoked Salmon Textures (Ravioli, Dill Cakes, Naked). The wine was magnificent;

the age of the wine had transformed this beauty into a masterpiece of gunflint, citrus, hazelnuts and silk. This wine is reaching its peak drinking window but could last for years yet, not bad for a village wine! Thankfully with a magnum we had a couple of good glasses of this great wine before the bottle was drained. The food was good too, with the naked Frank Hederman smoked salmon claiming the preference of the salmon preparations.

Our first red wine of the evening was 2004 George Roumier Chambolle Musigny. This was another consistent showing from this very classy wine. Lovely pinot fruit packaged with a silky texture and nice length. We served this alongside a tasty Asian Quail Salad. Next up we had our first disappointing wine, a corked bottle of 1998 Thierry Allemand Cornas ‘Reynard’. This should have been a superb wine but unfortunately wasn’t up to scratch on this evening. As a replacement I opened a 1998 Chateau Beaucastel that was singing loud and clear. Exotic fruits and spices leapt from the glass as soon as this was poured and lingered on the palate for minutes. This isn’t the most refined and classy wine but was full of character.

The main course for the evening was a BBQ beef fillet (not bad when it was -5 degrees Celsius outside) served with a wild mushroom strudel. The beef was as tender as butter and fully of flavour from the BBQ and the strudel was an earthy delight. The combination was pure heaven. We poured a 1998 Leoville Barton alongside the Beaucastel and the beef. Despite being opened 6 hours earlier the Bordeaux was struggling to express itself.

It was a very classy and ‘correct’ wine but really didn’t impress. It looks like I’ll have to wait another few years before opening any more of these.

Dessert was a lovely fresh berry pavlova and was served alongside a 2005 Coutet. The Pavlova was a bit too sweet for the Coutet but both the dessert and the wine were lovely in their own right. The Coutet has some lovely tropical fruit alongside the typical botrytis. We finished off dinner with a nice glass of Old Pulteney 17 Year Old and then headed off into town to work off our dinner on the dancefloor. What followed was one of the most ridiculous snowfights in the history of man. It lasted for a good 3 hours and spanned the streets of Dublin only broken up intermittently by excursions into various establishments for samplings of many different refreshments. Great craic was an understatement of the evening!

Turning Three Zero Party

2010-10-17T11:34:00.008+01:00

My good pal @FionnersG turned the big three zero a few weeks ago and has been celebrating this milestone all around the world. In order to give him a suitable send off towards maturity I partook in a fine dinner in Killarney a few weeks back (prior to setting off the Mosel for a tour around the vineyards). We started off with a lovely bottle of 1995 Bollinger RD Extra Brut. This wine had quite an odd nose that took a few hours to open up but was incredible once it did. Rich, yet precise and clean on the palate with an incredible length. I think this is drinking very well at the moment, just holding onto the last of it's youth (lovely citrus fruits) while also introducing some mature notes. We drank this alongside fresh oysters and scallop ceviche. Altogether a lovely start to a three zero celebration.

Next up was an incredible white burgundy, 2007 Vincent Dancer Chevalier Montrachet. A 2-Hour decant was instrumental in making this wine anywhere near approachable. Initially Oak & Sulphur on the nose but after a few hours lovely fruits (stone, Pear & some tropical elements) integrated beautifully with the oak and minerality in this wine. Again, this had incredible length and the most wonderful texture. This was a wonderfully luxurious wine that is magnificent at the moment but has a long long life ahead of it. White burgundy seems to be one of the few wine areas where you get what you pay for (if you choose the right producer) and this wine is certainly worth the extra tarriff on top of 1er cru wines. We drank this alongside pan-fried turbot with braised fennel. This simple yet delicious dish served as a lovely foil for the wine and helped it shine.

Being a special celebration we broke out a big gun for our main wine of the evening, 1991 DRC Echezeaux. This wine is simple incredible, it has more of everything than every other wine yet is calm, balanced and quite simply delicious. Good grand cru red burgundy, with age from decent producers puts all other wines into the shade for me and this was quite simply a wonderful grand cru burgundy. Perhaps not quite up to the standard of the Grand Echezeaux but a truly memorable wine in its own right. We served this up with rack of lamb on ratatouille and wild mushroom ravioli. Again this was a lovely dish but the wine stole the show in this course.

As tends to be our way with these home cooked meals, we always have one course that doesn't live up to expectations. The less said about our lemon pudding the better. We drank a bottle of Rayne Vigneau 1998 but this was about as memorable as that lemon pudding. Fortunately we continued the party with another fine beverage. Padron Anejo tequila is as far removed from normal tequila as DRC is from normal red wine. This is a great beverage in its own right, one to be considered with the same respect as a fine whiskey. This was a great meal, one of the finest I've enjoyed all year, and a great way to welcome our pal @FionnersG to his big three zero. Unfortunately @FionnersG was in London at the time but that didn't hamper our enjoyment too much :-p

BYO Dinner: Ely CHQ

2010-08-10T18:03:00.011+01:00

I got excited right away when BobbyC pulled me aside at the Burgundy WIMPs to tell me that he was going to be in Dublin with his wife in August and was wondering if I’d have any interest in a BYO dinner. A few weeks later when an e-mail arrived reminding me of our conversation I had to wander through the haze of alcohol fuelled memory to recall the details of our conversation but was still excited. After sending off a few e-mails and making a few calls a fine meal for 8 came together without much hassle. SeanH and his lovely wife M agreed to cross the border once more and come down to Dublin from Belfast, FionnersG was due to be in town anyway and I made up the numbers with my girlfriend A and good buddy and aspiring oenophile Richie B.

I arrived at Ely Bar & Brasserie, in Dublins IFSC, at 7pm to find that we were the first to arrive. The restaurant looked quiet (unlike our previous visit for the Wine-Pages offfline a few months back) but I was excited to see the table that had been laid for us in the Sommeliers room. Sean arrived next bearing some pre-decanted Bordeaux and when I went looking for Bobby I was told that he had arrived at another Ely restaurant across town (There are 3 Elys in Dublin). Fortunately Bobby & Anita arrived shortly after and we all took our seats to embark on yet another vinous adventure.

The first stop of the night was in Champagne, where we were poured 1990 Taittinger Comtes De Champagne & 2000 Louis Roederer Cristal. These were served alongside a lovely dish of Dressed Irish Brown Crab, Avocado Puree, Pigeon Heart Tomato, Basil Jelly & Bloody Mary Vinaigrette. The 2 champagnes were like chalk and cheese. The Comtes was fully mature with quite a deep complex nose of spices, caramel & apples and was very rich and heavy on the palate. The Cristal on the other hand was very fresh with loads of chalk, brioche & citrus fruits. The Cristal and crab was a perfect pairing, with the salinity of the crab bringing out a lovely sweetness in the champagne that

lingered on the palate impressively.

We moved onto Burgundy for the next two courses, 2005 Domaine Leflaive Puligny ‘Pucelles’ & 2006 Comtes Lafon Meursault ‘Charmes’. These were served with a salad of wild mushrooms, gremolata and pecorino on brioche. The Leflaive was tight as a tick with tons of sulphur on the nose but left sit in the glass it took on notes of pears, minerals, citrus and nuts. It had wonderful structure and balance but needs at least 5 years to come together. The Lafon had hints of 2006 on the nose initially but with some time in the glass became more precise with lovely minerality. This was another super wine, with great balance, mouthfeel and length. The food pairing for this course was inspired as it work incredibly well with the wines. I poured a blind wine (2003 Leeuwin Art Series Chardonnay) for fun but Bobby ruined my fun for guessing the bottle & vintage right . This was an interesting comparison for me as it proved once and for all that Australian Chardonnay is not burgundian. Alongside the Leflaive/Lafon the Leeuwin could never be confused as a burgundy, although it was a lovely wine in its own right. The sweet, almost tropical, fruit made it clear this wine was from the new world even if this is a more elegant expression of new world chardonnay.

Giddy smiles appeared around the table once the next flight was poured and aromas of red burgundy wafted through the room, 1999 Clos Des Lambrays & 1998 Clos De Tart. Both wines were wide open on the nost, the Tart showing lots of deliciously funky burgundian tones and the Lambrays showing lovely sweet fruits and spices. These were served with another terrific food course of confit pork cheek, leek fondue & pomme mousseline. The unctuous pork worked wonderfully with the 2 wines. Both wines were tighter on the palate than the nose, the Tart with a lovely mineral profile and the Lambrays hovering between the primary and secondary phase. Both wines obviously have loads of life left in them.

Next up we moved onto Bordeaux with 1982 Pontet Canet & 1985 Gruaud Larose. These were served with a veal fillet, Cep Soup, fondant potato & fricassee of vegetable.

This was the least successful food dish of the evening, which just didn’t quite work as certain elements weren’t executed very well. The wines on the other hand were wonderful. The Pontet Canet, which had a 4 hour decant was amazingly youthful with plenty of sweet fruit and good structure. The Gruaud Larose had a lovely barnyardy complexity. Again, these wines had the stuffing for another few years yet,

We moved onto cheese next and Sean served up a blind wine (1995 Francois Cazin Cour Cheverny Cuvee Renaissance), which was slightly off dry and had some serious acidity. An interesting wine, looking about 2 years old, with a lovely clean profile. This worked nicely with the cheese and with Seans homemade rhubard and gosseberry chutney. I nailed the wine blind , but purely by following Seans posts from the Loire, I would never have guessed 1995 nor the Romarantin grape if I hadn’t. We asked for the sweet wines to be poured early, so that we could enjoy them both with the cheese and the desset courses. The 1990 Huet La Haut Lieu Moulleux 1er Trie was showing worringly advanced but gained complexity with time in the glass. The 1990 Climens was a real treat though, tons of sweet fruit with great acidity and minerality taming the wine. It worked well with both

the cheese and the dessert. Our dessert, cherry & hazelnut financier with sheep’s milk yogurt sorbet was another cracking course, if not the best pairing for the wines.

We had a quick peak at the various wine treasures that surrounded us in the Sommeliers room before picking a 1995 Joseph Perrier ‘Cuvee Josephine’ from the list to celebrate our fine dinner. This champagne was a little heavy for me, showing lots of Pinot fruit but was a lovely treat all the same. We all rolled out of Ely 6 hours after entering, our bellies full and our cheeks rosy. The service for the evening had been excellent and overall the quality of food was very high. It was great to meet up with Sean, Maura and Bobby again and also to get the chance to meet Anita for the first time.

BYO dinner: Thorntons

2010-07-30T23:13:00.012+01:00

In order to celebrate the departure of my brother to foreign shores a dinner for 6 was organized. Following on from the success of recent BYO events in Dublin / Belfast I urged my fellow celebrants to consider bringing our own wine for this dinner. After a quick phone call to Thorntons to confirm that they would allow BYO we agreed that this was the best way to proceed. The dinner took place a few weeks ago on a Saturday night

I called in earlier in the afternoon

to drop off all of the bottles for the evening (to ensure the required chilling/decanting could take place). We began the evening in the excellent bar in the Fitzwilliam hotel for some gins before proceeding up to the second floor of the hotel into the restaurant. No menus were required as my brother decided that we would all be having a surprise tasting menu for the evening (My only special request was that we might try some of Kevins home grown ‘Toby’ beef).

We kicked off the wine for the evening with a magnum of Billecart Salmon Rose (with ~4 years ageing). This was a simply delightful wine, full of precision and vibrancy. If served blind (in black glasses) I might struggle to identify this as rose as many of the red fruits notes have integrated into this elegant wine. Our first food course was ‘smoked’ mackerel with tomato gazpacho, a dish which I’ve had before and this was as good as ever. Next up was a peppered Carpaccio of ‘Toby’ beef, which was rich and beefy. The champagne stood up well to both of these dishes.

Our next wine was a magnum of 2002 Philippe Chavy Meursault Charmes. This wine was textbook Meursault with great, deliciously powerful citrus fruits and minerals.

It was super long and clean on both the nose and palate, and in much better shape than the Puligny tasted a few weeks earlier.

The first food course for this wine was Kevins truffle experience (Basically 5/6 different truffle flavours on a plate mixed with a good whack of foie gras), which wasn’t as amazing as I had remembered. This was followed by ‘fish & chips’, which could possibly have been my dish of the evening. A perfectly cooked piece of hake with a crispy potato topping and pea puree, the precision in cooking this dish was superb. The Fish worked much better with the wine but the Meursault stood up well with the Foie Gras too.

After the two magnums we moved onto a contender for my wine of the year, 1985 Louis Remy Clos De La Roche. The sommelier brought out his serving trolley to pour this wine with great pomp and ceremony. The wine was fully mature, this had a glorious nose of dusty bookshelves, wild strawberries and

spice and a silky mouthfeel with flavours of earth, red fruits and sous bois. We were served up Dublin bay prawns in a rich truffle sauce, and sea urchins as our 2 next courses. Both were delicious and brought out different nuances in the incredible wine. Next up was a palate cleanser of gin and thyme sorbet, which did its job of cleansing palates nicely.

Our second red burgundy was a 2003 Denis Mortet Gevrey Chambertin ‘Au Velle’. This wine was all brawn and intensity after the older wine, and I found it tough to enjoy in the circumstances. Any other evening this wine could have been the star but on this night it just wasn’t right. In fairness, it worked quite well with the Sirloin of ‘Toby’ beef. The beef itself was fantastic, full of flavour and incredibly rich and dense yet tender. If Kevin ever gets sick of being a chef, he’d do a great job as a Japanese beef farmer.

Our pre-dessert was a passionfruit crème brulee with mango sorbet, which was delicious. This was served with a cracking bottle of 1994 Donnhoff Oberhauser Felsenberg Beerenauslese. This was a rich wine with good weight and complexity but it didn’t stand out for me. It worked nicely with our dessert, which was a selection of strawberry flavours and textures. After coffee and petit fours we continued downstairs to the bar for a final cocktail to round off the evening. One of our diners got a little excited at this stage and attempted to start a sing song but fortunately nobody seemed to mind too much. Overall this was a superb meal, with excellent food, great service and the whole thing topped off with wonderful wines enabled by a friendly BYO policy. A great way to send off a fine chap!

BYO Burgundy/Rhone: Ely CHQ Dublin

2010-07-24T17:44:00.009+01:00

Luckily I didn’t have too long to wait for the next chance to sample great wines paired with excellent food in Ireland. The following evening in Dublin was another event organized through the Wine-Pages Forum. A number of participants from the Belfast dinner came down for a second night of fine wine/food in Dublin

and were joined by a few Dubliners to round out another 16 person feast with 2 tables of 8.

I arrived at Ely CHQ at 7.15 to find that most of the evenings participants were already there, some looking a little worse for wear from the previous evenings event. We kicked off proceedings on time with a couple of glasses of champagne, which I found very invigorating. Jacques Selosse Intiale NV (2008 disgorgement) was very elegant with tons of fresh citrus, apple and some toasty notes. This made a very interesting comparison to the Krug NV served alongside, which was in a funny enough place. Lots of sulphur on the nose that never quite blew off, yet not completely detracting from the pleasure of the wine. The foie gras with praline & honeycomb served alongside the champagne was a revelation for me. Both champagnes held of well to both the fattiness of the Foie (giving the wines a laser like profile) and the sweetness of the honey (bringing out an incredibly salinity in the Krug). The veggie option of ginger and mango salad was probably the best dish of the evening.

The next course was a bit of a funny one; the 2002 Philippe Chavy Puligny 1er Folatieres (Mag) was showing much older than its age with lots of nutty hints but still quite delicious. Over time the wine got younger and more mineral in the glass, I would have preferred to drink this wine on its own. The 2005 Fevre Chablis 'Les Clos' Grand Cru was the epitome of closed down, smelling very much like Sauvignon Blanc on the nose and being quite watery on the palate (despite being decanted a couple of hours in advance). In fairness the wine had good length and worked very well with the food. The dish for this course was pretty good, seared scallops with black pudding and cauliflower puree, and worked well with the wines. I snuck a taste of 2005 Louis Latour Corton Charlemagne from the other table and was very impressed, showing incredible density and minerality in the mouth with superb balance & length.

For our red burgundy course we were served a rustic dish of duck hearts with shallot & fine herb salad. This was paired very well with the wines and let them shine. Our table had 3 lovely 2003s; the first was2003 Amiot Servelle Chambolle 1er 'Amouruses', which I think was shutting down. It had a lovely soft nose of sweet red fruits and a little earth, although the palate was a little hot and not as pretty as the nose. Fourrier Gevrey 1er 'Clos St Jacques' was a very classy, elegant burgundy, if a little understated, it wasn't giving up much complexity at the moment. The third 2003 was the most giving of the 3,Hospice De Nuits NSG 1er 'VignesRondes'. This was typical gutsy NSG, with lots of earth and funky pinot fruits. Much more expressive and enjoyable than the other 2 wines but probably not as 'fine'. I also snuck a taste of 2004 L&A Lignier Morey 1er Chaffots from the other table, which is a very impressive wine. It didn't show any greenness and in fact was a powerhouse of a Morey, with tons of black fruits and minerals.

We moved up a gear with the next round of wines, a trio of 1998 Cornas. The food for this course, fillet steak with kidney pie was well conceived and paired well with the wine. The ingredients were obviously high quality but the cooking of the steak was a little lacking for my palate. The wines were magnificent: 1998 Clape Cornas was very well resolved, showing a little barnyard with lots of black fruits and a wonderful texture and length. 1998 Verset Cornas was all that with an extra layer of complexity, it was a wine that kept shifting and growing throughout the evening. 1998 Allemand Cornas 'Reynard' was deeper and darker than the previous 2 wines but not quite as complex. Altogether a smashing flight and I though the kidney pie worked very well alongside.

I served up a blind sweety wine next 2000 Trimbach Gewurztraminer SGN 'Hors Choix', that drew guesses from all over the world and only one clever chap getting close to guessing the wine. It was super sweet and luxurious with typical lychee, rose and honey flavours and an incredible length. The dessert was a burnt lemon tart with space rocks in the crust that made me giggle. 2001 Bongran Cuvee Botrytiswas far too young (with good sweetness and hints of citrus fruits) and as a result was outshone by the Trimbach and the 2008 Mullineaux Sweet wine. The Mullineaux sweet wine blew my mind with its performance; this is simply an incredible wine drinking very well at the moment. We also tried Waterford Estate 'Family Reserve', which was blown away by the quality of the other wines on show.

Again I was shocked when I saw people gathering their things and leaving until I realised that it was 1am. This was another cracking event, with a great mix of wine enthusiasts, nice food and excellent wine. I thought Ely CHQ was a great venue for the event, situated in the old customs alcoves surrounded by hundreds of bottles of wine. The staff were excellent and the service was very good. The food wasn’t Michelin Star quality but was still very good and really helped the wines to shine.

BYO Bordeaux: Deanes Belfast

2010-07-22T21:10:00.012+01:00

I had the pleasure of attending a BYO (bring your own wine) event in Belfasts only Michelin starred restaurant (Deanes) in May. This event was organized through the Wine-Pages forum and was attended by a variety of interesting characters from Ireland/Northern Ireland/Scotland & England. The

theme of the dinner was Champagne

& Bordeaux and each of the

participants brought along a wine or 2 each and Michael Deane created a tasting menu to match the wines. There were 2 tables of eight people, each with their distinct wines although there wa

s an element of sharing going on.

I arrived a few minutes late into

Deanes, climbed the stairs

into the private dining

room on the first floor and found the evening had kicked off on time. A magnum of 98 Pol Roger was in full flow and was served alongside canapés of smoked salmon on brown bread and oysters. I was quite perplexed by this wine as it seemed so simple. My guess was that the wine was in shock or shut down as it showed so little. Despite it’s showing, it was still a very pleasant aperitif.

Our first wine course was 1996 Jacquesson Avize (

Magnum) and 1988 Lanson Cuvee Noble. This was an interesting, tasty

, pair. The Jacquesson was incredibly young and fresh, yet lip smackingly delicious, the Lanson being much more mature and rounded in the mouth. Both were a little too powerful for the Scallops (queen scallop with gingerbread puree and a ceviche of scallop) but very nice to drink on their own. The next flight was Bordeaux Blanc, a wine style that I am not overly enamoured with. This was served with a delicious dish of squab and pickled carrots. I was distinctly under whelmed by the Bordeaux Blancs though, which didn’t change my mind on the style.

The 2005 Chateau Brown taking too much flavour from oak but the La Louviere 2001 was much more elegant.

The dinner took a serious step up in quality with the next course. 1975 Montrose was a cracker, I couldn't believe the structure and life showed by this 35 year old wine. It still had plenty of tannin that was tamed incredibly by the dish of the night, Monkfish with braised oxtail. The 1982 Pontet Canet was even younger again, with plenty of sweet fruit and just an incredibly tasty wine. Both wines were a joy on their own but went to another level with the food. I snuck a taste of the wine

s on the other table, Batailly 85 and 86. The Batailly pair were remarkable statements of their vintages, the 85 being herbaceous and fresh and the 86 being tannin and structured.

The next food course (lamb with salad nicoise and anchovy gnocchi) was completely outshone by 2 impressive 'young' wines. The 1989 Talbot was my red wine of the night, showing caramel, sweet fruit & tobacco with a lovely mouthfeel and length. The 1995 Pichon Baron was a little tight on the nose but had very impressive typical Bdx palate of cassis, bell peppers, minerals & cigar box. Both wines, to my palate, were wonderful as they still retained a good bit of youth but benefited from the extra complexity brought on by age. The lamb was nice but the garnish was a little odd.

Next up

was a mystery wine, which turned out to be a 1993 Chateau Pajzos Tokaji Esszencia, an incredibly treat. I was struck with the texture, length and balance of the wine. It's wine, but not as we know it! I wasn't overly impressed with the dessert (Bitter chocolate tart and passionfruit sorbet) but the dessert wines were lovely. The 2001 Rieussec was phenomenal, the kind of wine that makes me smile. Again showing wonderful texture and remarkable length. It's still too young but I imagine this wine with a little extra complexity from age will be almost perfect. The 1986 La Tour Blanche kind of got blown away by the other 2 wines but any other night would have been a treat.

I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw people leaving, until I looked at my watch realizing that it was 1am .It was a truly great evening and very educational for me as I don't drink very much Bordeaux, a thing which I may have to remedy. The organization for the evening was excellent and Deanes pulled off the evening seamlessly. It’s a real pleasure to enjoy this calibre of wines with top notch cooking. The real treat was to meet some new friends, all great, friendly, people with fantastic knowledge that they were all too willing to share. It was great to be able to enjoy an evening like this in Ireland, hopefully we'll get to do it all again…P.S. Thank's Conor Twomey for the great photos!

Ladybirds in my wine!!!

2010-02-28T19:51:00.011Z

Following on from Conor (Burgundy Direct) Richardsons blog about a taint in 2004 red burgundy http://burgundydirectwines.blogspot.com/2010/01/taste-of-2004-red-burgundy_07.html, Conor organized a tasting last Thursday in Ely CHQ in order to investigate this phenomenon further. The tasting turned out to be one of the most interesting and educational that I have ever had the fortune of attending but was ultimately unsuccessful in the search of the famous 'coccinella'. Overall 18 participants turned up to taste 19 different wines, a fair amount brought by Conor but the remainder brought by the participants, ensuring that there was a wide range of wines on show. We started off with a delicious 2005 Corsin Pouilly Fuisse to whet our appetites, which was showing well above its station, and then Conor gave a quick introduction the vintage. Before long we plunged into the wines 1 by 1 in search of tell tale green / chemical / pyrazine aromas.

First up were 2 modest wines, showing very well, the 2004 Anne Gros Bourgogne (A Pointe at present) and the 2004 Vincent Girardin Santenay 1er 'Graviere'. No Ladybirds in these wines, just delicious burgundy, which showed me that generics & satellite regions are very much in their drinking phase. I don't see any reason to rush with these wines but some noted that they didn't expect much further positive development. After these we moved onto 4 village Chambolle wines; 2004 Anne Gros, 2004 Dujac, 2004 Roumier, 2004 Vogue, again drinking remarkably well (except perhaps the Dujac, which needed more time). Still no ladybirds in these wines. This flight was a fascinating display of winemaking styles, Anne Gros was lithe and ethereal, Dujac was oaky & extracted, Vogue was hugely complex and ethereal and Roumier was elegance and silk. All of the wines were superb. I wouldn't have any problem drinking my village chambolles now, although I think there is definitely some upside with them to come.

Next up was a 2004 Grivot Vosne village, a 2004 Vougarie Pommard and a 2004 Tollet Beaut Aloxe. No ladybirds again but the Grivot was the first wine of the night that was nowhere near ready for drinking. The Vougarie Pommard was doing a great Volnay impression and was incredibly tasty, in a modern/oaked style and the Tollet Beaut was stereotypical rustic / fresh Aloxe. After these we moved onto another fantastic flight, 5 Nuits St George wines. 2004 Chevillon Vielles Vignes (very nice, ready), 2004 Chevillon 1er Pruliers (a little tight, rustic), 2004 Chevillon 1er Vaucrains (complex, powerful, farmyard), 2004 Chevillon 1er Cailles (Elegant, resolved, delicious) & 2004 Bertagna 1er Murgers (Closed, Modern, International). Still no green notes. At this stage we all started wondering what all the fuss was about the 2004 'taint' as all we were getting was wave after wave of delicious wines.

The final flight was both impressive and disappointing as the big guns of the night were for the most part not ready, which is what you would expect from 8 YO grand crus. The 2004 Serafin Gevrey 1er Corbeaux was lush, long and oaky. The 2004 Grivot Vosne Beaux Monts & 2004 Grivot Clos Vougeot were both tough as nails at present, although hinting at greatness underneath the structure. Finally a 2004 Dujac Charmes Chambertin was just far too young, yet more enjoyable than the Grivot wines given its expensive oak treatment & extraction. Needless to say there was no ladybird taint in any of these wines either.

The remarkable result of the evening, during which we tasted 19 wines from the most fickle region in the world, from a vintage with a known taint (renowned to be the worst vintage of the decade) and yet we were treated to a wondrous evening of Burgundian pleasure. 0 tainted wines, 0 corked wines and only a handful of sulky 'closed' wines. This was a great evening to convert the burgundy sceptics but I don't think there were any sceptics present.

An afternoon, a night and a morning in Corcaigh

2010-02-02T22:05:00.033Z

The Afternoon: With Christmas well gone, and Spring about to arrive, three close pals who usually abide in different corners of the world (well, London, Dublin & Kerry/New York), found themselves with an open diary for one particular Saturday night, late in January. After a flurry of emails confirming a time and location and a few more emails regarding possible wines, a gastronomic plan of action was put into play. Us three pals, Willers, Paulers and Fionners would meet in Cork and home cook a fine meal to accompany even finer wines, and have a bit of craic doing so, like.

As planned Willers, for possibly the first time in a decade, would board public transport and make his way from Dublin, via the train to Cork. I, having already landed the day previously, would pick Willers up at the station. Paulers would drive to Cork from Kerry to continue his search for the perfect suite of furniture before meeting us a little later. He would also bring a friend in tow known as The Scamp, who was advising Paulers on the intricacy of furniture purchasing. En route to pick up Willers I paid a quick visit to the the Village Greengrocer in Castlematyr to acquire a bag of their amazing mushrooms (part of Good Food Ireland and well worth a visit).

Due to an incident involving a new puppy, a carpet and some poop, I set off late. Coupled with the fact that by some incredible feat of engineering, Willers arrived into Cork early, so it wasn't at the station where I met him, but walking along the quays, bag on his back.

First stop was the English Market. Knowing only that we had planned to cook a fillet of beef for mains we needed to forage for starters, desert and a bite to eat. Stopping at Frank Hederman's (from the critically acclaimed Belvelly Smoke House) we were treated to various tasty morsels of smoked fish. A plan formed and we purchased smoked salmon and smoked haddock and some delicious crab, dill and creme fraiche dip. From there we browsed about and acquired a few quail, fresh bread from the Alternative Bread Company, green beans, tomatoes, roosters, herbs and a selection of tarts for desert.

Next up was a road trip to Carragline in the beast. We decided to visit Joe Karwig's wine shop and also rendezvous with Paulers after his afternoon of furniture gawking. After a good old long chin wag with Joe and with no sign of Paulers we departed back to the ranch with a boot packed with food and wine.

The Night: As dinners preparations got into full swing Paulers showed up and introductions were made to The Scamp. Bottles were decanted, BBQ's lit and as a matter of tradition the night began with a Gin and Tonic, Tanqueray 10 style. Cheers!

The smoked fish we picked up earlier was first up and was served alongside the crab dip with crackers as an amuses-bouche so to speak. I had also earlier prepared three dishes of salmon and prawn under a cover of potato gratin, single cream and topped with cheese as a further nibble.

The champagne to accompany the above was a 2004 Dieblot Vallois Fleur De Passion. This is a truly magnificent Blanc de Blanc wine and was a real joy to drink! There aren't many finer pairings in life than smoked Salmon and Champagne and this was just heaven. I could quite happily enjoy it every day. It was also probably the wine of the night. Then we sat down to eat.

Our starter came in the form of Quail Salad. Willers got this together quite easily, his butchering skills making light work of the four innocent quail. They were paired up with a 2005 Carillion village Puligny. The wine was slightly muted and not where you want a Puligny to be.

Next up was main course. The BBQ had long been fired up and as I prepared the accompaniments of truffle mash, green beans a la Willers and mushrooms, Willers, Paulers and the Scamp discussed how to cook a large fillet of beef that had a tail (see 2 pictures above). It was the Scamp who roared 'cut the tail off and stick in the middle' which turned out to be sound advice indeed!

To accompany this was 2001 D'Angerville Clos Des Ducs (a super tasty red) and a 2004 Loredan Gasparini (Capo Di Stani) which was also quite delicious. Oh and a 2005 Reserve De Leoville Barton which was also cracking. For tasting notes Willers might post a comment as my pen and pad went, eh, missing.

Desert was complements of the English Market. A selection of tarts to accompany a 2005 Coutet, a course so integral to any fine dining experience! Delicious! With that, cars were called and we prepped for an excursion into the wild lands of Cork City Centre. With a short wait for a taxi, Willers popped a NV Vilmart Curvee Rubis for good measure. How we left the comforts of the house at all is nothing short of a miracle!

The Morning: First thing that was noticed was The Scamp was missing. This was after Paulers woke me up claiming it was 2pm. Second thing I noticed was that it was in fact 10am. Venturing downstairs breakfast was a self serving affair and consisted mainly of toasting up the bread from ABC. The expresso machine came into full swing, only mind you, after much discussion, prodding, emailing and twittering to various parties to figure out how it worked. Then Operation Clean Up started, spear headed by Willers.

Once everything was cleaned, steamed, showered, hoovered, polished, dumped, switched off and locked Willers and I headed into the environs of Cork City as Paulers bailed for the West. A quick visit to O' Connaill Chocolate Shop procured us hot chocolate drinks and we sauntered down the new Opera Lane area of the city.

With little left to do, Willers departed on public transport (for what might be the last time this decade) and each of the great pals returned to their respective parts of the world (even though I can't speak for the Scamp who hasn't been in contact since).

Great times. Great pals. Long may they continue!

WIMPS - The December Meet

2010-01-09T21:00:00.011Z

Like the previous WIMPS lunch meet I wrote about here (http://irishwine.blogspot.com/2009/10/wimps-lunch-in-ledbury.html) this was another absolute cracker of an afternoon. It was all about indulgence - 45 wine geeks, 60 bottles of fine wine and a four course lunch in the elegant settings of the michelin star Ledbury restaurant in London's Notting Hill neighbourhood.

In the usual spirit of WIMPS those interested in lunch sign up months in advance on the wine-pages forum. Seating is assigned, wines are chosen and the Ledbury pairs them up with food. This works extremely well as long as you bring what wines you say! Will C and I were shipping our wine from Dublin but thanks to An Post it didn't arrive on time. Bottles had to be replaced last minute (a 2003 Clos de la Roche instead of a 1991 DRC Grand Echezeaux and a 1999 Dom Perignon replaced a Jacques Selosse Equiste Sec).

Both Will C and I were sat at the ‘Free For All’ table and we had planned three adventurous wine flights. All other tables had a single theme so there were tables of Rhone, Burgundy, Oz and so on, which meant plenty of potential for tastings afterward!

Our aperitif came in the form of 1996 Clos Des Goisses and was accompanied by various nibbles. One in particular was this meringue and goats cheese mouthful. Other tasty nuggets were savory mince pies made with beef.

Our first wine flight was a 1999 Dom Perignon, 2001 Morey Chassagne Montrachet and 2007 Chapoutier Condrieu Invitare which was paired with Goose ravioli. The DP was definitely the best pairing with the goose. It was also one of the better bottles of the day and perfect for drinking. I didn't take to the Condrieu at all, very soapy on the nose, washy on the palette and had no connection with the dish at all.

Next up was the red flight of 1976 Grands Echezeaux Drouhin, 2003 Clos de la Roche Dujac and a 1991 Musar. This was paired with Pyrenean Milk Fed Lamb Shoulder with White Truffle Creamed Potato and Buttered Celery. The dish was just perfect (below). Creamy truffle mash is a joy any day of the week but with a tender cut of lamb, cooked to perfection, it is food heaven. We had initially planned this to be paired with a Burgundy flight but as mentioned last minute replacements were called in. Tasting notes are non existent as the food and the craic took over!

Next course was the Loin of Berkshire Hare Dusted in Juniper and Pepper with Pumpkin Pie Puree and Shoulder Cooked Overnight with Roasted Ceps. YUMMY! There is no dispute that the food at the Ledbury is something else. Testament to this were the many empty plates, even though abounds of seconds were scooped up by one and all. Wines to accompany were a 1995 Beaucastel (unfortunately corked), a 1999 Gilles Barges Cote Rotie Duplessy, and a 1985 Guigal Cote Rotie.

Final course of the day proved to be another sensory onslaught with every morsel of food and drop of wine was lapped up eagerly. For desert was a Date and Vanilla Tart with Cardamon and Clementine Ice Cream which was paired with a Climens 1989. As good a food and wine pairing I've come across! It was just delicious. To finish off there was a glass of Grahams '66 and various other nibbles left on the table to for us as we saw fit.

Post desert was also great fun as the Ledbury lined up all the wines on a nearby table. This resulted in a small and unplanned feeding frenzy, along with plenty of banter and tomfoolery. All in all it's hard to beat an afternoon of WIMPS unless of course you don't like indulging in fine wine, amazing food and great craic. I certainly do. And I'll be back.

The Fat Duck

2009-12-24T00:04:00.021Z

A truly exceptional experience is often difficult to regale. So high is the feeling of adulation that vocalising it doesn’t seem to do justice. It’s for this reason that after recently dining at the Fat Duck restaurant, our party was left with only one word at the end of it all - ‘awesome!’

The Fat Duck is fourteen (or so) courses of the most unique, creative and exceptional gastronomy in the world. It’s a dining experience that’s not just lunch and not just dinner. It’s scrambled egg and bacon ice cream. It’s a visit to the seaside to eat edible sand. It’s tea that’s both hot and cold. It’s service beyond exceptional. It’s being at the Mad Hatters Tea Party having a bowl of mock turtle soup. It’s the Fat Duck And. It. Is. Awesome.

The Fat Duck in Bray is about an hours train ride west from London. It’s in an unassuming town that would, with the exclusion of the Fat Duck and coincidentally the other 3 Michelin star restaurant The Waterside Inn, be off the radar for most people. The exterior to the restaurant gives nothing away to the quality that lies inside and even up to the moment where you sit down, little points towards the experience that is about unfold before you. And boy does it unfold with magic.

It all begins with a gold pot, liquid nitrogen and some lime spray. The pot is used by one of the many waiters to make a poached green tea and lime mousse that you’re told should be consumed immediately. This totally cleanses the palette and before you know what’s happened the next course arrives.

Second up is an ice cream dish. A mustard ice cream in fact, with a splash of red cabbage gazpacho underneath. It’s at these very early stages of the meal that you become aware of the creativity and individual character of Heston Blumenthal, a chef that is pushing the food boundaries in every single way possible. Not just do you taste his food but you experience it – by sight, sound, hearing and touch. Heston makes eating a full on sensory experience. He creates dishes that no one has ever made before and makes them to a stunningly high standard. His principles are simple – excellence, openness and integrity.

These are summed up in his Mock Turtle Soup dish. A tea cup is positioned before you with a gold coloured watch inside. As you pour hot water from the tea pot into your cup, the watch dissolves. A waiter places a dish in front of you and you pour your ‘tea’ into it. It’s wonderfully strange but equally delicious. Each flavour pronounced, each flavour reasoned and all balanced perfectly for your enjoyment.

As I found myself trying to keep track, remembering the exquisite roast foie gras dish and the quail with crayfish cream dish that had preceded, Heston hits you with a sucker punch! Placed in front of you is none other than a conch shell with a pair of headphones hanging out. A few minutes later a dish is served up to you. What we are eating, we are told, will be explained to us after we finish. Okay. Sure.

Like a drunk in a bar, specific details become sketchy. With so many courses and flavours to savour in just one afternoon, things get blurred. Did someone really serve a dish covered in red leather, that had wooden logs around it? And did the waiter set it on fire as another poured dry ice on top to make the wood crackle? I believe they did. Flaming sorbet is what it was.

That was, mind you, after our two main dishes of farmed salmon, poached in a light liquorice coating and anjou pigeon and blood pudding.

I’ll leave the pictures do the talking on these as another sucker punch was on the way. The now So-Famous desert titled, The Not-So-Full English Breakfast.

It begins with a small box of cereal in a bowl in front of you. Once the contents are emptied into the bowl, you add milk and eat like its breakfast. The physicality of what you’re doing, eating cereal with a spoon, carts you straight off to the breakfast table. This is coupled by the always-attentive staff who greet you with ‘Enjoy your breakfast!’ You suddenly feel, after the gastronomic mountain just climbed, that it's morning time and you’re beginning to wake up (albeit to a bowl of parsnip cereal).

Out comes the gold pot again along with the can of liquid nitrogen. Excitement gathers as the waiter, at your table, cracks the eggs, with the Fat Duck emblem, into the pot. In goes the nitrogen and the waiter works it to scramble your eggs. As he finishes, a plate with toast is served to you and your eggs are dished out. The chorus of ‘Enjoy your breakfast’ goes again and you tuck in. Needless to say it was a most delicious breakfast, check, desert. Oh and apropos, it's all served with a tea that's both hot and cold. Awesome.

I remember reading some years ago on the Fat Duck website a statement from Heston that began ‘No food is intrinsically disgusting’. It’s very true. 'If it were', the statement continued, 'why would anyone eat it?' Its very indicative of Heston, someone you feel is so proud of what he does, who he is and what he stands for. And however you may feel about his food or his restaurant, I don’t think it can be disputed that Heston is someone who is out on his own, taking food to new levels, new places, someone who challenges people to think differently.

He once prefaced a TV program with the aim that he wanted ‘to create a meal for his guests that they would never forget, a meal they would remember till the very end’. Well that is how I felt leaving the Fat Duck. An awesome meal that will be remembered forever, not just for the food, but the experience as a whole, the tastes, the smells, the excitement, the company. Cheers Heston (and harpic2) Legends!

Scary Moments

2009-11-04T19:55:00.013Z

The scariest thing last Saturday night wasn't all the Halloween costumes being touted around Dublin for the various parties celebrating the annual ghoulfest but instead the fact that Burgundy got a good spanking from Bordeaux. We started off the evening with a nice taxi ride across the city weaving all over the road in the hopes of avoiding any fireworks flying in through the window but we made it on time and our precious cargo of fine wines arrived intact. I was amazed by our hosts fine collection of 2005 Bordeaux, which had been freshly delivered a few days previously along with a surprise bottle to be shared later in the evening.

We kicked off proceedings with a 2006 Herve Azo Chablis Grand Cru Bougros, which was a pretty decent start. Initially on opening it was quite rich and tropical but not very Chablis, with more air the typical saltiness came more to the fore. After a glass and a chat we sat down for some treats from the sea for our first course. The Salt and pepper squid, Scallops and rocket salad were delicious. They got even better with a glass of 2005 Philippe Chavy Meursault Blagny 1er 'Sous Le D'os Ane', which was in a funny place. On opening this was quite oaky and even a little sweet but it calmed significantly and became classier with time in the glass. I think I prefer Philippes Pulignys to his Meursaults though. Next on the food menu was a delightful pea and mint soup, which was one of the best soups I have ever tasted. This transitioned us nicely from starter to main course and white wine to red.

As this stage the mystery red wine was revealed, 1998 Chateau Quinault l'Enclos, a St Emilion Grand Cru from a very good year. This wine just sang from the beginning, although it wasn't showing any significant signs of age. It was powerful yet elegant and had wonderful mouthfeel and balance. There was fruit, chocolate, oak, tannin and acid all in perfect balance and lingering on the palate with nice length. This was served alongside a fine roast duck with a side helping of quail and red cabbage, roast fennel & carrots. The duck was juicy and the quail added an extra dimension in the protein stakes and the rest of the accompaniments were delicious. After a bit of a break in order to let digestion to kick in a fine selection of ripe cheeses appeared on the table. At this stage I reckoned it was time to let burgundy shine, so I popped a bottle of 2006 Mischief & Mayhem Vosne Romanee 1er Petit Monts. This little beauty was rocking but as good as it was it didn't have a chance after the fine bordeaux. It is still a little too young (the last glass hinted at greatness) but is still an incredibly complex and delicious red burgundy.

We had a brief scary moment on opening a bottle of wine to go with dessert as the cork broke in half (bloody crappy corkscrews should be banned!). As a result I had to push the remainder of the cork into the bottle and quickly decant into the only available vessel, a large glass. Fortunately the wine, 2003 Bassermann Jordan Deidesheimer Hohenmorgen Riesling Auslese, wasn't harmed by its mistreatment. It was a nice drop but not the best sweet wine that I have had in the past few months, as it was lacking a bit of minerality that was required to balance the wine. Chocolate Orange souffles and vanilla cream was served alongside the wine but to be honest the pairing wasn't great. Both things were nice in their own right but together they didn't really work. After that we got comfortable and enjoyed a few nice whiskeys. The Ardbeg 10YO was a revelation, incredibly complex with a peaty, smokey finish that went on for minutes. The Old Pulteney 17YO on the other hand was the epitome of smooth and delicious. Both great whiskeys in their own right and a fine way to end a fine meal!

A question of age

2009-10-26T10:28:00.010Z

Age is a constant challenge for wine lovers. When is the best time to open a wine? When is a wine too young, too old or at it's best? How do I know if what I am tasting is representative of all this wine has to offer?

Bank holiday weekends rock, as there are a couple of extra days at the weekend to enjoy fine food & wine. I kicked off my weekly wine exploration in Dublin on Friday evening with a bottle of 2003 Sylvain Cathaird Nuits St George. This wine is just about transitioning from youth into some semblance of young adolescence. It still had lots of fruit but it's oak (of which it has lots) was integrating nicely, this was an awkward phase (the mid palate was still shrouded in a Vail of oak) for this wine but it still delivered great pleasure. I think this wine is in a nice phase a present but will probably be vastly better in another 5 years. Saturday evening in Cork we continued on in celebratory fashion over a fine fore rib of beef. To kick off the evening I popped a 2002 Vilmart Grand Cellier D'or. This champagne was painfully young and frankly not very enjoyable as the flavours were hidden behind vast quantities of acid and fruit. The wine was impressive due to it's abundance of fruit and structure but not enjoyable, so much so we left a half bottle for the following evening. We tried to tame the champagne with some food (Marinated Quail Salad) and whilst that did help it wasn't quite enough (although the food was lovely). The Vilmart is a wine that needs at least a couple of more years to settle down (I have taken a note not to open another of these for at least a year).

Since we were facing up to a big slab of beef, we decided to open a big red wine. The 2003 Bernard Faurie Hermitage was brutish on opening, big flavours and even bigger tannins. Fortunately we had the sense to open this bottle a couple of hours in advance so it went straight into the decanter. 3 hours later once the beef was cooked to perfection (assuming you enjoy your beef rare), the wine had been tamed. The structure/tannin was much softer, leaving behind a lovely wine. Sill big and fruity with a mix of raspberries, black olives and buckets of black pepper. At times this almost could have been a very fine new world Shiraz except that it was in some way finer, managing it's fruit, earth and structure admirably. There was no sense of 2003 heat from this wine, which has to be a good thing, and the wine worked very well with the food (Roast beef, roast carrots, truffle mash & stuffed mushrooms). This can certainly be enjoyed now with a long decant but it also has the structure and fruit to last for a very long time. I'm glad I got to taste it at this stage but wish I had another couple of bottles stashed away for future enjoyment.

For dessert (orange jelly, raspberries, custard and mango in lime syrup) I opened another young wine, 2005 Zind Humbrecht Clos Windsbuhl Vendage Tardive, that was absolutely lovely. It was revelling in it's youth, showing a huge array of extravagant flavours (pineapple, melon, peach, lime) all wrapped in honey and dusted with chalk. This wine walked the tightrope of sweetness and freshness effortlessly and was a joy to behold. This was obviously youthful but I would have no hesitation in drinking more now as it was so enjoyable at the moment. I've read a few pieces recently about this wine recently not ageing very well, just losing its freshness without picking up complexity but I have never tasted a mature example so can only guess.

On Sunday after a lovely drive through West Cork in a Porsche Convoy (A nice mix of vintage & new Porsches of many different models) we settled into one final evening of wine exploration. We started off with the leftover Vilmart 2002, which was infinitely better this time than the night before. You could actually make out the flavour of the wine (which was like a fine burgundy) and there was still plenty of freshness. We moved onto a 2006 Sauzet Puligny village after this to enjoy with some duck spring rolls. This wine again was painfully young, the acidity and fruit just too powerful at present. It delivered very little pleasure in this state and only hinted at it's pedigree. Next up was a 2002 A.F Gros Vosne Romanee Clos De La Fontaine (Monopole), which was in it's worst possible state. This wine was completely shut down, offering no flavour, aroma or pleasure. A huge disappointment for what should have been a lovely wine. I have little doubt that this wine would have been lovely 3 years ago or will be in another 5. Fortunately, being relatively new to the world of wine, I rarely come across wines that are too old.

There are few lessons to be learned from all of this. Sometimes wines are young but very enjoyable, sometimes they are awkward but still enjoyable, sometimes they are just too young , sometimes they are shutdown and sometimes they are just too bloody old. It's all part of the process of enjoying wine though. The difficulty with being too judgemental though is writing off a wine from one sitting. The key really is buying a few bottles of wines that you like and ensuring some level of decent storage. Luckily I have more wines of most of the above and will be able to follow their progression over time.

White wine night

2009-10-20T19:15:00.011+01:00

Despite my never ending hunger for all things meaty and steaky, sometimes I turn the tables on myself and have meals without red meat. Last Saturday evening turned out to be one of those evenings as a few friends came over to my house for dinner. A quiet Saturday afternoon meant that a trip to Howth was on the cards in order to procure some tasty seafood for our little feast. This was followed by a frantic rambling around Dublin in search of all of the other ingredients before heading home to prep the meal and keep up to date with all of the goings on in the Heineken cup. Come 6pm, when hungry bodies started appearing, everything was set for a fine meal.

We started off with a bottle of NV Raymond Boulard Brut Rose De Saignee. We were expecting a refreshing, light, Summery champagne but this turned out to be an intensely mineral experience. It was quite delicious and refreshing but not quite as fun as it might have been. After a glass of this, I set about pulling together our starter for the evening, Pan seared scallops on a trio of veg puree (Parsnip & Garlic, Cauliflower & Cumin, Carrot & Coriander) topped with apple matchsticks (soaked in lime and rolled in black seseme seeds) and sunflower shoots. This was a cracking dish (if I do say so myself) with lovely balance between the fresh, sweet scallops, smooth rich purees and sharp, crisp apple. This dish was paired with a 2006 Mischief & Mayhem Chassange Montrachet 1er ‘La Maltroiye’. There was a difference of opinion regarding this wine around the table, some thinking it almost Meursault (rich, buttery) in character whereas others thought it quite Chassange (mineral, nervous), either way everybody though it delicious and it worked very well with the food.

We shifted into a Thai mode with the main course; Halibut cooked in banana leaf with a coconut sauce, jasmine rice, thai salad & soy/honey broccoli/asparagus/beans. This was another lovely dish, mainly due to the beautiful fresh fish picked up in Howth that afternoon. In order to balance the heat in the sauce I served a 1999 Domaine De La Bongran Macon Clesse ‘Cuvee Levroutee’ along with the dish. This is an incredibly complex with honey, nuts, lemon, grilled oats, minerals, acid wrapped in a beautifully smooth texture and length. This is a demanding off-dry wine, and it needs some serious food to keep up with it. Still lots of life left in it so no rush if you are lucky to have a few bottles.

Dessert was a homemade lemongrass trifle, which was delicious. Funnily enough 3 out of the 4 diners don’t enjoy trifle yet somehow everybody really liked this one. We paired this up with a 1995 Josmeyer Pinot Gris SGN (picked up in a bin end sale a few weeks ago for a very agreeable price). This was a lovely sweet wine, showing no hints of its age. It was very sweet yet quite fresh and balanced and I felt it worked very well with the dessert. Needless to say, after dinner we ended up having a few cocktails and finished off the evening with some of the most ridiculous dance moves I have seen in a long time. All in all good fun, even though there was neither red meat nor red wine involved.

Laziness has taken hold in the last number of weeks, which has resulted in a lack of blogging. There have been some huge steaks and a few wines consumed over the period all the same. The red highlights were a pair of 2006 pretty low level Burgundies (Denis Mortet Marsannay & Anne Gros Bourgogne Rouge), which were very fresh, perfumed and drinking so well at the moment. The white highlight was a 2007 Philippe Chavy Puligny ‘Pucelles’, which seems like it will have an extremely long life as it stayed delicious despite being enjoyed over a 4 night period, and was as good on the 4th day as the 1st. The disappointment over the period was a 2006 Domaine Leflaive Puligny Village that was a little dilute and simple to my tastes, I had expected a lot more from this wine.

WIMPS lunch in the Ledbury.

2009-10-01T11:45:00.038+01:00

WIMPS outings are organised via the wine-pages.com forum and are a monthly gathering of wine lovers, friends and even family members. Each month a different theme is announced, so how about my luck that for my first WIMPS lunch the theme would be Bordeaux.

WIMPS enjoy a residency at the exceptional Ledbury restaurant in Notting Hill, London. With numerous accolades already notched up, this is truly an eatery worthy of among others, its michelin star.

As a complete newbie to WIMPS, I was unsure of what to expect but it was, as many had said, a fantastic experience, one that is recommended to all who have never considered it previously. Once signed up to the event via the website, each attendee states what wine they will bring and what vintage. The wines are then designated into flights, tables are drawn up and the Ledbury provides the menu to accompany.

Our first flight contained a 2007 L'Abiele Fieuzel Blanc (zingy, topical, clean), a 2005 Chateau Lynch Moussas (young, tannic, tight) and a '97 Chateau Lynch Bages (tobacco, fruits, open). These were accompanied by roasted beetroot that was baked in clay, with a topping of smoked lardo and decorated with elderberries. (I can say it tasted better then it looks) The top layer of smoked lardo was genius as the earthy beetroot become a wonderful pairing with the clarets. It was as one of our of table pointed out quite the different shape that most beetroot are. True.

The next flight of wines contained a '96 Ducru Beaucaillou (black fruits, cigar, immensely drinkable), a '90 Haut-Batailley (mature, velvety, earthy) and a '85 Cos D'Estournal (initially tight but opened well, toffee, structured). This was partnered with a raviolo of grouse and partridge with a veloute of green peppercorns. This was delicious in all respects. It's proportion, flavours and texture all balancing in sync (so good it isn't justified by my critique) By this stage, space becomes a premium when you have a table of 6, each with 6 wines as you can see to the right!

For the third flight and the main course, we had an '87 La Gaffeliere (brilliant perfume of fruit, sweat and berries), a '89 Haut-Bailly (tight, but fruity on the palette, with good length) and finally a '75 Gruand Larose (initially tight but opened up to an immense wine, with big fruits, structure and length). Alongside these fabulous wines, the masters in the kitchen served up a loin of hare with a cepe tart and a compote of the shoulder "a la royale". Shaved onto this was one of the largest truffles found on this land and presented to us as such.

Again the cuisine was awe inspiring. Perfectly cooked and presented, it left room for more (seconds were offered to all to which most of our table accepted). The scene at this stage was mirroring a gastromic earthquake with half empty glasses aplenty and only scraps left on plates. You will get a glimpse of the vegetarian option in the picture below, which I would have eaten any other day of the week. Very creative, thought out and executed with perfection.

For desert was a plate of sweetness containing figs, olive oil ice cream and warm cinnamon doughnuts, not to forget of course an '89 Climens which only went to cement the standing of a sweet wine at any dining experience.

WIMPS is a must for any wine lover/ enthusiast. Its' monthly status growing, its' residency in the Ledbury grounded and most importantly its' openness to all. Log onto wine-pages and see for yourself. At the end of the four hour lunch, new friends had been made, fine wines had been imbibed (oh I forgot to mention the '59 Chevel Blanc, well, I'm sure you can guess) and we departed with a high anticipation for the next one. Bring it on (thanks Don - a real pleasure).

A Corking Restaurant

2009-09-28T17:48:00.007+01:00

Buoyed by Nigel Donnans recent blog (http://www.dublinwineschool.ie/blog/) about taking advantage of restaurants ever increasing tolerance of corkage, I started a recent restaurant booking with the question: ‘Do you offer corkage?’. I had made up a list of restaurants that I wanted to visit and had a look through all of their wine lists (that were available online). Pretty much all of the mark-ups on the wine lists were a little excessive, so I swallowed some of my pride and decided that I would ask the restaurants 1 by 1 if they allowed BYO wine, if they did I would book dinner and if not I would ring the next. To my surprise the first restaurant I rang said yes straight away so my search wasn’t as tough as I thought it would be. That’s how we ended up in Pearl Brasserie on Saturday evening.

Once Saturday evening rolled around and we’d put on our finest livery, we began our stroll into the City with a bottle of 2000 Meo Camuzet Nuits St George 1er Cru ‘Aux Murgers’ in a bag. Once we hit the Grand Canal we hopped aboard our DublinBikes and rode off in search of Pearl. There’s something about these bikes that introduces an extra sense of fun into Dublin, people seem to smile at you more and chances are you’ll get chatting to random strangers when stopped at traffic lights. After a quick cycle we arrived at Pearl Brasserie and strolled down into the basement restaurant. Immediately we were greeted by a friendly chap who brought us through an impressive warren of a restaurant to a cracking table, secluded in its own little intimate alcove.

There was no awkwardness about the corkage, the Maitre’D took the bottle right away and asked if we would like to have the bottle opened right away in order to let it breath a little. He also asked if we would like to drink this through the meal or if we’d like an aperitif or bottle of white wine to begin. We started with a ginger mojito (very tasty I was told) and a glass of Pierre Moncuit Blanc De Blancs (very clean and refreshing). The menu on offer was right up my street and I could have ordered at least 4/5 different options for starter/main, including braised pigs cheeks with black pudding that was on special. In the end I went for Slow Roasted Quail on savoy cabbage for starters and my dining companion chose Roquefort ravioli. For mains I chose the signature dish, Squab Pidgeon Rossini and my dining companion chose Halibut and Pata Negra Ham. As we enjoyed our aperitifs we admired the impeccably designed restaurant which was luxurious without being intimidating. The bread was fresh and tasty but nothing to write home about but our amuse bouche of smoked salmon boullion with spicey foam was a revelation. The incredible depth and warmth of flavour had us wishing for a winter’s morning in order to make this even more comforting.

The sommelier treated us as well as if we had ordered the red burgundy directly from his list, making sure our glasses were topped up and that we were enjoying our wine (which we undoubtedly were). Our glasses had just been filled and we were filling our noses with fine scents of fruits and earth when out came our starters. My quail was a, relatively, huge bird which had been deboned, rolled and slow roasted. The result was a delicious meaty treat sitting on a bed of creamy savoy cabbage, dotted with lardons, which again had a great depth of flavour. My only criticism would be that the skin wasn’t crispy enough. The Roquefort Ravioli was 5 delicious pieces of pasta dotted with candied walnuts and was a success. Next up came our mains which were simply incredible. My pigeon was tender and every so delicious. One breast came sliced in half with a large slice of sautéed foie gras in the middle, which transformed this dish from excellent to decadent. As if the chef hadn’t done enough he also included some rich creamy spinach and the final touch of a bowl of truffle mash. This dish worked so well with the wine it was probably my favourite paring of the year. The Halibut was also a cracking dish; the sweet flesh of the fish balanced by sautéed girolles and roasted Jerusalem artichoke. The food was simply divine, possibly too generous for a Michelin star and all the better for it in my book.

At this stage we were getting excited, so decided to see what the pastry chef was like at his job. My dessert of a pistachio macroon with raspberry mousse and fresh raspberries was very refreshing after the heavy dishes that had gone before and was full of nice clean flavours. The selection of sorbets didn’t really test the kitchen that much and was pretty good. I also had a glass of Muscat Beaumes De Venise, which despite excessive alcohol was quite round and finished off the meal nicely. All in all this was an excellent meal with lovely wine, all kept to a decent price as a result of being able to take advantage of corkage (€15/bottle). I’d highly recommend checking out this restaurant both for couples or for larger groups, just make sure to ask for a private alcove!

*apologies about the crap photos, got a new camera and haven't figured it out yet*

Celebrating Ireland Without Arthur

2009-09-25T19:20:00.005+01:00

Pubs around the world weren’t the only people celebrating Irish alcoholic production today, Thursday 24th September at 17.59 (Guinness had a large Arthur’s Day promotion on). Enowine held the latest of their Icon wine tastings, this time the theme was ‘Irish Wine Geese’. For the pleasure of their customers Enowine put on a selection of wines (mainly Bordeaux) with Irish connections. They also have an excellent sale on at the moment of 2004 & 2005 Bordeaux wines, at prices that have to be seen to be believed (Some 2005s are cheaper than they were en primeur and cheaper than I bought the 2000s for 5 years ago).

I started off my tasting by pouring all of the red wines that I wanted to try into glasses and setting them to one side. I find that with sample this young, they benefit with a little bit of time in the glass to breath. I feel these wines would be much better decanted and enjoyed over a long dinner but it was great to get a chance to taste them all the same. I then poured a sample of the 2005 Chateau De Fieuzal to taste. I’ve tried this wine in the past, when I found it too young but pleasant, this time I didn’t particularly enjoy it at all. It’s far too young at the moment still and has its fruit/acid/oak all sticking out in the wrong directions and isn’t very harmonious. After this I began trying to differentiate the red wines. I started with a 2004 Chateau Du Tertre, which turned out to be the most accessible of the wines. Lovely velvety mouthfeel with round fruit and quite savoury, this was delicious without being overly complex. I’d have no problem drinking these over the next few years. Next up I tried the 2004 Chateau Lascombes, which I found very awkward with dark fruit, liquorice and bitter tannins. This was a little over extracted in my mind and didn’t speak of Margaux to me. The next wine certainly spoke Margaux, the 2004 Pavillion Rouge De Margaux (the 2nd wine of Chateau Margaux). This wine was incredibly young, I wouldn’t recommend trying for at least 5 years, but was the picture of balance. It had lovely red fruits, earth, minerals, tannin, acid all in abundance but with lovely balance. It’s an expensive 2nd wine and I’m not sure if I’d pay the tariff but it was great to try it.

After these 3 wines I moved on to the big boys, first up was another Margaux wine; 2004 Chateau Palmer. This was a monster of a wine, a big brooding, steely monster of a sleeping Bordeaux. I could sense an exquisite, classy wine in there somewhere but at the moment it’s almost impenetrable. I imagine this will be great but at the moment stay well away. My next taste was a stereotypical blast of St Julian, 2004 Chateau Leoville Barton. St Julian is the typical flavour of Bordeaux for my, Powerful round cassis with leather and a herby/tobaccoy edge. Again this wine was too young but ever so tasty all the same. Finally (although there were more wines that I didn’t taste, like Lynch Bages/Phelan Segur etc) I tasted the standout wine of the tasting; 2004 Pichon Longueville Comtesse De Lalande. The nose on this wine was intoxicating, pure cassis, black fruits & minerals on the nose with little hints of flowers and a delightful palate, mouthfeel and finish. There was an exquisite perfume to this wine in the mouth that was exhilarating.

All in all this was another cracking Icon tasting from Enowine and a great celebration of the Irish Wine Geese. Enowines website is pants at the moment so you’ll have to either 1. give them a call or even better 2. call into the shop to find out what's available in the sale. This is probably the best wine sale that I have ever seen in Ireland, make sure to check it out!

Wedding Celebrations

2009-09-23T20:17:00.012+01:00

I’m finally coming back to my senses after a week of fun and frolics all in the name of celebration. My brother got married at the weekend in the Ritz Carlton Powerscourt, and I took a few days off in advance to prepare for the festivities. It just so happened that my good friend Fionn arrived over just in time to help me. We kicked off on Wednesday evening with some nice food and a few good bottles. We started with some Jamon Iberico and a half bottle of Raymond Boulard Cuvee Reserve, which was one of the best bottles I’ve had of this yet. The transformation of this wine as it breaths and warms is amazing. It starts off quite sharp if too cold but once at the right temperature it’s round, creamy and delicious. After this I cracked a bottle of 1994 Robert Ampeau Meursault Perrieres, which was also the best bottle of this that I have had yet. Very rich, lemony, nutty, buttery and long with good minerality it was a tour de force. After this we drank a 2000 Nicholas Potel Nuits St George Boudots with a fillet steak. This was another cracker of a bottle, the stars had obviously aligned on this evening, so much so that we were tempted into one final half bottle; a 1999 Clos De Lambrays Grand Cru. This was the wine of the evening, showing off sweet spices, fruits and some serious minerality.

The next day we pottered around Dublin in order to prepare a few things for the wedding and ended up in Howth in search of dinner. We were tempted by sea-food tapas for lunch but Octopussy was a bit busy so we came back into town and went to Juniors (Bath Avenue) for lunch. Here we had probably the best sandwiches in Dublin for lunch. Before long the evening was upon us and we were into another bottle of champagne, this time a 2000 Coutier Henri 3, a grower Blanc De Noir that Fionn brought over from London. This was a lovely wine but probably a bit rich as an aperitif, not that this stopped us from drinking a few glasses. Our first white wine was superb, 2005 Corton Charlemagne Domaine De Croix. This was a seriously delicious and complex drop, showing off a kaleidoscopic range of flavours and aromas in a bold yet lithe package. We ate a simple mackerel salad with this wine and this worked quite well. All the time a lovely guinea fowl was roasting in the oven. We opened a brace of older reds to accompany the fowl, a 1992 Grivot Vosne Romanee 1re Brulees and a 1995 Armand Rousseau Gevrey Chambertain. The Grivot was probably the better wine but both were delightful and it was a pleasure to get the chance to enjoy them.

With the preparations out of the way, we head off in search of a wedding on Friday afternoon. After much meeting and greeting we head off to the Gordon Ramsey restaurant for a pre-wedding dinner the night before the wedding. Here we encountered 25 fellow revellers and had a lovely evening. Due to the numbers the wine was quite basic but the food was superb. We enjoyed a 3 course dinner with a couple of Amuse/Palate cleansers. The starter was a lovely roast quail on a bed of celeriac remoulade. For mains I had a simple roast chicken that was as delicious and juicy a chicken as I’ve had in a while. Finally we were treated to a remarkable dessert plate that consisted of a chocolate tart, crystalised berries, a rich chocolate ice-cream and hibiscus foam. This dessert was even better than it looked and there were many oohs and aahs around the table as people discovered each of the components.

The day of the wedding just seemed to fly. Luckily it all went off without a hitch and all of the formalities were completed. After the service we (200 of us) went back to the hotel for a champagne reception featuring Raymond Boulard Mailly Grand Cru. Unfortunately this champagne was served too cold and not opened long enough in advance so I don’t feel it showed as well as it might have done. Regardless of the fact most people enjoyed it, and the canapés were lovely (Foie Gras on Parsnip wafers, Hoi Sin Duck Balls, Cherry Tomatoes stuffed with goats cheese etc.) The meal was remarkable considering the size of the party; prawn ravioli with a lobster sauce served with 2007 Jacquesson Rully 1er Pucelle, followed up with a Pea soup with Pea and mint Ragout. As a palate cleanser we got a shot of lemon sorbet in grey goose vodka. Mains were a tender rack of lamb with asparagus in filo and deconstructed ratatouille, served with 2006 Domaine Pavelot Beaune 1er ‘Bressandes’. For dessert we had a fruit crumble with a crème fraiche sorbet. This wasn’t an occasion for taking photos of food, but you can see the dishes in my brother’s previous post. The wines showed very well I thought and as far as I’m aware they went down well with everyone. After dinner saw some of the craziest dancing to see these shores for a long time and thankfully I don’t have any photos of this either.

All in all it was a very long weekend of celebration and excess and was great fun to boot

Visiting Enowine & La Cuvee Restaurant

2009-09-16T16:39:00.008+01:00

I got an interesting e-mail a few weeks back inviting me along to an introduction to Enowine wine tasting centre in the IFSC and a re-launch/rebranding of their restaurant upstairs (La Cuvee). I was all over this offer as the timing suited me and who am I to turn down the offer of free food. Yesterday evening I pottered through town on my free DublinBike, a scheme which I am incredibly excited about, in record time and arrived in Enowine at 6.30. We started off with an introduction/wine tasting with Rob (the new manager), who seemed a very nice chap with plenty of experience in the wine trade.

There was a wide range available for tasting although nothing to rival their 6-weekly ICON tastings. I tried a NZ Pinot Gris, a Sancerre and a Touraine Chenin all of which were good examples of their type and offered an excellent opportunity to taste through a good range of different wines. I then moved on to a couple of red Australian blends, which again were quite tasty. The only thing that I would say about sampling wine in this fashion is that I think it’s quite important to let the wine sit in the glass for a few minutes to let it breathe. This can make a big difference in the bouquet and flavour in the wine as oppose to just pouring and drinking.

Location is a big issue for Enowine on Mayor Square but hopefully the Luas line opening up in the next few months will aid the accessibility of the tasting centre. This is a fabulous resource, as when the machines are full there are over 50 wines available for tasting. They have a great selection of wines right through the spectrum of price and location too. I was happy to hear that they are going to continue the ICON series of wine tastings, the next one will happen on Thursday 24th September and is titled the ‘Irish Wine Geese’, so I assume that is wines with an Irish connection. They are also hosting an excellent fine wine sale over the next few weeks. This focuses on Bordeaux (04/05) and the prices really look excellent, with savings of up to 40%. Some of the wines on the list look to be just over the release price of the wines 3/4 years ago, with the obvious benefit being that one can buy by the bottle as oppose to by the case, these wines are now cheaper than I bought my 2000s for in 2003. If you’re into Bordeaux and missed out on the 05 en primeur campaign I highly advise calling into Enowine next week and enquiring about the sale!

After our wine tasting we went upstairs to the ‘New’ La Cuvee restaurant. It’s quite a nice looking restaurant with lots of little alcoves, suitable for both groups and couples. Personally, I think one of the main benefits of the restaurant is the policy that you can bring any wine from the shop downstairs up to the restaurant with €10 corkage. This enables some seriously high quality wine with your dinner for a reasonable charge. For example you could drink a 2005 Chasse Spleen / Ormes De Pez /Fieuzal /Coutet(in the sale) in the restaurant for under €50! These wines would easily be over €100 in other restaurants in town… The menu put on for us looked tasty, and very wine friendly.

I started with Foie Gras sausage with baked brioche and apple chutney. This was a lovely dish, rich Foie nicely balanced by the chutney and tasty brioche; I just wish I had popped down to the shop for some sweet wine to go with it. The other options of French onion soup/Goats Cheese Salad/Fish Cake & Saffron Aioli were all well received too. For mains I had a cracking rare rump of lamb with minted cabbage and sweet potato mash. This dish showed that the chef really knows his meat as my lamb was superb, beautifully tender and delicious. I also tried some duck off another plate and was blown away by the texture, which blew a challans duck breast I had in chapter one a few weeks ago out of the water. Dessert was a full on chocolate feast, which was a bit much for me but I’m sure others wouldn’t complain. All in all I thought the food was of high quality, especially the mains, and the atmosphere and service was nice. The food is easily as good as the new brasseries in town (Maison/Coppinger Row/Pichet). One worry I would have is that if we (12 of us) hadn’t been there the restaurant would have been quite empty and devoid of any atmosphere.

I’m a big fan of enowine in general, as I have really enjoyed their tastings in the past, but the restaurant really impressed me on the evening, especially considering the corkage deal. The main problem with this in convincing non-winecentric folk to head into the IFSC for a meal, this shouldn’t be such an issue when the Luas gets up and running though. If you're worried about getting down there at the moment, you could do alot worse than to hop on a DublinBike, as much fun as it was cycling down there, it was even more cycling back through town. Thanks SimplyZesty and Enowine/La Cuvee for a fun evening!

Bdx 2008 With BBR

2009-09-14T19:09:00.008+01:00

My weekend kicked off early last weekend with a 2008 En Primeur tasting with BBR in The Stephens Green Hibernian Club on Thursday evening. These tastings are generally some of the finest of the year, as BBR fly over about 40 producers and their latest En Primeur releases along with some older bottled wine. This year was a scaled back version of the whole affair with no producers and only 14 wines available for tasting. Initial disappointment, at the small scale of the event, was quickly replaced with great enjoyment as due to the small number of wines available meant that we would spend a good amount of time and effort with each individual wine. Most Communes were represented too which gave us the ability to get a sense of the vintage right across the region. Tasting wines at this stage in their lives is often a fruitless exercise as the wines still have a few months of barrel ageing to complete and even final blends haven’t been made, one other important thing to note is that some of these wines we taken from cask 3 weeks earlier and have been flying around Europe since, not the best way to preserve a wines quality. Regardless of these facts, it was a pleasure to get to taste the wines. 2008 is an interesting vintage for a few reasons, 1. As a result of the economic climate prices have been slashed, 2. After initial worries the quality is reputed to be of a very high standard (even higher in certain domains than 2005 if some reports are to be believed).

After a glass of NV BBR Mailly Grand Cru Brut (From Magnum), which was a tasty number, we started off the tasting proper with Domaine De Chevalier Blanc, which was packed full of peaches and minerals (a slightly different flavour profile than previous vintages). It already had a lovely mouth feel and length and was an impressive wine although I think I rather prefer white burgundy. After this we moved through Chasse Spleen, Poujeaux, Ducru Beaucalliou & Lagrange before getting to the first star wine of the evening Chateau Beychevelle. Some of these wines were a little bit lacking in perfume although most hinted at decent structure and flavour but Beychevelle was the first wine to really some out with a decent nose. It also had a nice mix of oak and fruit with good weight and structure in the mouth, the finish was also very good. After this we moved through Du Tertre and Giscours before finding perhaps the star of the show Domaine De Chevalier Rouge. This wine seemed so much more complete than the previous wines, lovely perfume of smoke, cassis, minerals and cedar and this followed through on a full balanced mouth of fruit and minerals with a smooth finish. At €315, this wine seemed a remarkable bargain (regardless of the prices for previous vintages). Next up was the Pauillac pair of D’Armailhac and Clerc Milon, both dark, powerful, fresh fruit hinting at some complexity as red fruits came in secondary waves. I preferred the D’Armailhac of this pair, which is good as it is the cheaper wine. The only right bank wine available was Clos Fourtet, which was so much more appealing and flattering than the entire bunch of left bank wines but not necessarily better. It was very rich and full with tons of extraction, alcohol and tannin, overall a very impressive wine. There was one 2007 on show (Carmes Haut Brion), which was surprisingly approachable and not as bad as I had thought it might be. We finished up with a Barsac, Chateau Coutet, which showed that perhaps 2008 is not a great Sweet wine vintage. It was good but not great.

After the tasting we head off in search of dinner. Our first stop was Saba where we had a reservation. After a cocktail at the bar and a half hour wait (past our reservation time) we decided that we had waited long enough and walked out of the restaurant in search of fodder elsewhere. We found ourselves seated in Coppinger Row (the latest of Dublin’s new casual brassieres) around the corner. Here we sat at the bar and overlooked the kitchen, in a highly entertaining seat. Our food was OK, my Toulouse Sausage was very good but my dining companions’ steak was overcooked and undersized, the wine list was downright poor I thought. After dinner we pottered off to the Fitzwilliam for some end of evening cocktails and to solve the problems of the world.

Naturally Friday was a bit of a struggle, due to the previous nights excess, but I managed to pull together the motivation to pop open a bottle of 1999 Serafin Gevrey Chambertin, which was unfortunately faulty. I’m not sure what exactly the fault was; the wine was a little fizzy and completely unbalanced and unpleasant on the palate. Needless to say this went down the sink and I didn’t bother opening another bottle. On Saturday we enjoyed a bottle of 2006 Jean Marc Millot Cotes De Nuit Village, which was an enjoyable bottle, fresh and fruity with a pleasant perfume but nothing particularly special in my mind.

Vinous Update

2009-09-08T19:49:00.008+01:00

I spent the weekend down in Cork in order to pick up a few bits and bobs and catch up with my folks, as tends to happen we got our teeth into a few nice wines. Firstly on Wednesday evening I cracked a bottle of 2000 Meo Camuzet Nuits St George 1er ‘Aux Murgers’ that was surprisingly a superb bottle. Drinking in a really nice phase at the moment giving a wonderful perfume of fruit, chocolate, coffee and earth and following through with a cracking palate displaying similar flavours with a wonderful texture and length. I wish all midweek wines drank this good. The following evening I finished the bottle and it was just as good as the night before, suggesting at a long life for this wine.

Saturday evening we kicked off proceedings with a half bottle of Boulard brut reserve, which wasn’t the best showing of this wine that I have drunk on numerous occasions over the past few months. It was a nice way to start the evening after an afternoon of harvesting supplies for the evening’s dinner. I opened up a couple of bottles earlier in the afternoon and decanted them, the first being a 2005 Philippe Chavy Puligny 1er Folatieres. I’ve had a few different experiences with this wine over the past few years but this was the best bottle yet by far. I got excited as soon as I pulled the cork and a lovely floral, tropical, minerally waft hit my nose and when I tasted a little sip I was in heaven. I put the bottle back in the fridge for a few hours and when I tasted later (too cold) the wine had closed up a little so I decanted the bottle and left it in the cellar to warm for dinner. On pouring a glass to have with our starter (marinated quail breasts with salad of home grown rocket, carrot & beetroot) I was blown away again. Amazing Puligny nose and a wonderful palate full of nervosity and verve. It had wonderful texture, length and a great breath of flavours centring on lemon custard with a seam of acidity and minerality.

For our main course we had a lovely leg of Spring Kerry lamb that was simply roasted with garlic and rosemary, served with roast potatoes, roast stuffed peppers and pan fried chanterelle mushrooms. I served a bottle of 2003 Domaine De La Janesse ChateauneufDePape alongside this, which had been decanted for 9 hours (on opening it was raw and tannic, 9 hours later it was more manageable). I picked up this bottle from the domaine in 2006 and have waited patiently to try it. It had a lovely colour in the glass, quite pale and young looking but was packing scents on the nose and flavours on the palate. Olives, black pepper, blackberries and herbs this was a lovely wine although still very young and not particularly complex. It was also a little ‘upfront’, when compared to the burgundies that I am more used to.

We followed up with a half bottle of Dr Loosen Urziger Wurzgarten 2007 Goldkapsel, which was salty yet sweet and beautifully light at the same time. I’m sure this will become a cracking wine after a few more years, I hope I can keep my hands off it. After dinner we popped into a bottle of 1999 Leroy Bourgogne Rouge (Negociant not Domaine wine). This smelt superb with hints of maturity but was still quite closed on the palate. I would leave this wine for another couple of years if I had another bottle, although it did have some wonderful aromas.

A number of Phoenix are rising out from the former Irish Wine Board setting up educational resources for wine trade and enthusiasts. The most exciting looks to be the Irish Wine Institute (headed by Jaqueline Steadman), which still doesn’t have

it’s website online but is hosting Intermediate/Advanced WSET courses in Dublin/Cork/Naas (and perhaps other places) throughout the Autumn along with other wine tastings. I’m looking forward to seeing their website but you can follow updates via Facebook or Twitter. The Dublin Wine School (www.dublinwineschool.ie) has some intriguing tastings set up right through the Autumn too, this venture is led by the excellent palate of Nigel Donnan, which should ensure fun and educational tastings for all involved. There are also a number of independent courses being run by the various shops around Ireland so contact your local wineshop for more info.

The delights of choice

2009-09-06T22:55:00.011+01:00

With my upcoming wedding, we journeyed to Ritz Carlton to enjoy a tasting. The purpose of this was to choose the menu for the wedding from a short list of choices for each course. We were delighted to be brought through the – sadly empty –Gordon Ramsey restaurant and into the kitchen. We were brought to our seats at the Chef’s table, plush leather benches surrounding a heavy dark wood table, looking out on the banqueting kitchenon the left and the Gordon Ramsey kitchen on the right. While there wasn’t a lot of action that night, the preparation was going on for the functions at the weekend. One poor chef was preparing chanterelle mushrooms in their thousands!

As we are having a five course menu, we had two choices per course with three for the main course. Each serving was a tasting so that we could get through eleven courses. The first choice was prawn ravioli with a lobster jus versus duck cannelloni with a foie gras jus. The prawn was light with a hint of the sea, a tasting of richness from the lobster and a slight bite to the pasta.The duck cannelloni looked a little like a sausage but tasted fantastic – earthy, rich, good solid comfort food.

The size of the dish would do a main course. Realistically looking at 5 courses, the choice went with the lighter option.

in the firing line was the soup course. The first out was a pea soup with mint cream and pea ragout.To my mind, pea soup was never going to be an exciting choice. However, I was surprised to taste a flavourful bright green creation, a real mouthful – with a sweet crunch with the pea and onion ragout. The second was a butternut squash with crab soup – a favourite of mine which I was really looking forward to. Again a beautifully presented dish, warm earthy, heavy, full of autumn – however again a bit heavy given the length of the meal. We chose the lighter option.

The sorbet was an easy pick. The options were peach with champagne or lemon and vodka. As a palate cleanser, the vodka/lemon was fantastic. A simple disc of lemon sorbet floating in a martini glass with a generous shot of Grey Goose. Elegant presentation with a sharp clean, though alcoholic, hit. The peach with champagne was simply too sweet for this course

Then, onto the most divisive course. Every Irish wedding serves beef or salmon. Beef is seen as the most expensive, hence best meat to serve. Though by my experience, it is always over cooked and a waste of a fine piece of cow.

Our choices were sea bass with buttered asparagus, crushed potatoes and Salomen Sauce, Beef Filet with Potato Gratin, Crispy Onions and Natural Juice or Rack of Lamb, with Gnocchi, Vegetable Ragout and Asparagus. The beef was whole tenderloin cut into very generous servings, the lamb was a warm hearty rack of local origin, the fish a whole boneless filet draped over the potatoes. All fantastic dishes in their own right and each was bitterly debated. In the end, we chose lamb and sea bass – both to reflect our personal taste and to avoid the difficult task of serving beef to everyone’s taste.

Finally, to top things off, our first dessert choice was a delicate Pistachio Apricot Tian. This dessert was a visual delight – a bright green topped with a rich orange. Very fine pistachio mousse punctuated with a sweet poached Apricot. This was no match, however, to a huge serving of hearty Forest Berry Crumble with Crème Fraiche sorbet. The poor tian never stood a chance against this belly filler.

In the spirit of the blog, we were served the house white and red – a Chilean ‘Rawen’ Sauvignon Blanc and Cabernet Sauvignon. Both were passable wines but this night was more about the food than the wine. The wines on the night will be Pavelot Beaune 1er Cru ‘Bressandes’ and Jacquesson Rully 1er Cru ‘Les Pucelles’. Will let you know how they work with our chosen menu

Sea Meat Feast outperforms Chapter One!

2009-08-31T17:01:00.012+01:00

I fully expected to be blogging about dinner in Chapter One this week but unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your opinion) it wasn’t the gastronomic highlight of my weekend. I had arranged this dinner over a month ago and had been greatly looking forward to it as I hadn’t been in Chapter One for almost 3 years. Chapter One has just won Food & Wine Magazines Restaurant of the Year and is Dublin’s most popular restaurant by reputation and also one of the most difficult to get a table at. For the second week in a row my camera gave way (battery this time, memory card last time) so I only have one picture from the restaurant, which is a pity as the presentation of the food was good. I found the service and atmosphere in the restaurant a little cliquey and unwelcoming. The food was all competent and well presented but didn’t offer any of the flashes of excitement, that I have come to expect from restaurants of this class.

The wine list is better now than I remember it and offers good variety, if not great value, right through the range. We started with a 2007 Mount Difficulty ‘Target Gully’ Riesling from Central Otago, which was quite delicious. Nicely perfumed on the nose with hints of petrol, lime and minerals and lovely balance on the palate between sweetness and acidity, it made a nice change from NZ Sauvignon Blanc. We followed this with a 2002 Nicholas Potel Vosne Romanee 1er ‘Beaux Monts’, which in my mind was cracking young burgundy. Great clarity in the glass with a understated yet beguiling nose of red fruits, earth and minerals. It had a cracking palate of pure crystalline red fruits overlaid with spice and black fruits. It was a touch reticent yet delivered so much pleasure. Unfortunately it didn’t last long, so we followed up with a bottle of 2002 Rijks Private Cellar Shiraz. This was an upfront chocolate and pepper bomb that was a little obvious after the burgundy but still delivered pleasure. After an hour in the decanter it tamed a little and showed some good minerality. With dessert I had a glass of 2001 Chateau Laville Sauternes that was delightful packed full of botrytis and fruit; it was a fine way to end the meal.

Saturday afternoon provided me with an opportunity to get back out to Howth to pick up a few bits and bobs for dinner. Amazingly prices had shifted since my last visit a few weeks ago, some up and some down. Lobster was still reasonable (€18/Kg), so I picked up a few of these along with some giant gambas and some ridiculously good looking, reasonably priced scallops (€16/Kg). I dropped the seafood at my brothers told him to fire up the BBQ and went home to pick up a few bottles of wine. The seeds had been sown for an excellent dinner, easily eclipsing our Michelin star bounty from the night before. As I left my brother got cracking on marinating the gambas in coconut, chilli, garlic, ginger, coriander, Yum!

Warning, the next piece here is a little gruesome, so skip ahead if you’re squeamish. I’ve cooked lobster a few times in the past, and in a variety of methods but each time I began by boiling/steaming the lobster alive. This time we wanted to BBQ the lobster so we started by killing the lobster (knife in the back of the head), followed by chopping it in half in order to prepare it for BBQing. What we hadn’t factored in was the amount of involuntary post death movement that a lobster is capable of. As a result preparing 3 of these tasty buggers for dinner was one of the most traumatic food preparations that I have undertaken to date. Even using a 2 man operation, one chopping in half and the other holding the dead lobster down, inflicted a few tail slaps and mild screams as impaled lobsters wriggled across the cutting board. The picture on the left displays how morbid the whole endeavour was. The most disconcerting thing of all was one of the lobsters, after being cut in half and having it’s digestive system removed still had it’s legs moving. A bottle of NV Vilmart Grand Reserve just about held my nerves intact during this process. Again, this was a cracking champagne, rich, chalky, creamy, with lovely freshness making a mockery of most NV Grand Marque champagnes on the market in Ireland.

After the havoc that was the preparation, we got on with the cooking and eating. Our ‘starter’ (a large main course in anyone else’s mind) was seared scallops on pea puree and marinated gambas on salad. The scallops (simply seasoned with salt pepper and lime rind) were cooked to perfection, caramelised on the outside, delicate in the middle delivering lovely sweet flavours of the sea accentuated by the rich, sweet yet savoury pea and mint puree. The gambas were rich, coconutty and piquant with a lovely bite, tamed only by the simply dressed side salad. Overall this was an incredibly decadent tasty plate of food yet somehow incredibly affordable (~€6/plate) having sourced the seafood fresh in Howth. A bottle of 2007 Philippe Chavy Meursault Blagny 1er cru ‘Sous Le Dos Ane’ worked a treat with the dish, the scallops brought out minerality and lemon in the wine and the gambas brought out some coconutty, buttery tones, a fine wine, showing very youthfully on this evening.

After the pain that went into the preparation of the lobsters, the cooking was a breeze. I placed the lobsters on the bbq and after a few minutes turned them over and added a little garlic butter. We served these up with some corn on the cob (bbqd) and some crushed new potatoes with onions and sage. The bbq delivered a lovely smokiness to the Lobster but also dried the meat out slightly. Overall it was a lovely dish, but probably not worth the trauma and effort that went into preparing it. After the meal we settled down with a bottle of 1995 Domaine Des Lambrays Morey St Denis 1er. This was a cracking middle aged beauty of a wine with lovely sweet spices, cola, red fruits and earth. It had lovely complexity, length and intrigue as it shifted in the glass over time. It started off a little brown and old once first opened but given a couple hours of air (not decanted) it came together and seemed to get fresher and younger as the evening went on. Overall, It was a lovely wine, just lacking a little bit of breath of aroma and flavour when compared to the grand cru Clos Des Lambrays. Not that we needed them but we finished off the meal with freshly baked brownies and whipped cream, delicious.

Overall there has to be something said about sourcing fine ingredients and cooking at home. These evenings can easily outclass most restaurant experiences and at fractions of the price (even using the finest of ingredients). A few weeks ago I would never have guessed that a simple sea meat BBQ feast could stand up to Chapter One in all regards, atmosphere, service, food and wine but on this occasion it blew it out of the water. A special gastronomic mention for an exceptionally fine roast organic pork and roast nectarine sandwich on Sunday afternoon with Thai noodle salad and North African chickpea salad, which frankly also out-performed Chapter Ones food too. These were paired with a bottle of 1998 Chateau Du Beaucastel, which was nice but not the best bottle of this that I have had. I think this wine is better left for a cold, damp Winter’s night with a roast side of beast as oppose to a warm humid Sunday afternoon by the sea.