Ballymaloe Festival of Food. A Highlight Once Again.

 Ballymaloe Festival of Food. A May Highlight Once Again.

I may have taken that missing canapé!

Delighted to take up an invite to attend the launch event of the just concluded Ballymaloe Festival of Food. The informal event was haled in the Walled Garden Marquee to celebrate the start of a weekend to remember. 

Boatyard Martinis and Ballymaloe canapés were served to kick off. Plenty of other drink alternatives including wine and also that excellent Fierce Mild non-alcoholic beer. No speeches but conversations galore as the weekend buzz stepped up a gear or two. Those canapés, quite a variety of them, were delicious, as you’d expect here!

Cahors, in the south-west of France, is the original home of the Malbec grape, a grape now much associated with South America.  Jules Verhaeghe and Aurore Del Vitto, of Château du Cedre ((Cahors) were in the Drinks Theatre on the opening night of the 2026 Ballymaloe Festival of Food. Their talk and taste showed that their award winning winery can produce Malbec as good as any.

Pascal Rossignol kept the conversation flowing while Colm McCan (the wine teacher at Ballymaloe Cookery School ) and his wife Aoife were busy serving the various samples.

We started with the winery’s Chardonnay (2024) and that certainly impressed as did the Malbec (2023)  that soon followed. Off to a good start and more Malbecs were presented. The Extra-Libre, the sulfur-free Malbec from the Verhaeghe brothers, “A pure expression of Malbec,” says Pascal, “..proves the versatility of this grape variety, showing up with juiciness and high drinkability”.

Then we finished on a delicious note. Again is was a Malbec but a sweet one, great to pair with blue cheese said Aurore. Cahors and Cashel? Sounds good as well! Don’t think I’ve ever had a sweet Malbec previously!

Aurore and Jules

All grapes at Chateau de Cedre are grown organically, biodynamically, sustainably, and there is minimal intervention in the wine making process, with natural filtration and a small amount of sulfites added at bottling. 

Colm and Aoife run the weekend pop-up wine shop in the Grainstore at Ballymaloe and they run the Drinks Theatre events at Ballymaloe which hosts wine and drinks events throughout the year.

We had time as well to wander around the many food stalls in the Big Shed where a demonstration on how to handle gin was in full swing. We were glad to see Ballycotton based Andrea had a stand here. You don’t see many gooseberry jams around nowadays and Andrea’s Kitchen  makes one of the best. We stocked up. 

No shortage of variety as this amazing Festival.

Andrea talking to a visitor