Brilliant Reputation - Woeful Image
17 May 2013 Filed in: News & Views Cellar Notes
You may have noticed that World Sherry 'Day' lasts for a week (20th to 26th May). I believe they got that idea from us here in Ireland where St Patrick's Day can last for 10 and, when the Celtic Tiger was roaring loudest, Christmas Day stretched towards three weeks on occasion. Read More...
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The Road to Burgundy
14 May 2013 Filed in: Burgundy News & Views
I first met Ray Walker at Domaine Dujac in Morey-Saint-Denis during harvest 2010, Tuesday 28th September to be precise. I was talking to Jacques Seysses, patriarch of the domaine, and Walker was standing off to one side. Read More...
ANZAC Dinner
25 April 2013 Filed in: Cellar Notes News & Views
What better way to celebrate ANZAC Day than by organising a themed wine dinner with wines from Australia and New Zealand, and the food giving at least a nod to the Antipodes? That’s precisely what I did last weekend. Read More...
Barbeito Madeira
23 April 2013 Filed in: Cellar Notes News & Views
For thrilling intensity of flavour there is nothing to beat Madeira. Nothing. So there was no way I was going to miss the Barbeito tasting, hosted in Pearl Brasserie, Dublin yesterday by Ricardo Diogo V Freitas and organised by Ally Alpine of Wines on the Green. Read More...
Bordeaux En Primeur
05 April 2013 Filed in: News & Views Cellar Notes
The Bordeaux ‘en primeur’ circus is about to swing into action. Here’s my take on it, written earlier this year for publication in the April issue of Food & Wine Magazine:
It might not have made headlines on Sky or CNN but within the cosy little world of fine wine the news last year that Château Latour, one of the superstar names of Bordeaux, was withdrawing from the annual en primeur jamboree set tongues wagging and the twittersphere humming. Read More...
Wine Fraud!
05 March 2013 Filed in: Food & Wine News & Views
Fake: a thing that is not genuine; a forgery or sham.
Counterfeit: a fraudulent imitation of something else.
Call them what you will but the bottles of Domaine Ponsot wines consigned for sale at an Acker, Merrall & Condit auction in New York on 25th April 2008 were definitely not genuine. Most definitely not. Read More...
Screwcap - Cork's Saviour?
The cork industry should welcome the Stelvin screwcap closure as a saviour, not a villain. A bold statement, yes, but picture this: when Food & Wine came on the scene 15 years ago cork ruled the roost; never was a screwcap seen in any of our tastings. But it was a despotic rule Read More...
Oz Shiraz
18 December 2012 Filed in: News & Views Cellar Notes
The winemaker looked at me: “You don’t want to taste my wine, do you?” “No,” I muttered weakly, wondering what was coming next. “But you’d kill for a cold beer?” “Yes,” I hollered. Read More...
Go West
When the dark days of January finally show some signs of brightening into spring, and a month of prayer and fasting draws to a close, it is time to go west for some much needed indulgence… Read More...
Show Stoppers
Last weekend’s Food & Wine Magazine Christmas Show at the RDS attracted great crowds and from my point of view it was certainly the most successful to date. Never before have I had such a wide range of wines from which to choose my matches for the dishes being cooked by a host of Ireland’s leading chefs on the Chefs’ Stage. Read More...
