Photo courtesy of willowireland.com

On my recent staycation in Kerry, I made it to the picturesque town of Kenmare. While there I met up with Alain Bras, proprietor of Vanilla Grape on Kenmare’s Henry Street.

I’ve been in plenty of wine shops. In Kenmare, nestled amongst galleries, craft shops and cafés the term “wine shop”, doesn’t quite do Alain Bras’s premises justice. It’s a treasure trove of wines from all over the world with Rhône Syrahs, Shiraz from Victoria’s little known Heathcote, and everywhere in between. There’s literally something for everyone.

Below, a few words from the man himself.

1. Alain, you originally hail from France. Has wine always been in your blood?

I was born in the Midi in rural wine area between Cahors and Marcillac in North Aveyron. With no wine wine connection apart from the fact that my grandfather made wine for himself, like many farmers in “polyculture” France. I later went to catering college and studied wine as part of the program.

2. What took you to Ireland and what have you been doing since you arrived?

I met an Irish girl on a placement  trip to London, she brought me to Ireland in 1980. In Dublin I worked in the restaurant trade, involved in wine purchasing, then head waiter / wine buyer at Whites on the Green from 1984. I moved on to Limerick where I started a wine club – Le Chapeau – from then I lectured on wine and moved to full time Sommelier for Adare Manor, then Sheen Falls Lodge. In 2002, I tried my hand at full time teaching in Shannon College, but rapidly moved back to the trade.

In 2004 we created Vanilla Grape, and subsequently opened our shop – being the window to our wine business of wine purveyor, school of wine and online sales – which to this day is our main trade.

3. Tell me about the wines you stock

The selection is very eclectic in terms of regions (35 regions from around the world), styles (light to powerfully rich), and types (dry to sweet or sparkling) and price range – about 600 wines at present from €9 to €300 for a bottle.

Our selection is evolving and shifting all the time – and right now, very price conscious. It’s around 50:50 Europe to other regions of the world. There’s also a much stronger demand in our store for small producers and biodynamic practice in vineyard management. My selection is influenced by that right now.

Also, the season has a great effect with lighter wines in summer.

4. Do you have a particular focus on one country or style and what goes best with the local Kerry dish?

As a sommelier I like to help with the choice of purchase. A lot of locals now come with a full description of the event and budget and want me to come up with the perfect wine.

With Kerry Lamb I like to suggest a mature St Emilion or an earthy Rioja or even a Chianti Classico again depending of the request.

5. What new wine discoveries excite you?

Limari and San Antonio of Chile for Chardonnay, central and southern Rhone for red and white, Saumur and Chinon (Loire valley) for Cabernet Franc, Rheingau and Rheinhessen for dry Riesling, Shiraz from Heathcote Victoria. The list is long for my favourite wines.

6. What’s your all time favourite wine?

My all time favourite was Champagne Charlie from Charles Heidsieck 1979, but again another dozen could pop up just the same.

7. Tell me about moving online, and what you offer from your website?

Our website, vgwines.com, is the natural follow through to increase our repeat customer base, and continued sales away from Kenmare, especially during festive times and special occasions.

What’s an AVIN?

AVIN is essentially the equivalent of an ISBN for wine bottles. That is a unique number which identifies a bottle of wine by producer, grape, vintage. Staying with ISBN and books for a little longer, how often have you gone into a bookshop looking for a copy of 978-1862058309? So, for most punters, it’s not needed. But on the business end, for Waterstones and the like who need to stock the book, catalogue it and sell it, it becomes really useful.

The problem AVIN solves

Back to wine, when you’re trying to remember a nice wine from Portugal, France or anywhere else you had, you may have misheard the name, missed an accent, or used Domaine where it should have been Chateau. That, and many wines or properties having similar spellings. All this is a recipe for ending up with the wrong wine.

This could potentially lead to a wine from somewhere completely different.

AVIN: Goolge it. Hmmm. Intrigued.

Enter the AVIN, an innovative design from the Adegga.com, the social media wine tasting site.

AVINs make a specific wine easier to find. An AVIN is a 13 digit number which looks like this AVIN6452997073019. Th number is stored in a large database with all the details of the wine. A wine can then be referred to by its AVIN through Google, stock control systems or anywhere else. It starts to become more interesting when an AVIN is blended with something else.

AVINs in the wild: AVIN plus QR Codes

Just one of the interesting ways in which AVINs are being exploited is by QR codes.

Another brief explanation needed here – a QR code is a two dimensional barcode which can be used for a number of things and scanning is a core part of it. Anyone with a decent smartphone can use it to scan the QR code to lead them to more information on whatever the code relates to. Scanning the code would simply lead the punter to a website on the phone’s browser.

It could be an ad on a billboard or a newspaper so it’s a great way to get your ad to work harder and move beyond the physical constraints of ad space as well as provide a good hard measurement of how effective your ad is at truly engaging people. A different QR code in different publications could provide a good A/B test of which publication is better suited to the demographic you want to reach.

Scanning a QR - much easier than typing it in.

The same principle also applies to QR codes on business cards or indeed on the back label of a bottle of wine. Aside from scanning into inventory systems, for both producer and consumer there are some great possibilities with a QR code on the back label.

One of the problems with a wine label is the small finite space you can work with. You can get a tasting note or a short story of the place or the people who made the wine, but that’s as far as you can go because of the physical limitations.

Expat in China? Is that a Syrah or Cab? Is it any good? Scan it and see.

However, by providing a QR code, you are creating a dynamic or interactive wine label which can bring the wine drinker virtually anywhere. Some of these virtual designations could be:

• an online video of the winemaker describing where or how it was made
• recipe suggestions of what the wine could go with
• a price comparison site like wine-searcher.com which would allow you to see if you were getting a good deal
• a wine community which shows what people like you thought of the wine
• an instant discount to the drinker for showing an interest in the wine while in the shop.

All this is possible, literally within seconds as you hold the wine in your hand before you buy it.

Where the AVIN and QR code lead to is entirely up to the owner of the label. At the moment, if a wine doesn’t have an AVIN or QR code, it’s given one “automagically” when a tasting note is left on social tasting wine website, adegga.com.

A wine guide still has the physical limitations of space, which QR + AVIN overcomes

As you can see from the examples above, this opens wine up to some amazing possibilities whether it is connecting to a younger tech-savvy cohort of drinkers or even those established wine drinkers who still can’t understand German wine labels.

So, the AVIN system is one example of the democratisation of wine, where the Gen Y drinker doesn’t know or doesn’t trust the wine critic or the Decanter/IWC or other badge.

Who has signed up?

A growing number of wineries and even regions have already adopted the AVIN system with 1 million wine labels printed. My prediction is that the more forward thinking wine producers will begin to do so in the coming years.

More information

• See the AVIN website.
• Adegga.com, social media wine site

Latest in my “introjuicing” series is Ian Dornan from simplywines.ie

So, Ian, how long are you up and running with Simply Wines and what prompted you to start the business. What did you do before?

Simply Wines has been in existence since October 2003. It started as a web-only operation running alongside a wholesale business until December 2009 when we opened the Simply Wines Warehouse.  I’d spent the best part of 20 years working in various roles in I.T. in a couple of industry sectors but I always had a passion for wine and spent whatever holiday time I could in various wine regions in Europe and beyond.

I’d bring wine home from these trips and you’d share it with friends and family and the feedback I’d received was always positive. By late 2002 I was starting to get feed up with IT. I’d been through both the Y2K and euro and I really wanted to do something for myself, something that would hopefully be a little more family friendly as by then I had two small children who I wasn’t getting to see very much of.  So I started crunching the numbers and doing the research and the rest is, as they say, history!

You have some stunning wines from Australia, particularly the Battle of Bosworth and Pertaringa labels. Do you lean towards Australia in particular?

I didn’t plan it that way, it just sort of evolved. From the cooler climate delicate whites of Tasmania to the big McLaren Vale and Western Australian reds, I think Australia offers a stunning range of wine styles.  I also must say that in general I find the producers very straight forward to work with. What you see and what you hear is what you get, “me old cobber”, which is refreshing. That said, we also have some cracking wines from some family vineyards in New Zealand, South Africa, France and Spain.

What’s your approach to sourcing wines?

I’ve no specific tried and tested way of sourcing wines, it’s a real mixed bag. Sometimes a producer that I’m already working with will recommend someone’s wines, other times I’ve visited a particular region to find something I’m looking for. Trade tastings or wine fairs like London International Wine Fair, ProWein, Vinisud or Vinexpo I’ve also found to be very useful – lots of new wines in a relatively short space of time.  I’ve also started to work with a couple of the smaller specialist importers in Ireland to help enhance our retail offering in a couple of categories, particularly Italy.

Are there any wines you particularly like, what’s your dessert island wine?

The Pirie Sparkling NV Brut from Tasmania is a stunning wine.  Made Méthode Champenoise from Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, it easily surpasses many Champagnes but at a fraction of the cost.

As for a desert island wine, I’d be happy to be stranded with a couple of cases of one small producer’s Gran Reserva Rioja.  I’d rather not say who the producer is at present as I’m trying to get the distribution rights for the wines in Ireland but they’re one of the last wineries that cling to the notion that it must age its wines until they are ready to drink.

Rioja requires Gran Reserva wines to receive a minimum of six years of aging before they can be released and the current vintage for many Gran Reserva wines on the market is 2001. This particular producer has just released Gran Reservas from 1991 and 1987, graceful wines that show the lightness of texture and finesse that only comes from long ageing.

Any unusual or new wines on the shelves which your customers are responding well to?

I must say I’ve been pleasantly surprised at just how well the Waterstone Bridge Tarrango from Gapsted Wines in the King and Alpine Valleys of Victoria has been selling – a really good alternative to Brown Brothers.

I also import the Bodegas Bohigas wines from Catalunya.  Their Crianza and Reserva are Tempranillo based blends, aged in American oak, and offer a really good alternative to Rioja (and their Cavas are fairly good as well).

Are your customers mainly retail and do they tend to try new wines or stick to their old reliables?

For the most part, our Simply Wines customers are a mixture of straight retail and corporate business.  We do have a couple of smaller restaurants who, for whatever reason, just simply prefer to buy their stock direct and we’re obviously happy to service their business.

As for their purchasing trends, most of our customers will buy eight to ten bottles of their old reliables but are happy to experiment with another two to four bottles of something new to make up their case, generally taking direction from us.

It’s really nice to then see them come back and select your previous recommendations for themselves, confirms that you’re doing something right.

How do you persuade customers to try new wines?

We generally work with smaller, family owed vineyards who all have a story to tell.  We find that by telling their story to the customer, be it (in the case of the Battle of Bosworth wines) explaining why there’s a picture of a little flower on the bottle or how Dr. Andrew Pirie was awarded a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for services to the Tasmanian wine industry or how Jean-Claude Mas developed the Arrogant Frog brand as a tongue-in-cheek riposte to the somewhat cool reception that French wines have had over the past decade, we get them to connect to the wine. We also run our “Tasting Today” every Friday and Saturday and we use that to occasionally showcase new wines.

What changes would you like to see in the wine world?

To start with, I’d really like to see the higher level of excise duty that is currently charged on sparkling wines abolished. I’m not old enough to be familiar with its origins but I certainly don’t believe that there’s any need for it in today’s marketplace, particularly when it’s so easy for people to pop over the border and take advantage of the lower UK excise rates.

In terms of online, has it grown well over the last few years and where do you see it going?

Our online business has been growing steadily over the years and we have a loyal following of customers living outside Dublin who were perhaps finding it hard to get much more than the branded wines in their local Spar or Centra or wherever and so have been very happy to place their business with us.

Dublin customers are obviously spoiled for choice when it comes to places to buy their wines and I was never satisfied with how our retail business was doing here so that’s why I opened the Simply Wines Warehouse, to give people the chance to come and have a look and try the wines we offer and to have a chat with us.  We always ask new customers how or where they heard about us and it’s been very reaffirming that we’re doing the right thing when the answer is that “Such-or-such a person bought some wine and recommended you” or “I got a bottle from a friend and asked them where they got it” and I think that the twin track approach of online and warehouse is the way forward for us.

How are the likes of blogging, twitter and Facebook working for you – what do you see as their benefits?

I only really started to use Facebook in the last couple of months so it’s really hard to gauge how that’s working for us.  I do however really like the immediacy and informality of Twitter and I’ve been using it to strengthening existing relationships and building new ones with would be customers and as a way to drive people to our website through special offers or our rugby related competitions.

Anything else you’d like to add?

Just that we can be found at Unit 2 Ballyogan Business Park on the Ballyogan Road (Dublin 18) and that we’re open from 11:00 to 18:30 Tuesday to Saturday or online at www.SimplyWines.ie

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Every congratulatory comment left below will receive a free year’s subscription to Decanter.

Like any ecommerce site, an online wine shop needs to provide easy access to its stock (if your customers can’t find it, they can’t buy it), whether that’s by country/region, grape, price, occasion or another category.

Next, key product information should be displayed prominently, from bottle images to tasting notes, food matches. Finally, an easy checkout experience is critical.

While many wine shops have a superb range of wines, it’s the ease of use basics which are letting them down.

Although I’m probably guilty of leaving some great websites out, these are three of the best out there based on the above :

1. Curiouswines.ie

Brothers Michael and Matt Kane launched their website, curiouswines.ie from Bandon in Cork in late 2008 with the ambitious goal of bettering anything else that was out there in the Irish marketplace. In that short space of time, it’s fair to say they’ve achieved that goal with a range of over 300 wines, monthly discounts and free next day delivery.

All this is expertly blended with an easy to use site, a catchy, conversational blog, recently introduced video tastings, customer reviews as well as an established Twitter & Facebook presence.

Critical to the managing director, Michel Kane’s are honesty and integrity, applied to his entire business from pricing, to communications with his customers and relationships with his suppliers.

He adds,

“This is acutely pertinent in the wine industry where we’re bombarded with disingenuous discounting, irresponsible advertising and below-cost selling.

“I also think service has finally seeped into the cultural conscious as something that should be demanded and valued. From day one, we championed fast, free delivery on cases of wine, as well as a 100% guarantee and free returns service

“We’ve built a business in a recession for a recession, but based on solid customer service values that should be there no matter what the economic landscape looks like”.

I’ll drink to that.

• Online shop: www.curiouswines.ie
• Blog: www.curiouswines.ie/blog/
• Twitter: twitter.com/curiouswines

2. Karwigwines.ie

Joe Karwig is a Bremen native and has carved out a niche for all things wine in his adopted home in Carrigaline in Cork. Back in the nineties, Karwig Wines had one of the first online wine shops. Spearheaded by Marketing Manager, Maurice O’Mahony, they’ve relaunched recently.

Provenance is a key thing they want to get across on their site. The old site had a wine name, price and not much else. The new site is a dramatic improvement with bottle images, tasting notes and details of the producer and vineyard. Maurice feels that these details are very important.

“Wine is all about people and place. What makes a wine different? We feel that the soil, the varieties, the winemakers and their outlook are so important. Wine is not just an alcoholic beverage. Wine should reflect its origins, its location and the people who make it. We try to convey that to people”.

• Online shop: www.karwigwines.ie
• Blog: karwigwines.wordpress.com
• Twitter: twitter.com/karwigwines

3. O’Briens Wines

In October 2009 O’Briens redeveloped their site to take advantage of new technology and improve some key areas based on customer feedback.

They’ve also integrated their popular loyalty programme with the website allowing customers to earn and spend loyalty points online. The site is clearly easier to navigate too.

“With over 1,000 wines available it was clear to us that navigation was of prime importance and so we introduced a product filtering system that allows customers locate exactly what they’re looking for”

says Grattan O’Brien, Product Manager and Head of Web Development.

According to O’Brien,

“the obvious disadvantage to trading online is the lack of social interaction and the one on one conversations you can have with us if you come in-store”.

To meet this challenge, plans are already afoot to establish a strong social media presence.

“This will allow us the opportunity to listen more carefully to our customers and react faster to changes and requests. We have also started to work with some of our world winning winemakers who will start blogging for us from their wineries and provide an even greater insight into the journey from their vines to your glass”.

• Online shop: www.obrienswine.ie
• Blog: blog.obrienswine.ie
• Twitter: twitter.com/obrienswine

This article first appeared in the Sunday Tribune, 21st February 2010

I got talking to Ian Golden from Ireland’s newest at home tasting service, Chez Toi.

Wine tastings can often happen in hotel meeting rooms with fluorescent lighting, stiff chairs. Either that or you’re on your feet. They can be tough work. With Chez Toi, Ian Golden has a different approach, bringing the wine to you in the comfort of your own home.

1. Hi Ian, you’ve an interesting concept in Chez Toi, what’s it all about?

Chez Toi is about bringing basic knowledge of wine to people, while keeping entertainment at mind. I have been to many wine tastings, and one day thought about bringing a package to people that they could have the luxury of entertaining friends at home, while having a wine tasting, accompanied with cheeses, meats and home made breads, all in the comfort of their own homes, or offices.

Given the economic times, I felt that it was suitable to keep the costs lower than one would spend on a night out, while drinking good wines and learning about them at the same time.

2.Why the wine world – I know it started in Brussels and you’ve a connection with Mitchell’s – tell me more

Well, I grew up abroad and was lucky enough to own my own pub and restaurant when I was in my early twenties in Brussels. It was easy to drink good wines on the continent as prices are so much cheaper there.

I have an Uncle who is a knowledge of wine and was always fascinated how he could tell a wine by the smell alone, and I wanted to learn that for myself. He was kind enough to open the door to me on some of his wine tastings in Mitchell’s on Kildare street.

I guess one thing led to another, and before I knew it I was learning from Dermot Nolan MW, doing the WSET courses.

3. Was there one wine that made you stop and go wow, this is more than boozy grape juice?

There are so many good wines, that it is nearly impossible to pick one single wine from them all, but I have to admit that I once received a gift from a well known Irish Director of a Bordeaux Chateau Haut-Brion 2003 that took my breath away.

I kept it for a while and then one day secretly opened it on my own one evening and it stands out to this day. That bottle I had no intention of sharing!

4. You offer a number of packages, tell me about them?

Our packages, they are self explanatory really. I aim to keep our concepts as simple as possible so that wine tasting can be open to everyone.

I have tried in cheztoi to select different countries, so that if one day a party tried an Australian theme, maybe the following time they could try and Italian theme and see the huge differences between them all.

Of course there is also the option of mixing all the wines from various countries, but I try to keep a pattern in the tastings and show people the differences you can find in one country.

5. If you had to choose or recommend one package, what would it be?

If I had to choose a package, I am a sucker for traditional French wines, and would have to recommend our tasting of ‘ La France’. While they are all good, that one is my favourite.

6. Following on, what’s your desert island wine?

If I got stranded on a desert island, and only had one bottle of wine with me, I would actually take a Sipp Mack Riesling 2007, slightly less sweet than other years. I would chill it for a day in the shallow waves and enjoy it slowly.

7. What’s the one thing you’d like to see change in the wine world, in Ireland or abroad?

One thing I would love to see change and fast, is the rip-off prices here for wines. It kills me to pay such high prices for very mediocre wines over here. Whilst I’m Irish, I hang my head in shame at the price of a sub standard bottle of wine here.

In France for €3 I can get myself a superb wine, yet here for €10 I get a very average bottle. It is the one change I would like to see.

Thanks, Ian and best of luck with Chez Toi.

Despite the recession, guys n’ gals,  guys n’ guys and even gals n’ gals are still falling hopelessly falling in love and many of them are going all the way and getting hitched. And to celebrate they’re serving up wine and often food too.

But what wine and where to buy? Here’s where corkage.ie comes in. Carefully selected wines specifically for weddings. Nicely niche and focused.

With 15 reds, 15 white wines and 5 sparkling wines Stephen is keeping it nice and simple. The Corkage.ie process works likes this:

1. Have a look at their selection
2. Check out what wine selection goes with what food
3. Get some samples to check out

A bloggin’ too

Stephen has also taken the leap into the world of blogging with some helpful hints and tips on choosing wine for your wedding.

If moping around the house still wondering how the hell Leinster beat Munster in the European Cup semi, let alone won the damn thing is getting tiring, then you should really consider the Curious wines New Zealand wine tasting event on Friday, 5th of June from 7.30pm.

All the details are over on the curious wines website. Worth going to, if you’re in the neighbourhood and want to drink some very decent wine from New Zealand and hear all about it from their New Zealand wine expert, Joyce Austin, from New Zealand Boutique Wines.

This, Part 1, looks at the first 13 blogs nominated.

1. Ruth’s Kitchen Experiments

Ruth has posted about a recipe for Flourless chocolate brownies – with strawberry.

Now, here’s the thing with chocolate (nevermind the ice cream and chocolate sauce that goes with it) – it coats the gums and tongue making it difficult to cosy up to a wine – you may as well be drinking water. So, it’s time to pair it up with some Port – which is big enough to cope with chocolate. There are some killer deals on Port after De Christmas so get into your local wine shop and get in there.

2. Well Done Fillet

An irreverent look at the dining experience from the perspective of the nice people who have to put up with our nonsense when we go out and “dine”.

For this match, it’s not with a food, but with the humour. You’ll need something fun, spritzy that will soothe the belly aches you’ll have from reading any of Manuel’s posts. I’d go for bubbles, feck it, let’s go with pink ones. Try the Cava Oriol Rossell Brut Rosé from Enowine, €18.

3. Italian Foodies

The monkfish stew over at Italian Foodies look scrumptious. You wouldn’t be wrong opting for a white, but a light to medium-bodied red would go well with all the flavours from the stew. But let’s stick with a white. There are some, but not many good Italian whites available here. Lors mentioned the gorgeous Amalfi coast so let’s go for a white from Campania.

There are two options which come to mind, a Falanghina or a Greco di Tufo. Thankfully, Enowine stock both with Villa Matilde’s Falanghina (€14) and Greco di Tufo (€19).

4. Fork n’Cork

Fork n’ Cork’s Ernie Whalley doesn’t need any advice on wine pairings. He’s been writing about wine for years for Food & Wine and the Indo but let’s pick out something he may not have had before just for laughs. This may not go with his meal in Bentley’s, though as I’ve carefully selected the Amurensis Walk, grown in Kinsale, made in Mallow. Available from The Corkscrew and Curious Wines.

5. CheapEats.ie

CheapEats.ie is rising towards the top of the Irish food blog scene. With their Grilled Trout, Sweet Potato Mash, Rocket and Sun-Dried Tomato Tapenade recipe, I’d pair it up with a wine with a bit of body, but I think I’d stick with a white as red can sometimes clash with fish oils to give a horrible metallic taste.

I’m opting for a Riesling from Alsace which can hopefully stand up to the sweet potato and tapenade. Alsace is relatively underestimated and undervalued. Sheridan’s in Dublin have a good selection. Look up the producer, Paul Ginglinger.

6. iFoods.tv

iFoods.tv needs no introduction. Niall, Sean and the extended team are doing great work in what is soon to become lookandtaste.com. With that in mind, I’m going to pair with one of their newer videos, the Superbowl perfect steak. Niall is going for beer, but if Niall has any classy mates with more refined tastes, I’d suggest the Pascual Toso Malbec 2006 from Argentina. It retails for between €10 and €12, about the same as your 6-pack of beer.

Lovely fruit and soft velvet. For those of you who care for such things, it scored 91 points and 1st place n the “Top 100 Best Buys of 2007″ from Wine Enthusiast magazine. Available in Fresh, Sweeney’s in Glasnevin (and quite a few other places, I’d imagine).

7. Food Culture, West Cork

If you’re interested in the provence of food, this blog is a fantastic read. Ivan McCutheon, in his own words, “producing food is part of the life blood for rural areas like ours and that farmers, producers, shoppers, chefs and grocers can play an invaluable role in maintaining communities and the natural environment.”

I’m going to go back to a post from June 2008 to pair a wine with. “Eat Sherkin“. Sherkin, an island in West Cork, “is the pearl in West Cork’s crown of culinary beauty. This nugget of rock has a gastronomy all its own. Atlantic waters off the island are famous for finest oysters, mussels, periwinkles, shrimps, crabs, and an array of fresh fish”.

For glorious fruit of the ocean, it has to be a Chardonnay, Jim but not as we know it. Chablis is my pick.

Julian from Bubble Brothers has some pearls in his Chablis selection, and this Oudin Chablis looks mighty fine.

8. Food & Drink Ireland

What to suggest for this teetotalling blogger from Belfast? Okay, so John’s off the drink for another four of months while he finishes his thesis. So with all the money he’s going to win from his friends,  I’m going to suggest he push the boat out and pick up a lovely red Burgundy by a great producer, Edmond Cornu.

I’ll leave the budget up to John, but there are some great red Burgundies at a range of pricepoints from Mitchell and Son.

9. Bubble Brothers

Rather than propose a wine match with, well, a wine, I’ll highlight one of my favourite wines available from Bubble Brothers. I’m going to go for the Cuvée Tradition from Chateau Jouclary. At €13 it’s a fantastic find (see my video tasting from October 2008).

10. English Mum

For English Mum’s comforting winter warmer recipe for Beef stew with parsley dumplings, I’m going to go for a rich sunkissed Californian. The Clos du Val Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa Valley, California goes for a whopping €27 in O’Briens, but it’s really gorgeous and one for a weekend dinner in with English Mum’s hubby.

11. Ice Cream Ireland

Not sure if you can pick an ideal wine to go with ice cream, so why not one that will go in icecream. Looks like Kieran has already thought of that with his Dom Perignon Champagne Sorbet. But what about this niggly recession? Napoleon had a very balanced view on this. “In victory you deserve champagne, in defeat you need it”. So, there you go.

As Kieran Murphy, director of Murphy’s Ice Cream says, “it’s one of those things that you will never forget”.

12. The Good Mood Food Blog

The Good Mood Food Blog is adorned with fantastic food photography. The blog’s author, Donal Skehan, has also a book coming out this year, Good Mood Food.

For Donal’s Simple Antipasto Salad, I’m going to go for an Italian white from Pieve de’ Pitti but one that’s not yet available in Ireland. The Tribiana picked up a medal in the Decanter World Wine Awards and with Colly Murray working behind the scenes it won’t be long before it’s on the shelves of Ireland’s best wine shops. It’s made from the Trebbiano grape and is strong enough to cope with the spicey rocket, acidic balsamic vinegar and briney olives.

13. The Daily Spud

Runny Camembert. Lovely gooey, stinky cheesy goodness and great with a wine with a bit of acidity, but not too much.

I’d go for Cabernet Franc from the Loire, white or red Sancerre (Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir respectively). Gorgeous.