The Blueberries

Rob's Big 2014 French Romp

My 2014 will be marked by two happenings. First, the stoking of my old flame, French wine and the second my discovery of the phrase 'fannybaws'. As only one of those is truly relevant to Empty I feel it best that I linger on it for the purpose of The Blueberries.

All Roads Lead to Rioja

Being lucky enough to give a wine tasting in a delicious tapas bar in Naas recently (@lasrada) I decided to go with Spanish wines. Seems kind of a no brainer or dare I say it predictable. The day that the writing and/or logic as to how and what we write on this blog becomes predictable I will personally send the Empty Glass to the proverbial farm. 

The Battle of Bordeaux

June 1938. European heads of state are doing their thing and getting ready to murder lots of Joe-subs, again. Times like these lend themselves to blowing off steam. Nobody needed to do this more at this point than Czechoslovakia having just had a chunk of their country "annexed" by the Third Reich. Roll on June, that's just what they did.

Chateau Beau Rivage 2006

Sometimes there is a wine that bucks the trend and in this case it is the trend of me being catastrophically disappointed with Bordeaux. This is not because I am a new world-o-phile, but merely because of poor quality wines for ridiculous prices at all levels. I abhor to start a review in the negative, but I feel this wine requires some context simply because it blew me away ... more than once.

Coyam 2010

'The New World' is a funny old term, deriving from Imperialistic categorization of the colonised and a general bolstering of Western Superiority.  As you may gather there is a long and complicated history here, but I would rather leave this for a more comprehensive article on 'old' and 'new' worlds. Let us in this smaller context take one of the leading organic producers without the loaded terms we would normally associate with the two tiers of wine making.

Empty's Full Glass on Wine Australia

Rob and Shane give a post-mortem on Monday's wine Australia trade fair marking any notables from the day. Comments on the master classes, the Riesling table. We'll also be updating this in the near future with a podcast of the opinions of the guys. For now read way! Hope you enjoy, and as always comments and debate welcome!  

The Italian Job: Tenuta Santini Toscana Caricello 2006

Having found myself at the hands of a rather nasty bottle-shocking of travel from Maynooth to Monaghan over a tedious repetitive money-leeching meaningless "religious ceremony". I decided post-confirmation Rob was going to need something rather nice to cheer him up. Unfortunately, I was in Monaghan, and while it is where I hail from, it is the greatest hole on earth when it comes to wine, or so I thought... 

Quinta De Chocapalha, Cabernet Sauvignon, 2006

Thesis bound, an hour to spare and name signed, freedom. Well, of sorts, Celebrations would have to wait, I had work. A chance I used to ponder what would be popped open. As my thoughts wandered and the evening waned, as did I. Having initially thought of opening a special bottle of New Zealand bubbles, I began to entertain the thought, I might just end up knocking off after a glass owing to how tired I was? 

Vin-Aire: Does it Work?

Anyone in the trade will be all too familiar with the ins and outs with this Vin-Aire malark. Only thing is, does the thing work? And more importantly for all of us normal non-trade folk, what is it and what does it do. Well, after a quick chat with Andrew Nolan from Vin-aire Ireland and a "special package" in the mail we got down to tackling these all important questions.

Quinta do Carmo 1996

1996 was a big year for me, the Nintendo 64 was released heralding in a new era of Mariokart shananigans and of course Goldeneye would later be released and be the cause of sleep deprivation for many a night, while we all would scream, 'no you can't be Oddjob, there is less of him to shoot at!' 1996 was also the year that I began to think that maybe girls are more than a source of cooties or whatever it was the boys would exclaim they had that week. I remember the moment well, I was watching The Den (for our non-Irish audience, this was the staple of every child's evening viewing), when the Spice Girls appeared with 'Wannabe'. In hindsight these scantily clad ladies should probably not have appeared on children's television, but nevertheless, something happened that day, regardless of the chant 'girl power' being nothing but shallow commercialism.

Ring Bolt Cabernet Sauvignon, 2009

So with these occupation things being all the rage and us empty heads sharing an ironically leftie view of the world we said we would dedicate this review to the exec of Maynooth’s Student Union who at the time of writing are bailed up in a TD’s office in Naas. The wine would need the values of #Occupy at heart so what wine ticks all these boxes?

5 wines to try

Shoo Fly, Chardonnay, 2009


€13.95, Mill Wine Cellar
Chardonnay as it should be, beauitful soft and full bodied, with a strong body of melon and elderberries both on the nose and on the plate. The wine opens with peach and minerality showing and developing, grapefruit makes an apperance on the palate. Not the most complicated wine but extremely tasty, offering a lot of taste and a good interesting cool-climate chardonnay from the adelaide hills a region fast stealing my heart. Advice would be to find a bit of spare change and add it to the ten quid bottle you normally get and try this wine. Tis an award winner after all having the title of best white wine on the Irish Market under €20, not a bad reputation to have mind you.




Petit Fumé, Michel Redde et Fils, 2010

€16.99, Mill Wine Cellar
We have sun, we need a crisp clean cut white to celebrate, look no further than Petit Fumé, made by Michel Redde et Fils, this Sauvignon Blanc is what you need, Sauvignon Blanc has risen to popularity of late- especially with the rise of New Zealand wine. While New Zealand is now regarded as the King of Sauvignon Blanc, I feel that this title is fairly undermining of the French examples, we have loire producing some of the most crisp examples of this vartiel, so looking at this pacticular bottle, we have a crisp and clean experience. Brilliantly structured, fresh apple and minerality notes, finishing with acidity to clear the palate after each mouthful. The nose is especially inviting on this, best when just slightly chilled to take the acid edge off. While slightly expensive, this bottle and grape has finally come into it's own, rarely failing to impress. What we're talking about here is a sleek stylish examof what is now just a bulk grape; it has distinct fruit notes and subtle hints to leave you curious. Its greatest drawback (being students) is the price. However remember it is on offer, so it’s well worth picking up as a treat, and in this weather the wine will be one of the most refreshing things on the shelf

Santa Digna, Cab Sauv Res, 2010

€9.99, Wine Mill Cellar
Sun seems as though it would like to stay and as a ritual in it's honour (and as a hopefully attempt to persuade it to stay for a short while longer) I thought I ought to toast to it this weekend. Now we have offered you our white wine selection, but despite two of my bigger predujices, the first that chilean wine will dissappoint and the second that Rosés are a stupid idea and are boring wines  of my own I decided I'd give the following wine a bit of a test drive. So the wine up for tasting? Cabernet Sauvignon Rosé, 2010, from Santa digna, chile. So starting out with low expectations, opening the bottle, I was suprised to be greeted by a more than pleasant raspberry and subtle strawberry nose, beckoned by this I knocked a bit into a glass give it a bit of a swirl and slurped me some Rosé, and for the second time in not so long chile has surprised myself. So with this we were looking at raspberry, strawberry, bit of early minerality of a very flithish style. As the wine opened up we started to see the fruits develop a little, we started to get grapefruit and the nose turned slightly Sauv Blanc with gooseberry. What was the biggest slap in the face was how refreshing the wine tasting despite the fact it weighed it at a burly 13.5% alcohol. That fact showed the quality of the make of the wine we were dealing with, that combined with the full body of the wine. I'd have given it a 7, fresh wine, felt a little green at points but nothing overly officious to the palate!

Max Fred. Richter, Mosel Valley Riesling, 2009

€14.99, Corkscrew
A lovely example of Mosel Valley Riesling. Crisp and refreshing as all Riesling should be, it is sweet with a Clean nose, the wine is extremely complicated with melons, pear, apple and a slight hint of citrus making up the main fruits of the wine there is a nice touch of clove to the wine and everything seems to have a thin blanket of honey coating it. To boot it even has a foral smell as it opens which does not get lose on the palate, despite the mass arrays of smells and tastes each one is well defined. Leaving for a truly enjoyable wine that seems to wreak of a come hither note.


Leyda Reserve, Pinot Noir 2009

€14.95, Mill Wine Cellar
New world wine is a bit of a new thing for myself only letting go of my predjuices against many regions. However one predjuice has managed to last the test of time Chilean wine. That is until recently, so recent in fact it was this week, when I found a bottle of Pinot hiding behind large quanities of Shiraz from the same nation. Single vineyard always a good sign. Opening the bottle I was greeted by a warm smelling wine, nice mind you, slowly this developed into a nice red fruit and tobacco form, living up to the warm cilmate Pinot reputation of packing a punch, not only that but this also as it opened smelt meaty, and on the palte started to minic this and also add a sweet red pepper undertone. It kept opening up as the night progress and showed signs of the red berries and other red fuits as well as the prevelant tobacco smell and palate, all in all? A wine well enjoyed.

Chateau Ksara, Reserve Du Couvent 2008

Lebanese wine, a rather interesting thought this now. You have this little tucked away country in the rather turbulent area these days that is the middle east, happily pottering away at wine. No matter whose being kicked out of office or which neighbour is bombing the holy bejesus out of who, they  always seem to batter out a few bottles. One I managed to grab happened to be inhabiting the shelves of the Mill Wine Cellar Maynooth, and was sitting quite happily at €14.95 too.

Tasting Cabernets with a Blindfold on

While none of us attending the Empty Glass' first blind wine tasting were actually wearing blindfolds I did have to close my eyes when they were poured. The reason for this was because I knew what each bottle looked like, even if they had brown paper covering the bottle. So, that is the idea of a blind tasting, you are not supposed to know what each bottle is. We began the tasting by telling everyone in the room about the noble grape Cabernet Sauvignon which is the basis for some of the best and some of the expensive wines in the world. Typically consists of aromas, such as Blackcurrant. This is then normally added to by the influence of oak aging which adds complexity to the palate and nose, with notes of cedar-box, cinnamon, vanilla etc. depending on the type of oak used.

The reason for blind tasting is to be able to objectively judge each bottle on its own merits as opposed to looking at a bottle that has Bordeaux on it and assuming it will be the best one. The results of the tasting were interesting and it was a very tight race between the top three. The wines were scored by each of us out of 5, 1 being something the taster would never ever drink again and 5 being the best thing that they have ever tasted. The results were as follows;

1. Longview Devil's Elbow Cabernet Sauvignon, Score: 29 available for 17.99 in O'Briens

2. Torres Gran Coronas Cabernet Sauvignon, Score: 27.5 available from most off licences for 15.45

3. Peter Lehman Barossa Cabernet Sauvignon, Score: 25.5 available from the Mill for 10.95 or two for twenty

4. Lafite-Rothschilde Légende, Score: 22 available from O'Briens at 12.95

5. Heartland Cabernet Sauvignon Limestone Coast, Score: 20 available from the Mill at 14.95

6. L'apostolle Cabernet Sauvignon, Score: 16 available from the Mill at 8.99

What was most interesting about this tasting was the variation between wines from the same region such as the Heartland and the Longview. Both displayed the typical Adelaide eucalyptus, but the Heartland was taking a long time to open up. While all the wines were decanted for half an hour before the tasting some of them would have benefited from longer. For example the Heartland tasted much better two hours later. However the results were a very fair assessment of the wines and what impressed me most was how well the second cheapest wine did. The Lehman Cabernet Sauvignon punched well above its weight. While it is a fruitier style and perhaps not  as complex as the Torres and the Longview, it blew the pants off the others near it, including a Bordeaux from the eponymous 2005 vintage.

So, what did this tasting teach us? All the hype about famous Bordeaux names with equally famous vintages are apparently not up to tackling New world wines that are slightly more expensive or in one case cheaper. Tasting notes for the wines themselves will soon follow this article.

Remember, be informed, price and hype does not always denote quality.

With Special thanks to the Mill Wine Cellar Maynooth who supplied tasting glasses (and also stock the over-achiever Peter Lehman Cabernet that was the winner for me in its quality and price).