Tasting at the opening

Myself, Herself and B&G (not the winemakers) attended the official opening of Baggot St Wines last night, along with a couple of the victorious Dublin GAA team, in the pissing rain. Given the appalling weather, it was good to see so many people packed into the shop.

They had set up five "barrels" or tasting tables, four wine and one beer (The Porterhouse,which we didn't get to, blues) but we did manage to taste the vast majority of the wines from the four different suppliers. I'm not going to go through all the wines as I didn't take any notes, I just marked on the program the wines we really liked. We liked the lions share of the wines we tasted, which augurs well for future visits. Here are my favourites from the night:

White:
Chablis, Domaine Gerard Tremblay €17-99 - Very Tasty
Picpoul de Pinet, Domaine Delsol  €10-99 - Unusual grape but nice wine from the Languedoc.
Gruner Veltliner, Alte Reben  €27-99 - Expensive but lovely.
Libalis Blanco €15-99 - Nearly sweet (made from mostly Muscat) and apparently great with Foie Gras.

New World Red
El Grano, Carmenere €13-99 - Surprisingly complex (The Perez Cruz Cabernet Sauvignon 2009 is also good and much better than the standard Chilean fare.)
The Bean, Pinotage €15-49 - Wine with added coffee (not really - see comments). Big and bold and not my style but interesting, none the less.

Old World Red
Cedre Heritage, Cahors 2009 €13-49 - We all loved this, very elegant.
Chianti Rufina, Il Colognole 2006 €14-99 - tastes like a much more expensive Chianti - v nice.
Bajondillo, Mentrida 2010 ,€11-99 from a small appellation near Toledo - fantastic.
Bai Gorri Crianza, Rioja €18-99 - pricey but full of lovely vanilla.

I bought a few bottles on the night and the above are what's left. BigBog bought a heap of beer which we worked our way through while munching on fab Mexican food from Tolteca across the street. If you are into Beers they have a huge range of craft beers also.

Sorry June...

Firstly the good news...the Salomon Groovey Grüner Veltliner 2009 from Oddbins (€11-99), which I got in honour of our Austrian visitor, was quite delicious; crisp, tangy and a little spicy. We lashed through the two bottles I had bought, I wished we'd had more to go with my delicious smoked mackerel pate, which no-one ate apart from YHB, alas. I must have unique tastes.

Our guests brought a selection of wines and I shall be reviewing them as I drink them. First up is a Tesco Barolo 2005. June brought this along and was keen to know if it is any good. I have seen this in the shop and have been tempted, but it's a pricey wine to take a punt on. Tesco are very good at the moderate priced own brand reds, but can they do it with a wine from a "premium" region?

The answer is - not this time. I believe this bottle was corked, but not in the normal way. I read an article on the web somewhere recently that said there are four (I think) main ways a wine can be "corked", caused by different factors and with different effects on the taste. This wine was very sharp, almost fizzy on the tongue and very acidic. After almost five hours in the decanter it had lost some of it's harshness and you could maybe get some idea of what the taste should have been.

There's no way this wine tasted as the maker intended, ( I know Barolos historically have been huge tannic beasts, requiring much decanting, but this was not the issue here), so I'll give it the benefit of the doubt and endeavour to try it again in the future. Sorry June.

You take the moon and you take the sun...

On our trip into the west we decided would try and eat seafood chowder every day, not for any scientific reason, but simply because we love it and it's not easy to get a good one in Dublin.

Day 1 - Moran's Of The Weir - Superb.
Day 2 - Oliver's, Cleggan - Very Good, more of a stew than a soup but with a great variety of fish.
Day 3 - Pub that doesn't take Credit Cards, Clifden - I liked it but herself pronounced it too salty although it did come with some mini squid/octopus tentacles.

There was also another pub in Clifden that shall remain nameless as they ignored us for 10 minutes (even when I went to the bar), so we walked out. You'd think in this day and age that pubs/restaurants would be crying out for business, alas not.

We ate a huge amount of fish but didn't drink much wine with it, (we drank mostly Guinness), the only bottle of note was a Lawson's Dry Hills Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2008 in Mitchell's seafood restaurant (have the crab cakes) which was perfectly fine and a good accompaniment to my hake special and Herself's mussels.

We are throwing a petite bbq'ette for June's brother and her Austrian friend tomorrow. In their honour I picked up a couple of Salomon Groovey Grüner Veltliner 2009 from Oddbins (€11-99). John Wilson in the Irish Times reviewed it a couple of weeks ago he said:

"A crisper style of Grüner with fresh melon and citrus fruits, and a tangy dry finish. This would be good with Asian-style prawns, scallops or sushi."

I'll be BBQing a butterflied leg of lamb, my absolute fave and I have a case of the wedding wine from Lil Sis's wedding to have with it. Its an Olivier Ravoire Cotes Du Rhone 2007 and it went well with the lamb at the wedding so...

Lastly, Superquinn mailed me to tell me about their "Great American Wine Sale", not much of interest for me I think, mostly cheap plonk. The list of wines is here if you want a look.

Lastly, lastly, we are trying a Tesco Finest Touriga Nacional 2008 (€8-99) from Portugal tonight. This grape is considered the finest Portugese grape and I do tend to like wines made from it. I do wish they'd so something about the label though, it's very bland and uninspiring.

**Update** This turned out to be a lovely drop. A bit of a bruiser, inky purple in the glass, lots of dark fruit and heaps of tannins. very nice if you like the full bodied style...

Jackpot! (or something...)

Before I relate my keen eyed bargain hunting skills I should report on the various wines from the last couple of posts...

Hopler Gruner Veltliner 2008 (€13-99) - this was OK. I'm not really a white buff but I didn't really see anything special here. Perfectly drinkable but not at this price. For the same money they had a fab New Zealand Sauv Blanc from Wingspan with lots of funky tropical fruits.

Conti Zecca Donna Marzia "Negramaro" 2008? (€11-99) - we drank this with June on Saturday night and it was the star of the night. Earthy, full bodied and delicious. Good value at this price.

Promenade Des Papes Plan de Dieu Cotes Du Rhone Villages 2007 ( €7-99 reduced from €15-99 ) This was a nice wine, pretty standard CDR flavours, maybe a little thin and acidic but fine with it. Definitely worth a try at €7-99, at €15-99, not a chance.

Paradise Hill Minervois 2006 - €9-95. Another "OK" wine. Drinkable but with none of the nice minerally flavours you might hope for - now on special for much cheaper - see below.

Now onto the Jackpot part of the post - I was down in Tesco Dundrum (apologies for another Tesco-centric post but its where I normally shop, and yes I am aware that they are a huge, faceless multinational, wilfully pummelling the farmers of Ireland and elsewhere into the ground, yadd yadda yadda...), but I digest. I felt like a Celtic Ponce de Leon, as I discovered the bargain, bin-end shelf where wine orders come to expire. (The right-hand end of the last free standing shelf at the far end of the shop - you'll know it by the yellow discount pricing labels)

Left to right what I got was...

Santa Christina Toscana 2007 (€5-17!) - This is the base wine from Antorini who run the gamut of Tuscans all the way up to the Tignanello Supertuscan. If memory serves this is a decent Chianti like red (it's not labelled Chianti) which normally goes for around 12 lids.

Tesco Finest Gerard Bertrand Tautavel 2005 (€5-07!)- I loved this last time, when it was €10-79. I have not seen this on the shelves for a while so perhaps it has been languishing somewhere out of the way.

Famiglia Terraccia Chianti Riserva 2006 - (€6-99) - I have seen this in Tesco for €13-99 - so half price here. I likes a good Chianti so here's hoping. Jane McQuitty in The Times said

Like or loathe the behemoth Tesco, it’s been onwards and upwards for their Italian wine range each and every vintage. This chianti stood out from the herd because of its mature, elegant, beefy, truffley fruit, complete with that classic spicy, violetscented, faintly bitter finish that makes chianti so beloved by generations of British drinkers. Bouquets to the Baroncini family who have been growing grapes at their San Gimignano estate in Tuscany since 1489.

Next up - who knows! Let me live a little will ya?

Experimental Wines 101

I've been reading a lot recently about Austrian wines and as I found myself in Donnybrook Fair this lunchtime, doing some more tasting for Lil Sis's wedding, I decided to avail myself of a Gruner Veltliner and a tasty "Negramaro" from Puglia.

The Gruner Veltliner I got is from Hopler, in my ignorance I don't believe I have ever had any Austrian wine so I am looking forward to this. It's not a cheap wine at €13-99, but it was recommended by Damien, DF's buyer so here's hoping.

The "Negramaro" is part of the Donna Marzia range from Conti Zecca in Puglia, the heel of Italy. I do like wines from this region, earthy reds made from Primitivo and Negro Amaro. I did taste this and while my palate was polluted with various Sauvignon Blancs and Cotes Du Rhones, I did like this (€11-99)

On a related note I spotted one of my recent favourite wines the Chateau Phelan Segur 2003 which is a gem, at €55 though it's a bit rich for my pocket.

BTW - anyone know how to do umlauts (the two dots over certain vowels in German) in Blogger?