Last Friday night saw the much anticipated visit of Samuel Guibert of Mas de Daumas Gassac to Ballymaloe’s magnificent Grainstore, for an evening of talk, tales and tasting as we sampled across the Gassac range with around 90 enthusiastic guests.

Samuel told the story of how, in the space of just ten years, Mas de Daumas Gassac redefined the limits of a region becoming the iconic estate of the Languedoc, with critics around the world proclaiming their Grand Cru wines on a par with the best of Bordeaux, Burgundy and the Rhône. 30 years on, with Samuel taking over the reigns of master vigneron, Daumas Gassac retain the rare status of ‘cult wines’.

After an aperitif on arrival of the Daumas Gassac Rosé Frizzant, we sat down to the whites, tasting the Moulin de Gassac Faune 2010, the Reserve de Gassac Blanc 2009 and the Mas de Daumas Gassac Blanc 2009. For the reds, the Moulin de Gassac Albaran 2009 and the Pont de Gassac Rouge 2010 were followed by a three-tier vertical of the Mas de Daumas Gassac Rouge, tasting through the 2009, 2007 and 2004 vintages of this great wine.

The Grainstore at Ballymaloe – in preparation

Two Samuels: Samuel Guibert assists Ballymaloe Sommelier Samuel Chantoiseau preparing the wines

Careful now: Ballymaloe Sommelier Samuel Chantoiseau carefully decants the Mas de Daumas Gassac

Samuel Guibert and Gary Gubbins of Red Nose Wines looking pensive ahead of kick-off

Head Sommelier Colm McCan discusses how the All Blacks’ pass-and-move game could upset France’s Rugby World Cup Final plans the following Sunday.

The stage is set: Curious Mike and Samuel discuss posture. Or something.

Samuel Guibert presents.

Gary Gubbins of Red Nose Wine looks on as Samuel shows the next generation of Daumas Gassac master vigneron on the big screen.

Mike and Samuel (looking remarkably fresh the morning after!) in Curious Wines.

Sincerest thanks to Samuel Guibert of Mas de Daumas Gassac for taking time immediately after harvest to visit Cork and Ballymaloe; to the Allen family, in particular Darina and Rachel for their assistance in the pre-tasting photo shoots, and Hazel and Mrs Myrtle Allen for their hospitality on the night, both in the Grainstore and afterwards in Ballymaloe House; to Gary Gubbins of Red Nose Wine for co-hosting the event; and to Ballymaloe Sommeliers Samuel Chantoiseau and Colm McCan for their expert hosting and consummate professionalism on the night, and in particular to Colm for his ceaseless energy, creativity and contagious enthusiasm in planning and hosting another great wine event at Ballymaloe. We are truly indebted to you all.

And, finally, a huge thank you to everyone who came out on the night to enjoy Samuel and the wines of Mas de Daumas Gassac. We are most of all indebted to you.

Next Friday week, 21st October, will mark the first official collaboration between Curious Wines and Red Nose Wine as we bring an iconic French winery to an Irish institution.

Next week we will welcome Samuel Guibert to Cork to showcase the wonderful wines of Mas de Daumas Gassac. Yesterday, we were welcomed by Darina and Rachel Allen to Ballymaloe, where the event will be held in the wonderful new Grainstore.

Joining us were Sommeliers Colm McCan and Samuel Chantoiseau of Ballymaloe House as we toasted an unmissable event for wine enthusiasts.

Left to right: Colm McCan, Ballymaloe House; Gary Gubbins, Red Nose Wine; Rachel Allen; Michael Kane, Curious Wines; Samuel Chantoiseau, Ballymaloe House.

Left to right: Colm McCan, Ballymaloe House; Michael Kane, Curious Wines; Darina Allen, Ballymaloe.

Left to right: Gary Gubbins, Red Nose Wine; Rachel Allen; Michael Kane, Curious Wines.

Mas de Daumas Gassac, Legend of the Languedoc will be held at the Grainstore, Ballymaloe, on Friday 21st October at 7.00pm. Tickets for the seated tasting are €15 and are available online here or by calling us on 021 432 0233.

Tickets for the separate wine dinner at 9.00pm, where 4 courses will be served with a selection of the Daumas Gassac wines, are available only from Ballymaloe House and are priced at €85, all inclusive of 4 courses, tea/coffee and wine.

Sincerest thanks to Darina and Rachel Allen for their valued support and time from their busy schedules, and to Colm McCan for his expert organising. Pictures courtesy and copyright of Ger McCarthy.

In conjunction with Red Nose Wine, we’re delighted to announce our second top tier tasting of the autumn season and our first to be hosted at the magnificent new Grainstore at Ballymaloe, on Friday 21st October at 7.00pm.

Described by Gault & Millau as “a Lafite in the Languedoc”, “the only Grand Cru of the Midi” by Hugh Johnson and “Exceptional” by Robert Parker, Mas de Daumas Gassac have been the benchmark for Languedoc wines for over 30 years.

We are truly honoured to welcome Samuel Guibert, son of the legendary Aimé Guibert and master vigneron at Daumas Gassac, as he presents the story of this great Estate and a selection of their wonderful wines. As a finale, the informal tasting will include a vertical tasting of the Grand Cru Mas de Daumas Gassac red, a unique opportunity to taste multiple vintages of this iconic wine.

The seated tasting will be followed by a separate wine dinner in Ballymaloe House, at 9.00pm, where 4 courses will be served with a selection of the Daumas Gassac wines including the Mas de Daumas Gassac red.

Tickets for the seated tasting at the Grainstore are available online here, from our own shop in Cork or from Red Nose Wine in Clonmel, or at Ballymaloe. Tickets are €15 and will be sold on a first come, first served basis.

Tickets for the wine dinner are available only from Ballymaloe House and are priced at €85, including 4 courses, tea/coffee and wine.

Samuel Guibert of Mas de Daumas Gassac and Michael Kane of Curious Wines at the Daumas Gassas estate, May 2011.

Thursday evening saw the return of Curious Wines to the Cork wine tasting scene. In possibly our most exclusive (and expensive!) line-up to date, Emma Shaw of Langmeil (pictured below at home with her beloved black lab) hosted “Langmeil Barossa and the oldest shiraz vines in the world”, during which a very fortunate audience tasted nine premium wines, including an Australian icon, The Freedom Shiraz.

The line-up

Live Wire Riesling 2010 & Eden Valley Chardonnay 2010: Emma decided, being quite a sweet wine, that the Live Wire Riesling would be a good starter to whet the appetite. With many a little unsure of a wine labelled “medium sweet Riesling” (cue nightmares of Blue Nun), there were surprised heads all round. Despite being medium on the palate, it finishes on the drier side thanks to its vibrant, crisp acidity. As for the Chardonnay, I was delighted to note that we converted quite a few members of the ABC club (anything but Chardonnay).

Three Gardens SMG 2009 & Fifth Wave Grenache 2008: The SMG is our best-selling wine in the Langmeil range. Easy drinking and accessible, it’s got its foot back off the pedal just a little, and was adorned by those who like some restraint. The Fifth Wave was out first wine into ‘old vine’ territory. Opulent, rounded and incredibly smooth and juicy, it is produced from 55 year old vines. Terrific bang for your buck.

Blacksmith Cabernet Sauvignon 2007 & Jackaman’s Cabernet Sauvignon 2008: The Blacksmith was the oldest wine of the tasting, although it’s still youthful. I found it to be a great varietal example, herbaceous and cigar-box/tobacco like – arguably more of a food wine than the Jackaman’s. This, again, is where the old vine wines really stood out for their velvety concentration. Many picked this as their favourite wine of the night. More refined than the Blacksmith, although in fairness you would expect it be at double the price.

Valley Floor Shiraz 2008, Orphan Bank Shiraz 2008 & The Freedom Shiraz 2008: The final showdown was all about Shiraz. I think it would be fair to say the Valley Floor got a little lost against these two, not only because of the notch upwards in quality, but because it was nearing the end of the tasting and there was such anticipation for The Freedom. I have a glass of it here from a bottle that was left over last night and I can tell you it is absolutely singing! Check out this video on the ’07 from Tom Cannavan.

I was lucky enough to take home a quarter of a bottle of the Orphan Bank afterwards with half a packet of bread sticks. And, okay, I admit, it was even better than CHOCOLATE*! (*I am the chocolate monster). The bread sticks weren’t bad either.

And as for The Freedom, well, I was still tasting it half an hour after the tasting such was the length and depth in flavour. Certainly not a wine for the faint hearted, but again, the concentration really set it apart, and what I really loved was the balance of oak which brought a heavenly savoury edge. Some thought it needed another few years, I wouldn’t argue with that, but it still showed just why it’s become one of Australia’s icons.

Many thanks to Emma Shaw, and all our guinea pigs on the night, your support and enthusiasm was so much appreciated!

Here’s a more tempting angle on back to school.

We thought you might be interested to know that Jack Barrett of Woodstock to Rootstock will be beginning the eleventh year of his informative and engagingly friendly wine courses this autumn.

The first session of the six-week course takes place at 7.30pm on Monday 3rd October at the Rochestown Park Hotel in Cork.

The course fee of €195 includes tasting glasses and comprehensive notes in addition to the numerous and varied samples Jack provides as illustration of each week’s topic.

Places are allocated by the tried and trusted system of first come, first served – so let Jack know straight away by e-mail if you’re interested.  Details here.

We’re delighted to announce our first tastings of the autumn season and give you the opportunity to taste an Australian icon.

It’s our great pleasure to welcome Emma Shaw of Australia’s Langmeil Barossa Winery to host two portfolio tastings, in Cork and Dublin, on the 15th and 16th of September.

The informally tutored tastings will tell the stories and history of the Barossa, including Langmeil’s own dedication to the heritage of this great wine region. There will be a tasting across the full range from Langmeil, including the 2008 ‘Freedom 1843′ Shiraz, from what are believed to be the oldest shiraz vines in the world and recently given one of the highest ever scores awarded by the world authority on Australian wine, James Halliday.

The tastings will be held on Thursday 15th and Friday 16th September:

Thursday 15th September 2011, 7.30pm-9.30pm: Rochestown Park Hotel, Douglas, Cork.
Tickets available from Curious Wines on 021 432 0233, or you can purchase online here.

Friday 16th September 2011, 7.30pm-9.30pm: Donnybrook Fair, Donnybrook, Dublin 4.
Tickets available from Curious Wines on 021 432 0233, and Simply Wines on 01 295 9730, or you can purchase online from Curious Wines here.

Tickets to each event are €15 per person and are available on a first come, first served basis.

Wine presentation and tasting with Anne-Claude Leflaive at The Grain Store, Ballymaloe, 3.30pm, Saturday 11th June 2011. €35 per person for afternoon tasting only (tasting dinner and accommodation also available).

The latest in the occasional series of wine events at The Grain Store is the visit of Anne-Claude Leflaive from the renowned Burgundy estate of that name.  The Irish distributor of this first class portfolio of white wines, and the man to thank for this rare opportunity, is Paddy Moore of Moore’s Wines in Dublin.  The Leflaives are coming up for three hundred years in Puligny, with family involvement in wine throughout, and since 1997 the estate has been run according to biodynamic principles.

Decanter Wine Magazine, in their Top 10 White Winemakers of the World, rated Anne-Claude Leflaive, Domaine Leflaive as the Number 1.

Ms Leflaive has not visited Ireland for eight years, so if you’d like the chance to sample some very great white wines indeed:

Domaine Leflaive Bourgogne blanc 2008
Domaine Leflaive Puligny-Montrachet 2008
Domaine Leflaive Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Le Clavoillon 2008
Domaine Leflaive Puligny-Montrachet 1er Cru Les Pucelles 2008
Domaine Leflaive Bienvenues-Bâtard-Montrachet Grand Cru 2008,

book your place now, as advance booking is strongly recommended.  If you’d like to try them in the context of some fine food – which is where they belong, no? – there’s a tasting dinner in the evening, and the option to stay the night too.  You could even make a week of it and stay on for gourmet music from Dennis Cahill and Martin Hayes (again with a dinner option) on the following Thursday…

For reservations, or any further information, call the friendly folk at Ballymaloe House on 021 465 2531 – or write to res@ballymaloe.ie.

Thankfully President Obama decided not to visit Croke Park on Monday, the venue for the annual A+ Australian Wine tasting. Had the American president wanted to poop the party, there would have been a lot of unhappy wine people ushered out the back door.

The crowd was made up of importers, retailers, restaurateurs, wine writers, and that band that groups pretty much all of us, ‘wine enthusiasts’. All were there to see the quality on show from the land down under, and as well as this we got a feel for the diversity, colour and character of the Australian wine community.

If you can imagine a large room with 29 or 30 tables (perhaps 6-10 wines per table) each showing a range of wines from different wineries and importers. The day began with the ‘silent zone’. The winemakers and importers had to leave the room and give the tasters some peace to work away themselves. It was also nice because it wasn’t too busy at that stage.

Stand no. 25 was a focused table, ‘The Pinot Pulpit’. Fifteen Pinot Noir’s from across Australia, all to be tasted blind as the bottles, and thus the labels, were concealed. There was a tasting route called ‘The Riesling Trail’, taking the taster through 17 different Rieslings. I thought the highlight was the tutored tasting. There were in fact three tutored tastings which took place in a separate room during the afternoon.

I went to the Chardonnay tutored tasting presented by Bernard Hickin, Chief Winemaker at Jacob’s Creek. ‘The Changing Face of Australian Chardonnay’ was the headline title for the session. A class of around 30 enthusiasts tasted nine Chardonnay’s over the space of 45 minutes, with Bernard discussing each one and tying it in with the above title. Aussie Chardonnay is moving away from super-rich, opulent, textured styles and is now offering more restraint and layered complexity using a more delicate balance of older oak.

I was gutted to miss the last tutored tasting – ‘Barossa Through the Ages’, which included a 1980 Eden Valley Cabernet Shiraz, a 2004 Semillon, and two we’re very familiar with here, Glaetzer’s 2005 Amon-Ra and Langmeil’s 2004 Freedom Shiraz. I had to catch a plane and was worried “the beast” might have been holding up traffic. In actual fact it got stuck here for most of the afternoon, so I was fine for time. You can check out Dermot Nolan’s Barossa beauties post on that one. *Damn*

And I must say, going back to Semillon, one of the highlights of the tasting for me was Peter Lehmann’s 2001 Semillon. Seriously, I mean seriously, brilliant.

Our latest trip to Spain only enhanced our love for Sherry, so it is good to see Ballymaloe House is hosting a Sherry tasting next week. If you’re not too far away, it will be well worth making the trip. It is not too often you’ll have the opportunity to taste so many different styles in one evening.

Sherry Talk & Tasting, Wednesday 25th May, 7pm, €10

Taking place at The Grain Store, Ballymaloe. César Saldaña is a passionate and expert speaker on Sherry – its wines, food, culture and history. He is the Director of Sherry – the Consejo Regulador, and is one of the worlds best speakers on Sherry – a world renowned Sherry ‘Ambassador’, on what is becoming a very fashionable drink once again. A great opportunity to learn more about the unique special wine that is Sherry, and taste its many different styles, including Manzanilla, Fino, Amontillado, Oloroso, Pedro Ximenez.

The Grain Store at Ballymaloe,
Ballymaloe House, Shanagarry, Co. Cork,
Mob: 083 3631468. Tel: 021 4652531
e-mail: thegrainstore [@] ballymaloe.ie

Sherry Dinner, Thursday 26th May, 8pm

Sherry Dinner with César Saldaña in association with The Irish Times Readers Evening, and John Wilson, wine writer, The Irish Times, and also in association with Wines of Spain. A specially selected menu will be matched to specially selected Sherry at each course. Please note that booking for this Sherry Dinner, on Thursday 26th May, at Ballymaloe House, will have to be made directly through The Irish Times Readers Evening office.

This week is your last chance to commit to Jack Barrett’s six week wine course commencing the 1st of March at the Curious Wines shop in Cork City. There are a few seats spare for anyone interested.

After receiving demand for an intermediate course, Jack will now be incorporating intermediate students into this beginner’s course, so it’s ideal whether you are at beginner or intermediate level (or if you’re stuck in between the two and can’t make up your mind). Jack is not attached to any importer or retail outlet, so these courses are not a marketing or sales exercise. A critical view of each wine will be made and discussed.

It’s a great opportunity to take up a new hobby, learn more about this vast and fabulous topic, meet new people and make new friends, which you undoubtedly will. You will learn how to critique wine, how to detect spoiled bottles and how to make better buying decisions in shops and restaurants. As well as this, you’ll gain a wealth of (further) knowledge on regions, grape varieties and the wine making process.

Reservations by telephone only on 021 432 0233.
Tuesday 01/03/2011 for six weeks, costs €195.