Vinos Tito Tasting

Vinos Tito are a Spainish wine company run by Raffa Salazar and Antonio Lorente. Two Spanish men who fell in love with two Irish women and never left Ireland!  Their sole ambition now is to source some of the more diverse styles of  Spanish wines  to bring  into Ireland. I was at their portfolio tasting recently and here are  some of their wines that really shined for me..

Valdesil. Vilamartin De Valdeorras
Montenova 2010
Made from the Godello grape in the Galicia region this wine is a great alternative to a Albarino .The unique climate and diverse range of soils in Valdeorras show in the style of  their wines giving them a lovely mineral quality.Nice body and lingering finish.Try in with shell fish or tapas. Worth seeking out at 14.99
                              

Vina Cubillo Crianza
Rioja 2005
This Rioja house was founded in 1877 and is one of the oldest in Haro. The wine spends 36 months in oak barrels before it has bottle ageing. It is one of the most traditional Rioja I have ever tried as you can almost smell the cellar from the wine. It is dry with a touch of spice and needs red meat to be appreciated. They have changed very little  in how it is made over the last 137 years many conditions are fulfilled for their wine to retain the quality which makes them live on in the memory of those who have tasted them in the past
Worth seeking out at 18.99

Bodega Jimenez Landi
Mentrida
Sotorronderos 2009
Mentrida is a short distance southeast of Madrid where they have started producing some wonderful Garnacha based wines. Jose and Daniel Jimenez Landi are two very talented wine makers who took over this property in 2004. They farm biodynamic and  Sotorronderos is a great example of what this area is all about. The wine shows wonderful dark fruits and elegant tannins with a lingering finish
Works great with any lamb dish.
Worth seeking out at 21.99

Enjoy,
Julie
JUS DE VINE, PORTMARNOCK

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1996 Chateau Gruaud Larose

Although I am in the wine business it is not that often that I get to try older vintages of top class Bordeaux wines. However it was my birthday last week and I chose 1996 Chateau Gruaud Larose to celebrate.This wine does not necessarily  need to be decanted, just opened for 20 minutes beforehand. It has lovely aromas of cedar and roasted herb intermixed with incense like smells.On the palate it is medium bodied with lovely blackcurrant and meaty flavours. This wine is drinking now and complimented my fillet steak perfectly.
We have this wine at €79.00 in Jus De Vine .

Seek it Out

Julie

JUS DE VINE, PORTMARNOCK

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Deveney's of Dundrum Lughnasa Beer Festival

Promises to be a great evening tomorrow Friday 19th August 5.30 till 10.30. Any Beer fans out there it is a must do with over 300 beers from around the world on tasting  and over 1,500 people gathered together to  join in on one of the best Festivals of the Summer.

Good Luck Ruth..

What/Why 

300 Bottled beers from around the World, Music by ''Prison Love'' and Suzanne Purcell.

Artisan Food vendors on site to enhance the authentic beer festival atmosphere. 1 x ''Beer Punt'' = 1 x 140ml serve of beer of choice. All beers available at same fixed price point. Additional ''Beer Punts'' available to purchase through the ''Beer Bank'' at €1.50 each. Tickets available to purchase through: Deveney's of Dundrum or via PayPal on the Deveney's Blog http://deveneysbeer.bl... or through selected specialist retailers - Redmond's of Ranelagh - Jus de Vin, Portmarnock - The Vintry, Rathgar - Deveney's of Rathmines - Sweeney's of Phibsboro Tickets also available through http://EventElephant.com See us on Facebook and follow on Twitter@ Ruth Deveney

Masi Tupungato Pinot Grigio-Torrontes equals "Argentinian soul, Venetian style"

I had this Pinot Grigio-Torrontes blend last night and very tasty it was too.I have had this wine a couple of times before and I seem to choose it when I am looking for something with good definition of  fruit and a full- bodied yet steely backbone.It reminds me of a fat Riesling with an intense lime backbone.Torrentes generally vinifies into a wine with a distinctively perfumed bouquet but this is not the case with this particular wine.Yes it has concentration, but it is not the intensely floral style that one expects, so the Pinot Grigio obviously tames it .On reflection this wine  could be described as a Pinot Gris in the Alsace style as opposed to a Pinot Grigio in the Italian style.
It is a memorable wine for the money@ €12

Evelyn
The Vintry

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Peter Lehmann, Mudflat Shiraz 2005

PL’s well lived in countenance

Mudflat is a nickname given to Peter Lehmann by his great friend the late Len Evans, in reference to PL’s well lived in countenance!, and this 87% Shiraz and 13% Muscadelle  is a wine quite unique to the Lehmann portfolio.Peter was one of the first to blend these 2 grape varieties together with the white grape adding elegance and floral aromas to the Barossa Shiraz
Deep purple in colour, the nose appealing of raspberry and plum, richly flavoured but with a soft ,intriguingly spicy lift and smooth finish.
Jus De Vine  have this wine on special down from €16.99 to €10.99.

Seek it out while stocks last.

Julie
JUS DE VINE, PORTMARNOCK

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Bastille day Petanque Tournament for Charity hosted by Barton and Guestier

This year the Bastille day Petanque tournament was hosted by Barton and Guestier in association with Gleesons incorporating Gilbeys and was managed by Jean and Sally Anne so as you can imagine it was very well run.The venue ,as usual was the lovely garden of the Raddisson St. Helen's and despite the weather(very overcast) you couldn't help but enjoy yourself  This year we were missing Stephen and that was a big worry as he is our chief strategist. However we battled on irregardless with myself, Peter and Gerry coming up against, amongst others, the Hollands of Bray gang and the Residence boys.

Peter(iphone) Fitzpatrick,Evelyn and this years hero Gerry.

We had a rough start losing our first game 5- nil  but as it is first to 7 overall we managed somehow to claw our way back, when I got Peter to put away his  iphone thereby stopping the incessant checking of golf scores."Darren! Darren who...we have a boules tournament to win." Anyway after several top notch games we managed to win the final by one point  which  we were pleased with as we were 4- nil down at one stage.

In the interests of research I had a "little" taster of all the wines.
The B&G Rose sparkler is a lovely off dry style which was particularly  enjoyed by my 19 year old goddaughter who has only being drinking for a year now.The white sparkler is drier and has more weight but they both had excellent persistence.The Thomas Barton white Grave had nice weight and just the right amount of Semillon in the blend to give it complexity and as for the the Thomas Barton Bordeaux red all i can say is that several in our group commented on how nice it was and I agree.For those of you that have not tried this range in a while I suggest that you do .

Thanks to all involved.

Evelyn

Bardolino, a perfect summer wine...

Just a small selection of those available in the town itself.

Bardolino is a beautiful little town on the shores of Lake Garda that produces wonderful light summer wines. On a recent visit there I took upon myself the tough job of trying a variety of local producers! After extensive research I decided that Zenato Bardolino was one of my personal favourites.
Bardolino is one of the few styles of red wines that is best served lightly chilled,in particular while drinking it  in the sun overlooking the lake, in good company. Light poppy red in the glass, showing pure cherry fruits and at 12% alcohol just the perfect match for an alfresco lunch of salad, fish and pasta.
Zenato Bardolino is available at Jus De Vine at 10.99 Seek it out while the sun is shining!




Enjoy,
Julie
JUS DE VINE, PORTMARNOCK

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