This week I’m focusing on the Languedoc and largely the wines of Domaines Paul Mas which is imported by Cork-based Karwig wines. I toured all their vineyards a few weeks ago and was once again charmed by this part of France.

BALLYMALOE LITFEST

I return to Bordeaux again this week after a fascinating recent vertical tasting and also because the wine world is full of talk of the potential of the 2016 vintage thanks to the recent en-primeur tastings.

Bordeaux is the largest fine-wine producing region on the planet and produces around 700m bottles of wine from its 120,000 hectares, says Leslie Williams.

With Christmas just a few hours off, Leslie Williams has a guide to the best wine stocking fillers that will suit any meal over the coming days.

I am often asked to give general (and difficult) wine recommendations along the lines of — “what red wines do you like?” and my answer has been the same for the last few years — look to Spain.

If you are grilling at home any of the southern Rhones below will work well. I’ve included one white in case you are cooking fish or would like an aperitif.

Trader in historic part of city says the area still has ‘huge potential’ but ‘is like the land that time forgot’

Irish wine drinkers are far too polite. I doubt any other consumer sector in any other country would take the same level of abuse from their government so placidly.

Those beards will certainly need a liberal dousing in flame retardant as The Big Grill BBQ & Craft Beer Festival (Aug 13-16) returns once more to Dublin’s Herbert Park. 

Two men were “in fear of their lives” as they ran away from men wielding a machete and hockey stick in the school yard of a primary school, a court has heard.

It’s time for a return to the Marble City where Bia Beag are reprising their Meet the Bakers event (January 24). 

Many moons ago, The Menu took great pleasure in regularly visiting a wonderful old period home, Lettercollum House, in Timoleague, Co Cork, enjoying splendid meals based around organic produce grown on site afore heading upstairs for blissful repose in the collectively-run guesthouse. 

Terroir is one of those frustrating French terms that is beloved of winemakers and wine-writers but remains little understood by most of the wine-buying public. 

The Menu is readying himself for the Taste of West Cork Cocktail Party (August 21) in the glorious Glebe Gardens, in Baltimore, West Cork, considering it an early taster for the wonderful Taste of West Cork Food Festival. 

Any epicurean entrepreneurs on the verge of bringing another fine product to the Irish food marketplace would do well to trot along to a very promising Outstanding By Design seminar (May 10), at Highbank Organic Orchard Farm, Cuffesgrange, Kilkenny.

WINE is complicated enough for many consumers to get their head around, given the number of foreign words involved, whether they be obscure wine regions or simply grape varieties. It is not surprising that the simple labelling found on the average bottle of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc or Chilean Merlot is so welcome to many of us.

ST PATRICK’S DAY is upon us, so it is good to remind ourselves of the Irish wine connections.

Surprise surprise, but South Africa’s famous native grapes — Steen (Chenin Blanc) and Pinotage (South Africa’s own chameleon-like hybrid of Pinot Noir and Cinsault) were completely missing from a brace of bottles I sampled recently.

The Food Safety Authority has shut down two restaurants on public health grounds.