Wines of the Year Tasting

Wines of the Year Tasting

We asked our customers to pick out their favourite reds and whites of the last 12 months. We counted up the votes and set up a tasting based on a shortlist of six wines, their top three reds and whites.
We also put the wines on promotion to encourage other customers to try them, to “spread the good wine news” as it were.

Top 3 Reds

Schutz Barossa “Red Nectar” Shiraz 2006 (Barossa Valley) RRP 25.95
A beautiful full-throttle Barossa Shiraz made by top winemaker Troy Kalleske at his cousin Tammy Schutz’ winery Red Nectar. A cracking wine that is very well-named..red nectar indeed! That’s Troy in the picture..check out www.rednectar.com.au for more details.

Cantina Zaccagnini Montepulciano d’Abruzzo 2008 (Italy) RRP 15.95
Our best-selling Italian red by a country mile, called Twiggy for short (because of the vine “twig” on the bottle..) A great all-rounder.

Domaine Aimé Minervois 2006 (Languedoc) RRP 13.95
A wine made by Remi Bonnet at his family vineyards in the Minervois (not far from Carcassonne in the Languedoc) A blend of mostly Grenache and Syrah, the wine is named after Remi’s winemaking hero his Grandfather Aimé. A smooth, supple easygoing drop.

Top 3 Whites

Huia Sauvignon Blanc 2008 (Marlborough) RRP 15.95
The hype surrounding Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc continues and this is a lovely one in a more subtle style than most. Not as “in your face” with the gooseberry attack that many show, this wine opens up beautifully as you work your way into the bottle. Very refreshing.

Domaine Les Bruyeres Crozes Hermitage 2006 (Rhone Valley) RRP 22.95
A big golden-coloured white that almost appears a bit sweet when you first taste it. Made from typical Rhone white grapes that see plenty of sunshine for ripeness, this complex wine is superb with roast chicken and pasta in cream sauce.

Domaine Raimbault Sancerre 2006 RRP 18.95 (Loire Valley)
Benchmark Loire Valley Sauvignon from a good family producer.More subtle and food-friendly than the New Zealand version. Sancerre is the spiritual home of this popular grape variety and this is an excellent example.

One of our best attended tastings and a really excellent line-up of tasty and interesting wines. Roll on the next one!

To join in the fun with our regular wine events and tastings, just email john@nectarwines.com

Country Mix 106.8fm Winespot Italian Wines 3rd February 2010

With Ireland v Italy in the rugby coming up this weekend, I thought we’d take a look at a couple of Italian wines. To try and create a little bit of “La Dolce Vita” in the Country Mix studio, I also brought some crunchy amaretti biscuits to try with the wines.

Zenato Lugana 2008 RRP 14.95
A wine from the shores of Lake Garda that I’m very fond of. It’s a lovely, dry mellow white, with hints of peach and apricot and a nice mineral twist. To me it has more to offer in terms of flavour and character than most Pinot Grigios. The Zenato family also make an excellent range of reds. Keep an eye out for their Valpolicella, Ripassa and Amarone. We’ve been following the wines for a number of vintages now and they are always good to excellent. We tried the Lugana with the crunchy amaretti and the combination wasn’t bad at all. Lynsey Dolan, the presenter of Dublin’s Talking, was heard to “OOH” and “AAH” and that’s generally a good sign! Amaretti can also be served with good coffee or broken up over quality ice-cream.They’re my current addiction!

Cantina Zaccagnini “Twiggy” Montepulciano d’Abruzzo 2007 RRP 15.95
A wine affectionately called “Twiggy” by our customers (because of the vine “twig” hanging off the label) this spicy beauty comes from the Abruzzo region, east of Rome.
Quite dry (a typical Italian red quality..) this is certainly a food wine and calls for good pasta, cheese or cured meats (or ideally all three together..) Its one of our bestselling Italian reds and its appeal is clear to see. It delivers lovely Italian quaffability and slips down nice n’easy! According to the winery website the wine sees four months ageing in oak, but any oak influence is soft and smooth and the fruit and spice shines through nicely.

An interesting little tasting..now Come on Ireland!!

You can listen to my weekly winespot on “Dublins Talking” every Wednesday morning at 10.30am on Country Mix Radio 106.8fm.

Country Mix 106.8fm Winespot Wines from Alsace 18th November 2009

We were on a French theme this week and we tasted some whites from Alsace.
This is mainly white wine territory, because of its northerly location, near the border with Germany. There is a Germanic influence here for sure with the tall Alsace flute style bottle and the classic old-style labels. It’s a region with a really interesting history where the territory changed from French to German control and vice-versa several times over. As such the wines are an interesting hybrid of French and German influence and have lots of style and interesting character to offer. I’m a big fan and generally think the wines are fab, but I have to admit I don’t drink them often enough. I’m too much of a red wine slave I guess.

Dietrich Gewurztraminer 2006 RRP 14.95
I love this style of wine and interestingly it’s a white wine made from red grapes!
Its from a wine co-operative, the Caves Dietrich, which produces good quality wines at fair prices. It has a lovely, intense golden colour and a really particular spicy aromatic nose which is pretty unmistakable (once you’ve tasted a few Gewurztraminer.)
A lot of people run the other way when faced with “Gewurz” as it’s so different to the zippy dry wine styles that are so popular at present. To me that’s completely missing the point and Gewurztraminer wines are truly “Alsace” in style. Great to drink on their own, wonderful in partnership with cheese and dishes from the local region and super with spicy Thai or Chinese dishes. I urge you to open your mind and give “Gewurz” a go!

Meyer Fonné Pinot Gris 2007 RRP 18.95
This is the same grape as the ever-popular Pinot Grigio but the Alsace style is quite a bit richer and more flavoursome. Meyer Fonné is a small family-run winery with a really excellent range of wines (we stock five in our shop) You’ll see the wines pop up in restaurants quite a bit, as sommeliers have long since recognised them as serious producers. Yellow gold in colour with a fresh slightly sweet nose of honey, apricots and smoke, this wine works a dream with chicken, pork and creamy pasta dishes.

You can listen to my weekly winespot every Wednesday morning at 10.30am on Country Mix 106.8fm.

Country Mix 106.8fm Winespot Wines of Beaujolais 11th November 2009

In preparation for the launch of the Beaujolais Nouveau 2009 (on the third Thursday of November) I thought we’d take a look at some wines from this pretty wine region in France.

Three generations of the Lardy family (thats Monsieur Lardy in the photo) have been making these wines from the Gamay grape (which all Beaujolais red is made from)

Domaine Lardy Beaujolais Villages 2007 RRP 13.95
A tasty, light, fruity wine packed with all the typical Beaujolais summer fruit aromas and flavours. Very easy to drink, this is a good wine to introduce to people who are new to red wine. Its nice and soft, there are no hard oaky, tannic flavours and you can drink the wine on its own or with food, its quite versatile. It has a bit more about it than Beaujolais Nouveau in terms of body and character. The Nouveau wine is a fruit-packed quaffer for immediate drinking and pleasure.Its a wine that’s all about fun, fun, fun..

Domaine Lardy Fleurie 2006 RRP 16.95
This wine is extremely popular in Ireland. Firstly, because of its easy name, which reminds people of flowers and then because of its easy-to-enjoy soft and fruity character.
It also appears on pretty much every restaurant winelist in the land (along with Chablis, Sancerre and other French classics) Fleurie is a village in the Beaujolais region and a very quaint, quiet place it is too. I had a tasty lunch in the village square some years ago on a wine trip. On that same trip I got to taste a wonderful ten year old “Old Vine” Fleurie (yes you can keep a good vintage for quite some time.) It reminded me very much of a fine Burgundy in style which was surprising. Anyway this Lardy Fleurie is a very good benchmark drop and is one for drinking young. Do keep an eye out for the Lardy “Old Vine” Fleurie version, it’s a much more complex wine, one of the best on the Irish market.

You can listen to my weekly winespot every Wednesday morning at 10.30am on Country Mix 106.8fm.

Country Mix 106.8fm WineSpot Funky Whites 4th November 2009

Today we looked at something different and a little bit funky in White wines.

The white wine options can at times appear to be a rolling sea of Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Grigio and Chardonnay. There are plenty of other interesting and tasty white wines available and so to alleviate the Marlborough Sauvignon seasickness, we tasted a groovy Gruner Veltliner from Austria and a funktastic Viognier from the Rhone.

Mas de Libian Viognier 2007 RRP 15.95
Viognier is a rather interesting grape mainly associated with the Rhone Valley.
(That’s a bunch of Viognier grapes from the Mas de Libian vineyards in the photo!)
Its often described as a “white wine for red wine fans” in that it has lots of aromatic character, plenty of flavour and is not too dry. The good ones have peach or apricot fruit character, a mellow honeyed texture and a nice mineral/spicy twist. This one is really good and is made by winemaker Helene Thibon. We’ve been importing Helene’s wines since the 1998 vintage and the quality and consistency is really excellent. Her white is very good but her red Cotes du Rhones are even better! The wines are organic too which is very nice to know.

Domaine Wachau Gruner Veltliner 2007 RRP 16.95
A bit of mouthful this wine both in name and character! I’ve heard this wine described as Gru. V. for short and I have to admit I do find it fairly groovy as white wines go. I spent a weekend in Vienna last February exposing my palate to the joys of Gru. V and was well impressed! The Austrian home market snaffles up most of the production of this wine so we don’t see too many offerings on wine shelves here. The ones I’ve tried so far remind me of peaches, citrus fruit and minerals and there’s always a fair whack of spice or pepper there aswell. Excellent dinner wines they really come into their own with food.
I tried this wine in a Korean restaurant in Vienna, with Beef Bulgogi and all I can say is Wow..what a combo! Bulgogi is a stir-fry beef and veg dish that you cook up yourself (they have a little oven hob in the middle of the table!) and it’s a great bit of craic cooking up a storm in the middle of a busy restaurant!

The grapes for this wine are grown on steep terraces and its another one of those wines I get excited about in terms of that “licking a stone” idea. You can certainly sense the soil or terroir in the mineral flavours and aromas of a wine like this..Groovy Baby..

You can listen to my weekly winespot every Wednesday morning between 10 and 11am on Country Mix 106.8fm.

Country Mix 106.8fm WineSpot Wicked Halloween Wines 28th October 2009

Thinking of Halloween I thought we’d have a look at some truly Wicked Wines.

Devils Corner Sauvignon Blanc 2008 RRP 13.95
A wine all the way from Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania) this wicked drop is named after a treacherous bend in the Tamar river, where many a sailor lost life and limb over the centuries.
Tasmania is a cool-climate region (like New Zealand) and Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir grapes do really well here. Its zingy stuff for sure so if you like Marlborough whites you would enjoy this one very much.

Whispering Woods Red 2004 RRP 12.95 (2 for 20euro on promotion)
A lovely smooth blend of Shiraz, Merlot and Cabernet that sees four months ageing in oak. Its from Western Australia, a very good region for quality Aussie wine.This one definitely falls into the Winter Warmer category and its currently on promotion at 2 for 20euro! If you drank enough of this at 14.5% you wouldn’t exactly be whispering in the woods! ...more likely a bit of singing and dancing..

All the talk of sailors, misty climate and trees that do a bit of whispering, got Linsey Dolan and myself talking about scary movies like The Fog and The Shining. I watched The Shining again a few weeks ago and scared the bejaysus out of myself!

Enjoy the Halloween!!..grab a bottle of wine for backup and give yourself a good scare!

You can listen to my weekly winespot every Wednesday morning between 10 and 11am on Country Mix 106.8fm.

Country Mix 106.8fm WineSpot Knockout! Wines 21st October 2009

On this weeks show we looked at some tasty wines for everyday drinking.

Antares Sauvignon Blanc RRP 7.95
A great little Tuesday Night Wine that recently won a prize in The Irish Wine Show, as the “Best New World White Wine of the Year under 8euro”
Pretty much a benchmark good-value Sauvignon Blanc, this is a great (screwcapped) party wine which goes down very easily indeed.

Vaughan Johnson Good Everyday Red RRP 9.95
This is my Ronseal Wine (it does exactly what it says on the label..)
The wine is selected each year by Mr. Vaughan Johnson, who runs an excellent wine shop in Cape Town South Africa. The blend varies slightly from year to year, its always local grape verieties, but the aim remains the same, to present an easy-drinking wine for everyday drinking. Its modelled on the rustic wines of the South of France, in general style, in that it has a bit more bite than your average New World Red. A nice little drop especially at the price (also screwcapped!)

Celebrity Chef Andrew Rudd prepared a lovely stir-fry Beef and Broccoli dish in studio and we tried the food and wine together. Linsey Dolan raved about the dish, I loved the beef but I have to say broccoli and me have a chequered history at best.. The South African red went nicely with this particular dish (because of the soya sauce and beef combo..)

Karen Lawless, Dublin’s Talkings producer described the wines as “Knockout” and she must have been seeing the future! On my drive back from the studio, the car hit a bump in the road, the two wines hopped up from the back seat, spilled all over the car and very nearly knocked me out!

You can listen to my weekly winespot every Wednesday morning between 10 and 11am on Country Mix 106.8fm.