New Comers Series [Part ii]: Urlar

The healthy buzz, which tends to accompany all trade fairs, seems to have little effect on the laid back composure of Urlar owner and Scotsman, Angus Thompson. Although this air of relaxation Thompson exhales around him is no doubt much easier maintained given the astounding quality of the offerings of his rather startlingly young vines brought with him to Wine New Zealand's annual trade fair in Dublin this February.

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.

Power & Smullen Tasting Event: Portugal

Relatively a new comer to the Irish wine market, Portugal, seems intent on blazing a trail straight to our hearts. It's now common knowledge that for quality and value, Portugal is leading the way, and  rather conveniently, I just so happened upon a Portuguese tasting hosted by Lucan Wine Merchant, Power & Smullen only a short time ago.

Ara: A Pathway to Marlborough

While New Zealand is a toddler in the world of viticulture, Marlborough is younger still and yet despite this, it has managed its fair share of veterans. None more noted that the creator of the Marlborough's first "Grand Cru" estate, ARA, Jeff Clarke. Despite, Marlborough's haphazard discovery as a terroirist dream as recently as the late sixties, Jeff has a long history of involvement in the budding Kiwi wine industry, punching in well over 50 vintages with the Kiwi wine industry. To boot, he's ex-Penfolds and has been at the helm of Brancott during what could be called it's quality peak. Think you'll agree this guy doesn't submit to the term green.

A Hard Day's Riesling

Jim Barry, The Lodge Hill Riesling 2007

Sometimes big and bold is quite simply better. This Riesling is a testament to that fact. Jim Barry rave about the Lodge Hill site, saying that its high elevation brings a unique intensity to the grapes grown there. I for one happily agree, this wine certainly is intense.  

The colour is inviting, reminding me of the straw bales which are everywhere right now. The nose is striking, with tart citrus fruits and orange blossom sending the senses into overdrive. Minerality and lime create a mouth watering palette. The real treat however is a tingly acidity which can’t help but re-energise the soul.

For me this wine is the essence of Australia. Brash and beautiful, it storms its way into your heart and leaves a big old smile on your face. This is the sort of wine you want to come home to after a hard day. It peps you up for the evening and will go excellently with any asian food; provided it lasts that long of course.

Score: B+ (88)

(Available widely for €19.99)

~ Will Blumlein

Reasoned Riesling Reactionaries

Nothing is beyond the  repertoire of armchair activists such as ourselves here at Empty. That's right, we said it, armchair activists.  Bugger that, while Germany, is and always will be one of leaders  for propagating the quality of the wino's favourite grape we have to all dust ourselves off and realise, the Aussies really have led the charge on getting Riesling noticed. Not mentioning them, is by our books, rather uncool. So we did what any self respecting wino aficionado would do. We answered the four questions we shouted at our computers in the wee hours of this morning. Where's Australia? Where's Austria? Where's Alsace? Where's the Kiwi's? (Also watch out for some of the Riesling that sadly doesn't make the Irish market; USA, Chilean etc.)

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!  

A Stickie Situation....

In the wake of Wine Australia, I have been rather predictably on a bit of an Aussie trip. Cabernet being the main offender for the moment. However, it would be a blatant lie to insinuate that this is something rather new for me. Last year, maybe that was the case, but now, I am the right-proper Aussie pusher. So in the interest of critical thought, I decided I'd have a go at something a little different. The "Stickies". No, not those of the northern variety; I am, mind you, rather gangly and the only possible outcome ensuing such a feat would be the repeated hurting of myself. Fearing for myself as I always do,  I felt happening upon a safer plan of action the better option. Thus, the Australian dessert wines, which just so happen to also be called "Stickies". These little buggers are unpopular by the very nature of their existence, they are after all dessert wines. Which shouldn't in our ideal world matter, it is after all just another style. Yet the game is as always played through the  eyes of the consumer, and guess what, we are a rather prejudice aulde bunch. Like to believe it or not. 

Petit Fumé, AC Pouilly-Fume

What seems rather a long time ago now , when Empty was taking its baby steps and I hadn't developed such a venomous hatred for Sauvignon Blanc, there was a quaintly labelled wine that had caught my eye in the local. This little beauty was, Petit Fumé (Old Review Here). With sun blaring last week, something rather odd happened, I wanted a bottle of Sauv Blanc. Here's what happened.  

Domäne Wachau, Grüner Veltliner Smaragd Terrassen 2009

Long name and typically Germanic thing altogether this, well Austrian that is. Grüner as it fondly known amongst those who have happily made its acquaintance. Now New Zealand looks poised to make some stunners out of the grape but I have a thing for the Germanic/Austrian wine world. These wines are due a come back, is there something to be making a fuss about? I'd better find out.

Château De Pierreux, Brouilly 2010

 I decided I would challenge a wine prejudice I have built up over the years recently. Beaujolais. Not only did I allow the challenge but I also give the wine a fighting chance by giving a healthy budget for it of around €18. So armed with my typical good will, an open mind  I set out to taste none other than a Brouilly that I had heard only good things about. Was this about to shatter my little wine world?

Ca'Rugate, Valpolicella Superiore, 2007

I have mentioned Valpol before, I have mentioned my infatuation, I have mentioned even my love of it's colour. I think now is the time to admit, I am obsessed with the bloody thing. Now, I am picky however, and have been set on many a rage by attempts that betray the grapes, the style and the very reason for Valpol. That being a wine, that is enticing, fresh and vibrant. This example, well lets say, pricey as it was, didn't disappoint.

Materne Haegelin, Alcase, Pinot Noir 2009

Being the resident Pinot nut, Power and Smullen's tweet "Do have a tasty Alcase Pinot Noir fom Haegelin" sparked a unusual thirst in me, while my response was tame via the tweet machine, in reality, I was bouncing off the walls of the student gaf here in Maynooth. Having used all my muck-man skills I mastered the treacherous Dublin Bus timetables and pottered in after college one evening. Christ was I glad I bought two. This was wonderful and insanely, too young.

Corvina Veronese, Monte Zovo, 2007

If there is one grape that tickles me fancy it has to Crovina. In fact my wine epiphany happened to involve just the culprit in the form of a Valopicella Ripasso, and has been the bar all wine finds itself up against ever since. Now, this is something a little different, it's a straight Crovina, form Monte Zovo, whose Bardolino has already struck a good note with me. So how did the single varietal stand up?

Camins del Priorat/The Spanish Thing Continues

So another Spanish lady in red being reviewed this week. Having been lucky enough to manage two seats at a "meet the winemaker" lunch in Dublin this week. Now we did managed to taste a few wines we don't intend buying again until we have real wages! Besides the point, the wine in question was a kind parting gift to all who attended the meal. Now, as it goes, freebies are never freebies, there's always some sort of catch. Here, in this case with a room full of 50-60 people you'd expected that the wine wouldn't be up to much. Rather the opposite actually! This wine was in fact something completely different altogether. A better kind of freebie, a show off freebie.

The star of the show was an entry level wine from Mr Palacios' Priorat vineyards. What is this wonderful concoction? 50% Somsó, 40% Garnacha (Grenache to you and me), 10% Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah. Really it's a good slap of whatever you like.

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.

Gate 108 [Edinburgh Wine trip:Part I of II]

Gate 108, entrance to Edinburgh. Long a hold of cheap drink. Cheap drink means cheap wine. Now, unlike the Irish system which despite constant warning from the front-line wino's has  resisted price regulation until late, however even with the hikes in Scotland, they have cleverly decided not to squeeze the good out of the world of wine. For students with friends over there to whom they make constant visit too, this is good news.

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).

Old Ripasso Review

CESARI MARA- Ripasso

I do believe I seen a bottle of this within O'Briens halls and the Wine Mill use to stock it, regrettably no more. This is the first bottle that has managed to be bought twice by myself, more than this, this wine was bought twice, in one week, in first year, and now the owner of the Mill is now hounded to restock with the wine. At €20ish a bottle this is a big ask out of our measily budgets- My defence? This is the bottle that grabbed and dragged me to the world of wine! If my rusty memory serves me right this bottle had a deleciate balance of plum and cherry, the acidity was a little less than a normal Valpol, I would say sweetness, save sweetness is really denying the elegance of this wine. It would be impossible to classify this as sweet, it is yet far from dry. All in all, this bottle has yet to be moved from its place as my favourite bottle, whether it is the nostalgia of the wine that really got you into wine or the wine itself could be debated, however either way the wine is a star. Failing to find this try pick up a Zenato, they are about €16 at the moment a steal if nothing else.

NEW VINTAGE TO BE REVIEWED JAN 2012

Veneto and Valentines - Red

Supposedly the Famous Balcony 

Hello there, Veneto is a bit of a favourite with us here, and I decided I'd throw together all the prices and scores of Venetian wines we've reviewed (If would like any more information on these E-mail us at  theemptyglass@gmail.com) as it's coming up to Valentines and Veneto is after all home to Verona the city of Romeo and Juliet. So enjoy a student take on how to get wines from one of the most romantic regions in the world without burning a hole in the wallet.

All three eventualities of taste are covered here, Red, White and Bubbly, sort of a testimony to the variety this region has to offer in terms of wine.

Here are the Reds from the list there are a lot of wines so we've split the articles up! Enjoy! Hope it helps in finding the right wine for the day!