The Whiskey Experience in Killarney. Whiskey Galore. Food Too.

The Whiskey Experience in Killarney

Whiskey Galore. Food Too

Here, in a bright room in Killarney, you are surrounded by whiskey. Hundreds of bottles line the shelves. Maybe a 1,000 different types, from Ireland, Scotland, United States and the rest of the world. What do you want?  Aromatic? Complex? Fruity? You’ll surely find it here in the Irish Whiskey Experience in New Street.

But you might be better to visit the website first and go through the listings. You’ll find about 35 pages, 20 bottles per page, new ones, old ones, extremely expensive ones, and thankfully many less expensive ones. Make a short list before calling to Killarney!

Once a major player

And if you know nothing about whiskey, well they’ll teach you. Lots of masterclasses daily, for the expert, for the enthusiast, for the newbie! Oh, by the way, you’ll also be fed here in the Celtic Whiskey Bar and Larder  where they have quite a decent menu, from morning 'til night!

We booked ahead on the site and after a warm welcome were soon seated with the menus, both drink (some excellent craft beers, local gins, and wines also available) and food. After putting in the food order, I began to look at the spirits, the whiskey in particular.

I remember hearing down in the distillery in Midleton that one of the best, if underrated, whiskeys in their vast portfolio is the Jameson Crested and that, at €5.65, was my first choice. I really enjoyed that very pleasant soft whiskey, full bodied, packed with vibrant flavours and spice, a lovely balance of oak and wood, a long warm finish and a winner for me. This is a blend of course of pot still and grain whiskeys.

My next was also a blend. The Tullamore Dew 12 Year Old Special Reserve has been aged (for between 12 and 15 years) in both Bourbon and Oloroso (Sherry) barrels and cost €6.95 per glass (35.5ml). Again this was spicy and smooth and very enjoyable but I must say I preferred the Crested Ten. 

So It just goes to show that you should be guided by your own preferences, certainly not by price! And remember it is individual preferences that keep our local master distillers in form. If everyone went by price, it would soon put a stop to much of the enthusiasm and innovation among the individual distillers, the men and women who give us a wide and exciting range of choice.

Better tell you about the food offering. They start here in the morning with scones and blaas and so on. Then some nibbles, soda bread, various cheese offerings, and more. As the day goes on, small plates and plates come into their own.

Part of the bar

We enjoyed a couple of small plates. I choose the Quinlan’s Smoked Salmon salad with a buttermilk dressing (7.95). Kerry based Quinlan have a great reputation for their salmon and this was excellent. CL too had a lovely salad: St Tola’s Goat cheese with roasted beets, toasted almonds, chives (10.25).

St Tola

Then we moved on to the plates, a little bit more substantial, but I’m sure you can have two small plates if that’s what you want. Anyhow, her next salad wasn't as good, not dressed at all. That came with Wild Atlantic Fishcakes (12.50) and Irish Rapeseed mayonnaise.

I had better luck with a traditional dish that you rarely get out these days: Lamb Liver, with streaky bacon and slathered in a delicious onion gravy and served with sourdough toast (14.95). This was absolutely delicious. 

Delicious liver dish!

Desserts are available, mainly an excuse to try out various drinks with Kenmare ice-creams! And there’s Irish Coffee of course. Next time!

The Whiskey Experience has been open since March and is a great addition to the town. It is bright and comfortable, family friendly too I noted on the night, and the staff are helpful and friendly. A visit is recommended.

The Irish Whiskey Experience

Celtic Whiskey Killarney Bar & Larder

93 New Street

Killarney

Co. Kerry

(064) 663 5700

Facebook: @CelticWhiskeyBarLarder

Web: https://www.celticwhiskeybar.com

See also:
Climbing Torc Mountain
Valentia Sky Walk. Islands in the Sun
Crag Cave. Underground in Kerry

Le Rustique. Tralee’s French Corner on Prince’s Street

Le Rustique. Tralee’s French Corner on Prince’s Street

Monkfish

The names Guenter and Dagmar Schwark may not sound Gallic but Le Rustique, the restaurant that the couple run on Tralee’s Prince’s Street, is most definitely French. All the wines are French, some very good ones on the list, and most of the menu headlines for the various dishes are in French.

So you’ll be sipping your Burgundy Pinot Noir with Canard de confit, your Pouilly Fumé with Ange de Mer. You’ll also see some classic French dishes eg Camembert frit de Normandie and Soupe À L’Oignon. By the way, the couple are apparently from the French-German border.

And where does the rustic come in? Aside from some “false windows” complete with flower boxes on one wall, there are not that many signs. But there are some dishes that might fit the bill,  Foie D'Agneau " Le Rustique “ (Lambs Liver, to you and me) and perhaps the Paupiette de Poulet (chicken wrapped in air-dried ham) among them. 

Tarte d’Alsace

Oh yes, the chef makes the occasional appearance in the dining room wearing, not the formal whites, but a short-sleeved tee. That sets the tone, casual. Rustic if you like. Don't worry though, sit up and enjoy the food. The sauces are rich but the prices are not.

And the place is comfortable as we found when, after a warm welcome and our candle lit ("for ambience"), we sat back to study the menu. You’ll be glad to know that, aside from the dish headlines, all the details are in plain English. Helpfully too, they suggest wines for some of the main dishes and do watch out for their steak specials, all based on local Hereford beef.

Duck

I must admit though that my starter was no more than a bowl of local mussels, though it sounded rather grand when titled Moules Marinieres a LA Créme, the crustaeceans cooked in a white wine, garlic cream and leek jus, served in a mussel pot and french bread. They did taste well though!

CL had chosen the Tarte d’Alsace: oven baked, topped with sour cream, bacon lardons and red onions, an old traditional French dish with lots of butter and cream. Delicious too. She continued with the Canard a l’Orange, the Barbary duck breast fillet on orange sauce, rich and gorgeous and served with Ratatouille and Gratin.

My pick was the Ange de Mer. The Monkfish filet came on a white wine Tarragon sabayon,

glazed asparagus, wild rice and garnish side. A lovely mix of textures and flavours. Another pretty rich dish!

And they would get richer - we knew as we had a look at the short dessert menu! I felt my French waitress would never speak to me again if I didn't take her tip and try the home-made dark mousse au chocolate on vanilla flan. I did, she was happy and so was I. 

I also got a few spoonfuls of CL’s Crème Brûlée, described as “old traditional French dessert, vanilla cream, topped with a crispy sugar crust and caramel, served with Vanilla ice cream”. It was all that, rich and sweet and delicious.

Chocolat!

The whiskey drinker will find enough to amuse him or her here but the craft beer drinker is out of luck. A terrific wine list, all French as mentioned earlier. If going for a white, my tip would be the superb Bestheim Pinot Blanc, available by the glass. On the red side, there’s the Denuziere Hermitage and a couple of lovely Pinot Noirs, either the Domaine Muret or Picard Bourgogne will pair well with your rustic duck!

Le Rustique

14 Prince’s Street, Tralee, Co. Kerry

066 718 0832 or 085 87 23326

email: g.schwark@lerustique-tralee.com

Web: http://www.lerustique-tralee.com

Hours: Tue-Sat: 12:00PM - 2:30PM, 5:00PM - 10:00PM, closed Sun & Mon

Amuse Bouche

I drained the glass in thirty seconds. White wine. What is the point of it? I picked up the bottle and studied the label. Apparently the vines are grown in soil treated in harmony with the lunar cycle, using manure buried in a cow’s horn and flower heads of yarrow fermented in a stag’s bladder….

“You like it?” asked Ruth.

“Subtle and fruity,” I said, “with a hint of bladder.”

from The Ghost by Robert Harris (2007). Highly Recommended

Rhone Week Dinner at Greene’s. Wine, Dine, Talk

Rhone Week Dinner at Greene’s

Wine, Dine, Talk

Superb wine

The Rhone came to the Lee last Wednesday night, its two ambassadors, Bruno Boisson of Domaine Boisson and Simon Tyrrell of Les Deux Cols, introduced to the diners at Greene’s by none other than the Menu himself Joe McNamee. Top chef Bryan McCarthy ensured the food matched the excellent wines for the Rhone Wine Week Dinner.

Under gentle prodding from Joe, Bruno told us he is the owner of Domaine Boisson and that it has been in his family for 150 years. The little village of Cairanne is near better known villages such as Gigondas. He produces about 90,000 bottles a year, fifty per cent of which is sold in France. The Irish market is important to him. “It takes a lot, thanks to Tindal’s and their loyalty.”

Bruno, Joe, Simon

At 18 years of age, Bruno started Oenology school and later travelled to the Barossa in Australia. “It is important to see things “more global”, not just in a “tight” local view. While the family had been growing grapes for generations, it was only in the late 80s that Bruno’s father started bottling his own wines.

Cairanne “is becoming cru now. We are very proud of that and we remember the efforts of past generations”.

Simon’s trajectory was quite different to Bruno’s, his immersion in the wine business  happening “by chance”. In 1989 he was working in Willie’s Wine Bar in Paris, a bar that specialised in Rhone wines. The interest grew and grew. By 2009, he had a small negociant business but decided to go further. Back to college then in the UK and, after getting much advice, he began to buy grapes and, by 2012 was making his own wine. And, just now, he has bought his first vineyard, near St Nazaire.

Pork Belly

Simon explained that in the Northern Rhone, there is just one variety and that is Syrah. In the South, there is “more blending, less new wood.” “The wines are more generous, higher abv but they are balanced. There is something about Grenache based wines, lovely warm mouthfeel.” He reckons that they are very popular in Ireland because of our climate and gastronomy. “They have a roundness and warmth and nothing goes better with lamb.”

And what are the prospects for the current vintage? It has been getting a very good press, not just in France but in many neighbouring countries. Bruno revealed that friends of his are saying that the 2016 Chateauneuf du Pape will be “the best since the legendary 1990…. time will tell.” Both agreed that 2015 was a good year and Simon reckons that 2016 has even “more finesse, more acidity”  and “will be better than 2015!”

Venison

Not all good news though. Later, after dessert, Simon told us that the well-known Muscat De Beaumes De Venise was struggling with much unsold as demand is shrinking for sweet wines generally. The producers are switching to making dry wines but then find that people are confused, thinking that because it is Beaumes that it must be sweet! A rock and a hard place!

Oaky, let’s start at the beginning of the evening and a lovely welcoming cocktail: Kalak Vodka Martini, rocks, twist. Kalak is an Irish made premium vodka, one worth looking out for!

Dessert

Our first starter was Goatsbridge Trout and crab, cucumber, seaweed, squid ink, nasturtium, radish and this was accompanied by Vin de France ‘Les Terrasses’ 2015 by Chateau Pesquie, an organic blend of Viognier (70%), Roussane and Clairette. The 70% is significant as it is higher than the AOC rules allow and so the wine can only be sold as Vin de France. Demoted it may be but it’s a good one. 

Next up was the Pork belly, Black pudding, apple, celeriac, and cider and the wine here was Simon’s Cotes du Rhone ‘Cuvée D’Alize’ 2015 by Les Deux Cols. “My staple wine”,  he said, “named after a local wind and a blend of Grenache 60%, Syrah 30 and Cinsault (“the Pinot Noir of the South”). No oak here, just stainless steel. His idea was to make “a moreish wine”. Reckon he pulled it off!

Endangered?

After a refreshing Espuma, we were onto Wild Irish venison, artichoke, potato, onion, elderberry and Domaine Boisson’s Cairanne 2014. “It is important to understand the real place of wine is on the table with food,” said Bruno. “This was a little late but it has higher acidity so good for food. I don't want to get too technical, not too much cerebral. Just enjoy it.” We certainly did.

And Bruno had quite a family story for his next wine, the Massif D’Uchaux ‘Clos de la Brussiere’ 2011 from a disused vineyard that his grandfather bought in the local Cafe du Commerce (where you could buy virtually anything in the good old days). There was much rock picking to be done before the ground was cleared. “He picked rocks. We pick grapes.” The grapes are Grenache (60%) and Mourvedre (40). A gorgeous serious wine with bright fruit and spicy notes and quite a perfect match for Mike Thompson’s Young Buck cheese.

In the Southern Rhone

We finished with Chocolate Pecan Cremaux Tart, preserved cherry and pistachio and the Muscat Beaumes de Venise 2014 by Chateau Pesquie, a very good example, sweet yes but with the acidity retained.

Simon summed it all up: “A very diverse valley with a very diverse range of wines.” And he made a plea to please drink the odd glass of Beaumes de Venise at the end of your meals!

Harvest in Cairanne

Superb Reds. Both French.

Sainte Croix Le Fournas, Corbieres (AC) 2013, 13.5%, Mary Pawle Wines

This purple beauty is a blend of organic fruit: Carignan 50%, Grenache 21%, Syrah 19%, and Mourvèdre 10%, grown near the ruins of a 19th century lime furnace in the Garrigue scrub. Wild yeast and minimal pumping (to keep the fruit quality as intact as possible) are used. Ageing is 100% sur lies in tank for 18 months.

Aromas are of rich red and darker fruits. Superb delicious fruit flavours (including cassis and plum) and impressive concentration on the palate, a fresh acidity, soft tannins and some spice all contribute and what follows is an equally impressive finish. Very Highly Recommended and a wine to try again in a few years time.

They suggest pairing it with the cuisine of the Mediterranean region using tomato-based sauces, olives or wild herbs such as thyme or rosemary. The concentration of fruit and acidity balances rich sauces and particularly ‘red’ poultry/game such as pigeon, duck or guinea fowl.

Jean-Paul Brun Terres Dorées Côte de Brouilly (AOC) 2014, 12.5%, €21.85 Wines Direct

From the vineyards of the Golden Stones, a village in Beaujolais north of Lyon, comes this wonderful and gorgeous wine. The Côte de Brouilly is one of the ten crus of Beaujolais and, yes, Brun’s Gamay grows on the granite that the grape thrives on. Jean-Paul is in the minority of French winemakers that use natural yeasts.

Colour is an attractive light red with a bunch of red and black berries in the aromas. The palate too is ripe, with a brisk and balancing acidity, lovely and soft and elegant to the end. Wonderful and refined and light on its feet, this cru is Very Highly Recommended.

I’ve been lucky this year to have had enjoyed some lovely Beaujolais and this is another one. I have a small assortment of Riedel glasses but enjoy this and similar wines from the much less expensive Lumen Arc globes that I won in a raffle in L’Atitude 51.

Taste of the Week. Torc's Raspberry & Vanilla Sour

Taste of the Week

Torc Brewing Raspberry & Vanilla Sour, 4%, Bradley’s of North Main Street exclusive.

What is a sour beer? Don’t want to overcomplicate this and put you off. Think of a very dry cider or that gripping Basque wine Txakoli and you won't be a million miles away. Just be aware that in sours, as in ales and lagers, you’ll have quite a range. So you’ll have to try for yourself and this is a good one to start with.

I couldn't find an entry for sour in Slainte (The complete guide to Irish craft beer and cider).Perhaps they weren't any Irish sours when the book was published two years ago. Now there are quite a few. Yellow Belly and Eight Degrees had examples at the recent beer fest in the Cork City Hall. Perhaps the most high profile recent example for me was the Rodenbach at the Franciscan Well October Beer fest. By the way, people looking for cider at the festival, were offered this and there was a great reaction to it.

And this limited edition Torc is the newest Irish on the sour scene. While waiting for the revised edition of Slainte, I checked Wikipedia. Sour beer, they say, is beer which has an intentionally acidic, tart, or sour taste. The most common styles are Belgian lambics, gueuze and Flanders Red Ale, gose too.

This sour, by Killarney based Torc, is a collaboration with Bradley’s and is brewed with fresh raspberries and vanilla pods. The fruit, of course, is there to give a balance plus flavour.

The beer is tart, no doubt, yet not that mouth-puckering tart. It is refreshingly fruity, yet not overly so. I must admit I was well into the conversation with this well balanced cloudy beer before coming round to the idea that we could be friends! Well worth a try for yourself.

TablePath. Way to Go

TablePath. Way to Go

It is six o’clock and Chez Paddy is unexpectedly busy. A group of students have just walked in. There is no one to answer the phone which is ringing off the wall. The guy at the other end of the line loses patience and looks up Seanie’s Place instead. He notices Seanie’s are on TablePath. A few clicks and he has booked a table for four (flagging one coeliac among the quartet) for the following evening with instant confirmation.

Haven't heard of TablePath  before? It’s quite possible you have already used it. Greene's Restaurant, Richy’s in Clonakilty, South County Bar, Brick Oven in Bantry, the Thomond Bar and the Cliff House in Ardmore are amongst current users.

I hadn't heard about it either until Andrew Monaghan, TablePath Sales Manager (and a friend of mine from my soccer days), gave me a demo and told me all about it. “It helps restaurants manage many aspects of their business including online reservations, marketing, electronic vouchers and website. It's a fully integrated solution and its huge time saving benefits are being seen by every restaurant / bar / hotel using the software.”

If you are a restaurant customer, it is ideal. Even if the time you want is fully booked, you can add yourself to a waiting list. No need either to miss out on any special events, promotions or discounts; just add yourself to the restaurant mailing list, delivered via TablePath of course. Contact Andrew at 086-6079650 or andrew@tablepath.com

There are probably three main headings under which the restaurant (hotel or bar or deli) benefits.

Manage the queue quietly online

Help Manage Your Time: Many tasks are automated to help free up your time. These include reservation management, automated promotions and many more. By the way, if someone calls in off the street to book a table that evening, a staff member can use his or her own traceable code to add the booking to TablePath. And the software can even help with table layout.

Get To Know Your Customers: Gain insight into your customers and provide an ever more personalised experience for each customer.

Effectively Promote Your Restaurant: TablePath provides tools to promote your restaurant to your previous customers, social media fans and on your website within minutes. So, if you have a new menu, it is easy to let them all know.

Other features include: Responsive website, Promotions, Analytics, Recurring Promotions, Pages that work on any device, E-Commerce, Menu Manager and Reviews. Sounds a lot, yet this Cloud Based solution (locally developed, by the way) is simple to use for both restaurant and customer. Check it out at www.tablepath.com

TablePath

NSC Campus

Mahon, Cork

Website: www.tablepath.com

Email: info@tablepath.com

Tel: 021-2061870

Franciscan Well 16th Annual October Beer Festival. Some of the very best!

Franciscan Well October Beer Festival 

Some of the very best!

Is was all that jazz and all that beer too in Cork last weekend. My first outing of the weekend was to the Franciscan Well on North Mall where they had installed a great line-up of top class world beers, quite a few of them “rated amongst the top beers in the world”.

But where to start at this 16th annual October Beer Festival? Hard decision to make when you see some twenty or more taps in front of you. And that was just outside. Many more inside, including their own excellent beers. And they also introduced their own Craftail Bar. This is upstairs and is called the Stave and Chime and the cocktails are based mainly on Jameson whiskey and Franciscan beers.

But back to the outdoor heated beer tent where a decision had been made for our opening duo: Moinette Bio and Nicotto. The Nicotto (6%) is a Japanese style beer made by the Barcelona Beer Company, made with Sorachi (a hop of Japanese origin) and also includes green tea, jasmine and tangerine peel. A really superb beer, clean and fresh.

The Moinette Bio (7.5%) is, as you’ve probably guessed, an organic beer, really well balanced between mellowness, fruitiness and bitterness. This well struck combination is a real thirst quencher, more mellow than the Nicotto, another clean beer that finishes with a hint of clove.

Two good ones to start and the next pair, Rodenbach Caractere Rouge and Biere de Miel, continued the very high standard. The Rodenbach (7%) was possibly the stand out beer. It is billed as a red/brown sour and it is sour but also packs amazing fruitiness. The beer is macerated with fresh cherries, raspberries ad cranberries and, after that, is matured in oak barrels. Rodenbach have had a great deal of practice as the brewery was established in 1836.

The Biere de Miel (8%) is a honey saison. Don't let the honey put you iff. You’ll catch a pleasant whiff of it in the aromas and a delicate presence on the palate but this is a well balanced refreshing dry beer, again some clove on the finish. All good so far!

There were beers there from the UK, Germany, Spain (our 1st one), and the US, but we were mainly on the Belgians and that was the case with the next two. One was the St Bernardus ABT 12 and the other the Houblon Chouffe.

The Barnardus (10%) is a quadrupel, full of complex flavours, great fruit and with a superb finish. It is regarded as one of the best beers in the world and would put many a wine to shame. In this context, quadrupel means it is stronger than a tripel which is stronger than a duppel!

As it happens our Houblon (9%) is a tripel IPA and another very good one. I must say, the beer descriptions on the Franciscan Well leaflet were pretty much spot-on and I agreed one hundred per cent with their take on this well balanced tripel: big malty body, distinct dryness, and expressive estery fruitiness.

And to finish? I had been thinking about two from the dark side until tempted by a cocktail from upstairs: the well named O’Sullivan’s Sour. O’Sullivan was the chieftain that gave the land to the Franciscan monks back in the day and, of course, the Chieftain Pale Ale is in the lovely mix. It is made with Beefeater London Dry Gin, St Germain elderflower liqueur, freshly squeezed pink grapefruit juice, grenadine syrup, and topped off with the IPA. Colourful and delightful, a lovely end to a very interesting and rewarding session indeed.

Amuse Bouche (for the Bank Holiday)

From my very early touring days I remembered the best fish and chip shops are to be found in the North. Delicious fresh cod and chips all smothered with lashings of salt and vinegar, and let’s not forget the mushy peas. Food that comes with its own specific gravity, that stings the  lips and lies heavy in the stomach afterwards; wash it all down with cheap red lemonade or a warm can of Irn Bru and have a jolly good afternoon snooze.

from Memories, dreams & reflections by Marianne Faithfull (2007)

Amuse Bouche

A few years later, still attracted by the economic opportunities of pig flesh, he decided to buy a pile of pigs’ heads, advertising them outside his pub in Fethard. But they did not sell and the heads started to rot on the premises. Eventually, after several complaints… the rueful Bailey contaminated another stream when he threw the hundred or so heads over a bridge in the dead of night. During the summer of 1957, Bailey acted as guide to Ted Nealon, then a young reporter covering the boycott for The Irish Press.

from The Fethard-on-Sea Boycott by Tim Fanning (2010). Very Highly Recommended.

Greene’s Lunch. Three Great Courses. Two Tell-tale Candles!

Greene’s Lunch.

Three Great Courses. Two Tell-tale Candles!

Looking for a lunch that will please both the stomach and the wallet? Stop under the waterfall and call to Greene’s in McCurtain Street. 

That’s what I did last Sunday for a birthday treat. Well, it had been arranged well in advance as we had quite a group, mainly family. 

The amazing set lunch menu comes in at €21.50 for two courses, €24.50 for three. And you are guaranteed a terrific meal, cooked and served up by top chef Bryan McCarthy and his colleagues in the kitchen and front of house. I know quite a few guests from last Sunday will be going back again.

There was a little cake at the end for yours truly but I can't guarantee you’ll get one of those!

I was in a fishy mood on Sunday so my starter was the Goatsbridge Trout and Crab, with cucumber, seaweed, squid ink, nasturtium and radish. The Curtins raise delicious trout on their long established Kilkenny farm and in Greene's kitchen the fish was in good hands and they produced a dish to delight. Other choices included Goat’s Cheese, Pork Belly, and the Chef’s Soup with seasonal Garnish.

Trout

Bryan’s trademark Braised Feather Blade Beef, enhanced with Mushroom, Carrot purée, black cabbage, pickled wild garlic stems, was a popular choice as was the Free Range English Market Chicken. 

I continued with the fish theme, and enjoyed every tasty bit of the Hake Fillet with sea vegetables, seaweed, smoked sausage and dashi cream. Also on the mains menu and enjoyed by a few at my table was the Ballyhoura Mushroom Risotto with Coolea cheese, potato crisp, pepper dulse and kale.

Hake. Note the crispy skin!

Time then for the dessert, and another great choice. I didn't get to sample the Chocolate Pecan Cremeux Tart nor the Red Wine Organic Poached Pear. But I did steal a bit of CL’s lovely Rose Cottage Fruit Farm Blueberry Tart. Meanwhile, my own Woodruff Set Cream Pudding, with elderberry and pistachio, was sliding down smoothly.

Lots of chat then as the relaxing afternoon came to an end. But soon I was called back to my place as that cake, complete with candles, a modest two (but they added up correctly!), appeared. Just about managed to blow them out.

Woodruff Set Cream Pudding

Greene’s Restaurant 

48 MacCurtain Street, Cork, Ireland

 021 455 2279

 Open Sunday to Wednesday, 12:15-14:15 & 17:30-21:00

 & Thursday to Saturday, 12:15-14:15 & 17:30-21:30

Out of Africa. A Pair of Impressive Reds

Out of Africa. A Pair of Impressive Reds

Percheron Shiraz Mourvèdre, Western Cape (South Africa) 2014, 14.5%, €11.95 Le Caveau

The Percheron horse owes his place on the label to the fact that these draft horses (now a rare breed), once worked the land here; the ancient vines, another national treasure, survive also. 

This medium red comes with dark fruit aromas, some savoury notes too. It is warm and rich, spice, vanilla notes too, savoury elements also, tannins more or less fine, and a long and warm finish. Well balanced, well made, great value and Highly Recommended.

The producers recommend matching it with smoked meat, red meat and cheeses. I found it superb with the Macroom Buffalo burgers from Eoin O’Mahony in the English Market, Cork.

Chateau Ksara Reserve du Couvent, Bekaa Valley (Lebanon) 2013, 13.5%, €19.75 Karwig Wines

A dark ruby red is the colour here; it is a little lighter at the rim. There are intense aromas. Delicious fruit too on the complex palate, a drift of pepper also, and fine tannins. Superb balance of fruit and wood and those dark fruits stay with you through the persistent finish. Very Highly Recommended.

Though the old cellars, situated underground in the limestone bedrock, most probably date from Roman times, the winery was founded by the Jesuits in 1857. Must have been some nuns there too - there usually were - as couvent is French for convent. The estate is no longer in Jesuit hands but the French influence is strong. Next parish by the way is unhappy Syria. Amazingly, Ksara produces some 3 million bottles per annum.

It is a blend, 40% Syrah, 30% Cabernet Franc and 30% Cabernet Sauvignon. Red meat and small game are the suggested matches for this delicious and complex wine.