WINNER ANNOUNCED: Bríge Dowdall

It’s that time of year again and along with men sporting ridiculous moustaches, another modern tradition is the arrival of Beaujolais Nouveau.

Like last year it’s thanks to Febvre, wine importer and distributor.

A reminder of what Beaujolais Nouveau is

An early release of this year’s harvest from Beaujolais.

What’s it like?

The grape is Gamay, it’s fresh, bursting with bright berries, bubble gum and banana. Not a serious wine, mor fun and fruity.

How to win it…

Pop a comment below, with your thoughts on whether we should just drink wines from Europe to help with the economic crisis.

The competition is called “Life can be perfect” and the five winners will be invited to a unique tasting at a secret venue in Paris, to celebrate the vintages that produced this prestigious cuvée (a cuvée is a blend and often many years worth of juice go into a Champagne).

The “Life can be perfect” competition is open until 21st June 2011, and all you have to do is sign up to the Life Can Be Perfect website and recount an exceptional “Life can be perfect” moment.

All entries will then be appraised by the Bollinger Jury, and the names of the five lucky winners will be announced on 27th June 2011.

Wyndham Estate are giving away a Fallon & Byrne hamper on sourgrapes.ie worth €500 to celebrate Father’s Day.

What’s inside? The hampers are filled with oils, vinegars, drinks, chocolates, teas, coffees, spices and Wyndham Estate Bin 555 Shiraz.

Your father may well prefer a good bottle of wine and some good food instead of the tie, socks or box of Black Magic chocolates that you get him every year.

Prize will include delivery within the Republic.

To enter, just pop a comment below and say how amazing your Dad is.

Winner to be drawn at random on June 12th to allow time for delivery.

Entrants over 18 only please.

Enjoy Wyndham Estate Sensibly.

Anyhoo, another giveaway.

Newly launched website, www.thewinestore.ie, are giving away 3 prizes of a magnum (that’s a double bottle) of Domaine Olivier Merlin St. Véran.

St. Véran is soooo hot right now, great value white Burgundy. From the newly launched wine store website,

Floral notes on the bouquet make this wine immediately attractive. Then the full, fresh palate, with apples and pears and the lightest dusting of vanilla make it remarkably versatile at the table.

Olivier Merlin is today considered to be not just one of the finest winemakers in the Maconnais but also in the whole of Burgundy. After working in California’s Napa Valley in the 1980s he returned to in the early 1990s to establish his own domaine. Based in the village of La Roche Vineuse near the town of Macon, Merlin today vinifies and bottles a range of outstanding Chardonnay based whites as well as a small range of wines from the Beaujolais . The vision of the Merlins is to express as much as possible each individual vineyard that they work with through their meticulous work on the land. They firmly believe that this has led to a greater understanding of what each parcel has to offer and that therefore the vinification process is simply a function of that. Olivier and his wife Corinne use no herbicides or pesticides on their vineyards.

How to win

Send an email with “Sourgrapes.ie competition” in the subject line to wine@thewinestore.ie. Note: entries are now closed and winners have be notified by thewinestore.ie

No sooner am I off the plane from a trip to Chile when an on-the-ball PR professional emails me (nicely) to ask if I’d put up another wine giveaway on their behalf. Without further ado, here it is.

What’s the prize?

A Indomita Polero Gift Set for Christmas, which includes a case of Indomita Polero, 6 red wine glasses, an Indomita Polero wine
opener and a wine cooler bucket. All courtesy of United Wine Merchants, an importer based in the north of Ireland and now doing a bit of business down here.

I haven’t tried the entire range, so here’s how United describe them,

The young, fresh wines hail from the award winning Chilean Indomita range. Indomita Polero has a youthful exuberance which will appeal to wine lovers this Christmas. The wide range in its portfolio includes; an intense Sauvignon Blanc, a fresh and delicate Rose, a well defined Merlot, a complex and balanced Chardonnay and an aromatic Cabernet Sauvignon.

How to win (this bit’s important)

To enter, email “Chile” to amanda@unitedwines.co.uk with a contact number and full
postal address.

The deadline is Thursday 16th of December.

The winner will be selected at random.

The T’s & C’s

Entrants must be over 18 and the prize is non-transferable.

WINNERS ANNOUNCED: Commenters 6 & 7 (Noelle Sousa and Ashling Hayes)

Christmas has definitely come early for sourgrapes.ie readers and the latest from the “key challenger to Robert Parker in 2011 award shortlisted blog” is 4 tickets to give-away (as two pairs) for the Food & Wine Christmas Show, 26th – 28th November in the RDS.

Good speeches are all about levity, brevity and repetition, writing probably is too, to get one of the three nailed, I have 2 pairs of tickets to the Food & Wine Christmas Show, 26th – 28th November in the RDS.

What’s in store?

Lazily cutting and pasting from the lovely Anne Marie Foran’s email, “The show will also include The Chef’s Table where lucky audience members will be served 3-course meals by the chefs themselves including Neven Maguire, Derry Clarke, Ross Lewis, Dylan McGrath, Sunil Ghai, Paul Flynn and Kevin Thornton”.

How to win tickets

To enter, pop a festive comment below. Please note: any that mention recession, “these economic times”, the IMF, EMF or the KLF will be immediately be disqualified.

Entries end this Friday (for time to post tickets out) so get your skates on.

If you miss out, tickets are €30 a pair from ticketmaster.ie

Le Beaujolais Nouveau va bientôt arrive!

And sourgrapes.ie has two cases to give away, thanks to Febvre, wine importer and distributor.

All YOU have to do is pop a witty comment below.

It’s about to arrive? What is, the IMF?

Yes, but no, the Beaujolais Nouveau.

Oh! What’s that?

A celebration (or clever marketing ploy) by Georges DuBoeuf, whereby he releases very young wine, from Beaujolais on November 18th.

What’s it like?

Made from Gamay, it’s fresh, bursting with bright berries, bubble gum and banana.

Really?

Yes, it’s from the carbonic maceration you see.

Mastication?

No maceration, the juice ferments from within the grapes.

Huh?

Nevermind, but don’t forget to drink it slightly chilled.

Chilled, a red wine?

Yes. And it’s great with turkey and ham if you’re doing those for Christmas or Thanksgiving.

Expect to see

A very purple inky wine inside a bottle with a very vivid colourful label.

Expect to hear

Shouts of “Beau Nou!”, as the cork is popped.

Where and how much?

SuperValu, Centra, Molloys, O’Briens, O’Donovans of Cork, Mitchels CHQ, Donnybrook Fair and independent off licences for for about €10.

Winner announced!

Winner for Ranleagh Uncorked is comment number one, despite a number of things, 1. begging, 2. in my day job we work together. Video below shows random.org result. If you need an independent audit, contact PWC. They’re good at judging important stuff.

Ranleagh has always had a bit of buzz about it. As a northsider, it’s my favourite place on the southside. It’s kind of in my DNA, probably down to my frequent trips to my grandparents in the sleepy Norwood Park.

‘Enough of your memory lane nostalgia stuff, where’s the free stuff?’ you ask. Good question, I’ll get straight to the point. To mark the Ranelagh Uncorked! Wine Festival, 15th-19th November, there are is a FREE meal for two (in participating restaurants).

What is the Ranelagh Uncorked! Wine Festival?

Another great question.

From Monday 15th to Friday 19th November there is a series of wine events hosted around Ranelagh village alongside   promotional menus in participating restaurants, pubs and wine bars. You can see all the details right here.

How do I get the FREE tickets?

Just pop a comment below and I’ll pick a winner at random.

RTE’s “The Restaurant” looking for diners

The Restaurant is back for its seventh series on RTÉ One. In each episode a ‘celebrity’ head chef will take on the culinary challenge to produce a top class, three course meal with two value-for-money wines (which Tom Doorly seems to guess wrong most of the time!).

The celebrities who become chefs for a night will be people who have a passion for food and dining. The programme will give the “chef” the opportunity to “go pro” for one night and serve up a real restaurant meal.

The resident critics are Tom Doorley and Paolo Tullio, with one other special guest critic each week. The identity of the “mystery chef” will remain secret to all in “The Restaurant” until after the meal. Before the chef leaves the kitchen the critics will decide whether the meal is worth a star rating of between one and five. When the celebrity chef’s identity is revealed they sit down with critics to find out how they fared.

Diners at the restaurant

Dining at ‘The Restaurant’ involves becoming a ‘critic’ for the evening. So, RTE need you to get involved in the experience and to voice your opinions on the food and wine being served to you.

Who’s behind it and how to apply

Vision Independent Productions are looking for diners for the series which will be filming on location in The Wineport Lodge in Athlone through September, so if you think you’re up to the challenge of critiquing the menu the mystery “chef” whips up in the kitchen, they want to hear from you.

To apply contact Vision Independent Productions by:

• Telephone – 01 864 1444
• Mobile – 085 77 080 52
• Email - rte1therestaurant@eircom.net

Don’t forget to include your contact details – Name, address, phone number and tell them a little about yourself and your interest cooking and dining.

The wine love just keeps coming thanks to the generosity of Jancis Robinson, the world’s most influential wine writer.

I have an annual subscription for Jancis Robinson’s website up for grabs (worth £69/$99/€79/Aus$149).

What does membership get you?

• world’s only online versions of the Oxford Companion to Wine (rrp £40/$65) and the unparalleled maps of The World Atlas of Wine (rrp £35/$50), both fully searchable
• thousands of pages of tasting notes (succinct descriptions, scores and suggested drinking dates) written by Masters of Wine Jancis Robinson and Julia Harding who value balance, eloquence and finesse in both wines and tasting notes
• the lively and intelligent members’ forum described as ‘the most courteous wine forum on the planet’ by La Revue du Vin de France
• news, comment and videos of some of the wine world’s best connected sources, updated daily
• a friendly, well-informed community of cosmopolitan wine and food enthusiasts willing to share their knowledge

Interest piqued? What you need to do to enter the competition…

All you have to do, is visit JancisRobinson.com to find the answer to the following question:

Question: What bottle made Jancis fall in love with wine?

Leave your name, email in the comments area below (on your own blog linking back to here).

Who can enter?

Anyone, from anywhere.

Need a hint?