Exploring Grapes in Ardclough contd.

The AC Wine Club at Ardclough           November 2016

Another great night where we explore grapes and their wine styles on the first Monday of every month.  

Essay South Africa 2014

Chenin Blanc  … with a touch of Viognier                                              O’Briens Wines

O’Brien’s Wines supply this label to their on-trade customers only ie restaurants and hotels. The name Essay is a play on the SA abbreviation for South Africa. It’s an excellent wine (as we would expect from O’Briens!) with the crisp Chenin balanced beautifully by a touch of peachy Viognier. We all ‘found’ distinct lanolin/wet wool at the edge of the bouquet – that’s good!

Paredes Crete 2015

Dafni                                                                              
Marks&Spencer        €15.00

     

This is from Greece and has a very obvious bouquet where ‘Torrontés rose petal’ meets ‘Gewürztraminer lychee’. Fabulous wine for those who like perfume! Beyond that it’s a credit to Greece (where white wines dominate local drinking patterns). Pity we don’t see more wines from Greece.

Silverleaf South Africa 2015                                                           

Dunnes Stores €8.99

Merlot  
Fabulous value. Soft and charming. Also, clean as a whistle fruit. Good to see.

  

Gianni Gagliardo Barbera d’Alba 2014                                        Independents  €26.00

Barbera

Brilliant winemaking from Gagliardo in Piedmont, NW Italy. Barbera is the grape and it’s a soft and concentrated wine with endless depth of flavours each of which threatens to be very serious but then pulls back and becomes charming instead.  

Gianni Gagliardo Barolo 2012                                                       Independents  €52.00
Nebbiolo

Barolo is the king of Italian wines. If they’re any good at all they don’t come cheap! They are however and experience in a bottle and Gagliardo’s is no exception. This wine is very modern with accessible fruit to the fore and lots of intense structure hidden well in the background. Bouquet is classic warmed asphalt and palate is rich fruit, acid, tannin and alcohol. The balance is excellent and it will keep from many, many years.

The AC Wine Club has a New Venue

Earlier this month the Ardclough Community Council took over the recently emptied school house in Ardclough. The new St Annes NS was finally opened. In association with the VEC the Community Council has now begun a series of courses ranging from 'Computers for the Terrified' to 'Yoga'. I dropped in this morning to look at the old school with a view to using it as a venue for the Ardclough Wine Club (otherwise known and the AC Wine Club).  It's perfect.

 

The astute, observant and possibly wary, of you will know that the Club didn't meet at all last year. I know. Not at all! Not very good. As all good politicians say though, let's move forward and get the Club going again.   

I propose to market the idea that we meet on the first Wednesday of each month at 8.00pm beginning on Wednesday the 6th November.

As before there will be a nominal charge on the evening of €5.00

I will supply glassware and wines until we organise a better system

Leave a message of interest for me on 0876919191 or indeed at kevin@kevinecock.ie

If there is sufficiant interest I also intend to begin weekly Wine Appreciation courses up in Ardclough in the New Year. Ardclough; a wine hub? Absolutely. 

Discover the Wines of Chile was a Great Success

Our meeting last month was a great success. Kevin Ecock presented a power pointed presentation of the Wine Valleys of Chile and then guided us through the following ten incredible wines. Yes, TEN and the entry was only a fiver!

This was a sponsored event by Wines of Chile and the Association of Wine Educators of which Kevin is a keen member.

The wines were sponsored by local wine merchants and a number of national wine distributors. Each of these is acknowledged alongside their wines below.

The theme for the evening had been designed to show off the diversity, complexity, technical mastery and regionality of the Chilean wine trade. All of this was shown with regards to the differences each of the major wine producing valleys can display in a bottle of wine! Sounds complicated. It wasn't. It was fascinating.

Wine 1

Aconcagua Costa

Errazuriz Aconcagua Costa Sauvignon Blanc 2010

Cassidy Wines

This was probabaly the best wine to begin a tasting like this with. It is exceptional. Herbal and lime driven this is cool climate Sauvignon Blanc at it's best. Vina Errazuriz Chief Wine maker Santiago Francisco used this wine to show cool climate wine making in Chile in his Specialties range last year here in Ireland. The Aconcagua Costa is only 12km from the very cool Pacific Ocean.

Wine 2

Colchagua

Vina Casa Silva Reserve Viognier 2010

Febvre & Co 

For wine lovers of rich and generous Viognier. Really super ripe wine making allows the grape to express itself in a lovely, full and show-off sort of a way. It would not be possible to develop the nuances this grape shows here unless the Cochagua Valley was used with pin point precision.

Wine 3

Limari

De Martino Legado Reserva Chardonnay 2009

Febvre & Co

De Martino prides iself on being 100% organic and to only grow grapes in areas that are best suited to them ie they are terroir driven. Limari shows expertly here with its northern latitude and quick sweep to the ocean from the mountains. This does Chardonnay proud.

Wine 4:

Casablanca

Carmen Reserva Pinot Noir 2009

Edward Dillon and Co

Fickle grapes need the attention of great winemakers. Chile is beginning to find its feet with Pinot Noir in terms of finding cool growing sites and the attention of experts such as Carmen's Sebastian Labbe. This is great intro to what's happening with Chilean Pinot Noir but I have no doubt that in a short while we will look back on this as merely the beginning of something great.

Wine 5

Valle Central

Karu Merlot 2010

O'Briens Wines

It's easy to see why this is so popular with O'Brien's customers. It's juicy, full and tremendous value at €7.49. It's a fine example of how the Central Valley in Chile can be used well. Let's face we all want value but we also want quality. Chile can provide both.

  

Wine 6

Colchagua

Carmen Reserva Merlot 2009

Edward Dillon and Co.

I purposefully put this after the less expensive Karu Merlot. If you're asked to pay more for a wine (€12.99 in this case) it seems reasonable that you get an added dimension in the bottle. Chile prides itself on having multiple price points. Indeed it is now attempting to associate price points, style and places of origin into hierarchies that the consumer will recognise. Everyone at this tasting appreciated the careful use Carmen has made of Colchagua's sub appellations in bringing freshness and subtlety to the table. Couple this with some oak ageing and it all made sense! 

Wine 7

Rapel

Vina Maipo Reserva Syrah 2009

Dunnes Stores 

This went down well. No-one could quite believe that Dunne's regularly sell this for only €8.99. Vina Maipo specialise in Syrah and when this passion is combined with Rapel valley nuances the result is consistent. Lots of true varietal character with nothing forced.

Wine 8

Apalta

Santa Rita Pehuen Carmenere 2007

Gleeson/Gilbeys

Clearly a Carmenere was needed. What a great wine Pehuen is! It has a great depth of red colour and rich very dark slightly spiced dark fruits on the nose and then surprises by a smooth palate. Apalta is warm with long growing season and great night v daytime temperatures. All suited to Carmenere! 

Wine 9

Maipo

Santa Rita Reserva Cabernet Sauvignon 2008

Gleeson Gilbeys

Super counter point to the Carmenere. Not many wine clubs get to see Santa Rita quality side by side like this. Very impressive. Served slightly the wrong way around but the point was well made. Maipo and its satellite the Apalta has genuine variety exploited really well by Santa Rita's talented team of wine makers.

Wine 10

Maipo

Vina Chocalan Gran Reserva Pinot Noir 2008

O'Brien's Wines

What a wine to finish off with. This is big in every sense and really should be coming from the Maipo. It's also a lot of fruit and a lot of wine making packed into one bottle. Comes across as relatively young still. Good value at the €20.00 O'Brien's sell it for.

Great News on Chile but first: We meet next Week

Our June meeting approaches! Remember we meet on the first Thursday of the month  -- except for July and August!

Meet at Ardclough GAA
Thursday June 2nd at 8.00pm
Entry: €5.00


Contact Kevin beforehand at kevin@kevinecock.ie or 087 6919191 -- This is a MUST DO. Well, it's preferable.
Everyone is welcome. It is our intention to make this the most populist, and popular, wine club in the country.

This time around we have another interesting bag of grapes to look at. We'll visit Semillon to Cortese from Tesco to South African Shiraz and Chenin from Dunnes Stores. These will fit in beautifully with Katnook Founders Block Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauv from Coonawarra. What an education!

MORE GOOD NEWS : Chilean Wines on show at the AC Wine Club

When we meet up again in September  Kevin Ecock  will present an evening on the Wines of Chile. This will be a full powerpointed, whistleblowing celebration of one of the world's top wine producing countries. The evening will have the full support of the Wines of Chile promotional body. Much more on this later in the summer.  

Kevin is a member of AWE

Inaugural AC Wine Club Tasting!

Thanks to everyone who turned out yesterday on a spectacularly warm and wonderful evening here in Co. Kildare. It was a great session. We are now up and running. Membership is open and we will meet on the first Thursday of each month at 8.00pm in the GAA at Ardclough.

I kept our first session confined to a populist range of wines that showed us a range of grape types, wine making style and country of origin  influences.

I then introduced my new, and fabulous:

ACWine Club Fact Sheet no 1: Tasting

and

ACWine Club Factsheet no. 2: Grapes.

You've just gotta join to get your hands on them!

Highlight of the night was when I brought up the concept of a Classics Tasting later in the year. Mind you a Champagne Tasting suggestion went down pretty good as well!!

The Wines last night:

Seifried Pinot Gris 2007 Nelson New Zealand Food friendly style with emphasis on savouriness. Perhaps a tad too old allowing acidity to mask the fruit. I have tasted more recent vintages of this and normally find it excellent. Really got our first discussion going well - everyone found their acid taste buds! I met, and interviewed, Chris Seifried in Dublin last year - genuine guy.

Les Jamelles Chardonnay  2009 Vin de Pays d'Oc France Soft and accessable wine with ample fruit for the price. This brought a great debate re chardonnay into focus. I'm still on a chardonnay roll and want everyone to try as many as possible. Bring Chardonnay back - I nearly said, 'in from the cold' ,but aren't cool vineyards giving a lot of Chardonnay's reputation back to it as a brilliant grape! les Jamelles is widely available.  

Gallo Family Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon 2009 California Last month I met, and interviewed, Stephanie Gallo. Really nice lady. Last year I was lucky to do likewise with Chief wine maker for Gallo, Cal Dennison. I say lucky because I have been fan of what Gallo has achieved for many years now. I understand their ideas behind wine styling and I have very little time for critics who dismiss their wines without even tasting them! This wine did not disappoint. As with all things Gallo it is very well made and appeals to a wide audience with a full, slightly fat fruit and a touch of residual sugar. Commercial and popular. Brilliant teaching wine. 

Marks and Spencer Cabernet Sauvignon 2008 Margaret River Western Australia I admit that most of the Club last night were not as familiar with Marks and Spencers' wines as I had expected. That should change with M&S's new initiative utilising the skills of the members of the Association of Wine Educators. I hope so because wines like this should not be left to a chance purchase. They should be sought out, nay hunted down! This was brilliant fruit aged to perfection in both oak and bottle.

Michel Torino Coleccion Malbec 2010 Colchagua Valley 1700 metres Argentina If any area of the world expresses its location through its wines it really must be these fabulous high altitude ones out of Argentina. The depth, smoothness and sheer enjoyability of this wine is exceptional.

   

Muriel Rioja Crianza 2007 Rioja Spain This was my first introduction to this wine and I wasn't dissapointed. This shows modern and inviting soft fruits galore and yet has a good traditional oaking and velvet smoothness. If the previous wine was supposed to show off provenance and this one, wine making then both were very much on top of their game.  

SEE http://www.kevinecock.ie/ FOR MORE INFO ON THE AC WINE CLUB