Superquinn Autumn Wine Sale 2013

So I went easy on the wine in Superquinn for this year's French Wine Sale. I decided not to buy anything I'd bought before, for reasons of economy and efficiency. There are lots of nice wines I've bought before in 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012.

I decided to be lazy and bought a couple of reds as recommended by Kevin Ecock and they are as follows... 

Domaine Cristia Cotes Du Rhone 2012 - €10
I've had a couple of wines form Domaine Cristia and they've been pretty decent, so I'm giving this one a try. 

*Update - drinking this as we speak and it's not bad,  fruity but drinkable with a decent finish. Not sure I'd but it again, though. 

Puy de Dome Auvergne Pinot Noir 2011 - €10
It's hard to get good Pinot at a reasonable price  so I'm hoping this is as nice as in the review.

*Update - this was delicious. Some nice soft red fruits, elegant and light and definitely drinkable with or without food. I think I'll get some more of this.

Lidl French Wine Sale 2013 - Updated

Yesterday  I had to buy a variety of mundane items and as I was on my way home from my mechanic (the beast lives!), so I popped into Lidl to get said items and may be some wine from the Lidl French wine sale that I had heard about. Kevin Ecock wrote a post about it here. I was invited to the press tasting but alas, I work full time, so was unable to attend.

I picked up the wines at left (along with some of their Cepa Lebrel Rioja Crianza - a steal at €6.50). BTW R Bampfield is Lidl's own MW and he rates all their wines out of 100 (sort of).  The Brochure is here.


Leo La Gaffeliere Bordeaux 2011 - €8.99  R Bampfield 88 - Very Good
I had intended to buy the Cotes de Blaye Chateau Grand Mazerolles 2010 €9.99, as recommended by Kevin but when I arrived home I had the Bordeaux above. I don't know how. I never buy generic Bordeaux. Anyhoo, I'll try to approach it with an open mind.
**Update -  This ain't great. It tastes like cheap Bordeaux, eh... because it is cheap Bordeaux, it's all tannins with a smidgin of blackcurrant. If you like cheap cab sav, this Bud's for you. 

Les Sarralieres Crozes-Hermitage 2012 - €11.99 R Bampfield 86 - Very Good
There's nothing like a nice Crozes-Hermitage and this is probably nothing like a nice Crozes-Hermitage, but here's hoping.
**Update -  I drank this but I didn't really enjoy it. It was a nearly wine. There were suggestions of nice fruit and tannins but they were trumped by a slightly unpleasant ripe fruity aftertaste. So far no joy from Lidl.

La Croix des Celestins Fleurie 2012 - €9.99  R Bampfield - No Rating
I'm not normally a big Beaujolais fan, the expensive stuff I like but the rest often find a bit thin. I deliberately picked this because it's outside my comfort zone. Low expectations here.
**Update -  It's not bad. It's light and fruity, natch, but with some decent acidity. We had it with a tomato and pasta dish and it worked well.


Oh and I grabbed a Chablis too, as evangelised by Kevin "Such a versatile wine style. Simple examples such as this always please me as the relatively lean fruit, acidic structure and tingly finish are just a perfect food accompaniment.". Sounds good...

I'll be drinking them over the next few days so watch this space...

Liveblog - Orellan Bierzo Roble 2009

Tonight I shall be liveblogging a red that I picked up in OBrien's in Carrickmines on special not one hour ago. I went there looking for some beers but the selection in this shop is much inferior to the wide range available at their Beacon Store, for some reason.

I should also mention our weekend wine experience. As we have recently celebrated 10 years (legally) together, we decided (and we had a voucher) to go to the Cliff House in Ardmore for some Michelin starred food, and for a quiet weekend away.

Long story short, the food was amazing and not bad value when you factor everything in. Three courses of Michelin starred food for €68, which included an amuse-bouche (four separate things) and a tasty sorbet before the main course; sounds like a lot of dough but when the grub is that good I don't think it's bad value. I suspect you'd pay a lot more than that in Paddy Giblets or one of the other starred places in Dublin.

We opted for the optional wine tasting accompaniment (specially chosen) for our three courses which was another €27 per head. My smoked salmon starter (done about 8 ways) came with a Tahbilk Marsanne, a white not for the faint hearted ( I ordered it once before, for a group and just about nobody liked it) but it suited the salmon well. My veal main came with a glass of Chateau Ksara from Lebanon, which I initially decided was much too tannic but actually worked really well with the meat, although it's a wine that resolutely needs food to accompany it. With my various apple deserts (spiced apple cake = best dessert ever), I was given a decently large glass of an Austrian sweet wine called Kracher, which was delicious.

Anyway - on to tonight's live blog and pictured above -
Orellan Mencia Bierzo Roble 2009 €9.99 (reduced from €15-99)

7pm. I like it. Apparently it's made from the Mencia grape with which I am not familiar, but at this early stage it's elegant and well balanced with a hint of plummy fruit. I think this will improve as the night wears off.

9pm. I still like it. Smooth. The O'Brien's website reckons it's not dissimilar to a Pomerol and I'd go along with that, its not as big, but it echoes the right bank.

11pm.Surprisingly, this didn't improve markedly during the night, started well and finished well. Not sure I'd pay 16 quid for it but as priced it's great value and would probably be a good wine to entertain with.

Short reviews of three wines from Baggot St Wines

Portillo Malbec €11.19
Fantastic, big, chewy and a little bit fruity. Great value as priced.

Gran Cerdo €13.99
A little thin, we reckoned, got a bit better after being open for a while but not ones the Willies cared for very much. And check out their website - a testament to shocking web design.

Matsu El Picaro €13.99 reduced from €16.99
Oh yes, this is how to do modern (relatively) inexpensive Spanish red. Wonderfully complex with a great finish.

Why all the beer posts? Make with the wine, already...

A lot of readers (Ed. - really?) have been wondering why I've been doing so many beer posts of late  and so very few wine posts. There are a couple of reasons for this, the most obvious reason is that I am in the middle of the International Lager Challenge (tm). There are a total of 17 rounds and 20 lagers involved. The current status is below; we are now at the semi final stage of each country and I'm really enjoying the competition element.

The second reason is that I'm (mostly) bored with the wine that I'm drinking, I buy pretty much all of the wine that we drink at home and I don't accept samples, as I don't have it in me not be influenced such largesse, and secondly, one of my reasons for starting this blog was to attempt to identify value for money, harder to do if you get the goods for free. (Full disclosure: I haven't been offered that many freebies; for the last couple of years, what with working abroad and then redundancy, I haven't been putting myself about like I used to, at tastings and whatnot, so sample offers have been few and far between.)

Most of the wine that Herself and I drink is in the €8 - €13 range. 1 wine out of 10 is pants, 1 out of 10 is delicious and 8 out of 10 are "meh", and these are the problem. I don't know why but I'm not really enjoying these wines. It's not that they're bad, they are totally "drinkable" (I know, that's a loaded term these days) but they are forgettable. There are a couple of things that might be happening here.

One is I'm just bored with wine (most wine) or two, my tastes are getting more expensive/rarefied, it has happened before. I'm not sure which, maybe a little from column A and a little from column B. On the beer front, I think it's the whole craft beer thing (which is relatively new, in this country) that has me genuinely excited every time I walk into an off-licence and even mildly excited in supermarkets, even they are getting into the act, albeit slowly and in a limited fashion.

By the same token I should be excited whenever I walk into an off-licence, as there are always many many bottles that I have never heard of waiting to be sampled. Not so much in Supermarkets (Tesco and Dunnes anyway) as I pretty much know every bottle on the shelves.

It may be a function of cost. In offies the wines I want to try generally cost between €15 and €20, it's a not inconsiderable sum to wager on a bottle. However, most craft beers are between €2-50 and €3-50, even if it's piss, you are only out a couple of quid. Experimenting with craft beer is cheaper and less risky. And I'm nothing if not cheap.

There is also a surprising variety of flavours, not so much with lagers, but in spades with ales. I'll probably get shot for saying it (in a wine blog) but there is at least as much (if not more) variety in ales than there is with red wine. There's also the fact that there is an ever increasing number of Irish craft beers, it's gratifying to support Irish brewers and to be able to talk to them on Twitter.

I'm rambling. Long story short, beer is exciting me at the moment, wine, not so much. I'm sure I'll get my wine mojo back at some point. Until then, Beer me!

Chateau Millegrand Redux - Liveblog

With "artful" dribble

In April I reviewed a Chateau Millegrand 2011 from Dunnes Stores and I really didn't like it. I thought no more of it until a comment appeared on the blog from none other them Martin Moran MW himself, who loved it.

Occam's razor would suggest that I was the one mistaken here, and that there was a problem with the bottle I tried, so I bought another bottle, on special for €11 (reduced from €16, apparently). I opened and decanted it about an hour ago and am about to try it.

7-30pm  Martin said the wine has "vibrant black fruit and pepper notes", and I suppose it does. It's perfectly fine (so I guess the last bottle was faulty) but that particular combination isn't winning me over right now. Hopefully it will improve as the evening progresses.

9-30pm After two hours it's a bit smoother and fruitier but I (and Herself concurs) just plain don't care for it. Something about the fruitiness just doesn't work for me. I'm finding it slightly cloying, but I'll check again later...

11pm Intriguingly this developed some subtle perfume flavours towards the end, but it wasnt enough to save it. It reminded me of some Chilean Cab Savs, all blackcurrant fruit and oaky tannins on the edges and nothing in the middle.

Some "new" wines from Tesco

Whenever I'm in Tesco I always peruse the reds for any new wines, bargains etc. Last weekend I found two new candidates amongst the usual suspects and they are pictured above.

Prunus Dao Vinho Tinto 2010 - €9.99
Hmmmm. I decanted this for a couple of hours, but it still tasted a bit cheap and cheerful. It cost less then a tenner so maybe I had unrealistic expectations. Meh. 

Trapiche Fincas Malbec 2010 - €12.00
I've had a mixed relationship with Trapiche Malbec over the years. In 2009 I loved it. In 2012, not so much. I'm not even sure if the wine above is the same wine, I suspect it is, but I can't find it on the Trapiche website. This time out, I liked it; it was still quite fruity but there was a little body and a decent finish. If Malbec is your bag then you probably won't go wrong here.

So in conclusion, eh....can't really recommend either.

The Fourth Protocolo - It's not you, it's me*

I've fallen out of love. It happened a couple of years ago although it took me until last night to realise it. When Protocolo first came out, in, I think 2008, (the 2006 vintage), I loved it. I picked up a bottle in O'Briens as part of one of my regular trawls of their reds on special offer, and I loved it.

I loved it so much I recommended it to all my friends, some of whom also loved it and used it for parties. I believe it was John Wilson from the Irish Times (but I can't find the link) who raved about it, and suggested it had the potential to age and would be worth cellaring. Also, it was not your typical Spanish red, it was fruitier, and, I suspect, made to appeal to a younger, New World influenced wine drinker.

So I took a bottle of the 2006 and duly "cellared" it, for future consumption. Over the next four  years, I bought the 2009 & 2010. I don't know what happened to the 2007 & 2008; I know I missed one of them and I suspect the other never made it to the shop floor but I couldn't be sure. Either way, I picked up the 2011 yesterday for tasting purposes.

I need to confess that I last time I bought the Protocolo was in summer of 2012 (the 2010 vintage), for old time's sake, and I didn't enjoy it. I don't know if the wine has changed or I have, but one of us has moved on.

Anyhoo, I have been looking for an opportunity to do a vertical tasting of the various vintages for some time and last night presented the perfect occasion. It was forecast to be a lovely sunny evening, we had our new chiminea to burn our old patio table in,  a butterflied leg of lamb to bbq, and we had our neighbours Tricki'n'Baz from one side in, and MJ from the other, along with Aunty June, whom we hadn't seen for a while.

The ladies had been on the white wine for a while and me on the Grolsch, so I figured I'd start with the oldest first before we all got too squiffy to taste anything.

2006 - First off, everyone else liked it, but I didn't really care for it. It had a big alcoholic wash and had lost pretty much all its fruit. Not unpleasant, but not what I was expecting. Which was? Dunno, not this. They say most wines are made to be drunk with a short number of years so perhaps I shouldn't be surprised.

2009 - Really didn't like this. There was a slight sharpness to this wine that I didn't care for. Our guests didn't comment as such but that could be just politeness. I pride myself on serving nice wine to anyone who comes to my house for dinner but I feel I let myself down here; at the very least I need to like what I'm serving.

2010/2011 - Not much in the difference here, as I mentioned above, this wine just doesn't do it for me anymore, I'm sorry to say.

So there you have it, a failed love story for my part, but do try it yourself (it generally retails for about €8.99), even if you don't like it you won't be out of pocket by too much...

* Probably

The High Council

I wrote a post about wine from Consejo de la Alta almost exactly 4 years ago. It has been a family staple ever since, courtesy of Papa Willie and Papa Vincent (long story). Anyhoo, at a family "do" recently the Papas were having a lively discussion about the merits of the "Novo" from 2010.

Papa Willie opined that it couldn't possibly be any cop (I'm paraphrasing, obviously). I generously offered to arbitrate the dispute so long as I got some for free.

Papa Vincent duly obliged, with the not only the 2010 Novo but with various other Consejo de la Alta vintages and styles. See below...

Left to right, they are:

Reserva 2004, Reserva 2005, Crianza 2008, Novo 2010, Alta Rio Crianza 2010

I think Alta Rio is the second wine (now) of this winery, but I'm not sure, as they appear to have used Google translate to generate the English language version of the website...

Reserva 2004
Selfishly, I'm keeping this for a future vertical tasting. I already have a 2001 and a 2005 Reserva in my "cellar" against just such a possibility.

Reserva 2005
Big alcoholic wash at first. Some fruit, some tannins, very long finish. Very nice.

Novo 2010
Not bad - good nose. A little sharp at first but got better over the course of the evening. Not a patch on the Reserva but pretty decent.

Crianza 2008
Very very tasty, and, in the absence of tasting directly against the Reserva, this comes off very well. 

Alta Rio Crianza 2010
Corked, desafortunadamente.

Dial A for Aldi - and a sort of Liveblog. *Updated

A "new" Aldi opened a couple of years ago in Sandyford and I have been meaning to check out their booze for ages, but have been continually diverted by Dunnes at the Beacon and the nearby O'Briens wines, just around the corner. So yesterday, I girded my loins, and with my conscience in the back seat (Lil Bill), sallied forth to the aforementioned Aldi.

Things didn't start well. Their trolleys only take 2 Euro coins, rather than the standard one Euro coins (or tokens if you prefer) and they don't "do" baskets. I was about to leave in disgust when I managed to collar a helpful employee who sold me a token for a mere 89c. Perhaps I am not the target audience but would putting out a few baskets kill them?

Matters didn't improve. Lil Bill refused to pick out a breakfast cereal as he didn't fancy any of their copycat brands. I was only there for the booze so that's pretty much all we got. The booze purchased is pictured below...

Not pictured is a bottle of Aldi Old Hopking Gin, €12-99 for 70cl, which is very cheap. I had heard good things about it , see this. We tried it out in a G&T later and it was perfectly decent. I intend to test against an open bottle of standard Gordon's next weekend. (I try to only drink spirits on non"school" nights)
*Update - I set up a blind test for Herself and she preferred the Gordons, just. I knew which was which and I also just favoured the Gordons; there was a little botanical extra present. Still, the Aldi gin is great value as priced, especially if you are not a gin snob, like me.

On the beer front I got some of the following:
Spaten (not pictured) €1.79. A good price for this beer which I was co-incidentally drinking on Friday night at a Harvest (Neil young tribute band) gig at the Sugar Club. Great gig, although the Spaten was €6 a pop there, ouch.

Marston's Pedigree Pale Ale - €2.09 4.5% abv, Never seen this before but as I am an IPA junkie I got some. Report on this to follow. Per the Sindo today, liking craft IPAs, the more exclusive the better is a hipster trait. I think that's my only one, unless driving a Skoda and shopping in Penney's counts?
*Update - meh, nothing to see here.

Staroslav Czech Pilsner - €1.19 Another punt here. Although at 4%, it's not off to a good start.
*Update - This wasn't too bad. Not a huge amount of flavour but what was there was pleasant enough. One for those who like cheap weak lager, methinks. 

Rheinbacher Premium Pils - €6.99 for 6. More random German beer from the budget retailers. Most of the similar beer from Lidl is piss but the Grafenwalder & Finkbrau are OK, so long as you don't drink them after a "name" beer, at which point the cheapies tend to come off second best.
*Update - Ugh. I've had two of these now just to make sure the first one wasn't a fluke. In a nutshell, it's not very nice, its watery at first and then there's an unpleasant aftertaste. I'm regretting buying six as I'm not sure I can force myself to drink the remaining four, loathe as I am to pour beer down the sink.

On the wine front I picked 2 reds.

Domaine Roussellet Pinot Noir "Vin De France" - No Vintage specified. - €6-99
We drink this last night  and it was just OK, just about drinkable. Even at this price I wouldn't recommend it, unless bargain, non-vintage, non-Burgundy, Pinot Noir is your thing.

LIVEBLOG!
Minarete Ribera del Duero Roble 2011 - €7-99
9pm: I opened and decanted this at 4pm before we headed out to our local gastropub The Wild Boar (where the service was a little random but the food was very, very good). Anyhoo, just tasted the wine and after the Pinot Noir yesterday, I wasn't hopeful. Surprise! This is quite nice. Some nice plummy fruit and a bit of depth to the flavour. Not bad for 8 notes.

10pm: It's still good. Not earth shattering, but solid. There's now the tiniest bit of astringency in the mix, along with some recently evolved tannins. All in all, its pretty decent and good value as priced.

I think I've gone on long enough, so I'll leave it at that. It's a mixed bag so far from Aldi. I'll probably blog or at least tweet on the various beers above at some stage over the next few days...

Liveblog - Ciclos Malbec Merlot

I haven't liveblogged a wine in a while ( I haven't blogged a wine at all in a while, if truth be told), so here we go. The wine in question was a present to Herself, bought I believe in @BaggotStWines and it's Argentinian, per the bottle, from "our Valley in the North". I saw it reviewed somewhere recently but I'm buggered if I can find it online. Here's the link to the winery - I can't link to the individual wine page 'cos it's all Flash. When will they learn!

Michel Torino Ciclos Malbe Merlot 2008 - €??

20:30 The wine has been open and decanting for approx two hours so let's see what we can taste. Hmmmm, lots of fruit as expected and some oak on the finish too, I think. It's definitely a Malbec but the Merlot is bringing something to the party too. I like it, but I don't love it. Let's see where we are in an hour...

21:30 I think I have ruined my tastebuds with a big chunk of yummy Ardrahan cheese, but I'll take one for the team and press on. The tannins have softened a bit and the whole package is more integrated. I'm still not sure that the Merlot adds much, but this is a pretty decent New World wine, for those who like their New World, with a bit of Old World (like me). See you back in an hour for the conclusion...

23:00 I'll go back to where I started, I like this but I don't love it. I'd happily drink it but I'm not sure I'd spend my own loot on it. It's missing something that I find in the Malbecs that I like, and that is...love. Ha!

On that note, goodnight.

O'Briens Spanish Wine Sale

So I was down in O'Briens in Carrickmines on Saturday searching for an elusive bottle of Punk IPA, when I noticed a few interesting wines on special. I made a mental note and returned on Sunday; the wines above are the result. You may have noticed that only one is actually Spanish and I don't know what to tell you about it. From left to right they are:

Tandem Ars In Vitro 2010  €9-99 reduced from €14-99 link
This is a Tempranillo/Merlot blend from the Navarra region of Spain and all done in a very vegan friendly organic crusty manner. After an hour or so in the decanter this tasted...OK. Nothing special but "drinkable". Some acidity from the Tempranillo and some soft fruit from the Merlot I guess.  It accompanied a roast chicken and was perfectly fine. By the end of the night it had developed some nice complexity but it took a long while to get there. Fine as priced but not a runner for me at full whack.

Aruma Malbec 2010  €12-99 reduced from €17-99 link
Classic malbec. From the off, this had lots of fruit, but not in a shirazzy, in your face, fruitbomb way. Lots of fruit but plenty of other stuff, some little complexity and after it had been open a while, a delicious long finish. If you like yessir Malbec, then you won't go wrong here, especially at the sale price. This winemaker also makes the amazing Amancaya, twenty bills but worth every cent.. 

Volpetto Chianti Riserva 2009 €10-99 reduced from €17-99 link
Yummy. A very tasty Chianti. Smooth, fruity and delicious. Not sure I'd pay full price but great value at €10-99. I'd suspect it needs food to really shine but it's pretty good on its own.

Piuma Montepulciano D'Abruzzo 2009 €8-99 reduced from €10-99 link
I have to say I opened this last, because I suspected it might be "cheap and cheerful"; and initially I thought I was vindicated, with the wine coming off initially as a bit tart and acidic. But after a while the acidity receded into the mix and some lovely plummy fruit appeared. By the end of the evening, this was really rocking. Well worth a look at either price.