Stylish Sauvignons from O'Briens plus more on wine, spirits and beer in Cheers #14

Stylish Sauvignons from O'Briens

plus more on wine, spirits and beer in Cheers #14

STYLISH SAUVIGNONS
By Lynne Coyle MW | O'Briens Wine Director

One of the most popular white wines on the planet, this week we are asking why is Sauvignon Blanc so popular and with such a vast array available to choose from, we highlight a few savvy Sauvignons perfect for this time of year.

Sauvignon Blanc, believed to originate in Bordeaux, is widely planted in the Loire, Chile, South Africa, California, and New Zealand. To understand why it’s so popular, consider the style of wines it makes. Translated as “wild white”, Sauvignon Blanc, is a green skinned white grape known for its exuberant aromas and flavours. Grown in a cool climate, herbaceous green and tomato leaf notes are to the fore and from a warmer location look for melon, and apricot. The grapes are generally fermented at between 12 and 15°C which retains the aromas and primary fruit flavours, typically Sauvignon is dry, and unoaked with high acidity ensuring a refreshing, food friendly style.

See Lynn's picks here.

Tullamore Dew's Jane Maher is at the Thompson Micro Brewery on Sunday afternoon (Aug 30th)  as part of Design Pop Cork. There'll also be other food and drink related events over the Saturday (Aug 29th) and Sunday. See the Design Pop Facebook Page for full schedule (28-30 Aug).


Next Saturday in the Ballymaloe Drinks Theatre

Half-time refreshments at last week's Cider event in the Drinks Theatre

Next event - ‘Summer Fizz ~ Sparkling Wines’ Saturday 1st August 5pm Drinks Theatre at Ballymaloe with @seamusmcgrath03 & @colmmccan #sparklingwines #summerfizz #drinkstheatre #event #sociallydistanced #fullyseated #limitednumbers - bookings through eventbrite here

" We will explore various styles, regions along with some surprises!

Saturday 1st August, 5pm, Drinks Theatre at Ballymaloe, Pre booking essential via Eventbrite, Fully seated, socially distanced, restricted numbers"

Meadery tours in Kinsale

Kinsale Mead Co have been running their online shop selling mead to mead lovers old and new all through the shutdown but now they have re-opened for Meadery tours in Kinsale. They've had great fun welcoming a number of visitors since the end of June, both day trippers to Kinsale and people making a longer tour around Cork and the south coast. Thanks to everyone who has visited so far or booked for a later date. 

Tours run at 1pm, 3pm and 5pm Tuesday to Sunday. Tickets cost €14 pp. Please prebook. https://www.kinsalemeadco.ie/kinsale-meadery-tours/ or  by calling 021 477 3538.

Getting to know Ramón Bilbao’s Rueda Sauvignon Blanc 2018

Innovation in Spanish winemaking is not just reserved for the new wave of artisan winemakers. Ramón Bilbao proves once again with its new Rueda Sauvignon Blanc that a big player can just as easily throw away the rulebook. Hailing from its shiny new winery La Finca Las Medias, winemaker Sara Bañuelos, has been given licence to thrill with an SB/ Verdejo blend but even more interestingly a 100% single varietal Sauvignon Blanc. David Kermode picks up the story (via The Buyer) here.

FULL PROGRAMME ANNOUNCED FOR DESIGN POP. Cork’s food and design festival returns for its second year

FULL PROGRAMME ANNOUNCED FOR DESIGN POP

Cork’s food and design festival returns for its second year

AUGUST 28-30, 2020

Cork City

3 pop-up pavilions, an Irish Design Shop, exhibitions, furniture showcase, and discussions from special guests MASER, WhyDesign Founder Kim Mackenzie-Doyle, + over 16 free events!

Design Pop, Cork’s new food and design festival, is truly a celebration of innovation and creativity. It takes place in various locations across Cork: Thompson House, Elizabeth Fort, Emmett Place, and Blackrock Castle, from 28-30^th August 2020.

The intention of Design POP has always been to celebrate the incredible talent in Architecture, Design, and Food/Drink producers in Ireland. It is more important than ever to celebrate creativity, collaboration, and support our local talent.

This year's theme for the festival is Resilience, which will be explored through the pavilions, talks, and conversations, happening over the weekend. The programme features over 16 free events, and two special ticketed events.

The launch night, Friday night, 28th August, will feature talks and discussions with guests The Project Twins - the Irish based graphic art duo, James and Michael Fitzgerald, who will speak about their studio and some of their interesting projects to date; Founding Director of The Glucksman, Fiona Kearney, will share her insight on running a leading museum for creative learning and access to the visual arts.

Saturday morning offers a creative workshop for children, suitable for ages 4-12, with plant based food company Banana Melon; later, join a panel discussion about gender equality in design, led by Founder of WhyDesign Kim Mackenzie-Doyle with guests: Head of Innovation VHI Lorna Ross, award-winning designer and Creative Director at Deloitte Digital Claire Dowling, and Head of Design Thinking at Bank of Ireland Lesley Tully.

Into the afternoon, there will be a Networking Lunch for Women by WhyDesign; a talk ‘Back and taking over the family business’ hosted by OHK O’Herlihy’s, Kinsale; Dublin based architecture and design studio Studio Anois will speak about their studio and projects to date; “Creative Process Behind Launching a New Brand” discussions with guests Graham Vard (Billion), Ernest Cantillion (Kinsale Gin and Red Earl Whiskey), Tony Speight (West Cork Coffee) and Clonakilty Black Pudding.

Saturday evening, Darragh Breathnach of DUA - Design Urbanism Architecture takes to the hot seat to discuss his studio and projects to date, followed by chats with renowned contemporary artist MASER, followed by a Q&A.

The final day of the festival welcomes many more special guests from food and design backgrounds: artist Kari Cahill will provide a demonstration of her artistic process; a panel discussion on “Interior design and finding new ways of diversifying” will be moderated by Kate O’Neill (The Visual Loop), Niamh Mc Cabe (Spacey Studios), Cathy Angelini (Flamingo Interior Design) and Lisa Marconi (Dust Design); photographer Brid O’Donovan is joined by William Murray (Currabinny Foods) to discuss “Food Style and the Creative Process Behind It”; Simon Roche (Bureau), printmaker and visual artist Shane O’ Driscoll, and Robin Foley (Hurrah Hurrah) host “Graphic Design, Print Art, and finding new ways of diversifying”; Architecture on the Edge presents Rural Architecture - a discussion moderated by Frank Monahan (Architecture on the Edge), Alan Macilwraith (JCA architects), and Rae Moore (Atelier Rae); Jane Maher of Tullamore Dew will also take to the stage - all happening at Thompson House, MacCurtain Street.

At the core of the festival, Design POP brings together top Irish design teams to create pop-up installation structures, which will go on display in various outdoor locations across Cork city. Each designer is paired with a Cork-based food or drink producer to create a bespoke space which the public are invited to explore and interact with.

The pairings for the 2020 edition are:

1)   Ciarán Meade and Mark Cronin from Bobo’s Cafe team up with computational designer Mark Horgan to create a pavilion at Elizabeth Fort.

2)   The Crawford Gallery Café joins forces with a collective of young Architects and Designers for a pavilion at Emmett place.

3)   Blackrock Castle and Observatory team up with Cork Architectural School for a pavilion at Blackrock Castle.

On Sunday night, a talk with all the designers and collaborators that created the pavilions for Design POP will close out the festival.

Thompson House will also be home to a pop-up Irish Design Shop for the duration of the festival, showcasing some of Ireland’s best handcrafted textiles, prints, artworks and much more. At the festival HQ, you’ll also find The Glucksman’s ‘New Light’ exhibition of 8 different poster-based artworks, and finally, The Milking Stool exhibition featuring 13 Irish furniture designers. These stunning furniture pieces will be sold off by silent auction during the festival.

All events are FREE with the exception of the Why Design panel discussion (€6) and the MASER event (€10). Tickets are available on designpop.ie or EventBrite and tickets include one complimentary drink.

Abiding by the current covid-19 regulations, each event will be 45 minutes long and restricted to a capacity of 50 in the venue at all times. This capacity number may change in line with the government guidelines and phases. After each 45-minute event, organisers have a team to clean and sanitize the seating and venue to have it ready for the next speaker or panel discussion. The seats will be set out in accordance with the social distancing guidelines. There will be a number of sanitizing stations throughout the venue and organisers strongly encourage everyone who enters the venue to wear a mask.

Full details on Design Pop, 28-30 August, can be found at designpop.ie 

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SAVE THE DATE: DESIGN POP RETURNS

press release

SAVE THE DATE: DESIGN POP

May 22-24, 2020

Various Locations, Cork City

6 designers X 6 food producers = 6 pop-up pavilions

PLUS exhibitions, talks, workshops and more

Watch highlights from the 2019 event:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3NhdIPHmRY

The Choice Machine (2019)

Following it’s hugely successful debut in Cork in Spring 2019, Design Pop, Cork’s new trendy design and food festival is gearing up to return from May 22nd - 24th, 2020.

Design Pop brings together six top Irish designers to create six pop-up installation structures which will go on display in various locations across the city over three days. Each designer is paired with a Cork-based food or drink producer to create a bespoke space which the public are invited to explore and interact with. The 2019 edition saw designers Shane O’Driscoll, Alan Macilwraith, Fíor studios, Meitheal Architects, Conor Merriman, and Alex Pentex team up with food specialists Banana Melon, Good Day Deli, All Full up, My Goodness, Soma and Applebee cakes. The new pairings for the 2020 festival will be revealed in the coming weeks.

As well as this exciting new design and food trail across the city, the festival also hosts a jam-packed programme of exhibitions, talks, and workshops, which will take place both within the designed structures and in more unusual spaces around Cork allowing artists, creatives, food stylists, producers, designers, and makers, to discuss and showcase their work processes. The weekend is truly a celebration of innovation, creativity and Cork. Save the date now: May 22-24, 2020.

Speaking about the 2020 edition, Festival Director Amy McKeogh, an architect with a masters degree from University College Cork, commented: “Design POP’s first year was a huge success and a wonderful experience for all involved. Design POP celebrated Cork, Design and Food in new and exciting ways. I am really looking forward to seeing how we build on the success of last year and to see what is created this year by all the talented collaborators.”

Our ambition is to make Design POP the number one cultural, creative and design-led event in Ireland and it seeks to establish Cork as the heart of it all.”

Stay tuned as the full line-up will be revealed in the coming weeks. Join the mailing list to be one of the first to hear about what the festival has in store! www.designpop.ie

If you would like to sponsor the festival, or volunteer throughout the weekend, contact the team at hello@designpop.ie

From a Wedding Dress to a Michelin Star. Miyazaki tells the tale at DesignPOP

From a Wedding Dress to a Michelin Star.

Miyazaki tells the tale at DesignPOP

In 2012, a bride to be and her sister visit Cork to shop for a wedding dress. Six years later, her now husband’s restaurant wins a Michelin star in the city.

When Stephanie arrived back in the midlands, she was enthusiastic as she told husband-to-be Takashi: “You have to move to Cork.” So he came down and tried the place for one night. He was converted. “Two weeks later, we moved,” he told the audience at the DesignPOP event in Thompson House in MacCurtain Street last Sunday afternoon. “I was so happy.”

Conversation Piece. One of the DesignPOP pavilions in the city

And it got better. But not straight away. Takashi Miyazaki was determined to open a Japanese restaurant to show Irish people what they were missing. But he couldn’t afford a premises until 2015 when he found a tiny place at the junction of Barrack Street and Evergreen Street. It was small, very small. But he thought: “Why not start small? Take the window of opportunity.” And so Miyazaki was born. 

He gave it everything. “I had so many different things to show and share. I got great support. Was so busy.” As the tiny takeaway - it has a handful of high stools - prospered, people asked: What next? Are you coming to Dublin? “No, Cork,” I answered.

Ichigo Ichie

But he was always dreaming about a high end restaurant. “I had the experience. I had the palate from my grandmother’s food.” And so he went on to learn more and more, to enhance and fine tune what he already had.

He has quite a lot going for him, not least the ability to turn dreams into reality. When he was 18 years old, and a master of Martial Arts,  he started cooking part-time in a local café, “toast, frozen stuff”. Then he did “easy stuff” for friends. They loved it and said “You great chef. Can you cook again?”

He knew he wasn’t a great chef but loved the cooking and wanted to be a chef. His parents were not at all keen on the idea. And they also stopped him following another possible career in the graphic arts. At university he continued to cook for those lucky friends and again he decided on a career as a chef. This time, he was a man and there was no stopping him.

Miyazaki at work

His first job was in a 5-star hotel but he was a slow learner and admitted it wasn’t until he was 32 years old that he felt he had mastered it. The “slow learner” travelled the many Japanese regions and learned lots of different dishes and styles.

Even learned lots of Irish dishes, including fish and chips! Yes, while working in an Irish pub in Hiroshima, a Galway chef showed him the Irish way, including one of the best fish batters ever. While in the pub, he met Stephanie and the road to Cork started. First they moved to Offaly. He missed his Japanese food. The local sushi wasn’t up to scratch and his desire to open a Japanese restaurant was born.

There was an early setback as the restaurant that gave him his first job (in 2008) closed after just four weeks. “I was so upset. I can’t go back to Japan. What can I do?” He had sampled some Irish Japanese restaurants “but that was not Japanese food”. “I have to do something. I was dreaming, dreaming, dreaming!”

Window at Emmet Place pavilion

And that dream came true in Ichigo Ichie last year. And it wasn’t just his cooking skills that were tested. He brought his artistic skills to bear too in the plating, on the printed menus and indeed on social media.

“I had no idea about Twitter and Instagram. But my wife and friends encouraged me. Instagram gave me the opportunity to show the colour of the food, the real green, the real red.” And so he started painting. And these are the little paintings that you’ll see on the menu cards, including the wine list.

“I am still doing the food I want to do. I keep sketching for my plate. Why not a painting of the dish, so I keep drawing? So happy now, I can design, paint, sketch and cook, all on a plate. It is very unique, all my experiences, my history, my childhood memories.” And his customers are so glad that he decided to share with us.

"Stained glass" lollipops, by Banana Melon, in DesignPOP pavilion, some for sale.

But what did that Michelin star mean? Someone asked. “It was amazing. My life has changed. Bookings were slow that particular month but once the star was announced we immediately booked out. Still I want to focus on what we do.” He admitted the star was a motivating factor but promised “I won’t change too much.”

But he will change for the seasons, though he has had trouble with the Irish seasons, especially the short summer. Will he go all vegetarian? “No. The menu is a story over 12 courses. I need fish, I need meat, to make the story.”

It is indeed quite a story and you can catch all 12 chapters in Ichigo Ichie. And if you want a short story, why not pay a visit to the original Miyazaki!