Weekend wine with Blake Creedon
It’s the nature of such tastings — you’ll never know how much you might like some of those wines until you ‘suck it and see’ as the advert for lozenges used to say.
Below are a handful of highlights, and we’ll continue next week (with an eye on the Christmas dinner) with some astounding if slightly left-field white wine choices.
* Speaking of open-ended tastings, the Christmas Wine Fair at Curious Wines on the Kinsale road in Cork continues today from noon until 6pm, with more than 100 wines open for tasting, along with tasty gourmet food. Tickets cost €10, with all proceeds going to Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind. Phone 1800-991844 or see www.curiouswines.ie.
* Next week, Red Nose Wine is hosting a portfolio tasting on Thursday from 8pm at Hickeys Cafe, Westgate, Clonmel. Tickets are €15. See www.rednosewine.com for details.
* Chris Pfeiffer is conducting a tutored tasting of Australian dessert and fortified wines at the Hayfield Manor, Cork, on Tuesday, December 6, and at Ely, IFSC, Dublin, on Wednesday, December 7. Each event starts at 7pm and costs €20 per person. For more information, email ireland@wineaustralia.com or phone 065-7077264.
* Cork Skeptics = is a group promoting sceptical thinking online and at its regular meetings at Blackrock Castle Observatory in Cork. Next Saturday, they’ve invited me to kick off their festive season with an illustrated talk about wine. They asked me to present the evidence to back up my contention that we wine fans are perpetually distracted from what really matters — what’s in your glass. I’ll be showing how our perceptions of quality and value are distorted, and exploding myths about wine. It’s meant to be provocative and fun and will include a brief wine tasting. Admission is free, it’s open to anyone over 18, but please book on the Cork Skeptics website at corkskeptics.org.
No, sauv blanc is not the only colour in the white wine spectrum. And yet here (and immediately below) are two contrasting versions. This is all you might expect of a good New Zealander — an alert mouth-watering citrussy and herbaceous aromatic mouthful.
Just south west of Bordeaux is a fascinating cluster of appellations (the most well known of which are Bergerac and Montbazilliac) and at its heart the Cotes de Duras. Keep your flashy wines — I just love the sonorous competence of this bright, well-balanced sauvignon.
Eh? Will someone please tell me where this wine’s been hiding? This is my bargain of the week and not just because it’s the cheapest bottle here. While the Chianti region has improved immeasurably in recent decades, I’d never have expected a basic entry level Chianti to come across this well as a proper grown-up dark-berried sipper. A new favourite.
Four delightfully contrasting reds vied for attention at Searsons‘ stand at the wine fair. This one — the south of France in full flow — was the biggest-boned and most amiable of the lot and backed with firm tannin but no less amiable for that. Think roast beef or big steaks off the grill ....
Like the Côtes du Roussillon above, red meat’s on the menu with this Italian classic — but you would be best advised to match this to a more delicate cut of beef cooked rare, or indeed roast lamb, all beautifully-nuanced elegant cherry and aromatic herbs. To borrow a musical analogy, If the foregoing wine is Lady Gaga, this one’s Goldfrapp.
One thing I rediscovered at O’Donovan’s tasting was the beauty of viognier. We’ll see it perform solo next week but here the white grape acts as a fabulous foil to Yalumba’s polished, fragrant shiraz.
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