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<title>Raymond Blake : Blake on Wine</title><link>http://www.blakeonwine.com/index.php</link><description>Raymond Blake RSS</description><dc:language>en</dc:language><dc:creator>info@blakeonwine.com</dc:creator><dc:rights>Copyright 2011 Raymond Blake</dc:rights><dc:date>2013-05-17T15:48:30+01:00</dc:date><admin:generatorAgent rdf:resource="http://www.realmacsoftware.com/" />
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<lastBuildDate>Sat, 18 May 2013 08:39:26 +0100</lastBuildDate><item><title>Brilliant Reputation - Woeful Image</title><dc:creator>info@blakeonwine.com</dc:creator><category>News &#x26; Views</category><category>Cellar Notes</category><dc:date>2013-05-17T15:48:30+01:00</dc:date><link>http://www.blakeonwine.com/files/brilliant-reputation-woeful-image-may-2013.php#unique-entry-id-156</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.blakeonwine.com/files/brilliant-reputation-woeful-image-may-2013.php#unique-entry-id-156</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[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. 

...I said to a colleague that something should be done to mark World Sherry Day and magnanimously announced that I would be prepared to contribute a bottle or two to any celebrations &ndash; while implying that I hoped somebody else would do the heavy lifting. 

...They are officially categorised as fortified but I prefer legacy, for they are living relics from a bygone age and it behoves us to do our utmost to ensure their continued existence.   If we fail to do this then they will be gone forever, just like any endangered species, for they would not be made again and they could not be made again. ]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>The Road to Burgundy</title><dc:creator>info@blakeonwine.com</dc:creator><category>Burgundy</category><category>News &#x26; Views</category><dc:date>2013-05-14T12:21:34+01:00</dc:date><link>http://www.blakeonwine.com/files/the-road-to-burgundy-may-2013.php#unique-entry-id-155</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.blakeonwine.com/files/the-road-to-burgundy-may-2013.php#unique-entry-id-155</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[But you couldn&rsquo;t miss him: tall, slim and Ray-Banned, he cut an impressive figure, looking for all the world like a younger version of the great boxer Sugar Ray Leonard. ...  Afterwards, Rosalind, Jacques&rsquo; wife, filled me in on the details: with barely a notion about winemaking Walker had decamped with his family from his native California and established Maison Ilan, named after his daughter, in Nuits-Saint-Georges. 

...Now he has told his story in The Road to Burgundy, which will leave staid nine-to-fivers tut-tutting and muttering between disapproving shakes of the head and I-told-you-so nods.   But nothing could stifle Walker&rsquo;s enthusiasm and the trials and tribulations, along with the moments of soaring elation, are all documented here in an immediate, easy to follow style. ]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>ANZAC Dinner</title><dc:creator>info@blakeonwine.com</dc:creator><category>Cellar Notes</category><category>News &#x26; Views</category><dc:date>2013-04-25T09:24:43+01:00</dc:date><link>http://www.blakeonwine.com/files/anzac-dinner-april-2013.php#unique-entry-id-154</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.blakeonwine.com/files/anzac-dinner-april-2013.php#unique-entry-id-154</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[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? ...  The committed Europhiles in the group struggled with some of the wines, but a handful played to rave reviews and in general they were well received.   The wines were sourced from far and wide: some were carried home in hand luggage when such a practice was still possible, some were shipped home from various wine shops in Sydney and Adelaide, some were sourced in Ireland. 

...Lovely fruit, still fresh and lively, showing some sweet hints of age, great length. 
]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Barbeito Madeira</title><dc:creator>info@blakeonwine.com</dc:creator><category>Cellar Notes</category><category>News &#x26; Views</category><dc:date>2013-04-23T06:52:40+01:00</dc:date><link>http://www.blakeonwine.com/files/barbeito-madeira-april-2013.php#unique-entry-id-153</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.blakeonwine.com/files/barbeito-madeira-april-2013.php#unique-entry-id-153</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[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.

...It was interesting to taste and it reminded me of the odd drop of altar wine I snaffled as a youngster, but with the treasures that followed it was soon forgotten about. 

...It started with a nice tingle but it was a bit one-dimensional with some hollow spots in the flavour and a finish that disappeared all too quickly.

...Made from the unpopular Tinta Negra grape, it was hard to believe that this glowing amber wine had started life as a deep-coloured red. ]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Bordeaux En Primeur</title><dc:creator>info@blakeonwine.com</dc:creator><category>News &#x26; Views</category><category>Cellar Notes</category><dc:date>2013-04-05T07:16:13+01:00</dc:date><link>http://www.blakeonwine.com/files/bordeaux-en-primeur-april-2013.php#unique-entry-id-152</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.blakeonwine.com/files/bordeaux-en-primeur-april-2013.php#unique-entry-id-152</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[It might not have made headlines on Sky or CNN but within the cosy little world of fine wine the news last year that Ch&acirc;teau Latour, one of the superstar names of Bordeaux, was withdrawing from the annual en primeur jamboree set tongues wagging and the twittersphere humming. 

...For decades the raison for buying en primeur was peddled thus: buy now and secure the best possible price for a wine that is sure to get more expensive and which, because of limited production, may not even be available again in the future. ...  Closer to home, Searson&rsquo;s in Monkstown, whose first en primeur offer many years ago featured the legendary 1961 &ndash; a genuine contender for the title &lsquo;vintage of the century&rsquo; &ndash; ceased offering Bordeaux en primeur for the simple reason that there was nothing in it for them or their customers. 

...Perhaps most notably they also host an excellent tasting every year of about ten dozen ch&acirc;teaux, and it is held nearly 12 months after the en primeur tastings, just before the wines are due to be bottled. ]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Wine Fraud&#x21;</title><dc:creator>info@blakeonwine.com</dc:creator><category>Food &#x26; Wine</category><category>News &#x26; Views</category><dc:date>2013-03-05T17:10:29+00:00</dc:date><link>http://www.blakeonwine.com/files/wine-fraud-march-2011.php#unique-entry-id-151</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.blakeonwine.com/files/wine-fraud-march-2011.php#unique-entry-id-151</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[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. 

...Given the career path he chose his background is suitably shady but he started making a name for himself in US wine circles in the early years of this century, buying and selling extraordinary quantities of the most celebrated wines on earth. 

...If &lsquo;Ch&acirc;teau Stunning Claret&rsquo; 1982 is selling for, say, &euro;3,000 per bottle and the 1981 and 1983 vintages are selling for &euro;500 then a bottle of each of those could be bought, blended together and then re-bottled as two of &lsquo;1982&rsquo; and sold for &euro;6,000. 

...If there is a hero in this murky tale then it is Laurent Ponsot who has devoted a huge amount of time and resources to uncovering fake wines and who has worked closely with the FBI to do so (and they deserve an honourable mention also). ]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Screwcap - Cork&#x27;s Saviour?</title><dc:creator>info@blakeonwine.com</dc:creator><category>News &#x26; Views</category><category>Cellar Notes</category><category>Food &#x26; Wine</category><dc:date>2013-01-31T16:47:54+00:00</dc:date><link>http://www.blakeonwine.com/files/screwcap-corks-saviour-january-2013.php#unique-entry-id-150</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.blakeonwine.com/files/screwcap-corks-saviour-january-2013.php#unique-entry-id-150</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[With no serious alternative, cork had the market to itself and, despite rigorous efforts by conscientious winemakers to ensure that they were using the best quality corks, some rogues always slipped through the net. 

For years, cork-induced wine faults constituted the elephant in the room that nobody wanted to challenge, despite the fact that sticking a piece of tree bark into the neck of a bottle was almost guaranteed to lead to a spoilage rate of about five per cent. 

...As the screwcap challenge gained momentum in the early years of this century the cork industry reacted with comical, spoilt brat truculence, whinging and whining and marshalling all sorts of red herring arguments about saving an indigenous industry and even the environment, which is always good for tugging the heart strings. 

...When they function properly they are excellent, a fact I have always acknowledged but which was brought home to me most tellingly in one of the great strongholds of screwcap &ndash; the Clare Valley. ]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Oz Shiraz</title><dc:creator>info@blakeonwine.com</dc:creator><category>News &#x26; Views</category><category>Cellar Notes</category><dc:date>2012-12-18T09:01:45+00:00</dc:date><link>http://www.blakeonwine.com/files/oz-shiraz-december-2012.php#unique-entry-id-149</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.blakeonwine.com/files/oz-shiraz-december-2012.php#unique-entry-id-149</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[It was late afternoon in Australia&rsquo;s Barossa Valley and I had arrived at the St Hallett winery for my final visit of the day.   After a day-long assault from massively concentrated wines, gums and jowls were battered, feeling like they had been to the dentist &ndash; and he had gone heavy on the anaesthetic. 

...That stereotype casts a long shadow and it's not hard to find wines that still play &lsquo;pound the palate&rsquo;, but this is only part of the story now; with the dawn of the new century a less simplistic, more nuanced picture began to emerge.

...The only true test of a wine&rsquo;s quality is to drink some, so I snaffled a half glass to go with lunch and it held up beautifully, effortlessly delivering on its earlier promise. ]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Go West</title><dc:creator>info@blakeonwine.com</dc:creator><category>Food &#x26; Wine</category><category>News &#x26; Views</category><category>Cellar Notes</category><dc:date>2012-12-06T11:23:10+00:00</dc:date><link>http://www.blakeonwine.com/files/go-west-december%202012.php#unique-entry-id-148</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.blakeonwine.com/files/go-west-december%202012.php#unique-entry-id-148</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[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&hellip; 

Earlier this year I had the great good fortune to attend a gustatory extravaganza at Knockranny House Hotel in Westport, Co Mayo, &lsquo;co-hosted&rsquo; by Seamus Commons and Liam Cabot. ...  Cabot is the ever-enthusiastic wine merchant who seldom puts a foot wrong, importing a range of exciting wines that shame the pedestrian offerings of some of the better known merchants. 

The event took place over the last weekend in January and on the Saturday morning, for those who hadn&rsquo;t made free with the wine list the night before, Commons ably demonstrated how to turn a plump sea bass into Pan Seared Sea Bass, Fennel & Orange Salad, Avocado Pur&eacute;e & Tomato Dressing. ]]></content:encoded></item><item><title>Show Stoppers</title><dc:creator>info@blakeonwine.com</dc:creator><category>Food &#x26; Wine</category><category>News &#x26; Views</category><category>Cellar Notes</category><dc:date>2012-12-04T13:55:48+00:00</dc:date><link>http://www.blakeonwine.com/files/show-stoppers-december-2012.php#unique-entry-id-147</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.blakeonwine.com/files/show-stoppers-december-2012.php#unique-entry-id-147</guid><content:encoded><![CDATA[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&rsquo;s leading chefs on the Chefs&rsquo; Stage. 

...Prior to it I was disillusioned by the endless race to the bottom that we have seen over the past few years, with wines tasting more boring, more bland and less memorable than ever before. 

...Very few producers bother to make a wine from it alone but when it is given its chance in the limelight it makes an arresting and memorable wine, challenging rather than comforting, as this example shows. 

...This is a clever idea and should probably be made compulsory on Alsace wines &ndash; with many of the &lsquo;dry&rsquo; ones it is impossible to know how sweet they are until you taste them. ]]></content:encoded></item></channel>
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