Bottle Age

Things are changing here at empty. We've both left for the UK and despite our émigré sense of entitlement, we're hardly the Irish wine blog we use to be. We know! With all our, at times ham handed, wading in on matters for the Irish wine trade we had you fooled too. Well, no longer, it seems the world of wine has really opened it's doors to us, dragged us away and right now we'd be foolish to say no to it all. This is just a change that time passing demands I suppose.   

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 

@Rob_Gilmour has been writing for Empty for too long to mention, he is currently working in wine in Edinburgh where he runs @Wine_Edinburgh and somehow has found time to be Vice-President of the @IWSScotland. Being a balanced, multifaceted individual Rob's only interest in not wine, he is also interested in wine education as well having passed with distinction his WSET L3. If you'd like to contact him email: emptyglassie@gmail.com 

With all these doors swinging open, it seems our work life is intent on taking us to new places, both philosophically and otherwise. We aren't the same plucky sales assistants, with buckets of time on our hand that we were when Empty first set sail. I've recently moved company to another Scottish Merchant, Woodwinters. Similar antics have gotten me installed  as the Vice President of the Institute of Wine and Spirits, Scotland too. In short, sadly, the added responsibility has done it for the days when we got to hammer posts into the blog daily. Yet, it's not all bad news for Empty. The experience we are gaining will hopefully make this blog a more polished read. So, in essence, here's the deal, it's been a month since my last post and you can probably expect that to be the going rate for now. However, this should mean, fingers-crossed, quality over quantity. 

The elbow grease to this polish will be two pronged I guess. Working in tandem; first, our expanding knowledge and secondly, the knowledge that we know bloody nothing. Both Toby and I have romped on with our WSET training and are both sitting pretty with distinctions in our L3. Yet, we are still only a tiny drop into the brimming Nebuchadnezzar of wine knowledge available. The result of this should mean, the days of empty-arse-wine speak are over. As we move towards our Diplomas, go so far as to expect a plea for rescue as we drown or miraculously failing that, expect many, many questions. What's in it for you? Well, we'll keep popping up some wonderfully weird reviews and wine for you to hunt down and if you are back in Ireland, we'll even help work out a way you can get your mits on the wines in question.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 
Like what you've read? Have a wee gander at another post: Empty & Full; The Stop, Start nature of Empty

Just to seal the deal here's a wine that really caught me up lately, Riverhorse Chenin Blanc. A wine with a label so bad, looking through my pictures for it, it appears I have failed to actually snap it even once. Let me paint the picture; Microsoft paint, Hippos, turquoise against white. It is I imagine the label of the wine served in hell. However, luckily the winemaker, Johan Meyer possesses talents the total opposite to those of the label maker.  Meyer seems to be a whiz kid with Chenin. Mucking about with everything and anything, with the honourable exception of seeing what would happen were he to filter the wine. The result is equal measures of bizarre and wonder. 

Wild yeast give the wine an unapologetic 'woo-ee' funk initially, but beneath this there are layers of oxidative tones, fresh fruit and minerality, the blend is totally paradoxical on the nose and there is no definitive king aroma. Instead, the wine weaves all its component parts into a solid, slightly weird, wine. The palate is much more focused, fruit dominates while the other flavours act in support. Some of the flavours and aromas are not a million miles from those found in sour beers. It's a real head turner. At £10.95 in Vino Wines, Edinburgh it's definitely worth trying at least once. However, with the acidity and balance on the wine, I'll be picking up some of these for some cellaring. One can only hope that the efforts of time can make short work of those bloody labels too.