Four of my favourite Christmas party wines, and how to choose yours

First published in the Irish Times, Saturday 23rd November, 2019.

Having a party this Christmas? Choosing the right wine is not too difficult once you keep a couple of guidelines in mind.

Supermarkets have plenty of sub-€10 bottles, but cheap wines really only benefit the taxman. To send your guests home happy, be prepared to spend €10 or more a bottle. If you can stretch to €15, you will certainly notice the difference. If your budget is tight, don’t worry; I list a few of my favourite €10 supermarket wines below. Either way, it is worth buying one bottle first and trying it out at home, maybe with a few friends.

Richer, more alcoholic wines – white as well as red – are best avoided; a hefty 14.5 per cent red wine will overwhelm the palate and have your guests reeling after a glass on an empty stomach. Far better to go for lighter wines that refresh. Heavily oaked white wines are best kept for food, so avoid these if at all possible. With red wines steer clear of those with drying tannins; again, great with food but unpleasant on their own. There are plenty of wines with 11-13.5 per cent alcohol that will go down so much better. Lastly, remember wine stimulates the appetite and also tastes a lot better with food; a few nibbles, even bought-in supermarket party trays, will provide welcome soakage.

There is a huge range of low-alcohol white wines, including Sauvignon Blanc from Marlborough (always popular), but remember that Chile and the Loire valley also produce very good versions. Spain offers Verdejo from Rueda and Rías Baixas; Portugal has some great white wines, including Alvarinho and Vinho Verde, and from France I would go for Muscadet, Picpoul de Pinet or Côtes de Gascogne. Italy has a range of light whites, my favourites being Verdicchio and Soave, but a good Pinot Grigio would work too.

Light, fruity red wines include inexpensive Merlot, Pinot Noir, Gamay/Beaujolais, unoaked Rioja and Valpolicella and Bardolino.

My recommendations from the multiples include the Les Courtelles Picpoul de Pinet (€11) and Silver Moki Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc (€10.50) from Dunnes Stores, Picouto de Cima Vinho Verde (€11.95) and Rizzardi Bardolino Classico (€14.95) from O’Briens, and Exquisite Marlborough Sauvignon (€9.99) and South Australia Pinot Noir (€8.99) from Aldi. Lidl has Laurana Verdicchio di Castelli di Jesi and Madame Parmentier Régnié (both €9.99). Marks & Spencer has a Verdicchio (€10.50) and a light, fruity Valpolicella Valpatena (€10.50).

Pinot Noir 2017, Domaine Antugnac, Haute Vallée de l’Aude
13%, €14.58
Lovely sweet, ripe red-cherry fruits with a slight earthiness and a supple, fruit-filled finish. Great served solo or with a variety of nibbles at cool room temperature.
From Wines Direct, Mullingar and Arnott’s, Dublin 1, winesdirect.ie

Aduna Rioja 2018
13.5%, €14.95
Violet aromas and vibrant, fresh dark-cherry fruits with a soft easy finish. Perfect party wine, and great with tapas.
From Mitchell & Son, Dublin 1, Sandycove, Co Dublin, and at Avoca in Kilmacanogue, Co Wicklow, and Dunboyne, Co Meath, mitchellandson.com; Myles Doyle, Gorey, Co Wexford; Wilde & Green, Dublin 6, wildeandgreen.com

Picpoul de Pinet Villa des Croix 2018
13%, €16.95
Plump, rounded melon and peach fruits balanced nicely by a lightly zesty saline acidity, finishing dry. Great solo or with lighter canapes.
From Baggot Street Wines, Dublin 4, baggotstreetwines.com; Blackrock Cellar, Co Dublin, blackrockcellar.com; Deveney’s, Dublin 14

La Raspa Blanca Seco 2017, Bodegas Viñedos Verticales, Sierras de Malaga, Spain
13%, €19
Fresh, fragrant and elegant with inviting floral aromas and delicate, pure tropical fruits. A delight to drink. A party wine with a difference, perfect on its own or with nibbles.
From Baggot Street Wines, Dublin 4, baggotstreetwines.com; Lilliput Stores, Dublin 7, lilliputstores.com; Coach House, Dublin 16, thecoachhouseofflicence.ie

Pinot Noir: A flexible friend

First published in the Irish Times, Saturday 16th November, 2019

Pinot Noir ticks a lot of boxes, which may explain its rise in popularity. The very best wines have a soft silkiness combined with a gentle power that together deliver a hedonistic hit that few other wines can match.

It is an instantly likeable, gluggable wine; it is the most versatile of food wines, a great partner for tuna, salmon and a host of white and red meats, as well as feathered game. If you are starting to think about Christmas, it goes very nicely with goose, duck and turkey, too. Going with so many foods, it is a great choice in restaurants, if some of your party are eating fish and others meat.

While the very best wines will keep and develop, just about every Pinot Noir can be drunk with great pleasure almost as soon as it is bottled. Light to medium-bodied, and free of any drying tannins, many wines have a seductive sweetness, despite being quite dry.

So why has it taken us so long to fall for Pinot? Until recently buying Pinot Noir, either from its home territory in Burgundy or anywhere else, was a hit-and-miss affair. But over the last decade, growers and winemakers around the world seem to have finally mastered this fussy grape. Burgundy is far more consistent, and now Germany, Oregon, California, Australia, Chile and South Africa all produce very high-quality Pinot Noir, as do Alsace and parts of the Languedoc, in France. In addition, Romania and Chile both produce some very appealing wines at incredibly low prices.

Inexpensive Pinot Noir is generally fresh and juicy. The greatest wines match my description above but are frequently eye-wateringly expensive. In between those two extremes styles vary hugely depending on where the grapes are grown. Wine anoraks love the way that two Pinots, made from grapes grown metres apart, will show subtle but marked differences. It is all down to slight changes in soil, exposure, height or mesoclimate, or a combination of all three.

Burgundy still produces the world’s finest Pinot Noir. For €20-€30 you will find plenty of very stylish Bourgogne Rouge and for around €50 some complex, sensual wines that will bring you out in goosebumps. The Beaune I mention below is one of a number of excellent wines made by Róisín Curley, a Mayo woman , in her boutique winery in Burgundy. I cannot pretend that the €9 Pinot I also refer to will reach the same heights, but it is a very attractive glass of wine. I have not included New Zealand, which produces some great Pinot Noir, as I covered it earlier this year in these pages.

Wildflower Pinot Noir 2018, Romania
12.5%, €9

A light, easy Pinot Noir, with juicy blackberry and red-cherry fruits. A great party wine, or to serve with salmon, tuna or pre-dinner nibbles.
From O’Briens, obrienswine.ie

Felicité Pinot Noir 2017, Newton Johnson, Cape South Coast, South Africa
13%, €16.95

A captivating, pure Pinot Noir with soft, rounded, ripe dark-cherry fruits, a touch of spice and gentle tannins. It displays a lovely ripeness without ever seeming in the least bit clumsy. Try it with roast game birds, duck or a mushroom risotto.
From jnwine.com

Sancerre Maulin Bèle 2017, Domaine André Vatan
13%, €19.50

A seductive, light Pinot Noir with soft, sweet, nicely concentrated red-cherry fruits and a herbal touch. Drink it with roast pork, or duck.
From Whelehan’s Wines, Dublin 18, whelehanswines.ie

Beaune 2017, Róisín Curley
12.5%, €55

A floral Pinot Noir, with fresh, clean blackberry and dark-cherry fruits with good supporting acidity and a lovely long, savoury finish. Goes well with roast duck or chicken.
From Grapevine, Dalkey, Co Dublin, onthegrapevine.ie; Baggot Street Wines, Dublin 4, baggotstreetwines.com; Mitchell & Son, Dublin 1 and Sandycove, Co Dublin, as well as at Avoca at Kilmacanogue, Co Wicklow, and Dunboyne, Co Meath, mitchellandson.com; Drinkstore, Dublin 7, drinkstore.ie; Green Man Wines, Dublin 6, greenmanwines.ie; Ely 64, Glasthule, Co Dublin, ely64.com; Whelehan’s Wines, Dublin 18, whelehanswines.ie

Why this New Zealand white wine is always welcome

 

First published in the Irish Times, Saturday 9th November, 2019

The name Kevin Judd may not be familiar to you, but if you enjoy a glass of Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc, you owe him a debt of gratitude. Judd is one of a small group of people responsible for creating one of our favourite wines and making it famous around the world. Judd was the person in charge of the first 25 vintages at the famous Cloudy Bay winery in Marlborough, New Zealand, before setting up Greywacke, his own label. Cloudy Bay, along with Montana (now known as Brancott Estate) were the first to produce a style of Sauvignon Blanc that quickly took the world by storm. It was pungent, perfumed and intense, with flavours variously described as gooseberry, freshly-cut grass, herbs, boxwood, peas, asparagus, and even famously as “tom cat’s pee on a blackcurrant bush”.

The unique Marlborough climate (a long growing season and huge differences in day and night-time temperatures) gave Marlborough Sauvignon (Savvie to locals) a distinctive style with piercing fresh lime zest acidity combined with gooseberry, grapefruit, passion fruit, mango and other ripe fruits.

Marlborough is still doing well, he says “although climate change is now a real issue – there is no doubt; the evidence is there. 2012 is the last cool vintage we had here. More scary is the warning we can expect more storms and other extreme weather events. Not all of this is bad though – I like a riper style of Sauvignon Blanc, therefore the warmer vintages actually suits my style of wine.” Judd, along with a few others, now makes a more subtle, richer, less aromatic style of Marlborough Sauvignon.

The Greywacke wines are made at Dog Point, another blue-chip Marlborough winery owned by two friends, from a mix of bought-in and estate fruit. As well as two Sauvignon Blancs, he makes an excellent age-worthy Chardonnay and a Pinot Noir. In some ways, Judd wishes we drank a little less Sauvignon Blanc. “I wish people would try our other wines, our Chardonnay in particular,” he says. He, and New Zealand in general, also makes some great Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.

The overall standard of Marlborough Sauvignon is pretty high. Some of the less expensive versions can be a little sweet and confected, but overall there is a good consistency and quality at every price point. Every wine retailer will have a few Marlborough Sauvignon on offer, including Dunnes Stores, SuperValu, Marks & Spencer, Aldi and O’Briens, usually priced at €10-€15. Pay a few euros more, and you can enjoy some fantastic complex wines, including those from Greywacke.

Insight Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2018
12.5%,€12.95 during November and December
Fresh and zesty with intense aromas of herbs and peppers followed by a lively palate of mango, pears and grapefruit. Perfect with a Thai chicken curry.
From O’Briens, obrienswine.ie

Dog Point Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2018
13.5%, €25-27
Perfumed with crisp lemon zest, mouth-watering tropical fruits and a very long dry finish. Excellent wine. Try it with oysters or grilled white fish strewn with fresh herbs.
From Jus de Vine, Portmarnock, jusdevine.ie; Jnwine.com; Whelehan’s Wines, Loughlinstown, whelehanswines.ie; The Corkscrew, Dublin 2, thecorkscrew.ie; Donnybrook Fair, donnybrookfair.ie

Babich Black Label Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2018
13.5%, €25
A beautifully textured rich Sauvignon with ripe tropical fruits cut through with lime zest. Try it with prawns with mango or salmon with dill and butter.
From Blackrock Cellar, Blackrock, blackrockcellar.com; Drinkstore, D7, drinkstore.ie; D-Six Wines, Dublin 6; peggykellys.ie; Deveney’s, Dundrum; Martin’s Off Licence, Dublin 3, martinsofflicence.ie; Nectar Wines, D18; Sweeneys D3, sweeneysd3.ie; The Corkscrew, Dublin 2, thecorkscrew.ie; The Vintry, Dublin 6, vintry.ie; Terroirs, Dublin 4, Terroirs.ie; The Grape Vine, D9.

Greywacke Marlborough Wild Sauvignon Blanc 2016
14%, €34.99
A wonderful complex Sauvignon, with creamy textured ripe peaches and subtle toasted nuts, underpinned by a crisp herbal citrus acidity. Drink with seared scallops with lime or smoked salmon.

From Baggot Street Wines, Dublin 4, baggotstreetwines.com; Blackrock Cellar, Blackrock, blackrockcellar.com; Ely 64, Glasthule, Ely64.com; Clontarf Wines, Dublin 3 clontarfwines.ie; The Corkscrew, Dublin 2, thecorkscrew.ie; Donnybrook Fair,donnybrookfair.ie; Sweeneys D3, sweeneysd3.ie; O’Briens, obrienswine.ie; Martin’s Off Licence, Dublin 3, martinsofflicence.ie; Mitchell & Son, Dublin 1, Sandycove, and Avoca, Kilmacanogue & Dunboyne, mitchellandson.com; The Parting Glass, Enniskerry, thepartingglass.ie; Redmonds, Dublin 6; Redmonds.ie; Thomas’s of Foxrock, thomasoffoxrock.ie; Whelehan’s Wines, Loughlinstown, whelehanswines.ie; The Wicklow Wine Co., Wicklow, wicklowwineco.ie

Amarone: The bad boy of wine doesn’t have to be a clumsy brute

First published in The Irish Times, Saturday 2nd November, 2019.

Amarone has a reputation as the big bad boy of the wine world – rich, powerful and alcoholic, a wine without subtlety or elegance. It is hugely popular in Scandinavia, Germany and the US where those warming qualities are appreciated on freezing winter nights. But while Amarone is certainly big, it doesn’t have to be a clumsy brute.

On a recent trip to the Veneto with O’Briens , I saw the start of the Amarone process with two of their producers, Guerrieri-Rizzardi and Musella. Bunches of grapes were being laid out on trays to slowly dry and raisin for up to three months, before being fermented into wine.

It seems logical that grapes destined for Amarone would be picked late; in fact, the opposite is the case, as young healthy grapes with good acidity make for better Amarone, according to winemaker Giuseppe Rizzardi. “You want ripe grapes, but not over-ripe; we pick earlier than for Valpolicella and Ripasso – looser bunches are better for drying too”.

Traditionally the grapes were dried in cellars in the hills above the autumn fog line, thereby avoiding botrytis. These days it is a more technical affair with the use of temperature and humidity control, although at both Guerrieri-Rizzardi and Musella the drying or appassimento is done naturally with open doors and a machine to circulate air.

Amarone can only be produced in the Valpolicella region and must be made from grapes that have been dried until at least December 1st, and then fermented to a minimum of 14 per cent alcohol. In practice, most producers dry them for a longer period, and ferment to 15 per cent or more. The finished wine must be aged for a minimum of two years in oak barrels, four for a Riserva.

Traditionally Amarone was seen as a vino da meditazione, a meditation wine to be enjoyed after a meal, with some aged Parmesan and a few crackers. Sandro Boscaini of Masi once told me that he liked his Amarone with aged Parmesan and a dribble of acacia honey.

Rizzardi argued his Amarone is more flexible than this. “The concept of drinkability is important. Ours is a wine to drink with ox cheeks, wild boar, or venison.”

It also pairs well with all sorts of substantial winter fare; ribs, beef stews, game and risotto – risotto all ’ Amarone of course, robust meaty pasta dishes and blue cheeses such as Gorgonzola. As it is high in alcohol, you simply drink less.

I tasted my way through 14 Amarone, including most of best-known brands and supermarket wines. The appassimento process means far less wine is produced, so the wines are rarely cheap. Inexpensive Amarone tends be oaky and sweet and generally is best avoided.

Amarone della Valpolicella Alpha-Zeta 2016 (main image)

15%, €35.95

An attractive, livelier more youthful style of Amarone with clean fresh damson and dark cherry fruits, along with hints of spice. Drink it with substantial red meat dishes.

From:

Jus de Vine, Portmarnock, jusdevine.ie; Baggot Street Wines, Dublin 4, baggotstreetwines.com; Blackrock Cellar, Blackrock, blackrockcellar.com; The Corkscrew, Dublin 2, thecorkscrew.ie; 1601 Off-licence, Kinsale; Ely 64, Glasthule, Ely64.com; Clontarf Wines, Dublin 3 clontarfwines.ie; Thomas’s of Foxrock, thomasoffoxrock.ie; Drinkstore, D7, drinkstore.ie; Dwan’s Off-licence, D16; McHughs, Dublin 5, mchughs.ie; Wineonline.ie

Amarone della Valpolicella Classico 2011, Guerrieri-Rizzardi

16%, €39.95

Voluptuous expansive dark chocolate and ripe plum fruits; smooth, complex and long; a very stylish wine. A glass after dinner with cheese.

From: O’Briens, obrienswine.ie

Amarone della Valpolicella Riserva 2011 Musella (biodynamic)

15%, €52

Developed forward slightly herbal soft fruits on the nose, enticing pure dark fruits, balanced and very elegant with lovely grip and length.

From: O’Briens, obrienswine.ie

Amarone della Valpolicella Rosson 2011

15.5%, €75

A magnificent wine with layer after layer of developed brooding complex raisined dark fruits and figs, and a finish that goes on forever. A true vino da meditazione.

From:

SIYPS.com; Green Man Wines, Dublin 6, greenmanwines.ie; Ely 64, Glasthule, Ely64.com; Sheridan’s Cheesemongers, Dublin 2, Kells, Co. Meath, Galway, sheridanscheesemongers.com.