Wine with Blake Creedon
After this week’s fractious referendum, and Jedward’s heroic performance in Baku, they think it’s all over. But of course homes around the country will be hosting parties or barbecues to coincide with our matches in the Euro 2012 soccer finals, kicking off against Croatia tomorrow week.
Being Ireland, of course, there’s every chance you’ll end up working on your cloud tan and wearing a fleece while tending the bbq.
But if we get a replay of this week’s warm weather and your match day party spills out into the great outdoors, you can rediscover the joy of the spritzer, a good white in a tall glass with ice and sparkling water.
Yes, this is the opposite to what I suggest for beer. But there’s significantly more alcohol in wine than in beer, and rich white wines can stand the dilution with a mixer — although I’d be inclined to stick to fizzy water, I wouldn’t go messing about adding flavours.
For non-drinkers, let’s do a bit better than the old staple orange juice. For starters, you could broaden the choice to encompass other fruit juices — apple or grape being my first choices. And you can add a delicious twist. One of my simple favourites is inspired by Lilt — a carton each of pineapple and grapefruit juice; mix ’em, add ice and a slice and you’ve got a delicious bittersweet alcohol-free cocktail.
The best very-low-alcohol (0.4%ABV) beer to my mind has to be Erdinger Alkoholfrei, which is reasonably widely available at good off-licence at around €2. I have yet to try de-alcoholised wine that didn’t taste off to me. Plus they’re all far too expensive — any ones I’ve seen are priced on a par with regular wines even though they don’t pay a cent of Ireland’s swingeing €4-plus per bottle excise duty. And anyway, why bother?
The thing about New Zealand rieslings is that unless they’re marked ‘dry’ they’ll typically be quite sweet and moderate in alcohol, as this one is. It’s a style well worth trying and this one is totally delicious, with a fine acidity warmth of sweetness — perfect for hot weather. Check out your local branch and see www.winebuff.ie.
This cheery young cherry-red tempranillo from the hot Vino de la Tierra de Extremadura is great value party accompaniment to the burgers. At the M&S tasting earlier this year I also enjoyed the savoury lick of the tempranillo grape in its partner rosé. speaking of which...
Yes, real men do drink rosé, and here’s one to enjoy on a warm evening watching the match. The sangiovese grape’s signature herby scent adds a lovely savoury note to the dryish cherry and apple flavours. Oh, and by the way, you can point out to any guys who feel their machismo is threatened by drinking pink, that the literal translation of sangiovese is Jove’s blood.
Spain is also a great source for sparkling wine. M&S has a brilliant organic cava (Okhre brut natur) but sadly hasn’t yet stocked it in all stores. But never mind, here’s a fantastic fizz exclusive to Dunnes that’s ideal for consolation or, hopefully, celebration.
Although it’s officially priced into the teens, you’ll periodically find this excellent red at around €9 in Tesco, Dunnes and SuperValu. Punching well above its price point, it’s a terrific fragrant Spanish classic packed with red fruit attended by a faint aroma of polished wood.
There’s a whole heap of lovely affordable whites beyond sauvignon blanc and chardonnay. South west France boasts ugni blanc, while across the border in northern Spain you have viura. When it’s done well, as this one is, it’s delicious — all pears and apples and grapefruit. It’s officially a tenner but you’ll often see it for around €8.
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