Coronavirus update: business (nearly) as usual
So we remain OPEN under the government's new restrictions announced yesterday, deemed "essential retail" as a specialist beverage wholesale and retail business.
Curious Wine Blog
Finding the Grail: the vineyards of Nardò and the divine wines of Schola Sarmenti
I've mentioned before my stock reply to the oft-asked question I get in the shop, "what's your favourite wine out of all of them?". It's like asking me which of my kids is my favourite — it depends on the day. Schola Sarmenti is unapologetically my favourite child right now.
Parental Advisory: Sam Brannigan & Nelson’s Kahurangi Estate
About a million years ago, when my now early teens were in nappies and we were just getting Curious Wines off the ground, I met Sam Brannigan at a wine tasting in Enniskillen.
On the detective trail to Bergerac
So I have to confess, up until very recently whenever someone mentioned "Bergerac" my immediate thoughts would go to John Nettles driving around Jersey in a Triumph roadster*.
See red and chill out this summer
We are unabashed Rosé fans when the daylight begins to linger a bit longer and you can actually SIT OUTSIDE FOR DINNER.
Elysian Springs: Wine and Local Produce, a Culinary Kinship
Premium Adelaide estate Elysian Springs began as part of a grant of farmland given to pioneer Robert Marley for the production of grain, sheep and cattle.
Tom Puyaubert’s Wine Horizons
From the Latin exopto, are, avi, atum. To desire eagerly, or long for.
The Greatest Show Wine
Here at Curious Wines, we are consistently drawn to interesting, small labels and producers, family 'legacy' wineries and the stories that are organically weaved around and through them, lending them cultural and historical credence. Sometimes, the wine itself is only half the story.
Keep Calm and Carignan
The Languedoc has undergone huge changes over the last ten years carrying the mantle of France’s most ‘new world’ wine region.
Taste the Gravels: the new world classics of Hawke’s Bay
The last of the new finds for this year, from one of the world's furthest wine outposts (well from Cork anyway) and New Zealand's oldest winegrowing region, Hawke's Bay.
‘A Leviathan bottle to end all comparisons’: the 99 point Moorooroo Shiraz
Amidst the Schild family estate in Australia's Barossa Valley lie four rows of gnarled, ancient Shiraz vines, planted in 1847 by Johan and William Jacob (of the famed creek), just eleven years after the foundation of South Australia.
You’ll Never Walk Alone — Claymore Wines Part II
A couple of weeks ago we introduced the eye-catching (and utterly gorgeous) Claymore Wines, a new range of music-inspired labels from Australia's Clare Valley including the Joshua Tree Riesling, Bittersweet Symphony Cabernet and Dark Side of the Moon Shiraz.
You had me at “chocolate”… Introducing Zonte’s Footstep
Chocolate Factory | Shiraz | McLaren Vale from Zonte's Footstep on Vimeo. Many of you will be familiar with our stand-out wine of last year, newcomer Elysian Springs' Spring Lamb Syrah, from Australia's Adelaide Hills.
Kangaroo Where? Introducing The Islander Estate Vineyards
Six months previously we'd never even heard of Kangaroo Island but in planning our trip to Australia I went straight to looking for wineries on the hunch that just off the south Australian mainland someone would have planted vines there.
Rocking Clare Valley: Claymore Wines Part I
Claymore Wines founder and owner, Anura Nitchingham, has three great loves in his life – wine, music and football – and he celebrates all of them through the winery he began in the 1990s, having arrived there with his family after a successful medical career in the UK.
Australia’s Winemaker of the Year 2018: Paul Hotker, Bleasdale
The first bottles of Bleasdale Wines in Ireland landed into our small (and constantly freezing cold!) warehouse in Bandon in late 2009. We were just over a year old and planning our first direct shipments from Australia the following Spring.
Douro’s Quinta do Judeu: The Wise and Ancient Valley
Douro’s Quinta do Judeu: The Wise and Ancient ValleyThere is a story which has weaved its way, like old gnarled vine itself, into the history of the Alves de Carvalho family’s spectacular Douro valley winery, Quinta Do Judeu.
In search of the Mad Hairy Fella
Taming the wild beast: In search of the gorú in his Jumilla spiritual homeLAST WEEK during a trip to Cartagena I decided to make, along with my small daughters Este (3) and Tilly (1), the 150km pilgrimage across Murcia to the wine region of Jumilla, to visit one of our most popular suppliers Ego Bodegas.
Curious Wines hitting West Cork for Flavour.ie Pop-Up!
Flavour. ie Pop Up Featuring THE SHARP KNIFE and CURIOUS WINES. Saturday 22nd October 2016, 7.
Finding the Holy Grail
WE OFTEN TALK IN CURIOUS about finding the grail in wine terms - those wines that look great, massively over-deliver for their price point, and give us something resembling a religious experience on drinking. We didn't actually expect one of them to feature the grail on the label but here you go.
Love you loads
We heard it through the grapevine. .
Thank you and farewell, Aimé Guibert
WE WERE DEEPLY SADDENED to hear of the passing of a true legend of the wine world at the weekend when the founder of Mas de Daumas Gassac, Aimé Guibert, died at home in Aniane at the age of 91.
Stop press: Sunday Business Post endorses Curious Wines’ fine wine selection
We are honoured to have been finalists in these awards. Thanks to the SPB.
Irish Times piece: Growing wine specialist looks forward to vintage years
Inside Track Q&A: Mike Kane, co-owner of Curious Wines interviewed in the Irish Times. What is your business worth and would you sell it? The business is priceless to me. I was a very miserable but successful blue-chip executive and have never looked back since I started up the business.