Showing posts with label Irish Examiner. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Irish Examiner. Show all posts

Friday, November 15, 2013

The Winegeese. A New Generation in Cork last night.

The Winegeese. A New Generation.
Languedoc winemakers at L'Atitude
Bottom (l to r): Leslie Williams (Irish Examiner),
Neasa Corish Miquel and Philip Grant.
A couple of modern winegeese were at L’Atitude in Cork lasted evening and very impressive they were too. Both Neasa Corish Miquel and Philip Grant operate in the Languedoc and, with Irish Examiner’s Leslie Williams linking and prompting the pair, we had a very entertaining evening and tasted some excellent wines.

Neasa Corish Miquel is originally from Dublin and married into the Miquel family. They have two vineyards, one near Beziers, the other south of the Narbonne to Toulouse stretch of the A61 autoroute.

The big surprise from Neasa was her 2012 Albarino, the only one in France (at least for the present!). The Miquels took a big gamble here, planting 14 hectares “all in one go”. But is looks like paying off. This is an elegant fresh white wine with a lovely fragrance. Matched with a mix of smoked and fresh salmon, one of the many excellent bites from the L’Atitude kitchen, it went down well.

Her opening wine, the 2011 Viognier, has been harvested by night and “handled gently”. Its freshness was evident and it went well with the cheese. Neasa said it keeps well for days in the open bottle and is even decanted in some restaurants.

Then Philip who, after a successful business career, bought the large Chateau Bellevue estate in November 2007 (just before the crash!), spoke about the main grape grown there. It is the little known Négrette which has “fabulous colour and fabulous fruit” but “is tricky to grow”.

Worth it though as illustrated through his wines. The first was his 2012 Rosé. Some forty per cent of his wine is rosé and this beauty went very well indeed with Jack McCarthy’s classy Pastrami. Bren Smith of Mackenway, who distribute for Grant and Miquel, said it was also a terrific match with curry.

Philip then produced his first red, his 2009, a gold medal winner and his best seller. It is fifty five per cent Négrette, with Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah also in the blend. It is fresh and fruity, soft, and matched very well with the mushrooms.
The Canal du Midi flows through the Languedoc
and was once used for carrying wine.

Then came the big hitters. Neasa’s introduced us to her Larmes des Fees (the tears of the fairies), a 100% Syrah from 2006 and under the St Chinian appellation. It has been aged for 18 months in oak and much the same in bottle, is very high quality and will age well. The tears of the fairies, Neasa told us, flowed when they heard a group of washerwomen bad-mouthing absent colleagues. Probably still flowing so.

The 2009 Optimum is powerful and fresh and age worthy and another award winner for Philip. Indeed, it has been awarded a very hard to get Coup de Coeur by Hachette. This Fronton AOC red is from low yield vines and has “an enormous concentration of flavour. “It has taken off very well, “he said, “and the biggest buyers are the Vietnamese”.

It was quite a long evening but we didn’t notice the time going by, thanks to the good company and the good wines. More of the same next Wednesday (7.00pm) when the wines of Domainela Sarabande (also from the Beziers area and owned by Australian Paul Gordon and his Irish wife Isla) will be featured. Tickets from L’Atitude at 021 2390219.


Wednesday, December 19, 2012

€10,000 Christmas gift at Examiner Coffee Morning

Ten thousand euro donation highlight of
Irish Examiner Christmas Coffee Morning
Clockwise from top left: Catriona Anderson, Michelle Darmody (Examiner),
Darina Allen, UCC singers, dancing shoes!,  Irish Examiner editor
Tim Vaughan, cheque in hand, announces €10000 donation.


Irish Examiner editor Tim Vaughan admitted he wasn’t too happy with his public speaking role at the start of yesterday's festive coffee morning at the paper’s HQ. But he had no bother in rushing back to centre stage halfway through to announce that he had just been handed a €10,000 donation for St Vincent de Paul.

That really was the icing on the cake (forgive the pun) on a very enjoyable morning. And yes there was no shortage of cake. The reception area had been magically transformed into a “cafe” by Mary Terry and her crew and we were all enjoying a drink and a cake as the UCC Choir got the morning, arranged in aid of St Vincent de Paul, off on the right note.

The Examiner’s Michelle Darmody and Darina Allen were the cake experts to speak and they freely gave some terrific advice on Christmas cooking in general and on cakes in particular. Darina also sounded a serious note, reminding us to think of the charities after Christmas as well.

The main event though was the announcement of the Irish Examiner Christmas Cake competition. Finally, the tension was broken for the 12 finalists when Cobh's Catriona Anderson was named as the overall winner.

So well done to Catriona and to the other brave contestants, to the Examiner staff who put on a great show (and organised many prizes for the raffle) and to that anonymous donor! Happy Christmas everyone.