Weekend wine with Blake Creedon
The National Off-Licences Association (NOffLA) represents a diverse range of retailers from single small stores to large off-licence chains such as O’Donovans and O’Briens. And every year they get behind a joint promotion of the NOffLA Gold Star Awards range of wines. Apart from the wines themselves — every year the range includes crackers — what’s fascinating about the Gold Star Award range is that it’s chosen by blind tasting. Hundreds of wines submitted by importers are tried out in blind tastings through the summer, and eventually 15 Gold Star winners are selected in each of the following categories: red and white from new world and old; in three price bands (under €8, €14 and €20) plus one rosé and two sparkling wines.
The tasters include people such as Gary O’Donovan who is both a retailer and a wine educator with the Wine and Spirit Education Trust — but it also includes independent wine consultants.
Although blind tasting may well be involved at some stage in putting together most shop and restaurant wine lists, other aspects apart from scent, taste and colour can take centre stage — be it heavy brand advertising, the vaunted reputation of a particular region, or some sort of back-story that can be woven into sales patter. What unites these latter attributes is that they contribute absolutely nothing to the quality you and your company experience in that bottle of wine of a Saturday night. Ask the experts — Naomi Klein, or, if she’s not available, your grandmother: branding adds no value to you, and yet you pay for it.
* We’ll let the NOffLA tasters get on with their work on the 2011/2012 selection, but here are four of the current NOffLA Gold Star Award wines plus two further reds — the Segada red and Mont Tauch — that I stumbled upon while browsing in one of O’Donovans stores.
We don’t fully appreciate the quality and value offered by pretty much the entire Portuguese wine industry and it’s our loss. Here’s a cracking example of a modern blend of native and ‘international’ grapes .
[NOFFLA Gold Star Old World White Under €8]
Chile does seem to have a knack for producing decent wines on a budget, and this one surpasses expectations, delivering crisp, expressive cabernet augmented by judicious oaking. A bargain.
[NOffLA New World Red Under €8]
This is a stablemate of the Portuguese white above, but not among the Gold Stars, the dynamic oomph of its youth ebbing now. Nevertheless, I just love its plump red fruit, dense texture and sweetly spicy topnotes. And while it has much looser tannins than the Mont Tauch (right) it could go beautifully with a peppered steak.
Its reputation dominated by its reds (and, to a lesser extent, whites) Bordeaux also makes cracking rose and this is no exception: a faint aroma of strawberry set against a fabulous crisp, tart backbeat. Delicious as it is — or be a rebel and pair it with seafood.
[NOffLA Gold Star Rosé Under €15]
Having made its name on the back of the astonishingly rich Amarone style, Masi went on to make this more accessibly-priced gleaming polished rich red. An old favourite of this column as is its white counterpart, the dense, creamy Masianco.
[NOffLA Gold Star Old World Red Under €14]
The Mont Tauch co-op has done wonders regenerating the long-overlooked Fitou appellation. This alert, taut syrah grenache and carignan runs the gamut of rich plummy fruit and spice. Coincidentally, it’s imported by Mackenway, one of Ireland’s best importers, which comes up trumps most years at the NOffLA awards. See www.mackenway.com
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