Free Ticket for The Good Wine Show – OMG!!! November 11, 2009

Unless you’ve been living in a cave for the past month, you’ll be aware that The Good Wine Show takes place this Friday and Saturday in The Clarion Hotel, Cork City.

It’s the beautiful coming together of Cork’s three independent wine merchants, Karwig, Bubble Brothers, and Curious for a pre-Christmas wine tasting extravaganza that one industry source has already predicted will be “the greatest wine show on earth”.

Hang on, actually, I read that on the Good Wine Show website.

Anyway, tickets are €15 but I begged Maurice at Karwig to give me one to raffle on my blog to lend it some credibility and he agreed.

To be in with a chance of winning, use the Comments section to answer the following. Blogger’s decision final.

***Question Name a children’s story by The Brothers Grimm which features the German town of Bremen.

Actually, I tried two of Karwig’s German wines last weekend and the report is very good. In passing, I must mention that although Karwig obviously has an excellent German selection (Joe Karwig is from Bremen) it also carries plenty of wines from all the other main wine-producing countries.

The company has also completely overhauled its website and unleashed it on an unsuspecting public just in the past week. I forget what it was like before – useless probably – but it’s as slick as anything out there now. There’s even a blog there or, as I prefer to call it, “more unwelcome competition” .

1. Pictured, left. Carl Ehrhard Riesling Spatlese 2008 (Rheingau, Germany) €16 -> Medium lemon colour, with tiny bubbles evident in the glass. Exuberant, musky nose of green apple, quince, and passionfruit. Medium bodied and dry, with the high acidity that Riesling is renowned for. Intense green apple, lemon and grapefruit on the palate, with a long finish. Fruity, zingy, full-on, gorgeous wine. Still very young, but drinking beautifully now too. 90/100 / outstanding.

2. Pictured, right. Carl Ehrhard Pinot Noir 2008 (Rheingau, Germany) -> Lemon-gold, again with tiny bubbles. Lively, ripe, elusive nose of apricot, green apple, honey, ginger and butter. Dry with med+ acidity, med+ body and an invigorating spritz. Grapefruit, lemon peel, red cherrry, spice and more green apple and honey. Lingering, zingy finish. Intense and complex. Probably needs another year to mellow, but still excellent. 89/100

If you’re thinking that Pinot Noir (or Spatburgunder as they call it in Germany) doesn’t taste like that, you’re right. This one’s Blanc de Noir, though, or white wine from a black grapes. That’s the Pinot Noir in the glass to the left!

No witchcraft ot alchemy is involved, the winemaker just draws off the juice from the dark skins as soon as the grapes are crushed. This leaves a clear juice, as (nearly all) red wines derive their colour from a period of contact with the skins, in which the pigments reside. The same thing is done in Champagne all the time, where Pinot Noir is also used, as is Pinot Meunier, another dark-skinned grape, to produce ‘white’ Champagne.

p.s. I took part in a blind tasting on Twitter last Sunday. Participants collected a mystery bottle from Bubble Brothers and at eight-thirty we all poured and tweeted while trying to identify the liquid in our glasses. So who ‘won’? Well, I never like to use divisive terms like “winner” and “loser”. To my mind, we were all winners. For me, what was more important than spotting the wine – as though anyone gave a damn about that – was the strong sense of camaraderie and esprit de corps that existed among the group of Twitter friends. The sense of goodwill and cooperation as one person sought to out-do the next in terms of assisting his or her fellow taster was quite astonishing, and it certainly gladdened my heart.

p.p.s. Catherine O’Neil was the winner as the term is more conventionally understood. Special mention must go, too, to Lar Veale of Sour Grapes who managed the unlikely feat of identifying the wine just by reading people’s tweets while drinking completely different wines at a tasting in Dublin. And the wine? -> (Here I am!)

Restaurant Review -> Blair’s Inn, Cloghroe, Blarney November 8, 2009

Last weekend was Halloween so I thought it a good time to visit Blair’s Inn in Blarney. As in, “Witch Project”. The spooky feel on the night was underscored by the full moon and sinister-looking steam rising from the serpentine road en route. I half expected Michael Jackson, in red leather suit and with crew of dancing zombies, to jump out in front of our car.

No ghouls blocked our progress, however, and we arrived at Blairs Inn to find it humming with real-life customers, both in the cosy bar and in the restaurant. Smiling staff led us to our dream table, right in the corner and next to a crackling open fire.

Before long I got chatting to upbeat proprietor, Duncan Blair. He trained in Ballymaloe and he occasionally pops up in farmers’ markets across Cork peddling his delicious breads and chutneys. Indeed, he gave me a very generous gift of three of his chutneys and jams when I was leaving. With Christmas just around the corner, they will be ideal for passing off as my own and giving as gifts to my in-laws, once I steam off the “Blair’s Kitchen” labels.

Duncan also posts many of his bread recipes to the Blairs Inn Facebook page. Then he invites readers to try out the recipes and upload photographs of the results. You won’t be seeing my own pictures up there any time soon, though, as the last time I tried to make a bread-type product (it was pizza dough), the results were so disastrous that they almost precipitated a trial separation from my wife. Too many cooks really do spoil the broth.

We had some of Duncan’s bread – a dark Beamish one and an Olive, Rosemary, Garlic one – when we were waiting for our starters and it was outrageously good. Showing our characteristic poor self control, we stuffed ourselves so that we were almost completely sated by the time the proper food arrived.

My wife had the Halloweeny Pumpkin Soup (€4.95) while I went for the Paupiette of Lemon Sole stuffed with Salmon Mousse served with a Shellfish Bisque (€8.95). Both were divine. Mains were Halibut with Crab Claw in Red Pepper Butter (€22.95) and Honey Roast Duck served with a Grand Marnier and Orange Sauce (€23.95). Again, superb.

And the wine? We broke with recent tradition and ordered a bottle, and not various glasses. The prospect of a good Albarino was just too tempting. The Mar de Frades Rias Baixas (€29.95) comes in a very unusual flute-shaped and blue-glassed bottle. The front label bears a squiggle that appears in blue when the wine is chilled to the correct temperature. We were completely transfixed by this and we had big plans to take the empty bottle home with us to use as our water bottle for dinners. Needless to say, we forgot to take it when leaving.

Duncan has done some of the WSET (wine) courses and it shows in his thoughtfully-crafted winelist. As well as the familiar names like Sancerre and Chablis, there are more interesting picks such as Picpoul, Muscadet, Falanghina, and Gruner Veltliner. Among the reds is Espirit de Nijinsky from Irishman David O’Brien in Provence and a blend from Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley. Prices are mostly in the twenties and are very reasonable.

For dessert, I had a massive selection of ice creams in a wafer basket (€6.75). By way of an experiment, I poured some of my glass of LBV Port over it. It was a partial success insofar as I ate it all but will not be repeating the experiment again.

If you’re in Cork I thoroughly recommend that you take a spin to Blarney and Blair’s Inn. The restaurant has deservedly won a string of awards and the location itself, next to a small burbling river, is quite picturesque to boot. It’s also worth noting that they have reduced many of their prices, including the Angus fillet steak, within the past few months.

Blair’s Inn, Blarney, Cork. www.blairsinn.ie 021-4381-470

Kiernan “Relaxed and Looking Forward to” Twitter Taste-Off. November 5, 2009

“Boost Wine Sales by Selling Popular Wines”, Says Wine MBA Guy. November 4, 2009

A few weeks ago, the Licensed Vintner’s Association hosted a seminar on how Irish pubs might increase their pretty poor level of wine sales. In a declining wine market, the rate of contraction in pubs’ wine sales is about double that of the off-licence sector (-20% versus -10%).

During the afternoon, representitives from six wine importers (including Barry Geoghegan of Febvre, who was first in his Wine MBA class in Bordeaux) presented their ideas.

Unfortunately, I did not attend the seminar as I only became aware of it while reading a report of the event in the October edition of Drinks Industry Ireland, the trade magazine I write cogent, topical, and thought-provoking features for.

Anyway, here is a brief synopsis of the suggestions proffered by the esteemed mandarins of the Irish wine importing world.

1. Women are responsible for 80% of wine drinking in pubs, and they tend to be aged twenty-five or over, so this is the demographic to pander to. Bear in mind, too, that most women want table service when ordering wine. The use of “female cues”, such as fresh flowers on tables, or Michael Buble playing on the speaker system, can help to attract women into your premises.

2. Clunky, ugly, dirty goblet glasses are out – everybody hates them. Invest in pretty stemware and the wines will give the impression of being more premium. It’s that word, isn’t it? – premium. Ch-Ching!

3. Put your winelist alongside the food menu, with suggested matches. Pub drinkers may not realise that Shiraz overpowers gazpacho, and a negative experience may deter them from trying wine again in a pub. The winelist itself shouldn’t be excessively long; one or two pages will suffice for the average pub.

4. Having an interesting or quirky winelist is commendable, but neglect the popular styles at your peril. Wines such as Rose, Pinot Grigio, Sauvignon Blanc, and Prosecco are all showing strong demand right now, so you should have one of each of these on your list.

5. The proportion of wine sales in pubs coming from house wines has gone from 50% two years ago to 85% today, so it is important to put some effort into choosing a quality ambassador for your pub.

6. If you want to develop the wine category in your pub, train your staff, or have them trained, in the basics of wine and wine service.

7. Don’t be afraid of novel formats. Febvre carries a new range of 50cl bottles (i.e. two-thirds the size of a regular bottle) under the “Winefor2″ label. These may appeal to midweek drinkers who don’t necessarily want a full bottle, but would like more than a glass or two.

8. Move away from quarter bottles towards wine-by-the-glass. People perceive the former to be low quality and, anyway, there is more profit on the latter.

9. Have a “safety net” of about 20% international brands, whether they be producers such as Wolf Blass or grapes such as Merlot, on your list, so that those customers who fear change and novel stimuli have something to grasp on to.

10. Suspect logic of the day came from a contributor who appears to be no threat to Doctor Phil’s hegemony as reader supreme of the human psyche, who suggested using a blackboard for daily specials (not a bad idea in itself) because . . . “the consumer will feel that the offer can be wiped off at any time or may have changed by tomorrow, so the time to buy that special is now.”

Tim Adams Raises Bar for Cheap Wines November 3, 2009

*Tim Adams Clare Valley Pinot Gris 2008 (Australia, 12.5%, Tesco, €11) -> Medium-lemon colour. Youthful, exuberant (gorgeous) nose of fresh pear and melon. Tastes dry, but back label says fermentation was stopped before complete, leaving residual sugar. Bracing acidity and med+ body, with intense flavours of pear, honey, passionfruit, and apple sherbet. Spritzy (it’s young), with an average length lemony finish.

Verdict -> Simple-but-gorgeous super-fruity white. New World in style, with intense primary fruit in abundance. Not hugely complex – it’s all fruit! Enough acidity to balance it all though. Shortish finish, but it’s up there with the most enjoyable wines I’ve had for €11.

89/100 -> Questionable typicity notwithstanding, a very good wine, and superb at the price. Impossible to dislike.

Kevin Ecock had cautioned me that this wine would be like “a riesling blend” and he was, in fairness, quite accurate. The green apple, acidity and spritz are definitely more associated with riesling than pinot gris, but it’s hard to know how primed I was by Kevin’s warning. Expectations strike again!

While mulling it all over on Twitter, my second home these days, Ernie Whalley waded in with his fifteen cents, describing Tim Adams’ wines as “the cheapest fine wine you can buy”, and recommending that I try Grenache-based blend, The Fergus next.

I drank it with Chicken, Sweet Potato and Grape Yellow Curry. It was exceptionally yellow, as I had no lemongrass and so replaced it with saffron. Not close substitutes (or even distant ones), as any chef will tell you, but you couldn’t argue with the yellowness.