MARKS & SPENCER SPRING TASTING MAY 2015

Following yesterday’s Aldi summer tasting, today Marks & Spencer held a far larger event (theirs entitled Spring tasting though), with around one hundred wines, beers, ciders and soft drinks on show. I tasted the majority, ignoring one or two categories. Are M&S different/better than the rest? Certainly in the UK they position themselves above all of the other supermarkets bar Waitrose (and Wholefoods I suppose). I am a fan of their foods generally (and some of their clothes) although occasionally you find yourself paying over the odds for something fairly ordinary. But overall I feel you pay a little more and receive a little more in return. Their wine selection is certainly eclectic and they put a huge amount of effort into sourcing well-made wines, advising producers through their team of experts, some of who are winemakers themselves.

There are very few other tastings in Dublin that include wines from Greece, Turkey, Israel, India, Brazil, Macedonia, Uruguay as well as all the other usual wine-producing countries. M&S also offer a decent range of fine wines, their own label beers and ciders. I did not have time to taste the beer and cider yesterday. My comments on supermarket wines (see my post on Aldi) being made to a formula still apply to a certain extent here; I always think I detect a certain similarity of style throughout the M&S range. Having said that they certainly offer a greater diversity than any of their rivals. They tend to be a little more expensive, but overall I think the wines are better. They can offer also wines at very competitive prices and some of these are very good value for money. There were far too many wines to go through everything, but I am sure I will feature more in the Irish Times. In the meantime, here are ten of the most interesting wines.

Tikves 2013 Macedonia

12%

€10.99

When did you last taste a Macedonian wine? Or a blend of Smederevka and Rkaciteli? This has soft easy slghtly floppy melon and grape fruits and a dry finish. Interesting, decent value for money and a welcome change from all of those Pinot Grigios and Sauvignon Blancs.

Mâcon-Villages 2014 Domaine de Rochebin

12.5%

€14.29

A happy hunting ground for Burgundy lovers, the Mâconnais produces some great inexpensive Chardonnays. This is one such example, with its green apple fruits aligned nicely with some crisp fresh acidity and a good lingering finish. A great all-rounder for white meats and richer fishy dishes.

Réserve du Boulas Laudun Côtes du Rhône 2014

13.5%

€13.29

A delicious wine that could be mistaken for a white Châteauneuf-du-Pape. Aromatic and forward, with rich broad plump apricot fruits tempered with a wet-stone minerality. In need of food.

Charles Back Stonedance Roussanne 2014

14%

€15.49

Textured yet elegant with very attractive spicy nectarine fruits. A very interesting and enjoyable wine.

Las Faleras Tinto 2014, Utiel-Requena

12.5%

€8.79

Made from the Bobal grape variety, this is a great value easy glugger with soft plum fruits and light tannins on the finish.

Palataia Pinot Noir 2013, Pfalz

13.5%

€14.79

Fragrant, with lovely soft light spicy cherry fruits with warming alcohol and no tannins. Dangerously easy to drink.

Les Voiles de Paulilles 2013 Collioure

13.5%

€17.49

A big powerful structured wine with masses of cool dark fruits, light spice and a long firm quite mineral finish. Good full-bodied wine to drink with red meats.

Syrah 2013 Vin de pays de l’Ardèche

12%

€11.99

From the ever reliable Cave de Saint Desirat in the northern Rhône, a very attractive light fragrant Syrah with tangy sweet/savoury fruits, good acidity and a tannin-free finish. Great value for money.

Primo de Conti Rouge 2012, Bergerac

13.5%

€13.99

From the excellent organic Tour des Gendres estate in Bergerac, this has very attractive blackcurrant fruits, overlaid with some toast and cedarwood, and light tannins on the finish.

Sheridan’s Irish Food Festival 2015

I spent a very pleasant few hours at the Sheridan’s Irish Food Festival in Meath yesterday. I would love to have stayed longer as there was a lot going on, but sadly, I had plenty of chores waiting for me back home.

The highlight of the day was a raw milk tasting. We worked our way through four cow’s milks, made from different breeds, a sheep’s milk, a goat’s milk and even buffalo milk, all raw and untreated. The producers gave a quick talk about their milk and its attributes. For cheese it is all about fat levels apparently. Frank Shinnick of Fermoy Natural Cheese gave a great talk on the healthy attributes of raw milk – it is only a short time since the Government was trying to ban it. Apparently we need to drink milk with A2 beta casein that, some people believe, helps those with eczema, asthma and lactose intolerance. I enjoyed all of the milks – the goat’s milk was not early as ‘goaty’ as you would expect. Marion Roeleveld of Killeen cheese said that for some reason, pasteurized goat’s milk has a stronger flavour. Most of the producers do not generally produce raw milk, keeping it for the all-important business of cheese making.

Once this was over, I headed off to buy some cheese. For the last twenty years, I have had a personal addiction to sheep’s cheese and Ossau-Iraty, a brebis from the Pyrenees in particular. I came across it at a wine and food fair in the UK, and have always bought it when possible since. In recent years it has become more popular; both M&S and Tesco sell it, and Sheridan’s generally have a selection. Yet I have only ever come across one Irish sheep’s cheese; strange given the number of sheep we have, and the popularity of sheep’s cheese in France, Spain Italy and Greece. Séan and Deirdre FitzGerald in Co. Clare have made Cratloe Hills for around two decades now. I hadn’t seen it for a while, so I was delighted to find a stand with Séan and his cheese there. I also came across Lorraine Cahalan who makes Cáis na Tíre in Terryglass. I bought a piece of each and conducted a taste test including a French raw milk cheese bought from Sheridan’s last week in the lineup. The competition was a bit unfair – I went for the lighter version of the Cratloe (they have a mature version too) but both Irish cheeses had that lovely firm sweetness you get in good sheep’s cheese. The French was still the best for me, but my wife and daughter both preferred the Irish cheeses, finding the brebis a little too powerful. I find sheep’s cheese a good match for most red wine – although this may be just an excuse I have made up to allow me indulge in my two favourite vices.

I also bought some Boyne Valley Blue, made from goat’s cheese, the only Irish blue goat’s cheese? That was delicious, with a certain similarity to some of the Portuguese versions that I have tried. I also sampled the blue cheese spread from Cashel Blue – a great product (blue cheese and cream, can’t go wrong?) but some people might be put off by the grey/brown colour.

I bumped into David Llewellyn, producer of all things wonderful from apples, including a cider, various apple juices, a syrup, a wonderful vinegar and a balsamic apple vinegar. He showed me his new Perry – a delicious fresh dry pear cider with about 6% alcohol. I also sampled Jane Russell’s bratwurst and sauerkraut – both very good.

As well as the cheeses, I came home with a bottle of O’Cléirigh Virginja American Pale Ale, the first beer from a new local craft brewery, and only bottled that morning. It was very good, with a nice hoppy bite but well balanced. I also bought some Macroom flour, cakes for my mother, a collar of free-range Tamworth pork, some raw milk from Crawford’s Farm and a nice bag of salad.

Ballymaloe Kerrygold Litfest 2015

I have just returned from the Ballymaloe Kerrygold Litfest 2015. As usual I have this lovely warm feeling of goodwill to mankind in general, engendered by the wonderful events and interesting people I came across over the weekend. I know some people view this as an elitist navel-gazing event; all I can say is they have obviously never been there. The Litfest has a laid-back welcoming atmosphere, with no burly security guards, no VIP areas, and no helicopters flying in; just a great range of speakers and if you can’t afford that, an amazing array of free or cheap fringe events (once you pay your €5 entrance fee) in the Big Shed and the surrounding gardens.

I started on the early morning shift at 9.30 on Saturday morning, with a group of colleagues from the Irish press, each of us presenting a wine we thought offered value, and discussing what value actually meant when buying wine. I get very frustrated with wine drinkers who think that a wine must cost less than €10 to be considered great value. In fact, as most of this goes straight to the government in taxes, frequently it means the worst possible value. A wine at €25 can be great value if it tastes as good as a €50 bottle. As it happened three out of four panelists chose wines at €14-15 (mine was the brilliant El Castro de Valtuille Joven, search the irishtimes.com for details) and one opted for a €24 bottle.

The Beauty of Blending

I took part in five tasting/discussions in total, and therefore never made it down to the cookery school to watch any demonstrations. I did get to a great whiskey tasting by whisky author Dave Broom, Tomás Clancy of the Sunday Business Post and Brian Nation, master distiller for Irish distillers in Midleton, and a wonderful presentation of beers from the Brooklyn Brewery by brewmaster, writer and raconteur Garret Oliver. If you haven’t tasted the Brooklyn brewery beers, I strongly suggest that you do so. Tomás and I saved our best wines to last – on Sunday we presented The Beauty of Blending, and a nice line up of wines; Tio Pepe En Rama (Thanks Gonzalez Byass), Bollinger Special Cuvée (Findlaters), Taylors 20 year old (thanks to Chris Forbes of Taylors) and Coyam (O’Briens). We raided the Ballymaloe cellar for some Ch. Léoville-Barton 2004 and Vieux Telegraphe 2007. Proof if needed that the ancient art of blending is all about improving quality.In fact you could argue that just about every wine produced is a blend of some sort.

Sorachi Ace

Alice Feiring in action

I went to a presentation of natural wines by American author Alice Feiring, who champions this very controversial style of winemaking – organic or biodynamic winemaking, low or no sulphur, no cultured yeasts, and very little else added. She pointed out there are 72 permitted additives in winemaking many of which can drastically change the taste of a wine. I enjoyed two of the four wines, and disliked the others – a draw? I also took part in a tasting with Alice and others on terroir in wine, and another early morning session with some very bleary-eyed panelists (and audience) on whether wine is going out of fashion. There was a representative from each form of alcohol production, and it could have ended in fisticuffs. Maybe we were all too tired for fighting as it passed off peacefully.

On Saturday night I attended an amazing dinner prepared by the team at OX restaurant in Belfast. If you haven’t been there yet, make it a priority. The food is inventive, complex and gorgeous. See the menu below. The halibut, lamb, cheese and artichoke ice cream will stay in my memory for a long time, as will the Cypres de Climens. I had John Bowman sitting on one side and Rory Gallagher’s brother (and former manager) on the other, so the conversation swung from history to politics, to music and my attendance (as a schoolboy) at Gallagher’s gig in the Carlton Cinema on O’Connell Street in the mid-seventies.

All of the above were great fun, but I was probably happiest wandering around the Big Shed and other fringe areas, meeting friends and talking to stallholders. I bought some weird and wonderful seeds from Brown Envelope Seeds, some organic lettuce seedlings, a few bottles of amazing flavoured waters from Rebel Foods, oolong tea from Niks, coffee from Badger & Dodo, chocolate from Wilkie’s, lunch from Iyers Café (great dhosas) and a magical mystery lunch from Slow Food Northern Ireland. I tried Mr. Jeffares delicious flavoured blackcurrant juices, Craigies cider, smoked water (?) at Ummera Smokehouse, and much, much more. Several member of the drinks press tasted and danced long into the night – all in a day’s work. Bring on Litfest 2016. Next up Sheridan’s Food Festival next weekend!