Blarney Castle Gardens mid-February 2021
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| Daffodils forever |
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| Bring the wellies |
Sunday, February 28, 2021
Saturday, February 27, 2021
MARKET LANE SERVES UP A CULINARY TREAT TO CELEBRATE MOTHER’S DAY & ST PATRICK’S DAY
MARKET LANE SERVES UP A CULINARY TREAT
TO CELEBRATE MOTHER’S DAY & ST PATRICK’S DAY
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| Bacon & Cabbage |
There has never been a more important time to celebrate our loved ones and to say thanks for being there. With this in mind, and two very important dates coming up in March, Cork’s beloved Market Lane Restaurant on Oliver Plunket Street has created a very affordable and simple to use ‘heat at home’ food box menu for Mother’s Day on the 14th March and St Patrick’s Day on the 17th. So, while you may not be able to go out for dinner, you can still treat loved-ones to a culinary feast at home without having to break the bank.
Choose from ‘Ballinwillin Venison Pie with Wisdom Ale’, ‘Slow cooked Rosscarbery Bacon and Mustard Glaze’ (picture attached) or Spiced Veggie Moussaka with Toonsbridge Feta. Puddings include an Orange and Vanilla Bread & Butter Pudding with Custard and Chocolate Cheesecake with Hazelnut Praline’. A 2-course meal, including a range of sides, is €25 per person and there is a children’s menu for €9.50. Elbow Lane beers, signature cocktails and wine can be added to the order and diners will also get a gift of a trendy ‘Always Cork’ tote designed by the restaurant group. Orders can be placed via marketlane.ie for collection at the restaurant.
The Market Lane group of restaurants includes ORSO, Elbow Lane Smokehouse & Brewery, Castle Restaurant Blackrock, Goldie and Market Lane.
press release
Friday, February 26, 2021
Cheers on beer, whiskey and wine. With O'Briens Wine, Franciscan Well, Waterford Distillery, Wines of the World, JJ Corry, Blackwater.
Cheers on beer, whiskey and wine. #212702.
With O'Briens Wine, Hopfully, Treaty City, Franciscan Well, Waterford Distillery, Wines of the World, JJ Corry, Blackwater Distillery.
NEW CRAFT BEER RELEASES At O'BRIENS WINES
This week Paul Barry takes a look at some new craft beer additions to our fridges in O'Briens. We have some great new beers to liven up dreary February with two Irish breweries joining our range this month. Each bringing a line-up of great core range beers, not just great beers for February but all year round!
Hopfully Brewing
Hopfully are a Dublin based gypsy brewer, meaning they contract brew in other breweries, that was set up in 2017. All their craft beer cans feature artwork from up-and-coming artists. Their mission as they see it is to “create a series of craft beers that introduce distinctive flavours and give emerging artists a platform to showcase their work.”
Treaty City began in the spare room of a two-bedroom apartment in Vancouver, Canada. Here, husband and wife team Stephen and Treasa perfected some of their recipes on a home brewing kit before deciding to make the move back home and set up a full-scale brewery in Limerick city. This month Treaty City launched a new craft beer can range.
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Online Event
Apr 2 at 3 PM UTC+01 – Apr 3 at 9 PM UTC+01
Price: Free · Duration: 1 day
PublicAnyone on or off Facebook
"We couldn’t not run our Easter Beer Fest two years in a row....so we've moved it online....all information to be announced soon! #WatchThisSpace"
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Wines Of The World Exquitite Mixed Cases
Are you more of a white wine lover or red wine lover?
Did you know we have mixed cases of our top selling white and red grape varieties?
Checkout out below our top 3 whites - Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Grigio and Chardonnay and the top 3 reds Merlot, Malbec and Cabernet Sauvignon.
Each case an exquisite mix from Around the World!
Check Them Out Here
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Behind The Gates: J.J. Corry St. Patricks Day Live Virtual Tour 🍀
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************ Blackwater Distillery are proud to support the Virgin Media Dublin International Film Festival for the third year in a row and are very excited at this year's line up of films. To celebrate we have a fantastic prize to giveaway which includes an online festival pass to over 60 films and a Blackwater goodie bag which includes a bottle of our Blackwater No.5 and Wexford Strawberry Gin along with 2 highball glasses. Details on their Facebook page here  |
Thursday, February 25, 2021
A Virtual Tour and Taste of Maremma and Montepulciano with Antinori
A Taste of Maremma and Montepulciano
with Antinori
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| Le Mortelle |
We had the best of guides as we visited part of the amazing Antinori wine establishment last Wednesday, all online of course. Tindal’s Harriet Tindal MW introduced us to three “guides” in Italy: Filippo Pulisci of Antinori itself, Riccardo Checchi of La Braccesca vineyard and Georgia Dimitriou of their Le Mortelle estate.
Harriet, our expert moderator, asked Filippo to tell us a bit about the firm. “I’m the old guy in the room”, he started. But nowhere near as old as Antinori’s association with wine which goes back to 1385. Indeed, they were in business for a hundred years before that as silk merchants.
“But it is only in the last sixty years, even the last thirty, that Antinori accelerated to a full cycle producer - you must grow your own grapes and do the whole thing from start to finish. We are also a custodian of tradition but always innovative.”
And Filippo cited their famous Tignanello wine as an example. A very good example indeed as it was Tignanello that helped catapult the wines of Tuscany onto the world stage in the 1970s. The explosion in popularity of Italian restaurants in the USA, and elsewhere, also helped.
Tignanello was the first Sangiovese to be aged in barriques, the first contemporary red wine blended with untraditional varieties (specifically Cabernet) and one of the first red wines in the Chianti Classico region that didn’t use white grapes.
So Tignanello, which saw Piero Antinori lead the way, was a breakaway from the hidebound traditions (some of you may remember Chianti in its straw flask) and the rules of the appellation. He broke those rules in two ways, at least, by using international grapes and also the barriques.
And so one of the first of what became known as Super Tuscans was born and went on to thrive. Piero is generally regarded as one of the heroes of Italian wine in the last century breaking away from a system geared more towards quantity than quality. Again, some of you will remember the EU “inspired” wine lakes and, closer to home, butter mountains.
Filippo continued: “Many followed us to Super Tuscans. We are an old family but also modern, never compromise on quality. We are also democratic producers in that we produce everyday wines to high-end expensive ones. We are always advancing, never resting on our laurels.”
We would soon see an example as Georgia began to talk about Le Mortelle, the estate she manages in the heart of Maremma Tuscany, in an area well known for the production of top quality wines. The winery appears on top of a hillside overlooking the surrounding countryside while the cellars lie underground in perfect harmony with the environment.
“It’s a mix of elegance and wilderness,”she said, where they grow quite a few of those international varieties, mainly the Cabernets and Carménère. “It is an ideal place with a warm Mediterranean climate, ideal for these varieties that require a longer ripening time."
Riccardo’s winery, La Braccesca (bought in 1990), has two different but adjoining terroirs between the hills of Montepulciano and Cortona and here two very different personalities live side by side in complete harmony: the traditional Sangiovese for Nobile di Montepulciano and the international Syrah in Cortona, an emerging wine producing area with great potential. The La Braccesca winemakers take advantage of the terroirs, the clay near Montepulciano and the sand on the other side.
Soon he was showing us the first of the day's wines to be tasted, the Vino Nobile de Montepulciano. “The arm on the label represents the noble tradition. And when some see Nobile on the label, they think of a heavy wine.. no longer the case…now it’s all about acidity and fruitiness with softer tannins (than Sangiovese from different areas). You can drink it with everything.”
Georgia, originally from Greece and, like Riccardo, well travelled and well educated in wine, started with Vivia, “a sunny wine, recently bottled, no oak”.
Her second Botrosecco, also from Le Mortelle, is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon (60%) and Cabernet Franc. “I call it simple, simple but good, with soft tannins..easy to enjoy young… a very good expression and great value for money.”
Riccardo’s second offering was Achelo. A Syrah, “a famous grape of Cortona, a recent appellation, founded only in 2000. Some time back, a few growers, including us, saw similarities between here and the Rhone: climate, soil, acidity”.
They investigated, did their research and now produce top quality Syrah. By the way Achelo is the name of a local god of abundance. The Syrah is versatile: “Use it an aperitif. And dinner too. The more you keep it open, the more it expresses itself.”
He also showed two older Syrahs, the Bramasole from 2013 and 2016. “The plot is very well exposed, lots of sun, sandy solid. There’a an impression of sweetness, not sugar, just from the ripe fruits.. it reflects what the soil produces.. it is a powerful wine and needs 15 to 18 months in barrels plus two years in bottle.”
Then he “hopped” back to the Montepulciano side for the Santa Pia 2015, a Riserva. “Fresh, with a little bit of age flavour.” How long will it last? For decades was the answer, twenty or thirty years from the very best vintages. Maybe not as long from the other vintages.
Georgia then showed the Poggio alle Nane (Hill of the Wild Duck), La Mortelle’s “flagship wine”. The blend of Cabernet Franc 80%, Cabernet Sauvignon 10 and Carmènére 10 was finalised in 2015. It is the only Carmènére vineyard in the area and the grape is suited by the hilly grounds. “It is demanding in terms of ripening but we have the right conditions in Maremma.”
And they work on guarding those conditions. “Our focus is to minimise our impact so we use a lot of stainable techniques: monitoring insects, encouraging predators, and more. The more we work in harmony with nature, the better the results in our wine.”
The cellar in Maremma
International Women’s Day with Whiplash Beer
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| Whiplash Beer Brewer Lynsey Campbell |
International Women’s Day with Whiplash Beer
Taking place on Sunday March 7th at 3pm, lead cellar brewer at Whiplash Beer Lynsey Campbell will host a virtual tasting session of Whiplash beers and a tour of the brewery. Commissioned in late 2019, the brewery in Dublin is completely custom built and on the cutting-edge of microbrewery innovation.
Lynsey joined the Whiplash team in March 2020 as lead cellar brewer, coming from a career in the UK which spanned both brewing and drinks industry sales. The global theme of IWD 2021 is Choose to Challenge and the event will touch on this as Lynsey charts her path to becoming a professional brewer. The tour will be co-hosted by Leah Kilcullen, marketing manager at Whiplash Beer.
On March 8th, International Women’s Day itself, Lynsey will provide a behind the scenes look at what a typical day looks like in a busy brewery and how the team works together to get from milling malt all the way to getting fresh cans of Whiplash Beer ready for shipping. This will be hosted on the brewery’s Instagram page, @whiplashbeer.
Speaking about the events, Lynsey (above) commented:
“It was important for me to mark the day at the brewery, not because we think anyone deserves credit for having female brewers but to instead use it as an opportunity to encourage other women to look at brewing or the drinks industry in general as a viable, fulfilling and inclusive career.”
All relevant links and information are available on the Whiplash blog https://www.whiplashbeer.com/blog/2021/2/18/whiplash-x-international-womens-day
For further information, images or interview opportunities please contact Leah Kilcullen, Leah@whiplashbeer.com, 0858549411.
www.whiplashbeer.com ¦ @whiplashbeer
Whiplash Beer was founded in 2016 by Alex Lawes and Alan Wolfe and is based in Ballyfermot, Dublin. The brewery produces three core beers, Body Riddle Pale Ale, Rollover Session IPA and Northern Lights Micro IPA, along with an ever-changing and exciting roster of special editions and collaborations. It is currently ranked as the #1 microbrewery in Ireland.
Whiplash Beer employs 9 people and exports internationally to countries such as the UK, Italy, Spain, Denmark, Finland, China & Japan, and is also the founder of the Fidelity Beer Festival.
press release
Wednesday, February 24, 2021
Two highly recommended wines to savour. A Hawkes Bay Chardonnay and a Touriga Nacional from the Dão
Two highly recommended wines to savour.
A Hawkes Bay Chardonnay and a Touriga Nacional from the Dão
Trinity Hill “Gimblett Gravels” Chardonnay Hawkes Bay 2017, 13%,
RRP € 34.99 Baggot Street Wines; Blackrock Cellar; C Morton & Sons; The Corkscrew; wineonline.ie; World Wide Wines
Colour of this New Zealand Chardonnay is a bright mid-gold. Aromas are fruity, grapefruit and lemon and no shortage of floral notes. Quite stunning on the palate where, along with the minerality, you again meet the citrus accompanied by a lively natural acidity. Fermentation with indigenous yeasts in 500 litre oak puncheons followed by a further four months in tank on lees has enhanced the experience, including the texture.
Delicate, rich and elegant this beauty finishes long. It is a very distinctive, harmonious Chardonnay, is closer to cool Burgundy rather than the rest of the (warmer) New World, and is Very Highly Recommended. Try with Pork (including belly), rich fish (salmon, trout, tuna), and poultry.
The year 2017 was a very good one in the Hawkes Bay area, a moderate spring with low frost risk and generally good flowering led to an extremely dry and warm summer, recording above average temperatures in January and February before rainy weather came in late February followed by humid conditions with heavy rainfall from March to May.
Importers Liberty: Winemaker Warren Gibson has been with Trinity Hill since 1997. He is also in charge of the 80 hectares of vineyard owned by Trinity Hill and knows Hawkes Bay and the Gimblett Gravels exceptionally well. The wines reflect this. Warren and his team make wines that show the best of what Hawkes Bay and the Gimblett Gravels can produce. The wines have an elegance, balance, drinkability and precision of flavour that makes them a joy to drink.
The gravelly soils resulted from a flood in 1876 when the Ngaruroro River changed its course and a vista of gravel was left behind. Probably best known for red wines. But Chardonnay grown here has distinctive floral notes and pronounced minerality on the palate.
The Gravels have been described as “the most famous single vineyard in New Zealand”. And from these gravels come surprising wines. It is now a highly sought-after sub-region renowned for the quality and Trinity Hill was one of the first to plant grapes on the Gimblett Gravels in Hawkes Bay in 1993. And soon after Warren Gibson arrived.
Quinta Dos Carvalhais Touriga Nacional DAO (DOC) 2017, 13.5%
RRP € 31.99 Baggott Street Wines, Lucey’s - The Good Food Shop, Wineonline.ie
Info on the label is brief and to the point
Complexity 4/5; Tannins 3/5; Body: 4/5; Fruity: 4/5; Oak: 4/5.
Pair with: Seafood, fish, chicken.
12 m in oak.
Serve at 16-18 degrees.
This intense, complex and elegant Touriga Nacional from the heart of the Dão has a dark ruby colour, slighter lighter at the rim. Aromas hint of its black fruit and the well-integrated spice from its 12 months residence in oak. Vibrant dark fruit and spice again on the palate and more besides. Great depth, acidity too and smooth, harmonious all through to the persistent finish.
The Touriga Nacional is a much loved indigenous variety but you rarely see it, in these parts, on a solo run. Quinta dos Carvalhais are credited with spearheading the quality renaissance of wines from the Dão in the early ‘90s. And it is located in the heart of the Dão. The 105-hectare estate, with 50 hectares under vine, was purchased by the Guedes family in 1988. They invested a huge amount into improvements in both the vineyards and the winery.
And part of that improvement is a series of single varietals from indigenous grapes. Along with the Touriga Nacional, look out for Encruzado and Alfrocheiro. While our bottle is single varietal, some three different batches of Touriga Nacional grapes were used in this Highly Recommended wine, each of which was harvested separately.
This wine is aged for 12 months in used and new 225-litre French oak barrels. The final blend was made to fully express the high quality of the Touriga Nacional, as well as the distinctive character of the Dão region. Serve at a temperature between 16ºC-18ºC. Pairings advised for this “Very gastronomic and perfect for meal-times” wine are “with dishes such as octopus à lagareiro, oven-roasted pork and mushroom risotto”.
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