On Monday, we’re showing off our Australian wines, using our new dispenser, at the Wine Australia annual fair in Croke Park.

On Tuesday, winemaker Glenn Goodall of Xanadu Estate in Margaret River will join us in Cork to host a tasting dinner at the Blackrock Castle Trattoria.

We may feel the need to take things a little easy on Wednesday.

It’s not in my power to invite you to either of the Dublin events, but you would be very welcome to join us for the dinner in Blackrock Castle. Roll up, roll up, and book a place here.

Agro de Bazán, Contrapunto Albariño 2008, Rías Baixas, €16

Eugène Meyer, Pinot Blanc 2007, Alsace, €16

Eugène Meyer, Muscat 2008, Alsace, €18

Eugène Meyer, Pinot Gris 2004, Alsace, €19.50

Eugène Meyer, Gewurztraminer 2007, Alsace, €20.50

MYSTERY BOTTLE (Blue Nun, €9.99)

Eugène Meyer, Riesling 2008, Alsace, €17.50

Brightwater,  Riesling 2004, Nelson NZ, €17.50

Mount Langi Ghiran,  Riesling 2006, Victoria AUS, €18.50

This was a thoroughly enjoyable night once again, with some full and frank exchanges of opinion on the tables.  Congratulations to the winner of the mystery bottle competition, who went away with some very good Prosecco and a jar of our hibiscus flowers in syrup.

Next month, on Thursday 29th April, we’ll be tasting and discussing some wines made from the Malbec grape.  It’s likely to be a sell-out again, so book early if you’re interested: either buy your ticket online or give us a ring to reserve a place with a credit card.

While you can’t please all the people all the time, we do hope to get fairly close – given the nature of a wine tasting, it shouldn’t be too difficult to provide a friendly evening. But we are still settling in to a new routine and there are possible improvements we just hadn’t thought of, which a few tasters, when pressed, didn’t mind sharing with me. I’ll do my best to remember all I can.

SCHISM
One of the more radical suggestions was that club meetings be held on two nights in the month so as to (i) make room for everyone, (ii) facilitate crowd and noise control by dividing the membership into two groups, and (iii) give interested parties who can’t attend on Thursdays a look in.

EARS
The Castle Bar & Trattoria is not ideal for addressing a group. The ac-ou-stics are all wrong, and I’m not convinced that amplification is the answer, since there’s nothing to be done about the shape and construction of the room. Common sense may prove a more reliable means of getting the message across. I roared and bellowed my way through the Languedoc with as much vocal energy as I could manage (rumour has it one or two people mistook the sound for a crashing boar), but it wasn’t always easy to make myself heard even so. I don’t for a minute think reverential silence would do much to improve the atmosphere of the meetings, and I’m past taking offence at not being listened to, but it was suggested that we should, as a group, and with future guest speakers in mind, strike a more useful balance between speaking and listening.

The way forward is probably more about rhythm than volume. If we establish a ‘listen now’ and a ‘talk amongst yourselves’ phase in the introduction of each wine, we’re not cramping the social side, and everyone who wants to hear what’s being said – we do try to pass on useful bits and pieces, after all – can do so.

BRAIN
It’s great to be involved in such a popular, sociable gathering. Some people would like more wine education, some less. There are very focused and correspondingly costly courses available elsewhere that offer a comprehensive over-view of wine in the world – our wine club is not meant to be as formal as that, and many members seem relieved not to find themselves in a study environment. We hope to maintain an equilibrium agreeable to everyone. If you feel the balance is not quite right, tell us. We’ll keep tweaking as we go.

EYES
It’s hard enough to remember and distinguish wines you’ve only encountered once, even when wine is your job – so in future we’ll try to show clearly the bottles and their labels as we discuss each wine. It mightn’t be beyond us to think about adding thumbnail pictures to the tasting sheets we give out.

MOUTH
Full marks to the Castle Bar & Trattoria for offering an early meal for club members. By all accounts this was great eating, good value and very convenient for those rushing from work. Once again there’ll be something delicious and a glass of wine for €20 just before the March tasting (from 6.15 – 7pm). Book your table now – mention that you’re a wine club member, naturally - on 021 435 7911.

Some people felt that there should be more food on the tables to accompany the wines. The Languedoc reds we were sampling in February were mostly food wines, but we’re hoping to evaluate the wines on their own merits each month, in the way we do professionally: the inside approach is perhaps one of the benefits of a club run by wine merchants. And, of course, more food equals more expense. We’ll bear it in mind.

We feel we’re supplying a generous tasting portion of each wine: certainly more than enough for bare analysis.  Opinions to the contrary were, nonetheless, tactfully voiced.  I repeat, keep talking to us and to other members.  We’ll try to meet reasonable demands, in a loosely democratic way.

We’ll suggest food matches as we go along, without making too much of a fetish of it. By all means shout out if you’d like more emphasis on that side of things.

There was a shortage of water jugs – or insufficient refilling of the ones that there were.  That’s something we’ll put right next time, and keep an eye on.

POINTS MEAN PRIZES
You’d like some sort of competition or draw each month. That’s a good idea. Noted.

THURSDAY
We look forward to seeing you on Thursday 25th to try out some white wines in tall bottles from a few different places.  There are a few seats left, but given past form, if you’d like to join us you should buy your ticket now.

In the absence of reports from those (unable to attend this time) who kindly usually review our meetings online in the blink of an eye after the portcullis at Blackrock has slammed shut, I’m posting a summary of Thursday’s meeting of the Blackrock Castle Wine Club, the second of the year and of the club, which looked at and tasted some wines from the world’s largest wine-producing region, the Languedoc-Roussillon in the south of France.

Generalizations really don’t mean much at all when discussing such a huge and diverse vineyard, but I did my best to supply enough fragments of information for those present to piece together their own interpretation of the night’s theme.

We talked (I shouted) about
history: Greeks, Romans, Vandals, Huns, Visigoths, Saracens, Normans, Cathars &c.
grapes: Aramon, Alicante Bouschet, Grenache, Syrah, Carignan, Mourvèdre (whoops forgot Cinsault); Grenache blanc and Grenache gris, Roussanne, Marsanne &c.
rules and regulations: AOC Languedoc, Vin de Pays d’Oc, Vin de Table, defrauding the Americans (the Red Bicyclette Pinot Noir episode), defrauding the Chinese (400,000 bottles of counterfeit Mont Tauch Fitou), sequestration of the Costières de Nîmes AOC into the Rhône Valley catchment, &c.
food: The magnificently just-right early menu offered by our hosts at the Castle Trattoria;  and all the furred, feathered and even bristly things you should kill and eat with these wines,

and in between times there was practical investigation and debate of the following wines from our list:

I forgot to ask for a show of hands about who liked what most, least, and so on. If you were present on the night and disappointed that I denied you the chance to articulate your views, please follow the links through to each wine you felt strongly about and have your say in the LouderVoice review box you’ll find there. Stars out of five and a comment would be lovely.

Mas des Bressades Cuvée Tradition Blanc 2008 €13.00
À Manduel, AOC Costières de Nîmes
50% Roussanne, 5% Marsanne, 35% Grenache Blanc, 10% Viognier
(Click the bottle to find out more & buy or review it)

Mas des Bressades Cuvée Excellence Blanc 2009 €17.50
À Manduel, AOC Costières de Nîmes
70% Roussanne, 10% Grenache Blanc, 20% Viognier
(Click the bottle to find out more & buy or review it)

Château de la Tuilerie Cuvée des Amours 2006 €12.50
À Nîmes, AOC Costières de Nîmes
60% Syrah, 20 % Grenache, 20% Carignan
(Click the bottle to find out more & buy or review it)

Château la Villatade Minervois 2006 €14.50
À Sallèles, AOC Minervois
50% Syrah, 30% Carignan, 20% Grenache
(Click the bottle to find out more & buy or review it)

Château Jouclary Cuvée Guilhaume 2006 €21.00
À Conques-sur-Orbiel, AOC Cabardès
60% Merlot, 20% Syrah, 20% Grenache
(Click the bottle to find out more & buy or review it)

Domaine Rimbert Le Mas au Schiste 2005 €18.50
À Berlou, AOC Saint Chinian
60% Carignan, 20% Syrah, 10% Cinsault, 10% Grenache
(Click the bottle to find out more & buy or review it)

Domaine Rimbert El Carignator II VDT NV €29.00
À Berlou, Saint Chinian
100% Old Carignan
(Click the bottle to find out more & buy or review it)

Mas des Bressades Cabernet Syrah 2006 €17.50
À Manduel, vin de pays du Gard
70% Cabernet, 30% Syrah
(Click the bottle to find out more & buy or review it)

Mas Amiel Vintage Blanc 2006 75cl 16% €30.00
À Maury, AOC Maury
100% Grenache Gris
(Click the bottle to find out more & buy or review it)

Mas Amiel Mini Maury 37cl 16% €15.00
À Maury, AOC Maury
100% Grenache Noir
(Click the bottle to find out more & buy or review it)

The overwhelming impression I got from talking to people on the night of this second meeting is that we are getting the balance pretty much right. It strikes me as presumptuous, though, to think that we can let nature take its course now that we’ve harvested and crushed the grapes. That may be an approach for the more experimental winemakers, but a bit of application in the cellar can be no bad thing when it comes to dealing with the diverse blend of opinions and expectations we’re constellating at Blackrock Castle.

It was very hard work (hooray!) to find anyone who would offer proper constructive criticism, by which I mean suggestions about how we might improve the way the club is run. Finally I managed to get some ideas about what might be done differently for everyone’s good. I’ll put these into a separate post because this one has gone on long enough, and I daresay you have homes to go to.

The overwhelming appeal of a champagne tasting in dingy January seems not to have been a bubble that went on to burst. We have been inundated with bookings for our tasting in dingy February (this Thursday 25th, in fact), too.  I’ll be introducing some wines from the south of France and attempting to exchange some useful information with the audience along the way.

One of the comments made to us after January’s launch of the wine club was that the event was just a little too well-attended for everyone’s comfort, so this time we have done our best to restrict numbers, as courteously as possible, to rather fewer than then.  We’ll keep making adjustments as necessary, in line with what people tell us, until we feel we’ve got it right.

If you‘ve been disappointed, I’m very sorry – the success of the wine club so far has taken us by surprise.  A good complaint, it’s been said, and of course that’s true.
If you would like to make sure of a place at our next tasting (looking at the variety of white wines that come in tall bottles), on Thursday 25th March, then the thing to do is buy your ticket now, by following this link.
If you‘d like to sign up for the remaining eight tastings of the year, then you can do that, too: this is the place.

We even joined in with a virtual wine tasting using Twitter.

The success of all these undertakings, and also of the Good Wine Show in November, made us wonder if it would be a good idea to begin a wine club proper, with a subscription and regular meetings and so on.

We decided to go ahead.

Without further ado, here’s what we propose for 2010:

The Blackrock Castle Wine Club

• WHERE
  will meet at the Castle Bar and Trattoria, Blackrock Castle, Cork (special circumstances may demand a different venue – for example, we’re planning a midsummer-banquet-tasting-dinner on June 24th in the Castle’s Observatory Restaurant.

• WHEN
  ten times a year, on the last Thursday of the month (not July and not December) 7.30-9.30ish pm.

• COST
  €200/year for all ten sessions, or €25/session for non-members, subject to availability.

Naturally, the cost covers all wines tasted (usually between six and ten per session), glasses and the washing thereof, a certain quantity of bread, olives and appetizers at each meeting, printed notes &c. as appropriate.  Newsletter updates and information are free!

We’ll be letting our suppliers know what the club is up to, too – so members can look forward to guest speakers introducing their own wines from time to time.

The inaugural meeting of the club will take place on Thursday, 28th January at 7.30 pm at Blackrock Castle.  We’re starting things off with a bang (probably more of a pop, really).   If you’d like to know more about our sparkling beginning, or just want to keep an eye on what’s coming up,  subscribe to the club’s newsletter, which we’ll send out at least monthly.

Sign up here for the club newsletter

If you’re interested in joining and making sure of a place, you can buy membership here or at any meeting.

You would expect a grand event that turned out a roaring success like the Good Wine Show to get a blog post to match, all-singing and all-dancing.  Sorry folks.  I’ve just been too, too busy with all the – agreeable – work that the Show created to trim a quill and write about it.

Other people, however, have come up with the goods in no uncertain terms, and I refer you to some of them as the quickest way of summarizing a very good-natured event that has already paid off, if you want to be commercially minded about it,  in various ways.

If there weren’t a Blake Creedon, we’d have to invent him.  The lares and penates of wine in Cork, not to mention further afield, casts this spell over Bubble Brothers’ part in the libations.

The man they call Robert Francis Wine travelled down from Galway, bringing his Super 8 camera with him to telling effect.

First blog post from any of the three exhibiting merchants was this one from the midnight-oil-burning Curious Wines.

It’s always refreshing to get a review from someone who’s not one of the usual suspects, and it was a pleasure to meet the author in person too.

It’s always refreshing also to get a review from one or more of the usual suspects.  Brian Clayton tells it like it is, and also wields a revealing camera, as you can see here.  Conor O’Neill, who has made reviewing our wines as easy as SMS, joined in with a will too – and, naturally, wrote a review.

We were naturally immensely grateful to the hospitable staff of the Clarion Hotel, and to the representatives of local food who participated in the event: you should investigate the good things to be had from Ummera Smokehouse, Arbutus Bakery, and On the Pig’s Back.

By way of procrastination, I’ll save full acknowledgements to our visiting suppliers for another day, but needless to say it was great to have Pascal Gianesini of Château Jouclary; Toni Garriga of Mas Codina; Cédric and Dorothée Allion from Domaine du Haut Perron; and Ryan Morgan of the Rathbone Wine Group all in Cork with us.

The inaugural Good Wine Show was a friendly, lively occasion for merchants and public to meet and discuss wine.  Our hopes for it, not to be commercially minded, were fulfilled, then.

An idea is all that it’s been, though. I don’t have enough of a readership here to make it happen that way, and customers in our shops mostly don’t choose to spend recreational time in front of a computer screen, so they’re not hip to all the internetly jive that it’s easy to take too seriously when you’re embalmed in it all day.

However, to my great satisfaction, the greater because nothing really to do with me – like swing dance in Cork, which is now established in fulfilment of my long held hopes but without my having done anything about it except whinge – there is about to be an Irish online ‘blind’ tasting event co-ordinated by means of Twitter, the electronic apophthegm generator of which you may have heard.

Bubble Brothers have supplied ‘mystery bottles’ (wrapped and otherwise prepared so as not to be readily identifiable) through our own shops and those of our obliging customers Morton’s of Galway and URRU in Bandon.  The wine is red, and its value about €12.  The rest is for tasters to enjoy discussing.  You can follow progress if you wish, whether you do twittering or not, because all the participants should be using the label #twebt to channel their comments to this page.  You’ll see the latest slings and arrows pop up each time the page is refreshed.

Fair play – to put it mildly – to all concerned for making it happen.  I’m not getting involved in specific praise (or blame), because the arena is already all but invisible thanks to the acrid dust of pre-competition skirmishing.

You can read a more comprehensive account of the event and see a list of participants on Brian Clayton’s blog.  I’ll endeavour to acknowledge any other posts as they crop up.

Kick-off is at about half past eight tonight, Sunday 8th November.

What happened next:

You could always scroll through the tweets themselves to get the full aroma and flavour of the tasting; but, in brief, a great time was had by all – though there was a little material damage to a wine glass and a computer in the excitement of the thing.

I recognize and applaud the skill of those who identified the wine with accuracy, but the awards ceremony was indistinguishable from the event, it seems to me.  I’m not going to think too much more or less of anyone in the light of last night’s session – though I have some ideas about who not to play poker &c. with.

Thanks were similarly dished out by the assembled tasters as we went along: to @KevAtFennsQuayfor instigating the tasting, to @brianclaytonas MC and so on and so forth.  The whole thing was pretty straightforward to organize, thoroughly enjoyable, and would be easy to repeat.

The wine? It was an unoaked Rioja joven from Bodegas Martínez Corta, and you can read some reviews, written while the heat of battle was still not cold, by following that link to the wine on our website.  Thank you LouderVoice for making the reviewing so easy for the tasters, thanks to the LV twitter login facility.

Here’s to the next one.  I suspect last night’s tasting was some sort of Irish first.

Last week the chiefs of staff of Bubble Brothers, Curious Wines and Karwig Wines and various of their aides-de-camp assembled outside the Cork Bonded Warehouse for a photo-shoot intended to yield something eye-catching for the papers.

The very professional and efficient hard work of photographer Gerard McCarthy (087-853-7228) produced a selection of photographs pleasing to all three companies and their PR representatives.

We all listened carefully for the oystercatcher to cackle thrice, indicating the shot that should go across the road to the Irish Examiner.  You may have seen that one printed in the edition of Thursday 29th October.  While we eagerly anticipate the unveiling of the wholly renovated Karwig Wines website, you can get the Curious perspective from Matt Kane writing the Curious Wines blog. Blake Creedon, who will be back posting fun and guff here before you can say trapstick has mentioned us on his blog, too.

And I’ll do my level best to keep you loosely in touch with developments here.  The main thing you should do is head over to goodwineshow.com and buy yourself a ticket while there’s still time.

It’s not every day that three companies in the same line of business work together like this.  If you’re not so sure about us, come along and compare us with the other two.  If you do think we’re pretty good at what we do, imagine how hard we’ll all be trying with a brace of our principal rivals just across the room.

A bona fide, copper-bottomed win-win for the customer.  But you do need to buy a ticket and come along.  Take-off is, as I suggested, imminent.

On this occasion, however, we were able to lend proceedings a Spanish flavour. We were joined by Enrique García, the ever-cheerful export manager of Bodegas Pingón, our suppliers in the Ribera del Duero in north central Spain.

We’ve been working with the bodega for a good few years now, and although the confidently fruity, robust Tempranillos of the Ribera del Duero are no longer a novelty here, we’re always glad of a chance to show people that there’s rather more to Spanish reds than just Rioja.

On the day, Enrique, along with MD of Bubble Brothers, Billy Forrester,

offered a selection of wines, but of course special prominence was given to Bodegas Pingon’s Carramimbre brand, with both the semi-crianza Roble and the Crianza grades open for sampling. Sales on the day were brisk, and people were happy to take advantage of a special discount on the Carramimbre wines.

Thank you, Enrique, for making the trip and for sharing your expertise with us and with the customers of Morton’s. We look forward to your next visit!