Wine Republic - the blog

Wine Geese Book To Be Launched

Was in Kinsale, Co. Cork yesterday and popped into the wine museum at Castle Desmond. I hadn't been there since the day it opened in 1997. There's not a huge amount to see but the castle itself has an interesting history so worth a visit if you are down that way. While there I found out that Ted Murphy and Onstream are about to publish his book about the Irish Wine Geese. At last, it's been in the pipe line for about three years. Big day is June 16th (or 19th - I can't recall) 2005. It's called A Kingdom of Wine - a Celebration of Ireland's Wine Geese, cost €60 (ouch - but no doubt it's a big colour coffee table job and worth every penny - the perfect present for the wine lover etc.) Further details here. If I get hold of a copy I'll post a review here.

Irish Whisey A Go Go

Mitchell & Son, Ireland’s oldest independent family wine merchant, this week launched two special limited editions of their cult whiskey Green Spot. There were also a couple of other curios available for tasting. Here are my notes.

Green Spot 10 Year Old Irish Whiskey, 40% a.b.v., €250 ,(1000 bottles produced)
Nose shows intense wheat and honey with notes of dried fruit such as prune and Christmas cake. Palate echoes nose and is very smooth, with a touch of raisin like sweetness and lingers well. Reminds me a little of armagnac. If I was scoring and I’d say something like 90-92/100 or borderline silver medal to gold. p>

Green Spot 12 Year Old Irish Whiskey, 58% a.b.v., €850, (200 bottles produced)
The high alcohol level makes for a very lifted assertive pungent nose showing wheat, orange, honey and prune with a touch of fusel oil. Palate is rich but burns a bit because of the abv. Adding water seemed to dilute rather than release flavours but I probably added too much. Tried again later to get the balance right but concluded preferred the 10 year old. If I was scoring and I’d say something like 90/100 or good silver medal.

Also available to taste for reference was the original sample bottle of Green Spot 10 year old supplied by IDL that Mitchells selected. It was much paler in colour and the lack of caramel colouring seemed also to make it a touch less raisined or sweet.

The was also a bottle of ‘original’10 year old Green Spot dating back to a bottling in the early 70s. It would have been sourced from the original Jamieson’s Dublin Bow St. distillery, rather than Midleton in Cork. It was a very different style, much heavier on the fusel oil and for this taster not as attractive. Also available was an ‘original’ sample of Jameson’s Red Breast, bottled in the early seventies, distilled at Bow St and aged in the Harcourt Vaults for Gilbeys. It too seemed very heavy on the fusel oil to the point of being almost fish oil like and reminded me of very old Australian Rutherglen Tokay, (a fortified muscadelle, for those who don’t know this style), which gains a sardine oil like character with time.

The attractive livery for the new whiskies was designed by Terry Green, who now lives in the south of France, which would explain why I haven’t bumped into him at any Dublin tastings recently! Terry also designed the short-lived Bailey’s whiskey bottle.

Please note you can only buy these two whiskies at the shop. They will not ship. However you can ring and pay and they will keep the bottle until you manage to get there to pick it up - whenever that turns out to be. 

French Peasants are Revolting

Decanter.com reports extraordinary scenes in the south of France and has video footage of angry vignerons destroying 10, 000 hectolitres of Chilean wine near Montpellier. Demonstrators also wrecked two supermarkets selling foreign wines and smashed rail signalling equipment. Total damage estimated at over €3m and they have threatened to step up their actions unless the government offers them more support (ie money).

Now does that make you want to go out and buy more French wine? No I thought not. What a shame they don’t put as much energy and inventiveness into making and marketing wines that the world wants, then they might not have these problems. They might like to know that their problems are not uncommon. Australia has a glut that has led to collapsing grape prices and no government will bail them out. It was the same in California a couple of years ago.

Dunnes' Special Offers in June O5

Dunnes have just emailed me with their special offers for June 2nd to 22nd. Best wines on offer are the Laurent Miquel range. Their varietals are usually €7.99 and they are selling them for 3 for €20. I had the Syrah on friday last by coincidence and it's good. Met the eponynous winemaker, Laurent,  one time and he's passionate to the point of obsessional. Export sales are by his Irish wife Nisea. Up a notch in quality are their Nord Sud label, usually €9.99 but €4 off if you buy two. Their top end stuff isn't in the sale but it is superb. They also make Cazal Viel as sold in tesco and that was my wine of the year a couple of years ago.

There are offers on their San Pedro Chilean range but they are fairly average in my experience. Best of them is the Carmenere.