A Merlot gem from Rizzardi. Made only in those years “in which we believe the Merlot grapes reach the highest level”

Rizzardi Clos Roareti Rosso Veronese (IGT) 2019, 14.5% ABV, €29.95, O’Briens Wine

Made only in those years “in which we believe the Merlot grapes reach the highest level”.

Guerrieri Rizzardi is located near the eastern shore of Lake Garda. But the grapes for this wine come from further inland, to the east. The vineyard is in Valpolicella, less than half an hour north of Verona.

Their Clos Roareti is a Merlot and is a smooth and supple performer on the palate.  It has the typical ruby colour, tending towards the darker side. Aromas, a melange of fruit and floral, give notes of cherry and violet. And a trace too of vanilla. 

It is rich and full-bodied and, according to the producer’s words, “is a unique departure from the lighter styles of Merlot from the Veneto region”. Easy drinking for sure, well balanced with a lip-smacking grip towards the end.

The first vintage of Clos Roareti, a single vineyard Merlot, was in 2006.  The grapes come from the historic monopole (a French term used to indicate that the entire vineyard is owned by a single grower or company). This Cru vineyard of Rovereti is in Negrar, Valpolicella. 

In this centuries-old walled vineyard, the family began to plant Merlot from the late 1990s onwards,  a grape variety perfectly suited to the climate and the vineyard’s red clay soil. 

Maffei Palace and winged Lion of Saint Mark - Verona 

The resulting wine is a rich, full-bodied and complex Merlot.  Clos Roareti is not made every year but only in those years “in which we believe the Merlot grapes reach the highest level”.

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They recommend decanting and serving at around 16° C (or 60° F) and as an accompaniment to roast game or to red meats such as rack of lamb or fillet mignon, also with tomato-based pasta dishes. Ageing potential: up to 10 years.

Very Highly Recommended

Just started working my way through Vino by Joe Campanale who advocates using a Venn system to find a true Italian wine. Instead of the traditional pyramid with DOCG or similar at the top, his Venn (using three intersecting circles) values Artisan Winemakers, Exceptional Terroir and Native Grapes. Not too sure that Rizzardi would agree with Joe!

"Prosecco's very smooth compared to other sparkling wines." Guerrieri Rizzardi Prosecco

Guerrieri Rizzardi Prosecco (DOC) Extra Dry, 11% ABV, 

€22.95 (19.95 on offer) O’Briens Wine.

Prosecco's very smooth compared to other sparkling wines. 

Made with the usual grape, Glera, and fully spumante in style, this excellent Prosecco from the historic Guerrieri-Rizzardi estate in Northern Italy is a quality example of the country’s most popular sparkling wine.

It featured in a recent Zoom, that saw contributions from Lynne Coyle MW (of O’Briens Wine) and Count Giuseppe Rizzardi from the winery. Giuseppe emphasised that Prosecco is very smooth compared to other sparkling wines, “..never has very strong acidity, not very mineral, more on the fruity side”. And that certainly applies to this one with its white fruit and delicate character.

For me, this is one of the better ones, well worth a try and Very Highly Recommended.

Match with Panettone (dried fruits and raisins) is the winery’s pairing suggestion and Lynne Coyle's unexpected tip was Bread and Butter pudding. She also suggested serving the Prosecco at the end rather than before the meal, both agreeing that “It freshens the palate”.

We didn't have any Panettone in the house but did have the German Christmas treat, a Stollen, bought from our local baker Angela Nöthlings of Ryes and Shine (ryes.and.shine.cork) and were very happy with the match!

A wine “with quite a strong character”, “very different to Soave”. Guerrieri Rizzardi's Lugana

Guerrieri Rizzardi Lugana (DOC) 2022, 13.5%

€19.95 O’Briens Wine

A wine “with quite a strong character”, “very different to Soave”.

Lugana is one of Italy’s classic white wines and this one, vibrant and dry, comes from the award-winning Rizzardi family winery in the Veneto. The Trebbiano grapes for the wine are sourced from twenty-five-year-old vines from several vineyards in Peschiera del Garda. A lively and refreshing wine, with stone fruits and blossom aromas, it’s a great wine to pair with all sorts of seafood – try it with prawns or even sushi.

Yet Count Guiuseppe Rizzardi, during a pre-Christmas Zoom tasting, emphasised that it matches very well with freshwater fish (such as trout). “It is produced on the (breezy) southern shores of Lake Garda” and ‘is enjoyed very much locally”. He said it is just the 3rd vintage of this wine which has “quite a strong character”, “very different to Soave”.

Smoked salmon was also mentioned as a pairing and we tried it with a salad that featured the superb hot smoked salmon from Hederman’s and it worked very well indeed. Its “amazing freshness…without being too acidic…” enhances its role when used as an aperitif or just on its own.

Highly Recommended

A Quart of Ale± #129. On the craft journey with Sullivan's, O'Brien Wines, Lineman, Blacks, Bradleys, Brewmaster, Aldi.

A Quart of Ale± #129

On the craft journey with Sullivan's, O'Brien Wines, Lineman, Blacks, Bradleys, Brewmaster, Aldi.

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Sullivan’s Maltings Irish Ale, 5%, 500ml bottle O’Brien Wines

Deauville, a long-time magnet for Europe’s rich and famous, was all abuzz for the horse racing in August 1918, even though the Great War was still being waged. 

One Irishman had set his sights on an aristocratic French fillé. He had opposition from a Venetian count. Sullivan, a gambler rather than a brewer, bet the family brewery on a horse to impress the Frenchwoman. He lost and, not fancying a duel with the count, had to settle his debts.

In Kilkenny, as a result of the wager, the Sullivan brewery (established 1702, eight years before Smithwick’s) was taken over by their rivals (“in a kind of a white knight rescue”) and the Sullivan name vanished from the enterprise. Another hundred years on and, in 2014, Diageo moved the production of Smithwick's to Dublin.

But the Sullivan story has been revived over the past few years or so with the emergence of a new Sullivan brewery, backed by the two intertwined families, the Sullivans and, yes, the Smithwicks, both keen to keep Kilkenny’s brewing tradition going. 

Colour of this award-winning red ale is quite a dark one, boasting an off-white head that has some staying power. The aroma hints of a balance between malt fruit and hop bitterness and that continues on the body before the excellent ale finishes dry. Quite a satisfactory bottle indeed and the drinker can see why this easy-drinking smooth ale is an award winner.

They say: Traditionally brewed with only Kilkenny-grown ale malt, including three special darker malts and three varieties of hop. Fermented and matured with cask ale yeast and coupled with our no-rush brewing produces a smooth balanced classic ale. .. the result is a classic ruby ale with deep malt combining rich biscuit and gentle caramel notes.

The beer we craft today is inspired by traditional Kilkenny recipes and brewed the way the family has always brewed – the way real Irish beer should be brewed – by local experts, by hand, in small batches, with enormous heart and the finest locally sourced ingredients.

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Lineman Group Therapy Session IPA, 4.6%, 440 ml can Bradleys

All southern hemisphere hopped session IPA with Galaxy, Motueka and Topaz. That’s the word from Lineman about this session IPA. Motueka comes from a small town on the South Island of New Zealand while the other two come from Australia.

Colour of the ale is a murky lemon with a head that doesn’t stay around too long.  The aromatics are on the meek side, just a hint of tropical notes peeping through. Quite a nice balance on the palate, light and zesty, tropical, citrus, a touch of pine all in the mix. Lineman regularly get it spot-on and this is another fine example from the brewery.

Lineman? “We’re often asked about our name; we’re called LINEMAN as a tribute to my late father who worked as a lineman for both the ESB and P&T in the 1940s and ‘50s. He stayed with the P&T (that eventually became Telecom Éireann and later Eircom) until he retired in 1996. There’s a nice lineage there as that same year Mark got his first job with Eircom until he left to start work on setting up LINEMAN in 2018.

The reason for the name LINEMAN runs a little deeper than that alone though. It’s also a tribute to the hard working heroes who worked in all kinds of conditions to bring about connection in the young Irish state, through electricity and telecommunications, taking Ireland out of the dark and into the modern state we know today." More here. 

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Blacks Pineapple & El Dorada IPA, 5.0% ABV, 440 ml can Bradleys

The perfect fruity mix-up combining fantastic El Dorado hops with fresh Pineapple flavours for the ultimate summer IPA.

That’s the intro to this IPA from Blacks of Kinsale. It has a colour close to a mid-amber with a thin white head that doesn’t hang about. 

It is described as a summer IPA so I’m a little late coming to the party. Also a little apprehensive as I’m not a great lover of overly fruity beers. But I’m relaxing as the first sip flows across, enjoying the pineapple and the hoppy balance provided by El Dorado. Dry finish as well, quite bitter.

May be slightly out of season but it is a thumbs up for this one, a west coast IPA where the hops and the pineapple (one of the listed ingredients) get it together in a deep layered pineapple flavour that reminds me somewhat of the the brilliant Polly that I tasted in Limerick’s Crew last year. Summer may be gone but you can always turn up the heating (but not for lon€).

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Brewmaster Sailor Sam’s Hazy IPA, 5.5%, 440ml can Aldi

Brewmaster (Dundalk Bay Brewery Co) are the producers of this IPA, exclusively for Aldi, and they recently rushed to announce that it won a bronze award in the Irish Food and Drinks Quality Awards for 2022.

Sam’s IPA is certainly hazy, under a slow-sinking soft white head over a Mango Lassi coloured body. Mango takes charge on the palate but methinks it needs a bit more to move into gold medal contention.

Good yarn on the label though, where they disclose that dry-hopping was used. Sam brewed at sea, experimenting as he sailed. It was a serious hobby! And he loved to add as many hops as possible to make the beer last..at sea.

Brewmaster is the exclusive beer brand of Dundalk Bay Brewery and Distillery (their spirits are sold under the Ravenrock brand). “All our Irish Premium Craft Beers are brewed in a sustainable way using naturally sourced ingredients. Each alcoholic and non-alcoholic beer has its distinct flavour ensuring there’s one to satisfy every palette!”

Beautiful flavours and delicious small plates at Nell’s Wine Bar. And a warm welcome too.

Nell’s Wine Bar: Beautiful wines and delicious small plates.

And a warm welcome too.

Nell's Wine Bar, one of two recently opened on MacCurtain Street, specialises in natural, organic and biodynamic wine as well as small plates. 

Some of these plates are an “expression of Cork’s local seasonality”,  others are not. We started our first visit with a little bowl of Fennel infused Nocellara olives (4.00) . These table olives are grown primarily in Sicily and have protected status in the European Union. And very nice they are too, slightly plump and soft. Not very salty at all and excellent with wine.

I should really say that we started with a very warm welcome indeed, especially from Aine who helped us with the wine. There is a huge choice here, everything from bubbles to rosé to orange, from white to red, and other drinks also.

Lynne Coyle who made
the Geal Albarino

She introduced us to Geal Albariño which is made on an artisanal scale by O’Briens Wine Director Lynne Coyle and the family owned Lagar de Costa winery in Rías Baixas, Spain. Most of these vineyards are very small and Lynne told us at a recent Albariño tasting that the Costa winery has 11 hectares and is regarded as quite large.

The wine was aged on lees in a single concrete egg for eight months bringing complexity and depth. Geal Albariño is dry, refreshing, and lightly textured with green fruit notes, a hint of white peach and a lingering salinity making it an ideal wine for seafood. 

Geal by the way is the Irish and Scottish (Lynne is Scottish) for bright. Most of you will have come across it in school; if you don’t remember, check out the pronunciation here. We took Aine’s advice and ordered a glass of the Geal (13.80). 

Alex Foillard is the son of the famous Morgon producer Jean Foillard and Alex is certainly making an impact in Beaujolais. Glad to pick his natural wine at Nell’s as it is an excellent match for pork products. It is just a straight out delicious wine, a terrific balance of red fruit and acidity and an outstanding smooth and accomplished expression of one of my favourite grapes, the Gamay (11.80).

Our food had arrived on two small plates. One was Saucisson & Coppa served with Nell’s own pickles (8.00). Coppa is a whole-muscle pork salume, dry cured, and typically sliced very thin as was the case here. 

The other plate was Fried Baby potatoes served with basil aioli and trout roe (7.50). Both dishes were very very tasty indeed with big thumbs up for the meat and those deliciously done potatoes. Small plates with big flavours.

They do desserts too, usually two on offer. Look out for the Salted honey ice cream with oats and poached rhubarb. An absolute treat, the combination really highlighting the humble rhubarb!

Next time, we may well start with the Garam Masala Almonds or the Savoury Cheese Doughnuts, continue with the Macroom Ricotta, Hegarty’s Cheddar and spinach dumplings and finish with Templegall with teabrack and whipped brown butter, though that Rhubarb would be well worth revisiting!

As you can see from some of the names on the menu, Nell’s are very much inclined to support local producers on the food side, including Hegarty’s Cheese and Macroom and they are quite proud that their herbs and edible flowers are supplied by Shannon at Mealagulla. Mealagulla’s apple juice, a favourite of mine, also features on the drinks list as do Killahora Rare Apple Ice-wine and Johnny Fall Down cider.

Aside from our two wines, they have pages of choices for you. Just one of three pages of red offers a Nero D’Avola from Sicily, a Tempranillo from Spain, a Syrah from the Languedoc, and a Romanian wine called La Sapata, just a small sample of what is on offer.

One of the white wine pages has a Verdejo from Spain, a Pinot Blanc from Alsace, a Vipava from Slovenia and an Assyrtiko from Greece.

Lots to choose from! It will take more than one visit.

Get your bookings in by messaging their Instagram  

 or Facebook page; food served until 10pm (from 4.30pm), Tuesday to Sunday.