Dunnes French Wine Sale 2012

For another change of pace I decided to base my Dunnes French Wine Sale purchases on whatever reviews I could find, mostly online. The initials in parentheses represent the reviewer, and the full reviews are linked to at the end of the post.

Note: I figured I'd better get this review up before the sale is over (25th September). Hopefully the wines you are after are still available. For me the Clotte and the Moulin De Meyran are the ones to go for...

Reds
Chateau de l'Estagnol Cotes Du Rhone 2011 - €7-00  (KE/BC)
Not bad. I bit young and fruity but decent value as priced.

Moulin De Meyran Cotes Du Rhone 2010 - €9-00  (KE)
Much better than the l'Estagnol. Great nose and a lovely full flavour, would get this again at this price. [ I have just picked up a couple more of these, yum]

Chateau Treviac Corbieres 2010 - €10-00 (BC)
Initially a big alcoholic wash and lots of plummy fruit. Resolving into some nice tannins.

Château Millegrand Minervois 2010 - €10-00 (BC)
Hmmm - didn't really care for this. Lots of blackcurrant fruit made it taste like a Cab Sav and not a great one at that. Curious for a Minervois... 

Chateau de Clotte 2010 €13-00 (JW)
Love, love, love this. Have bought some to "cellar" for the future but it's delicious now. Can only find it in Cornelscourt, if you are looking.

Chateau Coucy Montagne St Emilion 2009-  €14-00 (Sunday Business Post?)
I only got one of these and I am "cellaring" it,  hence no review.

Baron de Baussac Carignan Vielles Vignes 2011 -  €7-00 (JW)
Very big and fruity in a New World way. Too much for me.

Whites
Chateau Fonfroide 2011 - €7-00 (KE)
Opened this finally to have with my (Jamie's) famous Salmon fish cakes (which I had forgotten to season - D'oh!). This was really tasty; light and refreshing and great value as priced.

Blake Creedon (BC) Irish Examiner  - review here
Kevin Ecock  (KE) First Press blog - review here
John Wilson (JW) Irish Times - review here

Wine Post - Done a bit differently - Update

For a change of pace, I'm going to let a couple of established wine writers review two wines (from Tesco as it happens), then I'm going to try them myself and see if I agree, and if fore-knowledge of the wines makes any difference to my review. Both wines were priced €10, allegedly reduced from €19-99.

McWilliams Mount Pleasant Isabelle Chardonnay 2011 - €10

Martin Moran (MW)  - @winerepublic (quote from here)
"In the hunt for vineyard-derived quality Australians have planted vineyards in cooler climate locations and at higher altitudes hoping for finer natural acidity. McWilliams Mount Pleasant Isabelle Chardonnay 2011 is from Tumbarumba in the Snowy Mountains on the New South Wales/Victoria border. Altitude is the key here and any oak used is very subtle leaving centre stage for its chalky mineral charged flavours of peach and pear. It knocks the average €8-10 big brand chardonnay for six. "

Update  - Finally opened this tonight, apologies for the delay. This is a very well made wine. Alas, it's not a wine I particularly care for. A couple of years ago I had some very expensive Aussie chardonnays, which I also did not care for. For some reason I just don't dig this style of Chardonnay. This wine tasted quite like its more expensive cousins, so if you like this style of wine - fill your boots, lofty.


Jean Claude Fromont Crozes Hermitage 2010 - €10
David Whelehan - @Whelehanswines (quote from here)
"For those who love good Northern Rhone Syrah, this will not disappoint. Made 90% from Syrah, 10% from Marsanne & Rousanne. This could be most simply described as a dark berry brooding wine perfect for winter. The aromas are of black fruits with some spice and savoury notes. The palate is rich and round with an attractive spiciness and the finish is very impressive ending on some really ripe and generous black fruit flavours.  Alc 13.5%"

Update  - I have to agree with David W, this turned out to be delicious, although it did take a while. After a couple of hours in the decanter it was still a little rough and ready, but by the end of the night this developed into a nicely balanced, rich and juicy wine. Good value at €10, but I don't think I'd pay 20 notes for it.



Also -  today is Day 4 of No Beer September (started on 2nd Sept) and so far so good. I will be sampling various ciders (craft and otherwise) over the next while and will update with the results.

It's The End of the World as I Know it...

No really, it is. You see, for the month of September (well, until the 28th when I am hosting a poker game), I will be forgoing my favourite* thing in the entire world - BEER. I had intended to do this experiment at the same time last year, but I ended up back in Edinburgh, on another long stint, and the thought of being away from home and beer-less was too much to handle.

My reasons for the temporary cessation of my hop-releated activities are manifold, not the least of which are the following sample exchanges from recent years...

Me: I feel fat.**
Herself: It's all that beer.

Me: My stomach's not well.
Herself: It must be the beer.

Me: My teeth are full of holes.
Herself: That'll be the beer.

Me: I've got a nasty rash on my...
Herself: Did you ever think about drinking less beer? ***

Secondly, I'm curious myself what a month without the amber nectar would do for my ever expanding waistline. I suspect I'll drink less as a whole, which can only be a good thing (?!??). And, if it turns out to be easily do-able and has some positive health aspects, I would consider doing it a couple of times a year.

Right now, some readers are thinking "He's only giving up beer? Not all booze? WTF?" Yeah, I know a lot of people give up the sauce for a month (or more) at a time and fair focks to them, but that's not something I'm keen on at the moment. I did three days dry last week while suffering with a nasty flu and it nearly broke me.

What will I replace the beer with? I'm not sure yet. More wine probably, maybe some cider and maybe an increase in "Ton" **** consumption; we shall see. I do like alcoholic Ginger Beer (like Crabbie's) and I think this might be acceptable as it isn't beer per se, I think.

On a more on-topic note, I got some more of the Gerard Bertrand Domaine de Villemajou Corbieres  2008 in O'Brien's earlier. It's still on at €14-99 and I urge you to try it, especially at this bargain price. I have been decanting it since 4pm so I expect it will be rather nice, later on.

* A couple of other things spring to mind, but this is a family blog.

** She has a point here.

*** Three of these four examples are real.

**** My Gin and Tonic - Pour 2 American shots of Bombay Sapphire into a tumbler containing  3 cubes of ice and a partially squeezed quarter of one lime. Top up with 150ml (one small can) of Schweppes tonic. Enjoy with some Meanies (yes, really).

Vin-Aire Experiment

So I'm trying an experiment tonight, using my Vin-Aire. Herself got it for me in O'Briens last year and since then it has proved its worth on numerous occasions. It allegedly aerates the wine as it passes through, acting as the equivalent of decanting a wine, I guess.

We have blind tested it a couple of times and and each time everyone preferred the Vin-Aire'd wine to the wine that came straight out of the bottle. I keep a couple of cheap IKEA vases/jugs on hand such that I normally give any wine we drink a couple of hours to "mellow" before.

Anyhoo, for a variety of reasons we are going to drink a wine tonight that I really didn't like before. It's a Domaine Horgelus Cotes de Gascogne 2011.  My notes on the last bottle consisted of three words, "Awful - down sink".

I decided that I would attempt to mitigate my dislike by going ugly early, in a perhaps vain effort to make the wine (more) drinkable.

At approx 4pm I did the following:

• Opened the wine.
• Poured wine into cheap IKEA decanter.
• Poured wine back into bottle via Vin-Aire.
• Poured wine back into decanter to oxidise some more.

It's now 7pm and I'm going to taste it again. I realise I should have tasted it at 4pm for comparison purposes but that's by the by. So here goes...

On the nose it's - OK. In the mouth it's not great. Not straight down the sink bad, but a little cheap and fizzy on the tongue, and not much going on elsewhere. If it wasn't for the current experiment I'd probably give up and open the second of two bottles of Domaine L'Ostal Cazes Estibals Minervois 2008, which I got in the O'Briens French wine sale last week.

Wine of the weekend was Domaine de Villemajou Corbieres by Gerard Bertrand 2008, also from O'Briens which was reduced from approx €19 to approx €15. Both June and I bought it indpendently and it was a cracker, a single vineyard stunner, and a steal as priced.

Back to the cheap stuff, I will taste again about 9pm for a final verdict, join me then.

**Update  - So myself and Herself finished this off and it was  - alright. By 11pm it had lost most of
its sharpness and had become perfectly drinkable, if nothing more.

I don't think this was because of the Vin-Aire, but probably the seven hours it had been open and decanting*. I may return and do some more experiments with the Vin-Aire at a future date.


* I know technically I am aerating the wine rather than decanting it (removing the sediment) but I'm not going to change my terminology at this late stage, and also I'll be deep in the cold, cold ground before I recognize Missourah!

Possible bargains from Tesco...[Updated]

It's a long and frankly uninteresting story but I had a half hour to kill today and was passing the Merrion centre so I popped into Tesco for some sausages and wine. Short story long, I knew we are due to have pasta tonight so I wanted something appropriate and Italian, hence the Chianti. The Syrah I thought I had tried and liked before so I took a punt on it.

Laurent Miquel Heritage Vineyards Syrah 2010 - €8. When I checked my records, I discovered I'd had this wine (albeit the 2008 vintage) a couple of times last year and liked it a lot, so kudos to my little grey cells for that one.

Update: This was very tasty, as expected. A classic French Syrah with bags of body and flavour, great value as priced.


Piccini Chianti Classico Riserva 2007 - €10. Tesco stock a sometimes bewildering array of Piccini wines, quite a few of which I have tried; and to date they have been pretty solid performers. I'm not an expert on Chianti but a Chianti Classico Riserva from 2007 for a tenner seems like a bargain to me. Also, I read somewhere that anything with a black cock on the label (see above) was a good indicator of quality, I just hopes this applies to Chiantis too...

Update: Cherries, cherries, so many cherries. Loads of bitter cherry flavour overpowered every attribute of this wine, unfortunately. There may be a decent wine lurking underneath but It's impossible to tell. Not recommended.

Well, I'm back (from Lidl)...

So I've been home for about a month now, and the question that has been exercising my tiny mind is whether to resume blogging or not. Given that I no longer have the hellish commute and the associated pressure of a high profile project delivery (the fact that you didn't read about this migration in the papers is a sign of success), the assumption was that I'd start back blogging on my return.

However, when it came down to it, I wasn't sure I wanted to. Call it an existential crisis if you like, but I'm not sure what I'm bringing to the party anymore. To alleviate this dreadful ennui I sallied forth to my local Lidl with a view to picking up some cheap reds with the hope of jump-starting my blogging motor (see picture above). Alas, this didn't work.

On Sunday, however, my faith was restored (sort of). Someone whose wine palate I respect, asked when I was going to resume blogging, and it was enough. If one of my tens of readers wants more, then, by FSM, I shall provide.

To that end let's discuss the three Lidl wines above. I purposely avoided the very cheap stuff, electing to sample the "mid priced" reds (€6 - €8), one from each of France, Spain and Italy.

Let's start with the cheapest and work up...

Lidl Cotes Du Rhone AOC Villages 2011  €5-99. Meh. Not bad, drinkable but not great and with a slightly astringent finish. Should be fine with food but not fab on its own.


Lidl Chianti DOCG Riserva 2008 €6-99. Better, not quite what you'd expect from a moderately priced Chianti from the supermarket but, at this price you could do a lot worse. Some nice cherry flavours and decent balance.

Cepa Lebrel Reserva Rioja 2007  €7-49. Now we're talking. This was a lovely wine with some lovely soft vanilla flavours. Tasted like a much more expensive Rioja (c €15) so a steal as priced. Note: They also have the Crianza and Joven versions from this producer but they are not much cheaper so I don't know why one wouldn't plump for the Reserva...

BTW - I have mostly drinking FinkBrau Pils, also from Lidl, €3-99 for 6x33cl bottles, 4.9% abv. Very crisp and clean and cheap(ish) to boot.

I'm not sure how often I'm going to blog from now on, but rest assured, I still have plenty more waffly, deluded and sometimes frankly boring opinions to share on wine, beer and whisk(e)y.

Next Up - Something completely different...

Hiatus - Part Deux

So it's come to this, another hiatus.

Apologies for the lack of posts and tweets of late; the project I am on is coming to fruition and the pace and workload are getting pretty hectic. So I have decided to enter a quiescent state for a couple of months until I'm back home and the dust has settled, metaphorically speaking.

In the interim, I have signed up for the Wine Explores Club from WinesDirect.ie. I have noticed that I have become a little insular in my wine choices of late and am hoping this will shake things up a bit. If I feel suitably enthused by any of the mystery wines I may break my self imposed "exile".
Note: They also stock one of my favourite wines the Luc Lapeyre L'Amourier Minervois, of which I gleefully ordered plenty at the office Xmas party in Ely.

Also - kudos to Herself for her Valentines gift of a Vinaire. Tested it last night on a tasty Crossos Priorat 2008 from Dunnes that I had stashed away, and it seemed to work.*

Anyhoo - see you all in the summer, FSM willing.

Willie


* I threw out the instructions and spent a fruitless few minutes trying to use it upside down. lol.

A Molloy's Quartet

From looking at the blog it appears I haven't shopped in my local Molloy's for about a year. The quality there has been variable but always worth a punt so these are the wines I picked up. Three are new with the Trapiche Malbec being an old favourite of ours, although we haven't had this vintage before so here's hoping.


Moulin De Gassac 2009 - €6-99
Tor del Colle Montepulciano Riserva 2007 - €7-99

Trapiche Malbec 2010 - €10-39
*Update* Hmmm - we used to like this wine a lot, maybe 5 years ago, now; not so much. "It's not you, it's me", might be appropriate here. Our tastes may have changes more then the wine, I found this a little sweet and cloying, drinkable but not great.


Chateau Du Donjon La Pujade Minervois 2010 - €11-99
*Update* The most expensive wine of the bunch and well worth the price, this one. The back label made lots of grandiose claims IIRC (alas I threw it out), but these were pretty much borne out by the product, which was a tad unusual. Lots of interesting flavours, chocolate not the least. I'll be getting more of this.


Updates to follow as they are drunk with the Minervois currently in mid-decant.

Xmas Wine

Xmas Eve wine - See "Lastly"...

This year I was charged by Herself-in-law with selecting some wines for the entire clan from Baggot St Wines. The request was fairly non-specific but I suggested a single bottle of dessert wine, some white and some red, with all the wines being "moderately" priced. I was trying to select wines that would appeal to all the various palates in the clan, rather than just my own. Time will tell if I have succeeded.

I can't find the receipt but all the wines were around €15 or less (the Perez Cruz is on at €9-99, which is a steal). I spent some time perusing the shelves with Garret and picked the following:

Dessert:
Domaine des Bernardines Muscat be Beaumes de Venise 2010
The outlaws have been enjoying sweet wines of late and this should be a good example.

White:
La Chablisienne "Le Finage" Chablis 2009
I hadn't had a Chablis in ages and we had a lovely one last weekend in a certain DNS golf club, hence the demand for more.

Walnut Block Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2010
Herself-in-law loves this style, although I think we overdid it during this summer and last. Have a bottle in the fridge and just waiting on Herself to come home.

Laxas Rias Baixas Albarino 2010
After choosing a classic New World and a classic Old World I asked Garret for something different and we settled on the above.

Red:
Perez Cruz Cabernet Sauvignon Reserva 2009
A cracker from the Maipo valley and a wine I would never have expected to like. Big bold and quite fruity, but balanced by some nice structure.

Plic Plic Plic Monsant 2009
A recommendation from Garret - from a region I confess I hadn't heard of Monsant - although it almost completely surrounds the delicious Priorat. Had a bottle the other night and it was like its cousin, big and muscular with lots of flavour, maybe lacking a little of the complexity of its more illustrious neighbour, but good value as priced (IIRC)

Tour Des Gendres Bergerac 2010
Very French, lots of acidity and ripe fruit.


Second lastly: One tradition I have kept up this year, is that as my contribution to the Xmas dinner in the Out-laws, I supply some decent red to have with the Turkey. This year I chose a La Chappelle de Bébian Coteaux Du Languedoc - Pezenas 2007 - €16-99, also from Baggot St Wines. We had it recently, and loved it.

 Lastly: If you are wondering about the picture at the top, this is the wine Herself and I will have on Xmas eve at home. We have a tradition of smoked salmon and Champagne (Tattinger NV this year) followed by a good Bordeaux. This Giscours is the last of six bottles of 2000 bordeaux we got from June* as a wedding present, all those years ago - Cheers June!.

* For the record, the six were: Lynch Bages, Palmer, Chasse Spleen, Giscours, Pavillion Rouge and mumble mumble.

A visit to the Scotch Malt Whiskey Society

Hola Amigos,

First off, apologies for the lack of posts in the last month; between the work, the commute to Scotland - gotta love those high winds, and various family commitments I haven't had a lot of time for blogging.

I did, however manage to get out in Edinburgh this week to the Scotch Malt Whiskey Society (Queen St branch) courtesy of m'colleague N Smith. N isn't a big whiskey drinker but is a member, and generously offered to bring me along as a guest when he heard I was into a wee dram.

Anyhoo, after a delicious burger and a couple of pints of Schiehallion in The Cambridge we ambled along to the SMWS on Queen St. The SMWS down in Leith is apparently an even nicer place. It was a school night so we didn't go mad, but we did try four different whiskys - see details below.

I should explain that the SMWS doesn't sell "regular" whisky, that you can buy in a shop. What they do is buy a cask of whisky direct from the distillery and bottle it themselves. Big whoop, I hear you say, this is what the distillery does. Bong! Wrong answer. The distillery does two things typically, 1) They blend various casks of the same age/batch to produce a harmonious "blend". 2) They water down the whisky from "cask strength" approx 55% - 60% abv. to 40+% odd.

So what you get from the SMWS is 1) a unique, never to be repeated expression 2) pretty damn strong, which means you are pretty much obligated to water down the drink (I only tend to add water with very peaty or very strong malts), which can be a variable experience as you could easily add too much or too little AND the minerals in the water can have subtle affects on the taste.

Our expert "barman" suggested the malts below based on my ramblings and while the bottles only have a number on them, the staff will "translate" for you, if, for example you were keen to try a Macallan or a Talisker (sadly out of stock) or whatever. The prices range from £4 up and they serve other drinks too; I had an Aussie beer, a delicious Little Creatures Pale Ale as a chaser.

Anyway, the whiskys we had were as follows (with "codes" in parantheses). The number on the left of the decimal point represents the distillery, the number on the right is the cask number from that distillery, in chronological order. Star of the night for me was the 19yo Clyneish, btw.

Isle Of Arran 9yo (121.50) - A little rough, needed plenty of water.
Clyneish 19yo (26.77) - Complex and delicious.
Highland Park 15yo (4.157) - Expecting more here but nice.
Laphroaig 20yo (29.108) - Subtle.

Four Cheap Tesco wines reviewed in 12 words

French Connection Classics - Cotes du Roussillon Villages Rouge 2009 (€7)
Awful - down the sink.

French Connection Classics - Languedoc Rouge 2008 (€7)
As above.

Les 2 Chenes Corbieres 2008 - (€8)
Meh - drinkable, just.

Laurent Miquel Heritage Vineyards Syrah 2008 (€8)
Lovely, quite lovely.

Specials From O'Briens - Updated

It's been ages, well months anyway, since I've blogged about wines from O'Briens. I have definitely been in least one of their shops during this time as I ventured into their newest premises in picturesque Cabinteely, not long after it opened.

Anyhoo, I was down in Dunnes in the Beacon buying limes, as you do, and decided to do an O'Briens special run. This is where I buy four or five reds on special from the many on display. I try to only get new (to me) wines but occasionally I weaken (viz Pic Saint Loup)

The wines I bought are (from Left to right):
L'Ostal Cazes Eclipse 2010  (€14-99 - Not on Special)
I bought this on spec as I loved the last wine I had from Domaine L'ostal Cazes, a minervois, so I had high hopes, especially at fifteen quid a bottle. We drank it last night and it was...OK. Per O'Briens site  "this is like taking what’s great about St.Emilion and the best parts of the Languedoc and mixing them both together"  for me, I think this fell between those two stools. It was perfectly drinkable but didn't do it for me, or Herself.

Domaine de Nizas Rouge 2008 (€12-99 - reduced from €15-99)
As I type we are just finishing this off and boy howdy, it is fine. I think we had a bottle of the 2007 at Xmas ( I think - it looks like they have changed the label for the 2008). Loved it then, love it now. A steal as priced.

Gerard Bertrand Pic Saint Loup 2009  (€9-99 - reduced from €14-49)
I've been a big fan of this since I first discovered it last year. This is a new vintage for me, so fingers crossed.
Sorry - I din't have my blogging hat on when we drank this so it can't have been particularly good or particularly bad, apologies.

Reserve de Bonpas Cotes Du Rhone 2010 (€8-99 - reduced from €10-99)
Liked the price and the bottle looked kinda classy...
Another OK CDR, nothing to write home about, a little light perhaps on the body/flavour side.

Domaine Condamine Syrah-Mourvedre Cotes Du Thongue 2009 (€7-99 - reduced from €9-99)
Cheap and cheerful, I guess and hopefully not too "easy drinking"...
Pleasantly surprised with this, lots of nice ripe fruit and a bit of body makes this very good value as priced and pretty decent at a tenner a bottle.

Note 1: I was experimenting with the photo - didn't really work, sorry.
Note 2: I have just noticed all five bottles are French and I don't know what to tell you about that.

Whiskey note 1:
Cragganmore 12yo 70cl in O'Briens - €55, price per litre €78.57
Cragganmore 12yo 100cl in Edinburgh Duty Free - £32, price per litre approx.  €38
I make that, less than half price - nice one.

Whiskey note 2: Bough a Glenfarclas 15yo in Edinburgh Duty Free last night, haven't tasted it yet but it smalls lovely