A couple of chancers from Blackrock...

Finally made it down to Superquinn in Blackrock for my habitual Friday fish (It's not a religious thing - I'm a Pastafarian), but they do nice fish. Thus forearmed with three large pieces of hake, I wandered down the aisle to the wine and picked up the following:

Collioure Cuvée des Peintres 2009 - €10. This was part of the last wine sale and the blurb says: "Made from a traditional blend of Southern French grape varieties (Marsanne, Rousanne, Grenache Blanc), a third of this wine is fermented in oak to add complexity to the final blend. This wine has a fresh and fruity nose with notes of white peach." It comes from Banyuls-sur-mer which is near the French-Spanish border on the Med.

I read some good things about it at the time of the sale, so I reckoned it was worth a punt. In fact, I'm going to open it now. [Time Elapses, for a while then - POP] Yum. Crisp, nice acidity, some delicate fruit but I ain't getting peaches, maybe a hint of tropical fruits? Very pleasant all round, though.

Next up a Sammicheli Vino Nobile Di Montepulciano 2007 - €7 - reduced from €11-99, I think. A Vino Nobile Di Montepulciano for €7 is always worth a punt. It has been decanted and is (not literally) hovering over my right shoulder as I type.

**Update** - This proved to be a perfectly acceptable tipple, a little light but with some nice cherry and dark fruit flavours. Definitely worth a look at this price.

Lastly I have not had a drop of wine on my new work commute, yet. I guess I appreciate the grape all the more on weekends.

Really lastly, for those of you who missed the media blitz, YHB (and three other Irish wine bloggers), were featured last Sunday in The Sunday Tribune in an article by Lar (also from SourGrapes.ie). Thanks again to Lar - full article here.

I am ze pahty pooper...

I did a quick run around the Beacon quarter earlier today, first stop was a "bazzer" (that's Cork slang for a haircut - get your mind out of the gutter) and then onto Dunnes. We are having the usual suspects over for dinner tomorrow to celebrate BigHead's 40th and I wanted to buy some wine to go with the slow cooked lamb shanks.

I had to buy some veg. in Dunnes so I deciced if I could get find decent wine there, so be it, otherwise it was across the car park with me to O'Briens. Luckily they had lots of this - Art de Vivre Saint Chinian 2008, Reserve de Gerard Bertrand. I loved it last time and at €8-99 it's good value. I also picked up an Arthur Metz Gewurztraminer 2009 (€9-95) which I have just sampled and to be honest , I'm not loving it. It's perfumed, sweet, peachy/apricotty and a little syrupy, perhaps I'm just not in the mood for that style of wine tonight.

On the red front I picked up a Chateau Pennautier Terriors D'Altitude 2006 (€9-00). Way back when, (July to be precise) Lar from Sourgrapes turned me onto their basic red (€6-95) which was delicious and a steal at that price. At the time I noticed the Terroirs D'Altitude but didn't try it. Tonight is the night.


Lastly, we'll be starting the wines tomorrow with the Meursault at left, it's the last of several bottles I got for my birthday last November, and I'm looking forward to it. The shame (or the joy for us wine drinkers) is that three of the attendees tomorrow don't really drink that much wine and will (probably) not partake. More for the rest of us, I guess.

**Update** I enjoyed the Meursault, but I think I was the only one, and to be brutally honest I enjoyed it somewhat because it tasted the way it should taste, rather than the fact that I liked it hugely. I should explain; at the last couple of tastings I have attended (and I don't get to many) I have tried some expensive (mostly Aussie) Chardonnays and they have quality of flavour that was amply present in the above wine. Leading me to believe that a good chardonnay ought to taste this way.

So, while this was undoubtedly a very fine wine; a) it may not be a wine to impress non wine buffs with and b) at this stage of my wine education I don't think I'm getting enough out of wines like this to justify buying them.

Results of the Dalkey Jury

I bought the following wines in On the Grapvine on Saturday, a Domaine de Bisconte Cotes Du Roussillon 2008, and a La Cabotte Colline Cotes Du Rhone 2007, both wines were about 11/12 euro.

The Domaine de Bisconte is popular - I was informed, and no wonder. I don't know what I was expecting but not a young, fruit-forward, New World-like wine. By no means unpleasant, it was a bit too jammy for me, but if you like your New World wines, you won't go wrong here.

The La Cabotte was corked. I tried the cling film rescue trick and it took the edge off the TCA but the wine remained stubbornly undrinkable. I was 0 for 2 in Dalkey, unfortunately, but I will go back.

I heard it...

Hola, amigos. It's been a while since I blogged at ya. I'm still trying to find some equilibrium given my current UK commute and today is the first chance I've had to put pen to virtual paper in two weeks.

By chance, or by design, we had a couple of hours to kill this lunchtime in the Killiney/Dalkey area so off we popped to Dalkey village for a read of the paper and a nice lunch. After a distinctly poor lunch in a large well-known Dalkey pub (three different dishes - two poor, one average and not cheap either), we wandered disconsolately through the town and found ourselves near On the Grapevine, a Dalkey wineshop whose blog I read.

We had previously been in the local O'Briens where I wanted to sample a Valpolicella Ripasso which was open for tasting, but there were no clean glasses. One sale lost there, I suppose.

Happily we stumbled across On the Grapewine and I had a good peruse and the lady in the shop was very helpful and suggested the two wines pictured when I said I wanted a reasonably priced red to go with a steak.

The wine at the top of the post is a Domaine de Bisconte Cotes Du Roussillon 2008, which is decanted and is sitting temptingly just behind me, and which has been flying off the shelves of late, apparently. The wine immediately above is a La Cabotte Colline Cotes Du Rhone 2007, their blog post about it is here. Both wines were about 11/12 euro, (I lost the receipt). I even got a loyalty card but as I am in Dalkey about once every three years, I don't think I'll fill it up.

I have to say I don't normally shop in independent off licences, purely based on the fact that my local supermarkets are much more convenient, but it was a revelation to see row after row of virgin (new to me) wines. I shall have to get out more.