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Jono & Jules’ Wine of the Week

Posted in Australia, Nebbiolo, Rosé, Wine, Wine of the Week, tagged , , , , , , on 1 December 2010| Leave a Comment »

Boat Shed Nebbiolo Rosé, Adelaide Hills 2010

As recommended by Tony, we tried this Aussie Rosé and thoroughly enjoyed it!

Made from nebbiolo, which is more famous in Barolo from Italy and very rare anywhere else. There is, however, an outpost in the Adelaide Hills in Australia with a handful of producers really working hard to produce good wine. Most of these, and the Barolo’s are expensive (and also red). This is €14.99 from O’Briens, and a Rosé.

The biggest thing about the Boat Shed Nebbiolo Rosé is that it has a very easy drinking cherry and strawberry fruit flavour with hints of rose petals. Very approachable and, dare I say it, gluggable. The other thing is that it has a texture to the palate, and this helps with food: anyone who wants to drink rosé with turkey this Christmas … go for this!

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Georgio Locatelli’s duck breast with broccoli

Posted in Duck, Food, Rhône, Syrah, Wine, tagged , , , , , , , , , on 29 November 2010| Leave a Comment »

I’ve had Georgio Locatelli’s Made in Italy for yonks now but had yet to try any of the recipes until tonight. We had some duck breasts and were looking for a tasty recipe without too many ingredients. This fitted the bill perfectly except one of the ingredients proved very difficult to find – if you live in Dublin you can get farro or spelt in Fallon & Byrne but we had to go twice to find it!

After all this faffing about looking for farro you can’t even see it in our picture. I promise that is there though (under the duck breast).

This was absolutely fabulous and quite straight forward though I recommend you get organised with all the pans and stuff before you start.

Duck breast with brocoli (for 4 people)

4 duck breasts

4 tablespoons farro (spelt)

145ml extra-virgin olive oil

2 heads of broccoli, separated into florets

2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

2 garlic cloves, sliced

1 red chilli, deseeded and sliced

salt and pepper

  • Take the duck breasts out of the fridge about an hour before you start.
  • Soak the farro in cold water for 20 minutes, then drain.
  • Preheat oven to 220C (gas 7).
  • Bring a pan of unsalted water to the boil and cook the farro for 15 minutes (salted water will make it go hard). Drain and tip onto a tray or big plate. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of the olive oil over and toss to coat the grains and keep them separate. Give them a jiggle every few minutes so they don’t stick together.
  • Blanch the broccoli in boiling salted water for a minute or two to just soften it. Drain and set aside.
  • Score the skin and season the duck; this helps the fat to render. Heat an oven-proof saute pan to medium-hot, then put in the duck, skin-side down, and cook until it turns golden (about 6 minutes). Turn over and cook for 1 minute, then turn down the heat. Take the duck out and keep warm.
  • Drain the fat off the pan, add the Worcestershire sauce and 3 tablespoons of the remaining oil. Stir to emulsify and turn off the heat.
  • Heat a saute pan, add the remaining oil, followed by the garlic and chilli, and cook without colouring for a few minutes.Add the broccoli and saute without allowing to colour, until just soft. Season.
  • In a separate pan, fry the farro without any extra oil until slightly crisp (drain off excess oil as you go). Season.
  • Put the duck into a roasting tray and put in the oven for 2-3 minutes (or more if you like it more done).
  • Spoon the farro into the middle of the plates, and arrange the broccoli around it with the oil.
  • Slice the duck and put on top of the farro and finish with the sauce.

This was so tasty Jono wanted a second helping even though he was stuffed!

We served this with a glass of red 2005 Saint Joseph ‘Les Pierres Leches’ from Yves Cuilleron. Nice medium weight so it doesn’t overwhelm the food but a really tasty and flavoursome Syrah at the same time. Highly recommended.

Julie

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Jono & Jules’ Wine of the Week

Posted in Gascogny, Wine, Wine of the Week, tagged , , , , , , on 25 November 2010| Leave a Comment »

This is our new “Wine of the Week” feature where we recommend a good value (under €15) wine we’ve liked.

It’s always good to have your drinking choices confirmed by a respected member of the wine trade; and it has happened with our house white wine this year!

We’ve been drinking the Domaine de Pellehaut, Harmonie de Gascogne blanc 2009 for the past four or five months and enjoying it most thoroughly. It is uncomplicated, fresh and flavoursome and a perfect medium weight. The flavours are a bit lemony and appley with a light, stoney mineral twist and it drinks well on its own and with food. Being a blend of grapes it takes a little of the best of each to make an interesting wine, without being too full-on – this makes it a perfect  week night wine and a great one to entertain a group of friends.

Stephen Spurrier, Decanter magazine’s Consultant Editor, concurs in an admission in his December edition column. His house wine too!

We get ours from Mitchell’s Wine Merchants in Glasthule or the CHQ Building, IFSC for €9.95  which is a great price for such a versatile wine.

Wine of the week

Jono 🙂

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Lustau VORS Palo Cortado

Posted in Sherry, tagged , , on 7 November 2010| Leave a Comment »

Lustau have recently released four Very Old Rare Sherries (VORS) and we are lucky enough to be one of the first in the world to taste them at Mitchell & Son Wine Merchants, CHQ store in Dublin. The Solera for these wines are at least 30 years old and only 1000 50cl bottles are being produced for each style.

One of my most favourite styles is a Palo Cortado, which for me combines the best of Amontillado and Oloroso characteristics, making it much more complex and interesting.

Now I know that sherry had got a bit naff and a bit of an old persons drink, but this is such a shame as good sherry, like Lustau produce, is fab. Each style is great with food and this one is no exception – this would work perfectly with game, like pheasant or venison.

What this wine delivers is bags of flavour, a roundness and warmth, and a great savoury texture. I really loved the layers of dried fruit and warm roasted nut flavours which are intertwined with a yeasty, salty and smoky character. This VORS Palo Cortado is really something extra and very special.

Jono

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Winter Warmer: Baked Prawn Casserole and New Zealand Chardonnay

Posted in Chardonnay, Fish, Food, New Zealand, Wine, tagged , , on 5 November 2010| Leave a Comment »

Proper blog to follow but for all the Irish Foodies doing the Cookalong this evening here is our Winter Warmer – really rich and seriously tasty!

Serve with crusty bread and Man O’War wine.

Last night we took part in our first Irish Foodies cookalong. Check out the Irish Food Bloggers Association website for more information. We only heard about this on Wednesday and didn’t think we could take part as we were determined to cook prawns (as our freezer was full of them). Also the theme was Winter Warmers which to us means pie or stew or pumpkin or chestnuts, but not prawns. Still never ones to turn down a challenge (and not wanting to miss out on all the fun) we set about finding a Winter Warming prawn dish and I think we managed it with our Baked Prawn Casserole (from Vefa’s Kitchen).

We were at a fabulous Lustau Sherry tasting on Thursday night which inspired us to have some nibbles and Sherry to start (see post below) – all very festive.

Baked Prawn Casserole (to feed 6 but there was 4 of us and we managed to finish it)

  • Put 1.5kg peeled prawns into a saucepan, add 4 tablespoons of water, bring to the boil, and cook for 5 minutes. Drain and keep the liquid.
  • Melt 60g butter in a pan and add a large chopped onion, cook for 5 minutes or until soft.
  • Add a sliced carrot and a green pepper cut into thin strips, cook for another 5 minutes.
  • Whizz up a tin of tomatoes until smooth and pour into the pan along with the reserved prawn liquid, season, and simmer for 15-20 minutes, until thickened.
  • Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 200C and brush and ovenproof dish with oil.
  • Take the sauce off the heat and stir in 250g crumbled feta and 4 tablespoons of finely chopped parsley.
  • Spoon the prawns over the base of the prepared dish and pour the sauce over them.
  • Sprinkle with 150g diced Gruyere and a pinch of cayenne pepper and dot the top with butter of drizzle with some olive oil.
  • Bake for around 30 minutes, until the  top is lightly browned.

We served this in bowls with some crusty bread for mopping up all the lovely sauce.

Our guests brought us a bottle of Valhalla Chardonnay 2009 from Waiheke Island, New Zealand (which has just arrived this week in O’Brien’s). The wine worked perfectly as it had the weight to pair with the richness of the dish.

Aren’t we lucky!

Julie

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Winter warmer – starters

Posted in Sherry, tagged , on 5 November 2010| 1 Comment »

Nibbles & Sherry – a lovely & warm single cask Palo Cortado

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Roussanne / Marsanne from the Rhône

Posted in Rhône, Wine, tagged , , , , on 31 October 2010| Leave a Comment »

Kindly shared by Julie’s Dad, who had been kindly donated this bottle by our friend David 🙂

2007 Bernard Gripa, Saint -Péray “les Figuiers”

This is incredibly rare, from a shrinking appellation in the northern Rhône and made from 60% Roussanne and 40% marsanne. Quite full-bodied this wine plays a slightly lower acidity against full fruit and a savoury texture that gives a minerality and freshness that begs for food. It’s beauty lies in the wonderful aromas of yellow plums, wax and camomile. These aromas are really haunting and seem to capture the late summer sun.

It is these aromas that really make this something special; it lifts the wine out of the humdrum that the fruit weight gives it. These aromas developed the more we tasted the wine and made this really interesting.

Well worth looking out for.

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A complete surprise!

Posted in Wine on 24 October 2010| 2 Comments »

When I think of Hungarian wine I have always thought of their famous sweet wines from Tokaji – really delicious stuff. I had never thought of Hungary as a place for world-class reds, and yet this is STUNNING!

2007 Gere Attila, Solus Merlot, from Villány in the south of Hungary

A wine of sublime balance with effortless levels of fruit, spice, minerality, tannins and alcohol; I was shocked to read the back label and discover  that it was 15% abv … it so doesn’t taste like it is anything above 12.5%!

To list some of the flavours and aromas: Plum, blackcurrant, creme de cassis, lifted balsamic, mocha, coffee, cloves, nutmeg, smokiness, touches of menthol, earthiness, minerality and roasted hot rock. You can taste the vineyard and such juicy, juicy fruit. I could keep on going, but you get the picture.

This is one of those wines that has a real concentration and intensity without being heavy and chunky. This wine is elegant with exceptionally refined and juicy fruit and tannins; and the flavours just linger and linger.

This ranks with some of the best wines I have ever tasted, it is that good!

Due to arrive in Ireland in a few weeks time @ Mitchell and Son Wines … grab one for Christmas or a really special occasion.

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Top class Provence

Posted in Provence, Wine on 22 October 2010| Leave a Comment »

Coteaux d'Aix en Provence

A real conundrum of a wine: this oozes class and breeding, and yet it comes from the wilds of Provence – away from the maddening crowds of tourists and up in the hills where everything is a little rustic and rural. Likewise this wine should be a little wild and uncouth; a little coarse and peasant like, however this shows what happens when someone knows what they are doing and has the right vineyard land to do it!

The aromas are of blackcurrant, damson plums, a little mocha, layers of menthol, spice  and sophisticated smokiness but all layered and cohesive. This follows through to the flavours that mirror the aroma: all sitting effortlessly in the mouth – full of power and yet smooth and easy. It has a balance between all components, superb length, an effortless intensity and an elegant complexity, combined with a real drinkability. A combination that lingers for ages and really shows its breed: top quality!

Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah dominate this blend (with a little grenache). The cabernet drives the flavour characters and elegance while the syrah gives depth and roundness. What always pleases me is that Chateau Vignelaure delivers elegance, power and finesse just like a top Bordeaux. This is because it has the right soil, climate and a careful vigneron and winemaker to be sensitive to this fact.

A confession of bias … I spent a few weeks in this vineyard back in 2006 during the harvest. When there we tried, courtesy of the then owners, David and Catherine O’Brien, some really highly regarded wines from around the world alongside various vintages of this wine – and the Chateau Vignelaure wines always had real class! Subsequently I have tried this wine blind against other wines, without knowing what it was, and it still tasted superbly.

Revisiting this wine now after a long hiatus has me remembering the care that went into the raising of the wine: David O’Brien really nurtured these wines so carefully. A good memory for me, but one that is easy to share: just try the wine yourself and let me know what you think?

Jono

Available to try in Ireland from O’Briens Off-licences from €24.45

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Riedel comparisons – Masters of Wine hit it out

Posted in Wine, tagged , on 3 October 2010| 1 Comment »

Following the successful Riedel comparison on the 17th September there has been a few blogs and responses on the effectiveness of using Riedel Glasses for tasting wine.

Importantly there was one Master of Wine at the tasting, Dermot Nolan MW, who has been very sceptical. He was at the trade tasting surrounded by 85 wine industry professionals and offered a view on how Riedel glasses performed and vigorously defended the ISO glass. So I thought I’d offer a comparison of opinions – the other from another Master of Wine. Let me know what you think!

Firstly Dermot Nolan MW’s blog: http://dermotswineblog.blogspot.com/2010/09/serving-suggestions.html

Secondly Beverley Blanning MW: http://www.decanter.com/people-and-places/wine-articles/486207/how-many-do-you-really-need

Thirdly an article by John Stimpfig who gathered Top Sommeliers and Mark Bingley MW to do an extensive tasting of Riedel vs Riedel vs ISO http://www.aroundwine.co.uk/glass-advice-riedel-versus-riedel

And for people who’d like to hear Max Riedel themselves – a little interview by Lar Veale from sourgrapes.ie : http://www.sourgrapes.ie/2010/09/18/riedel-interview/

Jono

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Riedel Comparative Tasting in the New Convention Centre in Dublin

Posted in Wine, tagged on 18 September 2010| 2 Comments »

So Jono worked hard all day at the new Convention Centre at Dublin Docklands yesterday and it was all worth it cause the Riedel comparative tasting was fab! A comparative tasting is where you taste the same wine out of lots of different glasses and Mr Maximillian Riedel proves that they all taste and smell much better if you drink them out of the “right” glass i.e. Chardonnay glass for Chardonnay, Pinot glass for Pinot etc. What Jono doesn’t know is that I now want lots of new glasses to fit on our already full shelf… more success than he bargained for! I think it was the rest of the room he was trying to sell fancy Austrian glassware to.

Best tip of the night for me was to dry your decanter with your hairdryer. Why didn’t I think of this before(maybe cause I mostly make Jono wash it)? No more stuffing cloths in and out of it and trying to balance it upside down on a spiky thing. Maybe keep it on the cool setting though incase you crack your precious decanter.

I think Jono will probably have something much more technical and wine buff like to say about the whole thing later.

Julie

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