My favourite wine importers

I have written in the past about the difficulties faced by small wine importers given our draconian wine taxes. We are around 650% higher than the EU average and more expensive for wine than countries such as Sweden and Finland.

One group that also suffers from this high taxation is the restaurant trade who traditionally made most of their profits from wine sales. Not any more. The best approach for a restaurant in my opinion is to find or train a good wine waiter or two and seek out wines from importers.

Two of my favourite importers are Tyrrell and Co, based in Wicklow who specialise in the Rhone; and Cabot and Co, in Westport. Liam and Sinead Cabot have a few specialities including fine wines from Burgundy and Bordeaux but also sources some very interesting Austrian and Slovenian wines as well as from good producers in Germany, France, Spain and Italy.