Weekend wine with Blake Creedon
Delivery is free for any order over €50.
In general it’s best to allow two days — but within Cork city they offer same-day delivery.
My highlights from Bubble Brothers are accompanied today by one bottle each from Tesco and from Searsons. The latter is one of Ireland’s longest-established importers and wholesalers.
They don’t deliver but their site www.searsons.com is well worth a browse. Stockists of the Alasia Sec below (and indeed many other wines imported by Searsons) include the following:
Nationwide Branches of Next Door; Clare Jayne’s, Ennis; Cork Branches of the O’Donovan’s chain of off-licences; The 1601 in Kinsale. Dublin Power & Smullen, Lucan; The Lord Mayors, Swords; McHugh’s Malahide Road, Artane; Lilac Wines, Artane; The Wine Boutique, Ringsend; Redmonds’ Ranelagh; Liston’s Food Hall Lr Camden Street; Drinkstore, Manor Street. Kildare Mill Wine Cellar, Maynooth. Limerick Desmond’s Next Door, Raheen. Mayo Fahy’s, Ballina. Waterford Ardkeen Quality Foodstore. Wicklow Claudio’s, Newtownmountkennedy; Cheers at the Wicklow Arms, Delgany.
* Donnybrook Fair on the Morehampton Road, Dublin 2, is hosting a wine dinner on Tuesday June 26, at 7.30pm, where Daniel Castano will present his wines from the Yecla denominación. It costs €60 per head or €100 per couple. Book now on 01-6144849 or email restaurant@donnybrookfair.ie.
* Next Saturday, Jun 23, the Franciscan Well brewpub in Cork is the venue for by the Lee Valley Brewing Club’s fourth annual home brewer’s expo. Open day for all between 2pm and 6pm.
Irish drinkers are most likely to have met the macabeo (or viura) grape in cava — but it’s also the grape that drives white Rioja. This one is from the deep south though. Its floral nose as fresh as sea-spray, light spice and modest alcohol (11.5%) make it a fine candidate to go with light summertime salads and seafood.
The red is a blend of the ubiquitous tempranillo and bobal — a grape almost uniquely associated with Utiel-Requena. Valencia is hot — but just like Sicily, seems to be adept at making fresh and elegant wines. Like a half-way house rosé, its plump red fruit is attended by a lovely scent of red apple. You might even try it chilled.
I don’t fully understand the appeal of joven wines when Spain is so good at making well-aged, well-oaked wines around the same price. This one loves the air so let it breathe. I gave it more than a day and it rounded nicely into a very pleasant pink-red like cherry compote with a lick of spice.
This style is not for everyone, but I’d really recommend you at least try it at some stage. Not unlike the macabeo on the left, or other white grapes such as ugni blanc, the fruit flavour is relatively neutral. But the combination of flashes of tropical sweetness and its lovely waxy texture make it a perfect light summer white. See above for stockists
Yes, it’s Tarantino. No, not Quentin but rather one of the wine regions in Apulia in the heel of Italy. You might know the place from a pretty rosé that M&S has. This, though, is a brazen, full-fledged red made with the primitivo grape, a cousin of zinfandel. The lovely faint whiff of coal tar, the freshness and backbone suggest one word: barbecue. Try it out of the fridge.
I recommended the handsome ‘Tesco Finest’ ripasso last week and still would — but little did I know then that the same store also stocks this even better value model: Powerful, plump with plummy red fruit balanced by a backbeat of savoury darkness and aromatic herbs.
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