Rugby and Wine with Wines of Australia

John McDonnell, Wines of Australia, is running two rugby themed wine tastings soon. These look like great value events with a lot of fun attached.

The first is on Thursday September the 15th. That makes it two days before Ireland's World Cup Group match against Australia. John tells us that, along with Ted Murphy (author of, A Kingdom of Wine:A celebration of Ireland's Winegeese) and the Sunday Business Post's wine scribe Tomas Clancy, he will present  a wide ranging tasting of Australian wines with an Irish story.

Time:   7pm to 8.30pm followed by a two course supper

Venue: Donnybrook Fair, D4

Cost:    €30.00

Book:   Direct with Niall Murphy at Donnybrook Fair at 01 6683556 ext 205

Vines at Clairault Estate in the Margeret River. Clairault is owned and run by the very affable Bill Martin from Galway

The second tasting is on Thursday the 29th September. This is to warm us up for Ireland's final group match of Rugby World Cup 2011. John reminds us that, In the last ten years Australian Wine makers have begun to make some delicious wines using varieties more at home in Italy. Vineyards of Muscat, Pinot Grigio, Vermentino, Fiano, Barbera, Dolcetto, Sangiovese and Nebbiolo are now well established Down Under.  

Time:   6pm to 7.30pm followed by tasty nibbles

Venue:  Ely Bar and Brasserie, IFSC, D1

Cost     €15.00

Book:   Direct with Wine Australia at Ireland@wineaustralia.com



Sunset on bunches of Italian varietals at a vine Nursery in Australia.



Fine Carmen Tasting but the Balloon Couldn't Fly

I wasn't expecting a lot from the balloon. I reckoned we'd be tethered to the ground, float up a few hundred meters above Carton House, possibly see the Irish Rugby team training for their match against England in the back paddock, see the golf courses as never before and even catch a glimpse of Castletown House down in Celbridge. I jumped into the basket with John Wilson (Irish Times) and Andrew Carey (Limerick Post), had the tops of our heads warmed by the noisy gas burners and went absolutely nowhere! Our captain informed us that she'd have no probs taking off but, as it was so breezy, she wouldn't have been able to land. Sure, what of it, I thought, let's go! We didn't. We had to accept it. No lift off.

Carmen Balloon ready for lift off at Carton House



A Carmen Wines event last week at Carton House in Co Kildare was excellent and only the very foolish would attempt to draw a comparison between a premium level Chilean wine carving out a sales niche for itself in the current Irish market and the balloon's inability to take off! Tempting. But foolish.

Carmen is a super brand. When it was launched into Ireland, some 20 years ago, it created quite a stir. There was something distinctly superior about the fruit in the Carmen bottle that only Cousino Macul's Antiguas Reservas was delivering at the time. These weren't wines attempting to compete with inexpensive Australian offerings. No, they were making a statement all of their own that said Chile had more to offer than simple fruit alone. Fifteen years later found Cousino Macul all but lost in the Woodford Bourne portfolio and Carmen delving more and more into entry level offerings where fruit quality was being sacrificed to the altar of cheap wines. While most brands had indeed broadened their base and could now boast that they also had premium level (and therefore they were quality producers!) the reality was that the market had decided Chile was a source of inexpensive varietals and that there was very little room for anything else. Then Carmen fought back. They dropped their entry level wines altogether!

Last week's tasting was a welcome continuation of Carmen's current positioning in the Irish market. Their entry level now is Reserva only and this quickly moves up a notch to Gran Reserva. Now, a few eagle eyed shiny buttons out there will remember that I have great difficulty with these terms out of Chile where there is no legal definition of either Reserva or Gran Reserva. It is entirely up to the wine maker in question to decide whether the wine deserves the accolade or not. While my difficulty with this remains, it cannot be allowed to cloud my judgement of an individual label. In Carmen's case there is enormous difference between the Reservas and the Gran Reservas and a quite brilliant chief wine maker, Sebastian Labbe, guided us through the reasons why they are different, how Chile can exploit its potential as a premium wine making country and indeed guided us through the reason for a hot air balloon being there in the first place. He brought us through the Carmen marketing strategy - Explore to Discover.  

Sebastian Labbe - Gave one of the best short wine talks I have ever attended.

We tasted the following: ** = impressive

Carmen Reserva Sauvignon Blanc 2010 ** Soft aromatic smooth

Carmen Gran Reserva Sauvignon Blanc 2009 Deep, somber, mineral clay laden

Carmen Reserva Chardonnay 2010 light oak, melon and creamed

Carmen Gran Reserva Chardonnay 2010 ** Full, structured and fruit filled.

Carmen Pinot Noir 2008  Cherries, some liqourice and fennel. Needs work to impress.

Carmen Reserva Merlot 2009 ** broad, rich, earthy, soft excellent structure.

Carmen Reserva Cabernet Sauvignon 2009 ** Honest, red fruits with leafy, grippy, character.

Carmen Gran Reserva Cabernet Sauvignon 2008 Damson deep, immense depth, age, look at again.  

Carmen Gran Reserva Carmenere 2009 ** Beauty. Very smooth and polished. Posh wine!



Carton House - A very fine venue.

Sebastian was keen to emphasise that his wine making, and that of many others these days, begins with how the vine is performing below ground, its interaction with below the ground elements and how the wine maker chooses to interpret these. Wine making is fast meeting up with the earth sciences. As it does so it is beginning to reinterpret many aspects of traditional 'terroir' thinking. Along this path Chile will have no problem defining Reserva and other terms appearing on its labels. Along the same vein I have no doubt that Carmen's balloon has set sail and will continue to fly for some considerable time yet.

On the Grapevine In the Bottle

I dropped into the excellent On the Grapevine in Dalkey for a chat and look around recently. They were serving wine direct from the cask. It looks great. I took a photo.

Ok, so the casks hold a container that holds the wine. Still, it shows how a simple idea can make a difference. The wines that I saw were from the south of France - a Chardonnay and a Cotes du Rhone rouge at €10.00 per litre or €5.00 for the half litre. 

Good Wine - Good Value - Good Idea

  

Ageing well?

Every time I look these days I find James Nicholson sitting on my desk! Well, not James himself but a brochure of one sort or another. Here's a guy who realises that not everything should be by email, web pages or blog sites. He's right you know. There's still a satisfying tactile sensitivity to a direct mail shot. Besides, the pictures are easier to look at and you can view more than one page at a time without an ECDL background.... 

I glanced through his excellent Bordeaux 2010 offer yesterday. Every desk should have one.

I have to state at the outset that I have never invested in wine. This is mainly because, on the whole, I have not been able to afford to splash the cash in that direction. Of course there have been times when the readies were available and I chose not to bring cases of wine lumbering behind me. No, I never, to coin a pun, 'bought into' the whole wine investment thing. This has meant that once a year I have been assailed from all sides with offers out of Bordeaux that would have been better aimed elsewhere. When I have come out, as it were, and mentioned that I haven't laid anything (vinous) down, that I don't have an extensive home cellar and my futures are in something other than Bordeaux, I am not believed. I gave up this expression of truth when I realised I was being looked on as a scrooge who had ferreted away all sorts of vinous riches but had no intention of sharing any of it ,with anyone, any time soon!

Why then do I enjoy reading en primeur brochures such as James Nicholson's? For one they remind me that, notwithstanding the elitist nature of some buyers who own loads and loads of very expensive wine that they have no intention of ever drinking, buying into a small wine portfolio is still reasonably democratic. While you have no choice but to buy into the Bordeaux 'system' you can, up to a point, choose how to spend your money. For an outlay, says my main man James, 'from roughly £12 to £30 a bottle ... the selection on these two pages will give great pleasure'. Later on he explains the en primeur system well and then introduces us to the possibilities of parting with much more money. For only around €500 to €600 you will end up with a show off box of the kind that no amount of gravel from the garden centre, at the same price, will ever give! If that's what you want then this works and it will continue to work year, after year, after year. Quite apart from anything to do with investment there is future drinking pleasure here. Mind you, The Wine Economist reminded me recently that it was Jancis Robinson who coined the term wine pornography in relation to the en primeur system in Bordeaux - 'Stare if you like, drool if you must, but never, never touch!



Here's the rub. I am reliably informed, by my buddy James, that a few of these wines may not drink to their best for a few years yet. 



Take Montrose. I always like this wine, mainly because of it's exuberant berry profile being tempered by a St Estephe austerity. This box will cost me about two grand and while I can dig in to it from 2018 onward it will keep drinking until approx 2050.

2050!



Taken from The Wine Economist - My Timelines is playing hard to find these days......



Hold on a mo. (Maybe this was Chris de Burgh's hallelujah moment before he decided to sell off his wine collection......) I can guarantee I won't be around to see in that half century. I'll be well gone on my way by then. Next year they'll be saying 2055 and then 2060 ... this is getting serious. It won't be long but Jancis Robinson's time lines will have caught up with me and my parting will soon be on a wines upward curve and then I won't have any hope of tasting it at its 'best' - ever!

This and bookstores are now determining my mortality. I use to go into a bookstore and feel that no matter what I bought there was still time left to buy all the other books at some other time also! Ooh, not happening any more I'm afraid. Now I have to choose carefully. Now I even have to decide whether to 'spend my time' rereading a book I have already read ....    

Well, that's my problem. Here's how to make sure it's not yours. Buy one case of wine that you can afford and that requires a bit of ageing, each year. Let's assume the wine is ready and approachable five years after vintage. If you begin to drink one bottle per month from year five on and increase that to two bottles per month in year 6 you will always have a mixed lot of 48 bottles of fine wine ageing away behind you. Got it? Well, if you do you'll see that the odd dozen bottles that might take a while longer to come around can now simply be left to become your own private drool if you must but never, ever, touch collection.  

Glasshouse grapes at Sallins last weekend

Now I think it's time to get stuck into a few thoughts on how completely idiotic the whole en primeur and Bordeaux investment system really is! Next time  ...  Life in The Glasshouse.

Lidl Wine at £4.99 Scoops Top Award

I lifted the following straight from the Decanter.com website this morning. Congratulations to all at the Lidl buying team. Mind you I see Marks & Spencer did well out of Chile also with their Pedro Ximinez. Nice to something other than the usual varietals getting a look in. Now we'll have to wait and see whether Lidl wins a Trophy or not. I doubt it, but, you never know. It certainly deserves one for the value in this wine.... 

Decanter World Wine Awards 2011: Gold for under £4

A wine selling for less than four pounds in budget supermarket Lidl has taken a top prize at this year's Decanter World Wine Awards.

A Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon, costing £3.99, must be the biggest bargain of the year after winning a gold medal in the Awards.

The Cimarosa Cabernet Sauvignon 2010 from Chile’s Central Valley was judged to be gold-medal worthy by experts.

Cimarosa was joined by two other Chilean gold medallists in the top five best value golds: Marks & Spencer’s Pedro Ximenez 2010 and Tarapaca Malbec-Shiraz 2010.

While the South African rand has strengthened considerably against the pound and the dollar in the last 18 months, the Western Cape’s Drostdy-Hof Chardonnay 2010 and Asda’s Extra Special Fairtrade Chenin Blanc 2010 both made it into the top 3 best value gold medallists, selling for less than £7 a bottle.

Sometimes, you do get more than you pay for.

Do we need tasting notes at all?

Andrew Jefford writes an interesting and short column for Decanter.com. It's titled, 'Jefford on Monday' and, in a sort of 'rub the sleepies out' kind of a way, it helps to get another week moving along. This week he talks about how a couple of European court cases have ruled in favour of honest opinion in relation to wine writing. He concludes, with a few worthy and sweeping pronouncements, that he hopes we are all treated to wine writing in the future that dangles the bad as well as lauding the good. It won't happen. Wine writers don't write about poor wines and, on the whole, don't taste blind .......and, methinks when they do, they don't report everything they write down ....

Just as I was glancing through Andrew's musings a selling letter popped through my box from JN Wine Merchants. It offers a very decent discount on a very decent wine; 2007 'Black Label' Tete de Cuvee rouge de la Jasse.

A Sought after & Rare wine cuvee....One you should try at least once in your life! 

It's a fair offer and good value. I was treated to three selling points.

• 1. Awards: Awarded 1 Gold and 3 Silver! 
• 2. Price Saving : up to €60.00 per case of twelve bottles 
• 3. Tasting Note: This impressive masterpiece has been matured on the finest, carefully selected new French oak barrels and has a profound, dark red colour hart with an intense powerful bouquet of full, fat, rich ripe black fruit aromas. The palate is complex with delicious mouth-filling matured fruit flavours and elegant vanilla nuances. This is a very concentrated and well balanced cuvee, with coffee, cocoa, tar, blackberry and tobacco aromas and a lingering long finish.
• 4. Simple good advice: Order with family, friends or relatives to benefit from the lowest prices and most Free gifts.

Which of these should I use in my decision making or should it be a combination? I like number 4. It's the one I can relate to and understand. The rest are imponderables  ....  besides Tim Hanni MW would argue that many of us won't ever be able to taste the combination put together in this description in any case!

Think about it:

              Who tasted the wine?

              How qualified/experienced was the taster?

              When was the wine tasted?

              Under what conditions was it tasted?

I find it incredable that wine tasting notes, as complex and as accurate as they should be, are so often just a heap of words strung together for the sake of putting something down on paper!

Folks: The JN example above is above board, legitimate and, I have to say, very attractive. It just happened to be the one to hand as I began to type! I mean no disrespect to it whatsoever. Let's move away from it.

A pal of mine writes the Wine Phantom blog. He often pokes fun at wine descriptions. The following is a good example:

• The tasting note says;

“The terroir affords a luxurious, farmyardy tone, with a meaty background punctuated by overripe stewed fruit”

• What it actually means;

“There is a pong of overused Wellingtons on a warm, damp day, adding to the distinctive whiff of freshly broken wind…”

Is the Wine Phantom so wrong? It's a legitimate question. Is there a value in wine descriptions when so many are obviously made up as selling tools rather than tasting notes? Shouldn't they always, and only, come from a well edited, independent and experienced source? They are, after all, only a writers opinion at a point in time. I suppose I am asking, are Wine Decriptions different to Tasting Notes? Yes they are, but somewhere along the way the two seem to have been morphed into a single entity.

Describing a wine so that it can be sold with a degree of ease is quite a difficult task. It should of course appeal to the product but not necessarily objectively; be expressed with a degree of simplicity and address the audience to whom it is intended. This looks Forward.

A Tasting Note should have no regard to an audience, be as complex as it takes to complete the task in hand and ultimately have a great deal of responsibility towards the product and its creator. This exists in the Now and looks Backwards.

Do we need Tasting Notes? Not really if all we are trying to do is to sell wine.

Do we need Tasting Notes? Absolutely if we are attempting to grade wines by quality, for awards or for anything else out there. But don't lose sight of the fact that most Tasting Notes being used today by the wine trade are in fact Wine Descriptions and are not Tasting Notes at all!! 

Wacky World of Wine

It's so easy to believe that the world of wine works towards some sort of an agreed agenda. We seem to have an inbuilt deterministic belief that encourages us to say things like 'quality will win out if it's given enough time to develop' or 'eventually they will come around to see the error of their ways' and on and on. The bigger picture is far wackier and a lot simpler than we dare to take on board. 

Decanter News this morning tells us that their September issue will run a column by Oz Clarke and Margaret Rand showing that California will continue to revel in its own style of wine making now and into the future. This is ..  'where low acid, velvet tannins and high alcohols is what Americans want from their wine and Californian winemakers will continue to feed that need'. I'll just have to wait and see the full piece but I really do love the fact that the authors seem a bit incredulous when, 'winemaker Robert Foley', uses 'the word ‘monstrous’ as a term of approval to describe the mid-palate of one of his wines'. Love it. 

Monstrous of course doesn't necessarily go down the route of being grotesque, outrageous or appalling, as many Europeans would interpret the word in relation to wine. No, it's more likely a celebration of being enormous and colossal. You know the kind; huge and gigantic. Nay, a Giant of a Palate!

The fact that different parts of the world celebrate, drink and use wine in their own unique fashion(s) is a source of hope. I don't look for 'the unusual' as a sign of quality but I am constantly wary of 'the deceiver'. These are the dudes who make lookalikes and then claim applause for the effort. The end result of lookalike wine making is that everything will end up tasting the same! Indeed it presupposes that everything should develop towards having a common similarity. Time will always, of course, help to improve some aspects of wine making. For instance we now have very few wines on our shelves that are obviously out of condition. This wasn't the same twenty years ago. Similarly, when Audi developed streamlining in modern saloon cars they had no idea that so many cars would eventually look vaguely similar. A Passat however is still very different to a BMW 3 Series. Styling, quality, originality, perception, and of course the X factor that certain individuals bring to the table, will hopefully continue to allow genuine differences to continue into the future.

 

Last year I had the privilege of interviewing Cal Dennison, winemaker with Gallo in California. (see Checkout Magazine) He taught me a huge amount about wine styling and consumer preference. I say 'taught' because no one else was teaching me to believe that Gallo, or others like them, is purposefully working very hard to make wines that are offered as lifestyle choices to millions of people every day - and that those millions are pleased with the offering! On the contrary, I have seen Gallo wines being totally ignored by wine critics at trade shows, time and again, as being inferior rather than recognising them for what they are which is relatively inexpensive and different. No wonder the majority of words written about wine are written about a minority of wines! 



Cal Dennison of Gallo in Dublin



I met winemaker Willi Opitz of Austria a few years back. More recently I met up with his fellow country man Laurenz Moser V. Here's two lads who were saddled with a product whose recent history was mired in controversy. The wines they were making weren't well known or even well liked overseas. Willi specialises in late harvest wonders (ie sweet wines!) while Laurenz concentrates on a single white grape variety  - the Gruner Veltliner. Have a look at Willi's web site. It's littered with awards and celebrity endorsements from Bill Clinton to McLaren Formula 1. Oh, and along the way he won the Late Harvest Wine Maker of the Year at the International Wine Challenge in London and then produced a cd of the sounds of his wine fermenting. He only has an 8ha vineyard!

Willi Opitz grapes drying on reed mats

I met Laurenz Moser's father here in Dublin the mid 1980's. My brothers and I successfully launched his wines onto the Irish market. We were gazumped six months later by the DEG scandal. Clearly so were the Mosers. Even though they weren't implicated in any wrongdoings they lost their family company to the banks as the Austrian wine trade was flushed down the toilet. Twenty years later Laurenz V (his father was the 1V..) announced to the world that he had partnered into a new company that would concentrate on the amazing Gruner Veltliner grape only. His subsequent success has brought his wine into most markets around the world and even into a joint venture in China to sell wine and to grow grapes. His penchant for effective publicity makes him hard to miss today around the world of wine.

The point? You don't need to copy others to make great wines. You don't need to make unique products to be great. You don't need to be big to be successful. You don't need to have something same old same old but if it is 'same ole same ole' then make it suit your audience so well that they reward you for your efforts. This is the wacky world of wine and it's a far cry from a place working towards some common point of maturity! You do need to recognise that the world is a diverse place and that it is probably best if it stays that way.

I recently read a precis for a piece of research that Wine Intelligence conducted on the wine market in China. It tells us that many of the wines imported to China are not drunk at all but are given as prestigious gifts. In one case a wine a merchant in Wuhan (a Tier2 city in Central China we are told) is quoted as saying, 'No one actually drinks wine'. The report goes on to say, 'In one high-end shop in Wuhan thet sells wine, baijiu, tea and cigarettes, the typical client is a government official or businesman buying wine either to give as a gift or serve to friends and business contacts over dinner, in both occasions to show respect and consideration to the person receiving the wine - with expensive Bordeaux being the wine of choice'. In addition, it seems the Chinese who buy local wine often do so to drink a glass at night time as a benefit to their health.

Where in this scenario is the world agenda? Well, if there is one it seems to be making room for everyone. All styles. All kinds. All sizes. All futures. 

Deveneys Lughnasa Beer Festival on Friday 19th of August

An excellent press release arrived this morning. It reminded me that Deveneys Lughnasa Beer Fest is almost here. This is an excellent initiative by Ruth Deveney. It offers real value for money and a true insight into the amazing range of beers now available in Ireland. Here's the release: 

  

Get Hoppy at Ireland’s Only Craft Beer Festival

Calling all beer fans and festival lovers! Ireland’s only craft beer festival will be taking over the POD Complex on Dublin’s Harcourt Street on Friday, 19th August, from 5.30pm to 10.30pm – giving people the opportunity to experience a wide range of specialist, quality beers.

Tickets are on sale now for the third annual ‘Deveney’s of Dundrum Lughnasa Beer Festival’, where over 300 unique, strange and wonderful craft beers including, Galaxy Pale Ale, Dead Guy, Thorbridge Kipling and Abstrakt ’06 Draft, will be available to sample.

Irish brewers, beer specialists and European brewers will be on-hand to showcase beers originating from Ireland, Germany, the US, the UK and Belgium, among others.

Festival goers can also look forward to live entertainment from Irish bluegrass band, ‘The Cujo Family’, and Irish rock band, ‘The Folksmen’. Food vendors such as Siam Thai and Hog Roast will also be dishing out mouth-watering cuisine.

Speaking about the Deveney’s of Dundrum Lughnasa Beer Festival, Ruth Deveney, festival founder and owner of Deveney’s Off Licence, Dundrum, said: “The Lughnasa Beer Festival is the perfect event for people looking to experience something different on a Friday evening. With some exceptional entertainment lined up, teamed with a huge choice of top quality beer, this is an intimate and enjoyable event not to be missed.”

Last years' very cool  poster

“Beer accounts for a massive three-quarters of all alcohol consumed here in Ireland, however, many beer drinkers are unaware of the range of quality beers available. This festival gives people the opportunity to explore a range of beers beyond everyday canned commercial lager.”

Festival tickets are priced at €20 which gives full access to all vendors and a branded commemorative festival glass. Tickets are available from specialist Off-Licences – Deveney’s of Dundrum, The Vintry, Rathgar, Redmond’s of Ranelagh, Deveney’s of Rathmines, Jus de Vin, Portmarnock, and Sweeney’s of Glasnevin.

Ticket reservations and further information is also available at, www.beerfestival.ie and http://deveneysbeer.blogspot.com/