Christmas Suggestions. Gin, Whiskey and Wine

Press releases

Ireland’s First Cask Aged Gin

Blackwater Distillery have launched Ireland’s first aged gin. 

Blackwater Juniper Cask Gin which goes on sale this week has rested in casks made from juniper wood for at least thirty days. The barrels are specially made for the West Waterford distillery and because juniper trees aren’t very big, they can’t be larger than 50 litres. 

The Juniper Cask Gin contains the same 12 botanicals found in the company’s award winning Blackwater No.5, though here they are different proportions. The sweeter roots like liquorice are increased so the gin isn’t overpowered by the astringent juniper wood. The result is a copper coloured gin, complex and aromatic with plenty of character and a wonderful long finish.

ENDS

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:

Peter Mulryan

Blackwater Distillery

Unit 3 Cappoquin Enterprise Park

Cappoquin

Co Waterford, Ireland

T: +353 58 52621

E: peter@blackwaterdistillery.ie

W: www.blackwaterdistillery.ie

F: www.facebook.com/blackwaterdistillery

T: www.twitter.com/blackdistillery

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A Christmas Collection

Whiskey and Wine

Have yourself a very whiskey Christmas!

Have yourself a very whiskey Christmas this festive season with some cracking gifts for the whiskey lover in your life.

From Single Malt to Small Batch to mini gift packs and distillery tours, Teeling Whiskey has a gift to suit all tastes and budgets. All of the below is available to purchase from the Teeling Whiskey Distillery, www.teelingwhiskey.com as well as good independent retailers; The Celtic Whiskey Shop, James Fox’s and Dublin Airport to a name a few.

Whiskey lovers should also check out the Teeling Whiskey Distillery which opened its doors in June. The first working distillery in Dublin in over 125 years, it offers daily tours and has extended its opening hours for the festive season. What better way to round off an afternoon of Christmas shopping?

1.      Teeling Whiskey “Revival”- RRP €100 - €120 – brand new to the range, this Single Malt Irish Whiskey was specifically bottled on a limited edition run to celebrate the launch of the Teeling Whiskey Distillery. This whiskey is a 15 Year Old Single Malt which has been fully matured in ex-rum barrels.

2.      Mini Trinity Pack – RRP €18 –the Trinity pack includes all three of Teeling Whiskey’s non-aged portfolio - ideal for whiskey lovers and those who aren’t sure which is their favourite tipple but would love to sample them all over the festive season. It includes the Teeling Irish Whiskey Single Grain, Teeling Irish Whiskey Small Batch and the Teeling Whiskey Single Malt. There’s a different finish in there for everyone!

3.      Small Batch Gift Pack – RRP €45 - For those who know their whiskey and like to enjoy it in the comfort of their own home, TWC also have a special Small Batch Gift Pack which comes with two  stylish Teeling tumbler glasses.

If you know someone that’s a fan of the whiskey and history, the Teeling Whiskey Distillery offers brilliant tours running daily. The tour itself involves a walk through the exhibition space which brings you through the history of whiskey in Ireland, then venturing to the inner workings of the distillery where visitors can experience the heat and sweet smell from the stills and witness the whiskey making process first hand. Gift vouchers for the distillery are available online from www.teelingwhiskey.com and in the distillery on Newmarket Square.

If you would like to book your Teeling Whiskey Distillery experience now, you can do so by calling +353 (0)1 531 0888 or via email on reservations@teelingwhiskey.com

For more on the Teeling Whiskey Company and its award winning Irish Whiskeys, visitwww.TeelingWhiskey.com

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Try a little Heritage

HÉRITAGE N° 290

To celebrate its 290th anniversary, Barton & Guestier launched Héritage N°290, the Ultimate wine brand and an innovation in the world of wine! For almost 300 years, Barton & Guestier has been excellent at vinifying, ageing, fining and shipping the best wines from France. 290 years ago, these wines were those produced at Margaux, Lafite, Haut Brion... The cellar masters were adding their final touch to the wine and Barton & Guestier's 1st cellar master, Germain Rambaud was shaping the best wines of the 18th century. Barton & Guestier has been sucessful in keeping the tradition and continues to select, make and ship the best wines from France. In 2015, inspired by the spirit of the B&G founders, winemaker Laurent Prada is bringing Héritage by Barton & Guestier, the 1st brand to offer consistency in quality, in price and in availability to winelovers worldwide. Like the great Cognac, the most exclusive Whiskies, the most illustrious Champagne, Héritage is non vintage to offer consistant style and quality. More about the wine: Héritage N°290 offers a rich wine, full of character just like the 2 founders of B&G. Vineyards: Northern of Languedoc, south west side of the Rhône valley, between Nîmes & Alès Winemakers: Partnership between B&G winemakers team, led by Laurent Prada and Philippe Nusswitz, Sommelier-winemaker in the Cévennes area, best sommelier of France in 1986. Philippe worked for B&G in the 90's and he is one of the founder of our famous Wine Connaisseur program created in Château Magnol. Varietals: Blend of Syrah (80%) and Grenache (20%) Vinification: De-stalked grapes - daily pumping over - long maceration in concrete vats (3 weeks) Ageing: French oak barrels for 6 months Classification: AOC Duché d'Uzès.

Tasting notes:

• Dark red colour with violet highlights.
• Rich nose developing intense black fruit aromas (morello cherry) and spices. On the second nose, violet notes appear.
• A wine with a harmonious structure, balance, mixing intense flavours of fruit and toasty and vanilla hints.
• Food & Wine pairing:
• Perfect with lamb, duck, beef, dark chocolate, strong cheeses and spicy dishes - Best at 18-20 °C.
• Good ageing potential for 5 to 10 years.

The packaging Heritage comes in an original bottle, with a capsule supported by a strong B&G branding and a label design based on the personality of its founders featuring their embossed portraits with a pearly white varnish to bring a touch of modernity and the brand name Heritage N°290 in black varnish. Heritage is available in personalized carton outershippers of 6 x 75 cl. B & G are represented in Ireland by Richmond Marketing **************

Serego Alighieri Vaio Armaron from Masi Becomes the First-Ever Venetian Wine to 

Make the Wine Spectator Top 10

Masi’s Amarone Classico, Vaio Armaron Serego Alighieri 2008, is the first wine from the Venetoto be included in Wine Spectator’s “Top 10”, the most eagerly awaited list in the wine world.

The result was unveiled last week by the prestigious wine magazine, which put this emblematic wine from Valpolicella in 8th place with a score of 95/100.

Commenting on the achievement, President of Masi Agricola, Sandro Boscaini, said, “This is the first time that a wine from the Veneto has reached the Olympus of the world’s 10 best wines.

"This is proof of the potential of our territory and of its most historic and representative wine: a unique product sometimes jeopardised by the politics of production – or rather over-production – and low-end market orientation.

"This achievement confirms how our land is naturally suited to high quality production, without any compromises.”

Serego Aligheri Vaio Armaron is an  Amarone Classico that Masi makes in collaboration with the Serego Alighieri family, descendants of the poet Dante. This multi-award-winning wine with a noble history back to 1353, which already received 95/100 points from Wine Spectator last April, now enters the firmament of great icon wines with territorial provenance.

Masi is exclusively distributed in Ireland by

Findlater Wine & Spirit Group // www.findlaterws.ie

Superb Cono Sur & Penfolds Tasting in Cork (Part 2)

Superb Cono Sur & Penfolds Tasting in Cork

Two of the world’s leading winemakers were in Cork last week for an unusual double tasting. Adolfo Hurtado came from Cono Sur in Chile to link up with Andrew Baldwin of Australia’s Penfolds. The event, in the Blue Angel Bar at the Opera House, was organised by Findlater Wines and was more a masterclass than your basic tasting. Lots of notes and photos were taken and it’s been a job to edit it all down to two posts, the first here features Adolfo and Cono Sur, the second (below) sees Penfolds in the spotlight with Andrew going solo!

Part Two

Andrew explains the Penfolds range

Andrew Baldwin is a leading winemaker at Penfolds of South Australia. But, as a young man, he started there as a distiller! He was making neutral and brandy spirits. He has been there for thirty years now - the company do seem to have many loyal long-term employees - and he has been making wine since the 90s, “everything from Bin 28 to Grange”.

Grange, of course, is “an icon” and has been described as “an institution”. It was first made in the 1950’s by Max Schubert and was soon “the subject of controversy” according to Andrew. Schubert was told by the board that it was like a dry Tawny Port and “who, in their right mind, was going to drink a dry Tawny Port”.

Back at base, Max continued to work on the Grange. But in secret. Just like winemakers in France during the WW2 occupation, he constructed fake walls and made three vintages behind closed doors in the tunnels of Magill Estate. At that point, the board's interest was revived and Max was able to reveal his secret, even if stocks were limited. Its fame soon grew and the standard has never dropped.

During the 50th anniversary (2001) of Max Schubert’s creation of Grange, to recognize its consistent quality and renown, the national Trust of South Australia listed Penfolds Grange as an official heritage icon. To see Russell Crowe’s 3 minute video of Grange, please click here.

Before the joint event in the Opera House

Following many years of continued growth, in both the production and the reputation of the wines from The Grange Vineyard, Penfolds (once owned by Guinness) now accounts for 50 percent of all of the annual wine sales across the whole of Australia.

The company is also a huge exporter and much of the credit for that goes to Dr Ray Beckwith. Andrew says Ray, a contemporary of Max Schubert, “put science behind wine in Australia”. “He helped give stability to the wines and that led to exports”.

All ready to go in the Blue Angel

Up to the 1950s, as you'll see in the Crowe video, much of Australia was drinking Port and Sherry type wines. And indeed that was how Penfolds started, back in 1844! Englishman Dr Christopher Rawson Penfold and his wife Mary arrived with cuttings from the South of France and proceeded to make fortified wine “for medicinal purposes”.

And Andrew acknowledged that “Tawny style wines were our foundation” and told me that the Port (not necessarily for medicinal purposes anymore) is still a vital part of the production with three being made from ten year old to 35 year old. He describes the older one “as the great grand-father, a wine of exceptional complexity”.

Penfolds are known for their blending prowess, grapes bought in from near and far, but they also celebrate terroir and the Holy Ground in this regard is Block 42. Andrew says that this 10-acre block was planted only 30 years after the great 1855 Bordeaux Classification and comprises the oldest plantings of Cabernet Sauvignon continuously produced in the world.

It’s been all red wine in this piece so far but Andrew pointed out that “the white wine portfolio compares well. Two years ago, our Chardonnay was ‘best in world’”.

Yours Truly with Carmel from Ardkeen Superstore

We asked Andrew for a few tips for someone wishing to start exploring Penfolds wine and, without hesitation, he recommended the Koonunga Hill Shiraz Cabernet because of its “drinkability and lots of fruit” and he also said the Koonunga Hill Chardonnay is “really approachable”.

Penfolds Tasting

Bin 51 Eden Valley Riesling 2014

Andrew  told us that the Eden Valley produces white wines “more floral, more aromatic” than the Clare. “It has good balance, great with seafood or as an aperitif. There are lime lemony characters and, with sugar under 2 grams, it is very very dry.”

Bin 2 Shiraz Mourvedre 2012

The first red and our first example of blending, the fruit for this coming from the Barossa, McLaren Vale and Padthaway. The Mourvedre, better known as Mataro (the Aussies prefer the easier pronunciation!), “adds spiciness and evenness to the palate”. It has spent 10 months in a mixture of oak. This is a relatively new blend and popularity continues to grow, especially in the Asian market.

Bin 8 Cabernet Shiraz 2012

This is one of their newer wines and dates from the early 90s. It has a lovely sweetness and Andrew was quick to point out that the sweetness is natural” “It comes from the fruit, not from sugar!” This particular year the blend was 57% Cabernet and 43% Shiraz and that is close to the usual proportions. It has been matured, for 12 months, in seasoned and American oak, with 13% in new French oak, and has “a lovely whole mouth sensation. The two varieties complement each other.”

Adolfo and Cono Sur featured in yesterday's post.

Bin 407 Cabernet Sauvignon 2013

Five vineyards contributed to the previous wine and the same number to this, emphasising the multi-region focus of Penfolds and again it has been in a mixture of oak for 12 months. It is a serious wine. “Nose is dark, palate also, ...quite complex… and can be laid down for a long period.” Notes indicate peak drinking between 2017 and 2030. Not bad though in 2015!

Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz 2013

I assume some of us were hoping that Andrew would pull a bottle of Grange out at the last minute! But he did come up with this beauty, also known as Baby Grange or Poor Man's Grange, in part because ”components of the wine are matured in the same barrels that held the previous vintage of Grange”.

Like Grange, it is a “judicious balance of fruit and oak". The fruit mix is Cabernet (51%) and Shiraz. It is quite complex both on the nose and on the palate (where the winery rating is expansive, explosive, exotic). It is made in the Penfolds style, richer, more tannic “and the time on lees gives more flavour.” Over time, the colours change, the wine softens out, the tannins too. Worth keeping by the sound of it! Indeed, peak drinking time is indicated as 2018-2035.

After the tasting, we had time for more chat and time too to enjoy some tasty nibbles from Victor and his team in the House Cafe.

Superb Cono Sur & Penfolds Tasting in Cork, Part 1

Superb Cono Sur & Penfolds Tasting in Cork

Two of the world’s leading winemakers were in Cork last week for an unusual double tasting. Adolfo Hurtado came from Cono Sur in Chile to link up with Andrew Baldwin of Australia’s Penfolds. The event, in the Blue Angel Bar at the Opera House, was organised by Findlater Wines and was more a masterclass than your basic tasting. Lots of notes and photos were taken and it’s been a job to edit it all down to two posts, the first below features Adolfo and Cono Sur, the second (here) sees Penfolds in the spotlight with Andrew going solo!

Part One

Cono Sur

Adolfo Hurtado, MD and winemaker at Cono Sur, grew up on his father’s dairy farm in the beautiful Casablanca Valley in Chile. The young Adolfo was interested in farming and went on to study Agronomy and began to realise that he wanted to do winemaking. There was a tradition of winemaking on his mother’s side as her father had been a wine-maker.

We asked him about his and Cono Sur’s commitment to organic wine-making. It is not just about the photo opportunity that their geese (who gobble up the bad bugs!) and the bikes that get the workers around the vineyard provide!

“The country itself was the first motive,” he said to me in the Cork Opera House last Wednesday. At the end of the 20th century the Chilean land was “in extraordinarily good condition, diseases were absent and in 1998 we decided to use the advantages that Chile could offer”.

“Sure there is more paperwork but the possibility of replacing chemicals was an incentive. We couldn't use nitrogen anymore and that was a problem at first. But now “it is amazing, so healthy. And it is really beautiful now and the results are better.”

And Chile added to its natural isolation with strict controls to limit the access of four legged or winged creatures that might harm its vineyards and is determined to keep its land clean and healthy. The geographic isolation has four main features: desert (to the north), Andes (to the east), ice (to the south) and the Pacific (to the west)

The shape of the country too too helps it diversity as a wine-producer and remember that the diversity is found as much in an east-west direction as much as in the north-south line.

Cono Sur have some 400 acres certified as organic and many more acres are farmed in an organic way even if not certified as such.

Yours truly with Adolfo (left) and Andrew (right)

And some of the organic ways are so so simple. Here are two examples that Adolfo mentioned during the tasting. Remember those geese? Well they are there to stop the Burrito beatle. This beetle climbs the vine and can do huge damage. But a band (an INIA band) around the trunk of the vine halts its progress, it falls back down and then the geese go to work.

The California thrip is another big pest as it can damage the vine at its flowering stage. The solution is to plant rows of very colourful flowers between the vines. The thrip  now leaves the plain flower of the vine and heads for the “sexy” colourful flowers.

Talking to Adolfo you'll soon realise that Pinot Noir is a favourite of his. “It is our flagship, a most important wine for us. We bought an estate that had been planted with Pinot Noir in 1968 by the previous owners and in 90s we started at the block. Our first Pinot Noir was exported to Japan and the UK and they liked it. It became more and more popular and we are now the biggest Pinot Noir producer in the world, selling some 6,000,000 bottles annually.”

Does he think that Irish people know much about Chile, aside from its wines and footballers?

“Chile needs to be re-discovered and the perception has changed a lot. People from outside now think of it as being a really natural country, beautiful, even with volcanoes and earthquakes,  and are more interested in discovering it.”

While wines from Chile do very well in Ireland, Adolfo and his team still have much to do on the wider front. I pointed to the 2016 edition of the Hugh Johnson handbook where Switzerland has more space than Chile and where New Zealand has 11 pages of listings as against four for Chile.

Adolfo responded: “Chile had been known for its good value for years. And the challenge now is to get people to trade up, to get them to realise that Chile is also a producer of premium wines and that is why we organize events like today.”

We asked Adolfo to recommend a couple of wines to an Irish consumer that was interested in starting to explore Chile and he picked two from their Bicicleta range, the Cabernet Sauvignon and, of course, the Pinot Noir! Cheers.

Concentration from Cork's own Chilean, Francisca!

The Cono Sur Tasting

20 Barrels Sauvignon Blanc 2015

From the El Centinela vineyard in the Casablanca, this brings with it “a hint of saltiness” from the nearby ocean. “It is mostly citrus with great concentration and a nice minerality”. And a lovely freshness that could be applied to all three whites.

20 Barrels Chardonnay 2014

Adolfo wasn't convinced of the usefulness of concrete eggs in the vineyard until he tried them with this, 10% in eggs, the balance in new French barrels. “The egg helps with complexity, good for the palate, doesn't do much for the aromas.” Another delicious white with good balance and, yes, those salt elements again. It comes from the same estate as the Sauvignon blanc.

Single Vineyard Riesling 2015

This one is from the cool south, from the Bio Bio (pronounced bee-o, bee-o) valley. It has a nice concentration and “the six grams of residual sugar helps the balance”. You’ll find note of flowers, apricots, peaches and grapefruit. But no petrol. You might get that next year when it has spent 10-12 months in the bottle. This was bottled just last August.

Ocio Pinot Noir 2013

This is Cono Sur's “first ultra premium Pinot Noir”. Ocio, pronounced Ossio, means leisure (your time to enjoy). Think you could enjoy this beauty at any time. Adolfo certainly does and told us his favourite match with this Casablanca wine, produced just 30 kilometers from the ocean, is Tuna with blueberry sauce.

Silencio Cabernet Sauvignon 2011

Adolfo and Cono Sur are also very proud of the Silencio, recent winner of the Best Red Wine in Chile award. It comes from Alto Maipo, close to Santiago. The aging process consists of 22 months in French oak (100% new, medium toast), two months in stainless steel and two years in bottle. Full of character, silky with “deep concentration” it is another winner from Cono Sur, a winner with an aging potential of at least 10-15 years, maybe longer!

Go to Part 2, featuring Penfolds

Findlater's Ken Kinsella enjoyed that one!

Part Two tomorrow feature's Penfolds winemaker Andrew Baldwin