RESTAURANTS AND FOOD: Search results for krug

All above visited last 24 months or so. Lots of other good places out there. If I didn’t get to your place last year, maybe we’ll meet in 2016! Hard to keep track - might need a reminder!

View from bedroom in Blairscove

Places to Stay
Albany House (Dublin)
Archways (Rosslare)
Ballymaloe House (Shanagarry)
Benner's (Dingle)
Blairscove (Durrus)
Brooklodge (Macreddin)
Celtic Ross (Rosscarbery)
Davitt's (Kenmare)
Dun Ri (Clifden)
Gleeson's Town House (Roscommon) 2015
Lakeside Hotel (Ballina, Tipperary)
MacNean House (Blacklion)
Maritime (Bantry)
Randle's Court (Killarney)
Rolf's (Baltimore)
Rosquil House (Kilkenny)
The Maryborough (Cork)
The Old Bank (Kinsale)

Brooklodge Hotel

Food Festivals

Ballymaloe LitFest 2015
Dingle 2015
Franciscan Well October Fest 2015
Kilkenny Savour 2014
Roscommon Lamb Festival 2015
Taste of West Cork 2015
Waterford Harvest 2015
West Waterford 2015

Ballycotton Cliff Walk

Visits & Tours. Events.

Arigna Mining Experience 2015
Atlantic Sea-kayaking 2015
Ballymaloe Garden Festival 2015
Ballycotton Cliff Walk 2015
Ballynatray House (Youghal) 2015
Blarney Castle 2015
Castlecoote House 2015
Castlefreke and Rathbarry. The castles and the wood 2015
Clonmacnoise 2015
Connemara 2014
Cork City Marathon 2015
Cork Harbour Festival. Boats & Bites 2015
Cork Jazz Festival 2015
Cork Saint Patrick's Day 2015
Cork Summer Show 2015
Culture Night. Paintings & Plates 2015
Doneraile Park 2014
Dublin. Summer Days 2015
Elizabeth Fort 2015
Fota Gardens & Arboretum 2015
Glenbower Wood, Killeagh 2015
Glendalough 2015
Highbank Organic Orchards 2015
House of Waterford Crystal 2015
Jameson Distillery Midleton 2015
Kilkenny 2014
Killarney in 24 hours 2014
Kinsale Harbour Cruise 2015
Loughbeg Farm. Meeting Mabel! 2015
National Botanic Gardens 2015
National Museum of Archaeology (Dublin) 2014
Powerscourt Gardens 2015
Teeling Distillery 2015
The Sheep's Head peninsula 2015
Waterford's Harvest Festival, including Medieval Museum, Bishop's Palace 2015
Wax Museum (Dublin) 2014
West Cork Islands, Ferries, Food 2015
Wexford's Johnstown Castle 2015
Youghal Medieval Festival 2015

Loughbeg Farm

Top Guides
Lots of excellent guides around the country, including the lady we met at Waterford Crystal and the lady who took us under her wing in the nearby Medieval Museum. But the three that stand out are, in no particular order:
Joe at Dingle Distillery,
Jimmy at Arigna Mines,
Johnny at Trinity College

Monday, December 29, 2014

No Shortage of Sparkle at Year’s End

There is no shortage of sparkling wine to see out the old year and to welcome the new, anything from an expensive champagne such as Krug to the inexpensive Prosecco below. The big selection gives you a good chance to get one to suit both your palate and budget.

Champagne Pierre Darcys Brut, €20.00 at SuperValu

Cava Brut Barcino, €12.00 at Supervalu

Griffon Prosecco Frizzante, €9.00 at SuperValu

These are just three from the SuperValu range. The champagne itself was put to the test here on Christmas Day and went down very well indeed. It certainly has got the usual characteristics, is crisp and well balanced and runs out quickly!

The Cava stood into the breach then and you'd hardly notice. No shortage of small bubbles here, the typical breaded nose and again fresh and zesty. Just the job at about half the price.

Prosecco has made a huge impact, not always good, on the sparkling wine scene and this friendly Frizzante is but one of many on the market. It is made in a different way with the secondary fermentation taking place in a bulk tank rather than in the individual bottle, hence the twine on the cork, rather than the more usual more robust arrangement! It is less expensive to produce than Spumante which undergoes secondary fermentation in the bottle. Don't delay too long with your glass of Frizzante as the bubbles don't hang around.

Carl Jung Sparkling White (de-alcoholised), €5.99 widely available

Superquinn; Dunnes Stores; Joyce's of Galway; Molloy's Off-Licences, Dublin; O'Brien's; Next Door Off-Licences; Supervalu nationwide; and good independent off-licences nationwide

With a few drivers among those calling to the house at Christmas, I thought this Carl Jung might come in handy. It sure did and drew a few compliments as well, showing that sparkling celebrations may be enjoyed without the alcohol. Actually, there is quite an intense rush of bubbles and no shortage of fruit in the palate.

Oh, by the way, if someone says he’d prefer to drink tea, you can keep the sparkle going by offering him a glass of Mariko. Cheers!

Bouvet Saphir Saumur Brut 2011

No doubt that Champagne, Cava and Prosecco are the big three in sparkling wine. But there are many more from all over the world. We enjoyed a white and a rosé from Cono Sur during the recent blogging competition final in Paris and, speaking of France, the country produces well over twenty such wines aside from the well known champagne. This is one of them, from the Loire and made in the same way as Champagne (méthode traditionnelle). It survived the Christmas and I'm looking forward to opening it on New Year’s Eve. Happy New Year to you all.

Friday, December 19, 2014

The Year in Wine. Paris the highlight.

The Year in Wine

Paris a Personal Highlight

All aboard with the judges on the Seine: Chef Chris Carpentier (Santiago),
Jo Mansell (UK), CL, Adolfo Hurtado (Cono Sur) and Yours Truly

Without a doubt the wine highlight for me in 2014 was the trip to Paris for the final of the Cono Sur Bloggers Competition. We didn't make the trip to Chile - Finland pipped us in the decider - but we had a ball with our fellow finalists and with the crew from Cono Sur, including genial winemaker Adolfo Hurtado, not to mention Chris Carpentier, Chile’s Top Chef and MasterChef presenter.

March was a good month. Chris Forbes of Taylor’s and cheesemaker Dan Hegarty visited Ballymaloe for a Port and Cheddar Tasting and Forbes also matched his gorgeous liquids with chocolate by Shana Wilkie. And a few days later, Sherry supremo César Saldaña gave a masterclass at the Wines of Spain tasting in the Radisson Blu in Little Island.

The second Ballymaloe LitFest had no shortage of drinks events, most of them this time held in the rustic surroundings of the Tractor Shed! Here, with some distinguished company, we enjoyed Beer and Cider and then a session sipping Port, Sherry and Madeira.

In June, we were on holidays in France. No shortage of wine outings in Bordeaux but our top visit was to Chateau Bauduc. Here, we got a terrific welcome and tour (and tasting of course) thanks to Gavin and Angela Quinney, and the dogs!

Cheers!

July started well with a walk around Cork where we enjoyed the Musica and Vino on the Campo Viejo Tapas Trail. The highlight this month was undoubtedly the Krug Champagne tasting and dinner, with Nicole Brown, in Ballymaloe.

in September, memories of the WineGeese events were revived in unusual fashion at Latitude 51, when a trio of Irish winemakers appeared on a big screen via Skype to take us through a multi-national tasting. Well done to Beverly Mathews, Maurice O’Mahony and Colm McCan for organising WineGeese on the Web.

All that before the November flight to Paris and that magical finale on a boat on the Seine. Slainte to all and Happy Christmas. And here’s looking to a great 2015. Wonder where will it take us? Or indeed who’ll come to visit?

Monday, July 28, 2014

Krug at Ballymaloe. Patience and perfection

Krug at Ballymaloe

Patience and perfection

Toast to the harvest! The Krug is served in its special Riedel glasses.

"Champagne is all about pleasure."

Nicole Brown got widespread agreement on her opening statement at Ballymaloe last Thursday evening. And that agreement was reinforced by the time the audience in the famous Cookery School had sampled the amazing Krug Grand Cuvée.

Nicole was in Ballymaloe, both as a visitor - she is on holiday in West Cork - and in an temporary extension of her role as the US Brand Ambassador for Krug Champagne. Ballymaloe’s Colm McCann was delighted with the visit and welcomed Nicole, who was accompanied by Adrien Combet of Moet Hennessy Ireland, and the rest of us to the first ever Krug tasting in Ireland!

Krug, perhaps the premier champagne house, was founded by Joseph Krug in 1843. With some previous experience of the trade and his own principles to guide him (detailed in a journal he started for his young son in 1848), he set about extracting pleasure from a difficult climate (200 days of rain per annum). The chalk soil though was and remains a huge factor in the champagne maker’s favour.

The boundaries of champagne have long been set (though there is a move on to extend them in the next year or so) and so the competition among the houses for the raw material, the grapes, can be intense. Very few houses have enough grapes of their own. Krug, with some contracts dating back to 1878, are loyal to their suppliers and it seems to work both ways.

Krug use 5000 small oak barrels (average age: 23 years) for the first fermentation. Repairs are constant but Eric Label, Chef de Caves, is determined not to use stainless steel at this stage.

The tasting committee - we are talking about the Grand Cuvée here - consists of six members charged with using their memories and tasting abilities, not to mention the legibility of their handwriting, to make the flagship wine as consistent as possible each and every time!

There is no magic formula here, just memory and taste, and taste again! Some 200 plus wines are tasted twice while the reserve still wines are tasted once or twice each year. No less than 5,000 thousand hand-written tasting notes are accumulated in Eric’s big black book and then consulted before the blend composition is finalised.

The final blend may consist of over 100 wines from ten or so different vintages (years)! The wine then matures in the cellars for at least six years. Memory, taste, and so much time! The patience of perfection.

Roast Guinea Fowl and those amazing Heritage tomatoes.

While champagne is the most regulated wine in the world, its workings are not always clear to the outsider. “Krug wants to be transparent,” said Nicole and pointed to the ID on each bottle. Download the APP and you’ll get the key info, including important dates, on the wine. Let’s check the Grand Cuvée in our hand. We see that no less than 142 still wines (some going back to 1990) were blended with the base 2006 wine and that it was aged for seven years on its lees.

The audience was now eager to taste and Colm and his crew obliged. Nicole: “The Grand Cuvée is unique, an incredible expression of champagne”. And so it is. The deep golden colour and the endless fountain of fine bubbles promise much as do the amazing aromas. And it is all delivered on the palate, full and yet fine, mature yet fresh. You won’t forget this one in a hurry.

The Krug Rose, first made commercially in the early 1980s, is crafted in much the same way as the Grand Cuvée, and includes Pinot Noir from La Cote Valnon “to make it pink. It is aged for five years and the reserve wines date back to 2000. It is amazing with cheese.” Krug offer five champagnes and all five are Prestige Cuvées.

Back in Ballymaloe House, at dinner, we were amazed at the versatility of the Grand Cuvée, matching everything from fish to fowl and not forgetting vegetarian. Ballyhoura Mushroom and Marjoram Bruschetta and Hot Buttered Ballycotton Lobsters featured in the starters while Poached Wild Blackwater Salmon, Roast free-range Guinea Fowl and Braised Ballymaloe Pork were among the mains listed.

Sunset finds Nicole and Adrien doing some field-work.
The gigantic tin whistle is the newest
addition to the FORM sculpture trail, showing all
summer long at Ballymaloe.

Cheeses included St Gall, Triskel Goats and Cashel Blue and here the Rosé was put through its paces. No problem!

It was a delicious well paced meal and one of the highlights was the Shanagarry Heritage Tomato and Basil Salad. Colm McCann had been talking this up all evening and, boy, was he right. This simple salad illustrates the essence of the Ballymaloe farm and kitchen. Here they start with simple and end with simply superb!

We dined with windows and doors open on this lovely summer’s evening. Walked out then to the front, the canopy of farmland darkness broken by a myriad of sparkling stars. The Milky Way, I saw. And then I thought. What a prosaic name. All that sparkle and the best they can come up with is milky! Why not The Champagne Way? Pourquoi pas?