BUBBLE BROTHERS - CORK WINE MERCHANTS

No such thing as bad publicity, they say. Here’s an overview of where wine is at in Ireland at the end of 2008, from Tomás Clancy of the Sunday Business Post:

Sunday Business Post | Irish Business News

Good of them to think of us among some interesting, or perhaps surprising, judgements.

I’m acutely aware of the need not to offend the hard-working folk at BKWine, lest a cease and desist scorch on to my screen; but as I understand it, an item of interest to my readers that has a “share” icon beside it is, well, for sharing. I hope you will go over to the BKWine site and see all the good things that go on there, and leave comments as appropriate to show your appreciation.

We’re delighted to work with the Saurels, and have agreed with them to do all we can to promote their Vacqueyras and Gigondas in Ireland. Here is the first of a sequence of clips where Mme Saurel explains the Montirius philosophy and the estate’s biodynamic approach to wine.

[E] Montirius, #1 – a biodynamic grower, the story from bkwine on Vimeo.

Here’s an interesting podcast about drink.  Worth an hour of most of your time, just to give some perspective amidst the seasonal whatitsname.

For some time now, there has been a stray boot at the side of the main road south to Cork, three or four yards past the junction for Glanmire.

It’s not annoying me, neither do I actively enjoy seeing it there, but I do mostly look out for it as I pass. It’s a pretty tough boot, in the slip-on, elasticated side gusset style. A Chelsea boot? a dealer boot? Considering the weather and traffic it’s endured, it’s in good shape, and looks too shiny still not to be of some man-made material.

I wonder how it got there. I wonder where its pair is. I wonder if I’ll ever stop and risk obliteration to take a picture of the wretched thing.

That boot is the right hook for this fish: it has well and truly skewered my attention. It’s nothing to do with anything, but it begs so many questions, and has commandeered so much of my precious thinking time on the journey to work, that I think it would make a very good place for a little advertisement. I’d really like to come up with a similarly osmotic way of getting people to think about Bubble Brothers. Something apparently worthless, just a little out of place, and inescapable.

Fearghal and Simon, the Irish cyclists pedalling around the world, have now reached Argentina and already survived a tussle with a bus within hours of landing. I’m reporting a recent post from www.revolutioncycle.ie verbatim, in the hope that some of you might choose a Revolutioncyle t-shirt as a gift for someone, and in doing so contribute to the funds of Aware, who support those struggling with depression.

Here’s Fearghal’s post. If you’re not already keeping an eye on his and Simon’s adventures, you should. Their global adventures provide some perspective on the seasonal hoo-ha closer to home.

Christmas is a great time when everything is going well. Unfortunately, thats not always the case for everyone- and the festive season can be a time when people are particularly prone to depressive episodes. For many, Christmas time brings anything but comfort and joy- a time when everyone is supposed to be happy excentuates the difficulties travials and those who are not. Aware provides support for sufferers and their families, especially at this time of the year.

You can support Aware and solve some of your christmass gift problems with an official Revolution Cycle t-shirt delivered to your door for a little over €20. Follow this link to find out more.

100% of proceeds go directly to Aware

Find out more about Aware or details of their Surviving Christmas Lecture on Wednesday the 10th click here.

In case you’re wondering why it’s been a bit quiet here lately, well, surprise-surprise, I’m busy elsewhere ruining my elf with Christmas duties.

The Global Doom and Gloom seem to mean that people are determined to have a jolly good Christmas whatever happens, and in retreating from the economic chill, are investing in domestic comforts such as decent wine.

Now, thanks to the agency of the perennially plum-stuffed and brandy-laced Bubble Brothers blog, and more especially thanks to Wine Blogging Wednesday, its hosts and contributors (could be you!), I bring you a review of inexpensive red wines, this time from Chile, famed for its reliable easy-drinking styles:

Wine Blogging Wednesday 52 Announced - Value Reds from Chile

Wine Blogging Wednesday

Head on over and get the low-down during the next day or so - or grab a bottle today, taste it, and join in!  Start a blog if you haven’t one (the web is running dangerously low on blogs) and share your findings for everyone’s benefit.

Well, as promised, here is a postdated look at a Chilean red wine for $20 or less.  I took home a wine I already knew I liked, Bubble Brothers’ own La Fortuna Malbec, which we sell for €11.50.

Argentina, rather than Chile, is the South American country most often associated with Malbec wines, so this Chilean example is a bit of a curiosity.  The reason La Fortuna make it is simply because they can: the land where their Malbec grows suits the vines down to the ground, as it were.  It’s an interesting wine to offer people in a country where every fourth bottle sold is from Chile, and nearly all of it, I would guess, Cab/Merl/Sauv/Chard.  So, a different grape, but with the perceived reliability and familiarity of Chile - not such a hard sell, and a foot in the door to selling some of our other Malbecs, or perhaps La Fortuna’s Carmenère (I could have chosen that instead).

La Fortuna Malbec 2005

This wine is organically produced, for what that’s worth. If it was a car journey, it would be my drive home (not in winter, when it’s dark): interesting and involved at the beginning, with plenty to enjoy if you like that kind of thing and have a little patience; then smooth and straight ahead, with better scenery than the average, always something to enjoy but not distracting; and quickly, safely home. No further comment needed.

Further comment (gave it a second whirl before leaving home this morning): Forward plum and bramble fruit on the nose, with perceptible complexities of chocolate, rubber and so on. Smooth tannins support ripe fruit and leather, chocolate flavours, lingering to a clean, short finish.

Works for me.

Last Thursday saw the first public tasting drawn from the portfolio of new Bandon-based wine merchants, Curious Wines, whose assiduous preparations have recently given Bandon a wine warehouse, and Ireland a(nother) first-class online wine shop.  It was a privilege to be invited along, and a pleasure to meet the friendly and energetic Kane brothers, bright new nails in the coffin of incurious wine consumption.

Following their enthusiasms, and with the approaching festivities in mind, Michael and Matt Kane decided to share some highlights from the varied New Zealand section of their list with the full house of about thirty people, who were made welcome and cosy by the brothers, high above Cork’s Western Road at the Jury’s Inn hotel there.  The wines were expertly introduced by Joyce Austin of New Zealand Boutique Wines, who has made a career of representing smaller estates.  Some make so few cases each year that, if you listen carefully, you may just be able to hear their commercial pips squeaking as passion drives the business along.

There were twelve wines on show, with a diversity of styles to match the diversity of experience in the room: some of the guests had never attended a tasting before, there were the keen amateurs and wine bloggers of the middle ground; and, on this occasion, the perceptions of a brace of supremely knowledgeable sommeliers.  I have to thank Greer, Lauren, Stefan and Tim for their company as we talked about all sorts, including Gary Vaynerchuk’s Wine Library TV and the differently beveraged Beer Nut, which links I thought it might be useful to include for them here.

The dozen wines eschewed the Marlborough region in favour of sunny Nelson, whence cometh our own Brightwater range; east-facing Waipara, and the balmy-going-on-tropical Hawkes Bay further north.  We were treated to three wines from Sauvignon Blanc, three from Riesling, two Pinot Noirs, and the partridges in the pear tree were a Pinot Gris; a Gewurztraminer; a Chardonnay; and (the Hawkes Bay wine) a Syrah.

The pouring was efficiently seen to, and plenty of water and plain crackers to accompany the wines showed that the Curious team knew what they were doing.  There’s a place for exquisite nibbles, and I don’t think a wine tasting is it.  Save that for Christmas, with one of those sprightly Rieslings, perhaps.  Thank you and welcome, Curious Wines.

Here's to the winners!

In June we ran a competition to promote iKi beer and Café Mao, with some meals as prizes.  The winners seem to have been pleased with their winnings so far:

Sandra Gough commented:

Hi all,

Just writing to thank you you for a wonderful dining experience that was had by myself, Mam and Dad on Monday in Mao’s establishment in Dundrum shopping centre.

Food was absolutely first class, fresh, organic and ever so tasty. The IKI beer accompaniment was delicious and very refreshing. It complimented the food so very well.

The staff in Mao’s could not do enough for us. I have no hesitation in recommending this wonderful restaurant and will most certainly be visiting it any time I am in Dundrum.

Thank you so much Bubble Brothers for this wonderful prize which was very much appreciated.

…and I recently had an e-mail from another winner with a very discerning palate and a correspondingly informative blog, The Beer Nut, whose impressions of Mao’n'iKi you can read at menupages.ie. He said nice things about the iKi, too.

If you’re minded to enliven your seasonal trimmings with some refreshing, quaffalicious iKi in its ho-ho-ho livery of red and white, you can do so at a reduced price for the time being. We’ve scythed the price down from sixty-six euro a case to sixty: (€75 delivered nationwide), and if you buy one of our off-the-peg mixed cases of wine, you can add a case of iKi for a trifling €50. Delivery is a flat €15 no matter how much you buy.

Hearty thanks to all of you who send me postcards from the places where the peripheries of wine, design, and gadgets merge.  The latest snapshot from that no-man’s-land is this one, of a USB Flash drive in the shape of a wine bottle that contains, amongst other things,

exclusive ringtones on wine for your mobile phone

How can you resist? Few only remaining at this special price. Step right up!

This USB flash drive your key to open the gates to a great wine… — Be Wine Connected