Taste Blake’s favourite fifty Australian wines

THE season for pre-Christmas public wine tastings is drawing to a close with just a handful of them taking place in the coming weeks, including two on today (see below).

One of the forthcoming tastings is a bit unusual as it has my name written all over it: Like a kid in a sweetshop, I’ve been given free rein to select my favourite few dozen wines from Australia, all of which will be open for tasting along with tasty nibbles on the evening of December 1, at Cork School of Music on Union Quay in the city.

It is unusual for me to be involved in a tasting like this: as a consumer advocate I obviously don’t work for any aspect of the wine industry, so I normally have no business being on that side of the counter. But this tasting is possible due to the initiative of John McDonnell of Wine Australia Ireland, which represents much of the industry.

To them, it is an opportunity to showcase to wine fans the depth of quality Australian wines on the Irish market. To me, it is a essentially a live, 3-D version of this column.

Instead of merely writing about a series of wines I (along with some dozen importers behind the wines) will be able to thrust a glass into your hand and say “here please try this – I think you might like it”.

I can’t emphasise this point enough.

They say that writing about music is like dancing to architecture. Well, writing about wine brings a similar challenge – even at its best, a column such as this will only ever be an abstraction of the sights, scents, tastes and textures that make a glass of wine special.

The name we came up with for the event – “Blake’s Favourite Fifty Australians” – may strike a chord. It does sound a little like those end-of-year music marathons broadcast by rock DJs such as 2FM’s Dave Fanning and BBC Radio 1’s John Peel.

I was an avid fan of them when I were a lad and, delightfully, the DJ metaphor is pretty apt: Both broadcasters always underlined the arbitrary nature of their lists, and pointed out that they couldn’t take any credit for the music as they were merely selecting what genius had wrought.

Well, it’s the same here. I abhor the (surprisingly widely held) notion that a wine scribe is some expert handing down a verdict for others to follow. While certainly part of the service is to offer suggested bottles from among the hundreds available on the market, the real mission for any decent wine columnist is to inspire readers to explore and enjoy the sensory journey that wine can be. And that journey only takes place when you have a glass of wine in your hand – hence this event.

Strange as it may sound, the process of whittling down the longlist was an eye-opener even to me. Most are wines have been highlighted on this page, but when compiling them into a single list, I was taken aback by the large number of great quality wines from Oz.

When first considering taking on this project, I thought, “um yeah, I should be able to make up a list of 50”. However even my first cursory list of wines that simply had to be included ran well into the 90s. (In fact, the name is slightly misleading as I’ve been allowed to sneak in a few extra bottles and the final tally is just over 60.)

I could have included quite a few “money-no-object” wines. But to me that would be defeating the point. For starters, it would be quite a stretch for me to consider a bottle of wine costing say €30 or €40 as one of my “favourites”.

That was true during our so-called boom, and is just as true now that we have started out on the long, slow road towards realising that living within our means is actually a lot of fun.

As a treat though, more than a handful of the wines open for tasting on the night do belong in the luxury price bracket, and I am drooling at the thought of tasting them again – some stunning hand-made wines made by small bespoke wineries, from flinty, steely sauvignon blancs to deeply-layered glossy black shiraz.

But there are plenty of wines also at very accessible prices. Everyone at the tasting will be provided with a brochure laying out each wine, where it can be bought and its approximate price – so it could be handy to bring a biro and tag any that you find particularly good value. And even if you’re not on a mission to update your wine shopping list, it looks set to be an enjoyable social night of fine wines and fun (see details opposite). I hope you will come along.

Pre-Christmas wine tastings

* Today: The Curious Wines Christmas Wine Fair takes place in store near Smyths Toys off the Kinsale Road roundabout in Cork city today from noon to 6pm, with dozens of wines open to try, along with tasty bites from local food producers. Tickets, €15, are refundable when you spend €100 or more. Phone [phone] or see www.curiouswines.ie.

* Today is also the final day of the Simply Wine Warehouse Wine Fair, in their premises at Ballyogan Business Park (Exit 15 off the M50) in Dublin 18. Open until 7pm. Phone [phone] or see www.simplywines.ie.

* November 24 – Gibney’s present their annual Wine Fair at the Grand Hotel, Malahide. Get tickets (€15) and further details in store, on 01 8450606, or via [e-mail]. All proceeds from ticket sales go to local schools.

* December 1 – “Blake’s Favourite Fifty Australians” is an open tasting of fine wines selected by Blake Creedon, and accompanied by gourmet nibbles. Cork School of Music, Union Quay, from 6pm to 8.30pm. Tickets (€20) from Wine Australia Ireland on 065 7077264 or at [e-mail].

* http://blakecreedon.wordpress.com/