Níl aon Mirco mar ár Mirco féin!

Níl aon Mirco mar ár Mirco féin!

While Omicron is still rampant, some of our restaurants are again taking the Takeaway or At Home route. Da Mirco in Bridge Street is one and one that you neglect at your peril as the North Italian Corkman's osteria is one of the best around.

By the way, I see that Omicron is the 15th letter of the ancient Greek alphabet. The good news that it is one of the shorter alphabets with its final letter, omega (a kind of “o fada), the 24th. So just 9 more variants to go?

Back to the food. He has quite a menu up for January, starters, mains and desserts, not to mention Italian wines and other treats. Our picks were Tagliere da Mirco (Da Mirco's Board with Italian Cured meats and his homemade favourites: focaccia bread, pickled vegetables and tomato jam) and a mains of Homemade Cannelloni with a filling of Braised Irish Venison Ragu. The board (€16.00) was for sharing and we ordered two lots of the Cannelloni (10.00).

That board was terrific, beautiful meats, a selection of cheeses and a whole load of accompaniments (including his own focaccia) to enhance the experience. It scored high on quality, a great mix of flavours and textures, and also on quantity as we had some cheese left that was nibbled away the following day.

I admit to being a lover of Cannelloni, the large pasta tubes served with a filling and covered by a sauce in Italian kitchens. But it is mostly those that come stuffed with spinach and ricotta that I’m familiar with. Not too sure that I ever had one in winter previously. Mirco’s generous serving came packed with minced Irish venison and was exquisite. As with all Cannelloni, they look innocent enough but they are very filling indeed!

We had an Italian red wine handy at home with suggested food pairings of cured meat, cheeses, red meat. Vincenzo’s Rosso (18.45 or so at Bradley’s of Cork, Greenman and 64 Wine both Dublin) was just the job.

The wine. Vincenzo makes a red and a white!

Imported by Le Caveau in Kilkenny, it is a dark ruby in the glass, a lighter red at the rim. This is quite aromatic: plum, blackberries, and black currant with a rustic background. Quite a depth of flavour and no shortage of spice either on the palate, lively and fresh, with ripe tannins towards the finish. The grapes used in the blend (from the northern part of the southern half of Italy) are Montepulciano (50%), Merlot (25%) & Cabernet Sauvignon (25%). 

Be sure and check out Mirco’s January Takeaway Menu here. Don’t forget to click on the @home tab as the restaurant menu is on the same page.

* Note for Mirco on the post heading; it means There’s no Mirco like our own Mirco.

A Couple of Highly Recommended Organic Wines, from Bergerac and Campobasso.

 A Couple of Highly Recommended Organic Wines

From Bergerac and Campobasso

Tour Des Gendres Cantalouette Bergerac Rouge (AC) 2020 14.5% 

€19.45 64 Wine Dublin, Bradley’s of Cork, Greenman Dublin, Le Caveau Kilkenny

This is a blend of 50% Merlot, 25% Cabernet Franc, 25% Malbec. Not too sure about the name, though there is a bird (not like any lark I’ve ever seen!) on the label, and there is a town of this name about 30 minutes from Ribagnac where Tour des Gendres is based.

Very glossy and deep red in the glass. The nose is intense, a bouquet of vibrant small red fruits. And the fresh fruit flavours are also intense, juicy cassis and other darker fruits, a touch of moderate spice too. Tannins have a tender grip and this is an easy-drinking soft and balanced wine with good length. Really gorgeous, well made (typical of Tours des Gendres) and Very Highly Recommended.

The grapes come from the Tour des Gendres’ organic certified vineyards. The grapes are Malbec, Merlot and Cabernet Franc (noted for its quality of freshness), grown on a mix of sand, clay and limestone soils. Luc is looking for purity and intensity in his wines, relentlessly searching to reach the maximum potential of each vintage.Viticulture is organic and biodymanic and yields are low.

Le Caveau tells that Luc de Conti is a wonderful character and one of the finest wine-makers of his generation, he feels passionately for his wines, his 54-ha vineyard and his Bergerac region.”Luc is looking for purity and intensity in his wines, relentlessly searching to reach the maximum potential of each vintage.”

Over the years Bergerac winemakers have been overshadowed by those of neighbour Bordeaux who historically controlled the ports and so the  exports. As Robert Joseph said a good few years back: The second class status of Bergerac today owes more to the efforts of Bordeaux merchants to discriminate against it than to the quality of its wines.

As a result, to this day, Bergerac doesn't command the same price level as Bordeaux. So watch out for Bergerac reds (and the whites also) and you should save yourself a few euro without sacrificing quality.

Fattoria di Vaira Vincenzo Bianco 2020, 11% abv 

€18.45 64 Wine Dublin, Bradley’s of Cork, Greenman Dublin, Le Caveau Kilkenny

This white blend comes from southern Italy (not from the deep south); inland Campobasso, where the vineyard is located, is roughly equidistant from Rome and Bari but nearer the Adriatic then the Tyrrhenian.

Colour is an orange/gold, a haze cloud in the glass. Aromas offer quince and sweet peach notes, along with floral hints. The complex palate is full of lively fruit flavours (apricot, peach, even apple). Mouthfeel is a little tingly. Fresh and well structured, this is a delicious wine and an excellent introduction to the style of skin-contact white (also known as orange wines). Highly Recommended.

The blend sees light skin-contact Fiano grapes in with some direct press Trebbiano. The fruit for the Vincenzo wine is sourced from Fattoria di Vaira, one of the largest biodynamic farms in Italy, with more than 500 hectares, just 40 of which are planted to vines.

There is a wonderful diversity here, a very clean environment, with animals, fruit plants, cereals. Shepherds, farmers, cheese makers, vignerons all work in harmony on the farm.

You can visit if you are in the area. Not alone visit, stay as well. And you’ll be well entertained with wine tours and evenings of wine, food and music. Check it all out here.

A youthful and impressive pair, César Florido Fino En Rama and a Barbera from Piemonte

An impressive and youthful pair, César Florido

 Fino En Rama and a Barbera from Piemonte.

Bodegas César Florido Fino En Rama Pena del Aguila Jerez (DO), 15% 

€18.00 (37.5cl) 64 Wine Dublin, Bradley’s of Cork, Greenman Dublin, Le Caveau Kilkenny

The Palomino grapes for this Bodegas Cesar Florido Fino en Rama come from the prestigious Pago de Miraflores vineyard. The wine is aged slowly under flor in the cellar solera. From one special cask (Bota No 22) – bottled to order, making 600 halves – without filtration or fining.

Serve this in a clear wine glass and enjoy the golden colour. And that glass will also enhance the amazing briny and saline aromas and flavours, with a characteristic biscuit-y yeastiness. 

The professional advice is to drink it chilled though, personally, I’d be careful of overdoing it. I started this bottle at a cool room temperature and thought I got more out of the first glass, both in aroma and flavour, than from the second (poured after some time in the fridge). Different strokes for different folks!

Don’t rush this beauty, a sip will go a long way. I remember that tip from César Saldaña, Consejo Regulador Jerez, then (2011). While speaking at an event in Ballymaloe he said: When drinking sherry with your meal you should always have a glass of water at hand. When you want to “wash” down the food use the water and then take “a few drops” of the sherry as it goes a long way!

The en rama approach showcases a different expression of sherry’s potential. Bottled with minimal or zero filtration and released seasonally, en rama sherry offers a much closer approximation of what the wine would have tasted like in its natural state, taken directly from the cask, with all it aromatic intensity, fullness of body, and essential flavours intact. En Rama certainly broadens the already wide potential of Sherry.

En Rama is a relatively recent development in sherry as importers Le Caveau point out: Up until recently (with a few exceptions), the only viable way to taste sherry en rama was to go to Jerez, or one of the other Sherry towns in the ‘Sherry triangle’, visit the bodegas, and taste the wine poured directly from the cask. The en rama version offers the more complex drinking experience: it’s pungent and saline, with notes of yellow apple, green olives, and a hint of almond, along with a corresponding fullness of body that somehow manages to be bracingly acid-driven and fresh.”

In the early days of en rama in these parts, word went out that it must be drunk on purchase as it would rapidly spoil. In fact, whether to drink or keep is a personal choice. ‘Not all en rama wines necessarily improve, although the best wines age really well and last many years.’ - Decanter Oct 2020

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GAIA Brich Piemonte (DOC) Barbera 2019 14.5% 

€18.45 64 Wine Dublin, Bradley’s of Cork, Greenman Dublin, Le Caveau Kilkenny

Barbera, according to Wine Folly, is the quintessential ‘wine of the people,’ it is meant to be enjoyed young — and it’s cheap! Italy is Barbera’s original home.

The best of it, including our GAIA produced Brich, comes from the Piemonte region. Colour is a fairly deep red. Aromas are intense, plum and cherry, lots of promise here. On the palate, it is fresh-tasting (meant to be drunk young), lots of acidity. Light and lively rather than the rich and smooth that you might expect. The fruit (including touches of blueberry now) and slight spiciness from the palate continue through the long and satisfying finish. Well made (well priced too by the way) and Highly Recommended. 

Le Caveau, who import the wine, say: “Brich is a wonderful Barbera, grown on the hills of Montferrato in Piemonte.  On the palate, the wine feels free and natural. Brich saw a short 12-hour maceration in concrete vats, 70% destemmed, fermentation with native yeasts, aged in concrete vats for 9 months, neither fined nor filtered and a mere 2mg of SO2 added at bottling.” 

AGRICOLA GAIA is a collaboration between Fabrizio Iuli and Eric Narioo (Vino dio Anna, Les Caves de Pyrene) in hilly Monferrato region of Piedmont. The grapes for this Barbera come from the lieux-dit “La Tina”, belonging to Fabrizio’s family for generations, formerly part of their old winery. The vines are 30 years old plus, and had been abandoned for 15 years before Fabrizio took them back. 

Valleys of wine. Check out this excellent duo from the Loire and the Ebro

From the valleys of wine. Check out this excellent duo from the Loire and the Ebro

Azay le Rideau

Marie Thibault Le Grolleau Vin de France 2019, 13.5%

€26.95  64 Wine Dublin, Bradley’s of Cork, Greenman Dublin, Le Caveau Kilkenny

Grolleau, often regarded as the workhorse vine of the Loire, is seldom used on its own. 

However, according to Wine-Searcher.com, if yields are kept low, “Grolleau can produce a

light yet vibrant red wine, with herbaceous, 

sour-cherry flavors. Many of these are vinified as natural wines, although this is more to do with modern winemaking trends in the Loire than it is to do with the qualities of the variety itself.”

Le Grolleau comes from Azay le Rideau and this is where Marie Thibault does her stuff. Colour is mid to dark ruby. The rather intense aromas feature cherry and berries. It is light bodied and there’s a clean refreshing acidity on the palate along with much the same fruit flavours and that refreshing theme, along with a little spice, goes right through to the longer than expected finish. 

A delicious vin de soif, which essentially means unpretentious wines that are measured not by their complexity, length or ageeability but by the joy and refreshment they provide. Very Highly Recommended.

Marie Thibault grew up in the Loire Valley and began in 2002 working with François Chidaine in Montlouis, falling in love with Chenin Blanc there and making wine under her own name in 2004. She purchased her own estate in 2010 and converted to organics immediately. She has been certified with Ecocert since 2014. She works with Côt (Malbec), Gamay, Grolleau, Chenin Blanc and Sauvignon blanc. Most of her vines are at least 50 years old.    

Marie also buys some grapes from organic estates close by, which she herself harvests and vinifies in her cellar. Her husband is Frantz Saumon, another fantastic natural grower in the area, his wines also available from Le Caveau and their stockists. Marie’s wines see no additives other than a tiny addition of S02 before bottling, if any is added at all.

Viña Albergada Rioja Alavesa (DOC) 2016, 13%

€11.95 64 Wine Dublin, Bradley’s of Cork, Greenman Dublin, Le Caveau Kilkenny

Made by the same producers of the Albizu Tempranillo that we had a few weeks ago, this Tempranillo has a dark cherry colour, though maybe not quite as vibrant as it was back in 2018 when I enjoyed this same vintage last.

The red fruit aromas are a little less intense than previously. The palate though may be better.  It is attractively juicy and fruity, with a touch of spice, very good acidity, quite refreshing. And the finish is good and long. 

Highly Recommended.  This easy-drinking style of Rioja offers great value-for-money. Great too, they hint, as an aperitif with tapas. Other suggestions include queen scallops and chorizo or pan-fried garlic chicken with sun-dried tomatoes. And, just like the Albizu, it is one of those versatile reds that may be tried chilled.

Tip: Look out for a more up to date vintage than the 2016.

Hitting the jackpot with lesser known reds from Dordogne and Rioja

 Hitting the jackpot with lesser known reds from Dordogne and Rioja

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Maison des vins in Bergerac

Cuvée Des Conti Bergerac Rouge (AC) 2019, 13%,

€19.45  64 Wine Dublin, Bradley’s of Cork, Greenman Dublin, Le Caveau Kilkenny

.

This is a bright and fruity organic glossy-red blend from the Bergerac area, immediately to the east of Bordeaux;  the Dordogne River flows through both areas. The producers list the grapes in the mix as Merlot, Malbec and Cabernet Franc.

Colour is a dark red. Aromas are pleasant and inviting. Red fruits including cherry, a touch of spice. The palate is full of fruit, plum and blackberry, plus a subtle spice. And there’s also a lively acidity and so it is perfectly balanced. The mouthfeel is velvety, the tannins soft. As you might expect the finish lingers long. Very Highly Recommended.

Le Caveau: This new cuvée replaces the Bergerac Classique. The grapes come from Tour des Gendres, organic certified own vineyards. As with all of Luc's wine, this cuvée has been delicately put together, one can sense the perfectly ripe and healthy fruit, gentle and soft extraction resulting in a pure and perfectly balanced wine.

Hautefort, one of many
impressive chateaus here

I have visited the Bergerac region on a few occasions and love the wines (both red and white) from here. Quality is regularly on a par with neighbours Bordeaux. But historically, the city of Bordeaux controlled the head of the river and the port and Bergerac struggled to find outlets. One of the few benefits, at least for the foreign consumer, is that wines from the Bergerac region are mostly easier on the pocket. You may have to search a bit harder (Le Caveau have a few) but it will be worthwhile.

One of my visits was back in 2010 and I was looking for statements supporting Bergerac . Easy enough to find though as these two well-known wine writers were onside.

Hugh Johnson: Bergerac is a good value Bordeaux lookalike.

Robert Joseph: The second class status of Bergerac today owes more to the efforts of Bordeaux merchants to discriminate against it than to the quality of its wines.

Viña Albergada Albizu Tempranillo 2019 

€11.95, 64 Wine Dublin, Bradley’s of Cork, Greenman Dublin, Le Caveau Kilkenny

In Rioja

A dark vibrant ruby is the colour of this LDR. LDR? It means light dry red. If you like Gamay you’ll love this. Not an exact replica of a Beaujolais of course - that was hardly ever the objective - but in terms of lightness, juiciness and structure, they could well be closely related. And I’d have to agree with importers Le Caveau that this juicy fruity Tempranillo “is a real find”.

And yes, that Tempranillo fruit is grown within the Rioja Alavesa appellation in the heart of Rioja but you don’t see any mention of the Spanish wine region on the label. Producers are Viña Albergada and they obviously go their own merry way. And that’s good for us as the quality its incredible. Not to mention the value! Amazingly light compared to traditional Rioja, this is Very Highly Recommended.

Like many LDR wines, this can be chilled a little. You’ll enjoy fairly intense aromas of plum along with red and darker berries. And that palate, amazingly sophisticated for a joven (young wine), is full of ripe fruit (plum, cherry, berry) with terrific acidity. All crowned by a refreshing and dry finish. This well balanced Albizu is delicious on its own, and very versatile with barbecued meats and tapas style food.

 

Nash 19 Takes Night Shift In Its Stride

 Nash 19 Takes Night Shift In Its Stride

Highlights on every corner from the 
Apple Mint (bottom right) to the Pickled Mushroom (top left)

Princes Street, and its many and varied restaurants and cafes, was quick to adopt outdoor dining and rapidly became the country’s poster child for the Covid enforced change to the undependable Irish exterior. 

We had our first visit there on Culture Night and it turned into an evening of delectation under the shelters of Nash 19 and owner Claire Nash.  Just the day before, Nash was awarded by the Georgina Campbell Awards as the person to represent being “the very best of community”, acknowledging Claire’s part in leading the Princes Street charge and in changing her dynamic daytime enterprise to an equally energetic day and night star.

Heirloom Tomatoes and Purple Basil

It was a double change for Nash, from daytime to night time and from indoors to outdoors. And immediately, they saw and began to work on the possibility of innovation that the double move allows. And it isn’t that Nash 19 just tagged along with the existing evening menus. No, if you know Claire, you know they jumped straight to the front and the menu is right on trend with a slew of small plates and no sectional guidance that you should follow the old three course pattern. Hop in to the menu, forget tradition, go free style and enjoy yourself.

But if you do like the comfort of a big feed, and we all do from time to time, some of us more than others, then Nash 19 have you covered well on that front also.

Crispy Chicken Confit of Leg

Claire is rightly proud of the menu and delighted too with the mini-menu she had drawn up for the Culture Night event going on simultaneously in her Stern Gallery (in the backroom of the restaurant). That included the new vermouth by two sisters from Valentia Island and that was our first drop of the evening.

Nash 19 have quite a wine selection now, some fifty bottles, mostly organic, some natural, all low intervention and quite a few by the glass. There’s sparkling wine, rosé, red and white of course, and sweet to finish. We thought we’d have white and enjoyed a glass of Izadi Larrosa Blanc (a Garnacha blanca from Rioja) and one of Von Winning Weissburgunder (Pinot blanc from the Pfalz in Germany).  Glass prices vary from €6.50 to 11.50 in white, roughly similar in red.

Smokers Plate via Hederman

We were soon down to the food. CL’s first dish was the Seared Scallops with Annascaul Black Pudding and apple mint. Superlatives all around here, even that apple mint was outstanding and, in any case, CL is a big fan of the Kerry blackpudding. 

Plum dessert

Mine was the Frank Hederman Smokers Plate (another 14 euro dish). Hard to describe the mix on that plate, ineffable. Let us say it was a delicious mix of mussels, crab, and salmon, all given the unique Hederman touch in his harbourside smokehouse (decades old and now itself an integral part of the smoking process) and even that pickled cucumber by Nash kitchen was quite possibly the best of its type.

Round one may have been a knockout but we were ready for round two, along with what remained of our colourful and flavourful side of the gorgeous Heirloom Tomato and Purple Basil Salad. 

Nash have employed new tasters for this menu.
Illustration from the menu

And we did our delicious duty again. Mine was the Garryhinch Wild Mushroom Ragu on Sourdough Toast with a generous coating of Parmesan. And it came with a steak knife. Superb texture, moist temptation, hardly time to share a morsel or two as I fought back the urge to rush but instead took an unwavering steady stroll to satisfy my senses with its warmth and savour. All for 12 euro!

CL bit into her Crispy Chicken Confit of Leg with Korean Dressing and Charred Corn (also 12 euro) and her casual tongue was immediately stung into alertness by the Korean spice. But, once she got the various elements together, the spice became a key though not dominant facilitator of amazing flavour, and she was as happy as any diner on the busy street.

It wasn’t the only busy street on Friday as quite a few folks were out and about taking in the many events of Culture Night. We began heading back to our hill. We crossed the river and headed for Harley’s Street and its little market and found the place rammed, the crowd there enjoying the bites and exotic music. 

Great craic evident too at St Luke’s Cross with Henchy's and the wine bar the main venues. Lovely to see Culture Night back on the streets and hopefully the English Markets will be back at the heart of it next year.

Lemon Meringue

As is the case with Nash by Day, the Nash by Night Menu provides lots of variety, not just throughout the menu itself but also via its daily changes.

Valentia vermouth
& strollers

Our culture night menu started with a bunch of “small plates” of which no less than five were fish; we picked two and the others, just to give you a hint of what may be coming your way if you call in (and you should), are Irish Prawns with Sea Samphire, Wild Irish Tuna Sashimi, and a “Taste” of Monkfish Tempura. We had two of the non-fish small plates and the others was Ham Hock Terrine and Free Range Chicken Liver Paté.

After that, you are moving into more serious platefuls including Rib Eye of Beef, Pan Seared Hake, their familiar and always superb Producers Plate Tapas Style; also a local Charcuterie Board plus there’s a Heirloom Tomato Pasta Penne with Toonsbridge Feta and an Irish Cheese Board with Fig Confit. Descriptions have been abbreviated in these two paragraphs.

And there are sides of course. Our Heirloom Tomato and Purple Basil Salad was a super treat and others on offer were Fries (smoked butter, sea salt), Waterfall Green Leaf and Herb Salad, Mediterranean Olives or Salted Valentia Nuts, along with Bread, Seaweed Butter and Olive Oil (all at 4.50 aside from the tomatoes at 6.00).

Homeward bound

A White and a Rosé to savour this season

A White and a Rosé to savour this season

Terras Gauda, Abadia de San Campio Albarino, Rías Baixas (DO) 2019, 12.5% abv

€20.95 64 Wine Dublin, Bradley’s of Cork, Greenman Dublin, Le Caveau Kilkenny

My first introduction to this particular wine came with the 2011 vintage which arrived on the doorstep just as I was heading off to Hendaye on the French/Spanish border. I brought a few bottles with me - talk about bringing coals to Newcastle. I was very impressed and rated it Very Highly Recommended. Lots of Albarino since then, including one in Nerua (in Bilbao) during that holiday!

And, glad to say, this 2019 is up there with the best of them, Very Highly Recommended again! Aromas are intense, tropical fruit (mostly mango and pineapple). And there’s amazing power and balance on the palate, “the intensity of taste of a harvest of well-ripened grapes”, as they say themselves, is balanced by a vibrant acidity. And the finish is persistent and pleasant all the way.

 

Le Caveau are obviously enthusiastic about it: Abadia de San Campio Albarino is such a lovely white..No sign of oak, the wine is therefore as pure and bright as a whistle.. Served with tuna steaks, it works brilliantly. Ideal with seafood, shellfish (Percebes!), fish... or almost anything coming out of the Atlantic.

 

Vintage 2019 all came right in the end as there was an “excellent ripening of the grapes, offering us a broad, concentrated and very lively Albarino”.

Back in 2012, as is the case now, ageing was not recommended. Quite a few experts, such as Hugh Johnson, were giving Albarino the DYA designation, meaning drink youngest available! You’ve been warned!

The producers recommend serving between 10 and 12 degrees with shellfish, oysters, clams, crabs and enjoy with spicy Asian cuisine.

Located in the O Rosal valley, in Galicia, Terras Gauda is notable for owning around 85% of its own vineyards; the remainder of the grapes are provided under strict quality control agreements with local growers.

Antica Enotria Contessa Staffa Rosato Puglia (IGP) 2019, 13% 

€18.25 64 Wine Dublin, Bradley’s of Cork, Greenman Dublin, Le Caveau Kilkenny

The colour, more a red rose (close to pomegranate) than a pink rose, is what catches the eye with this Italian rosé from Puglia. It is a blend, Nero di Troia (85%) with Montepulciano. Aromas are rather intense - strawberry and cherry. It is light and lively on the palate, with a crisp and refreshing acidity, yet full of flavour with a good balance and a reasonably long finish. It is one of the drier rosés around, also that bit different to the French rosés, and Highly Recommended.

Contessa Staffa Rosato is the Mediterranean wine par excellence, with a strong restorative power on hot summer days. Yet it is liked for its versatility in the kitchen. It should be served cool, usually around 10 ° -12 ° C, so that it can express all its aromas and give soft and round sensations in the mouth.

With what to combine it? Almost with everything! It is an excellent aperitif, an obvious combination with cold cuts; with sushi it is a must; but try it with a soup or fried fish; with any first course, it is the king of summer cold dishes. Perfect for chicken and veal tuna salads; the roundness and softness make it the ideal companion for many spices.

Raffaele di Tuccio bought this run-down farmhouse (dating back to the 1700’s) in 1985 and over the past 30 years has worked tirelessly with his wife, Antonia, and son, Luigi, to bring the property back to life. Sadly Raffaele passed away in late 2020. the care of the farm and vineyards are now in the hands of Antonia and Luigi.