Ballymaloe Riesling Revolution Tasting

My father was always happy to go to hurling matches - whether it was an All-Ireland final or a Junior B League relegation decider, he would be there chewing the fat with his mates, one of whom summed up the action of every single match as "the worst I think I ever seen".

I am rarely seen at hurling matches these days, but I am happy to turn up at any wine tasting, if I can. The Riesling tasting held in Ballymaloe last Thursday night was very much at the All-Ireland end of the spectrum of wine tastings and was a successful meeting of minds between Colm, the sommelier in Ballymaloe and John McDonnell, the bundle of energy that runs Wine Australia in Ireland. That they got 130 people to turn up at a tasting of one grape variety was amazing. That this grape variety was Riesling made the night even more amazing.

We had three winemakers, all successful exponents of this noble variety - Tim Adams from Clare Vally, Australia, Severine Schlumberger from Alsace and Carl Ehrhard from the Rheingau. In the spirit of the evening, the winemakers showed some of their own wines , but also some wines from other producers. The evening was moderated by John Wilson from the Irish Times.

There were 4 flights of 3 wines each designed to show the different expressions of Riesling. The flights were as follows (* marks my favourite from each flight)

Young Riesling
Tim Adams Riesling 2011
Kunstler Stielweg 2010*
Trimbach Riesling 2009

Aged Riesling
Tim Adams Riesling 2007
Kunstler Kirchenstuck 2007 *
Schlumberger Kitterle Grand Cru 2005

Off-dry Riesling
Peter Lehmann Riesling 2011
Carl Ehrhard Rudesheimer Berg Rosneck 2010
Weinbach Schlossberg Grand Cru Cuvee St Catherine 2004 *

Sweet Riesling
Mount Horrocks Cordon Cut 2010 *
Carl Ehrhard Berg Rottland Beerenauslese 2007
Schlumberger Vendange Tardive 2009

It was a fantastic range of wines of different styles, price points and producers - something for everyone....well done to the organisers!

Afterwards, Ballymaloe got together some local food producers and set up a mini farmers market so there was some amazing food on offer as well, with the proceeds going to the East Cork Slow Food movement. It was high quality food with a very easy-going atmosphere.

The best I think I ever seen.

The Stability Wine Tasting

I heard someone on the radio the other day talking about some vote or other on May 31st. I didn't get the details because I was busy putting together the plans for our SUMMER WINE FAIR, taking place on the same date. It fits in really well because you might well need a stiff drink by the time you have finished voting, so how better to celebrate than with a Wine Tasting?

The details are :

• Summer Wine Fair, Thursday May 31st 6PM to 8.30PM
• Location : The Magpie Inn (upstairs)
• We will be showcasing a lot of new wines, including some great options for "summer"
• Great discounts for orders on the night
• It's only €10 to get in to taste over 50 wines - and you get your tenner back if you put in an order!

So, this is a really important decision and you should really educate yourself about the details, weigh up the options and then decide to come to our Wine Fair. 

We will have lots of wines from France, which have just got a lot more interesting (and less annoying). Italy will be well represented by plenty of nicely presented wines trying not to look like they are enjoying themselves too much. The Spanish wines are as good as ever, despite the slightly worried look on their faces. Wines from Germany and Austria will, of course, be central to the proceedings. The UK and Sweden have decided not to take part in the tasting this time. 

There won't be any Greek wine, unfortunately.

Some people have said we should defer the tasting till after the summer, but we are determined to go ahead with it, so should you come along for a great night out? YES!

Vina Aliaga Tempranillo 2010

The above wine was one we used to bring in a number of years ago but kinda fell off the list along the way. We bumped into Carlos Aliaga at Prowein earlier this year and retasted his now extensive range of 14 wines, along with some delicious jamon, and were reminded just how good this Tempranillo is - pure Tempranillo, no oak from one of Navarra's most exciting producers.

This is juicy, fruity Spanish wine at its best - smooth with dark berry fruit and a smooth finish. A brilliant wine on its own or with food - a great all-rounder.

On tasting this weekend - €11.99 or 2 for €20. Well worth a try.

Reasons to be happy

A random list of places to buy, drink and a few importers...people keeping the wine world in ireland vibrant and interesting...

Where to buy wine - curious, red island, bin no 9, gibneys, parting glass, red nose, wine centre, jus de vine, redmonds, vintry, 64 wine, mitchells, listons, our own little place in Dalkey, Denis in Delgany, all the Deveneys

Restaurants worth a visit - cafe paradiso, dalis, ouzos, chapter one, the greenhouse, cliff house hotel, all the elys, chapter one of course, one pico, il vicoletto, l'ecrivain, talbot 101, Three Qs, Liberty Grill, Electric, Beaufield Mews for best value wine, Ballymaloe , Town Bar

Importers to work with - Tyrell & Co., Searsons, approach, ourselves and the Cabots of course, Wicklow Wine, Le Caveau, Vinos Tito, classic

So why can't we have a drink on Good Friday?

It's like one of those phantom sensations you hear about - you know when someone's leg is amputated but they can still feel an itch in their foot. So it is with our licensing laws on Good Friday which prohibit the sale of alcohol for the whole day on Good Friday. Just when we thought we have shaken the Catholic church off our back, we get reminded just how dominant the Church was in this country. The Angelus is another daily reminder for us to pause from our hectic life, take a moment and reflect in solemn silence on just how screwed up this country was by the Catholic Church.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the day off. The panic buying that usually happens the day before more than compensates for the day lost in sales and yet hardly suggests that people are taking the whole fasting thing too seriously. However, there is nothing that will drive an Irish person to drink more than an official edict that says you can't have a drink. So people go to all sorts of lengths to get a drink - having house parties, going on train journeys, heading North...it's madness.

People often say to me "It's only one day in the year - would you relax!!!" Well, guess what, I can not drink any day I like - it happens most weeks that we can control ourselves for 24hrs - sometimes even more! What I don't like is being told that I can't have a drink - especially for spurious religious reasons. I'm as religious as the next man (there is nobody next to me!), but should we have somebody's religious views imposed on everyone? I am all for religious freedom - if you want to wear a burkha, sacrifice a goat, meditate in a cave, go to Mass, become a Scientologist or a Jehovah's Witness - go for it, knock yourself out - just leave me out of it, thanks very much. In return, I will leave you in peace as well.

Also, whether I drink myself or not, I would like to feel free to conduct my business whenever I want and not be told I have to close on a certain day because of some random diktat by a bishop in the 1930s.

So, come on Ireland, grow up and change this stupid law.

I will get Carol to work.

20% Discount Deal for April

When I was but a lad growing up above a pub in Co. Wexford, the two days in the year when the pub wasn’t open were Christmas Day and Good Friday. It meant no packing shelves, no cleaning ashtrays and it meant my father got a rare day off. I thought that was why it was called “Good” Friday…ah the innocence of youth!

Of course we are closed on Good Friday, but we will be open as always on Easter Saturday and Easter Sunday and then closed again on the Bank Holiday.

Easter is always a time to think of the new spring lambs bouncing gaily in the fields….with that in mind I have put together an offer of wines to go with lamb. Bordeaux is, of course, the perfect match, and what could make it taste even sweeter?

20% off, that’s what.

I have also picked one of our favourite whites in the shop Domaine Reverdy Sancerre – don’t be fooled by the pretenders in Sancerre – this is the real deal – concentrated, fresh and mineral, amazing wine. And then we have the Lanzos red and white – easy, gluggable wines from Spain that are great value at their normal price, let alone with 20% off.

So here is our April offer – buy any 6 (can be mixed) of the following to get 20% off:

Chateau La Brande, Cotes de Castillon – this is our smart buy from Bordeaux’s right bank. The vines are across the road from the more swanky Saint Emilion Grand Cru, the wine gets exactly the same careful treatment and yet it sells for a fraction of its more illustrious big brother. RRP - €16 – April 6 btl price €12.80

Domaine Reverdy Sancerre – crisp, bone dry, elegant, concentrated with a long mineral finish, this is definitive Sancerre. RRP €20 – down to €16.

Lanzos Tempranillo – soft, juicy, fruity Tempranillo. As a bonus, it has sheep on the label so you can feel extra guilty munching on your Spring lamb! RRP €11 – down to €8.80

Lanzos Sauvignon Blanc/Viura – aromatic, fresh and fruity with real character. RRP €11 – down to €8.80.

Hope to see you soon.

Is it just me?

I have a confession to make. I like to read car reviews. I am not a fast driver, I don't know the difference between a carburettor and a catalytic converter. I have only a vague idea what torque is. I will probably never be able to afford a Porsche or a Ferrari and even if I have the money, I would probably spend it on something else. And yet, I like reading about big cars, fast cars, unusual cars. However, I'm not a complete saddo - if the review is of a Ford Fiesta or a Skoda Fabia or a Nissan X-trail (the commercial version of which I drive myself), I probably won't bother reading it. Is there someone out there who can explain why I like reading about cars I will never drive and refuse to read about cars which are much more practical, affordable and within my scope of experience? Is it just me?

This occurred to me over the weekend as I read the review of the BMW640D (rsp€100k!) after reading a couple of wine columns in the national papers. One of the articles was about some slightly obscure and not cheap wines from Spain being made by a couple of young hippyish guys and brought in, I'm guessing, by Vinos Tito. I don't stock these wines, maybe I won't like them, but reading about them made me curious to try them. It was interesting to read about a couple of new kids on the block trying something different and quickly building a good reputation for themselves.

The other article I read was headlined - ignore the wine snobs, here are the bargains! I scanned over the introduction about the writer getting admonished by members of the wine trade for promoting "industrial swill" selling at cheap prices in the likes of Lidl and Aldi. Obviously, the wine trade is a very polite and gentle group of people and I can't imagine anyone coming out with such strong language. But apart from that, I was looking forward to hearing about the amazing wines about to be recommended.

Instead, we got a list of wines which were damned with faint praise. Wines were described as "worth drinking", "likeable" - some of them even "tasted as it should"....a lot of them not reviewed but are on sale are apparently "bland" and a "few downright horrible". From a wine consumer's point of view, I would rather hear about the really horrible wines to avoid rather than the ones that are only OK.

I know the story is that, despite what people like me might say, you can get drinkable wines at €4.99 (wine cost approx 0.50c) and €5.99 (wine cost approx €1). My answer to that is - So What?

Is it really amazing that Lidl and Aldi - two of Europe's retail giants - can find cheap wine that is "drinkable"? I think it is more amazing that, with all their buying expertise, they are still bringing in wines that are (according to the wine expert in question) bland or horrible.

There isn't a retailer in the country who wouldn't tell you that the most important issue for consumer's buying decision is value. However, price is only one aspect in trying to judge value. Quality is the other aspect and it is just as important. If we offer a wine that isn't good quality, our customers will let us know in no uncertain terms and it doesn't matter what the price is. When they come in to us, they would rather spend €10 on a wine they like than €6 on something they don't.

Of course, they are buying the €5/€6 wine in Lidl/Tesco/Dunnes or wherever and are adjusting their expectations accordingly, but when they make the effort come in to an independent wine shop, they want something different, something better. If we don't deliver that, we lose our raison d'etre, we lose our customers and we lose our business.

So, what do you want to read about? A Skoda Fabia, which will get you from A to B or the BMW 640D which also gets you from A to B, but will do so in considerably more style? I know which one you will buy, but what do you want to read about? Likewise, are we really resigned to the dumbing down of the wine trade, heading the same way as the UK market ,where wine sells primarily on price and primarily on promotion or should we in the trade and press not be praising the unusual, encouraging the quirky and promoting real wines made by real people?

The €4.99 Pinot Grigio in Aldi will probably sell anyway as it is cheap and has Pinot Grigio on the label. Promoting it is not really offering a service to consumers as everybody knows these functional wines are out there. They have their place in the market, sure, but does it make for interesting copy?

I prefer to read about a weird and wonderful, terroir-driven, elegant red from som wacky guy in the hills in Spain.

I may still buy the Pinot Grigio, but at least I know there is something more interesting out there somewhere.

Is it just me?