Food & Drink News Opinion

WINE O’CLOCK: A Rioja by any other name

By Kilkenny Now 11th September 2020 0

The patience of restaurant staff often surprises me, particularly nowadays when they have to work behind a mask and deal with customers who don’t know the Covid rules or have decided to ignore them. But even before Covid reared its ugly head, I witnessed many an example of forbearance. I recall, in particular, a debate […]

Food & Drink News Opinion

WINE O’CLOCK: The wine with the feelgood factor

By Kilkenny Now 6th March 2020 Post a comment

Organic wine was once the preserve of small shops and even smaller cafés where it was served by men with beards to women with backpacks. It has become popular in recent years and some organics can now be found on most restaurant menus and in all self-respecting wine stores. An organic wine is made from […]

Food & Drink News Opinion

IN VINO VERITAS: All in a label’s work (Part II) – Morgan Vanderkamer

By Kilkenny Now 2nd March 2020 0

As you peruse a wine list you may find yourself flicking through an endless sea of pages and wines you don’t recognize. As you scan through some of the figures beside certain wines it may leave you begging the question: who would pay such a price for a bottle of wine? In the same breath, […]

Food & Drink News Opinion

WINE O’CLOCK: Trump’s trade war on wine backfires

By Kilkenny Now 28th February 2020 0

President Trump has been waging trade wars on several fronts. In October last year he decided that the enemy was European wine – and, incidentally, Irish whiskey and Scotch. He imposed a 25% tariff on these imports in retaliation, he said,  for EU subsidies to European aerospace giant Airbus, which is a rival of America’s […]

Food & Drink News Opinion

WINE O’CLOCK: The king is dead, long live his wine

By Kilkenny Now 31st January 2020 0

The wine world has lost one of its best-known names with the recent death of Georges Duboeuf, the man they called ‘le roi’ and sometimes ‘le pape’. French wine makers tend not to be good at marketing. A lot of their product is sold under the labels of obscure vineyards. They can be hard to […]

Food & Drink News Opinion

IN VINO VERITAS: All in a label’s work (Part 1) – by Morgan Vanderkamer

By Kilkenny Now 30th January 2020 0

A few years back wine on tap made its debut on the market. I admit I was hesitant at the time, but recently I made the move to actually implementing it. From the beginning I was concerned with not engaging in the romance of opening a bottle, pulling the cork and placing the bottle on […]

Food & Drink News Opinion

VINO VERITAS: Aligoté: the humble sibling of renowned Chardonnay leading a wine revolution

By Kilkenny Now 10th December 2019 0

Just last week I tasted a wine that was an affirmation of everything that led me on the path of a sommelier. Wine has, and will continue to be, an exploration for me; of countries, styles, identities and innovation. If you think about the endless possibilities out there when it comes to wine grapes, you […]

News Opinion

WINE O’CLOCK: The grape that got banished by royal command

By Kilkenny Now 27th September 2019 0

FRANCHE Comté is a region of Burgundy close to the border with Switzerland. For centuries, control swung between France, Spain and the Holy Roman Empire. Philip II of Spain was the man in charge back in the mid-sixteenth century and he took a strong exception to the Pinot Blanc style of grape from which they […]

News Opinion

WINE O’CLOCK: Why we all like to chill with a Chilean

By Kilkenny Now 20th September 2019 0

I HAVE an instinctive, and probably somewhat snobbish, preference for European wines over those from the Americas, Africa, Australia and New Zealand. In particular, I believe the best wine comes from France. But that sweeping statement can be hard to justify given that French production is often inconsistent and the product tends to be more […]

News Opinion

WINE O’CLOCK: Say cheese and keep on smiling

By Kilkenny Now 13th September 2019 0

DO people still do wine and cheese parties? They used to be very trendy but, then, so did spats, cravats and deerstalker hats. All the same, cheese and wine do go very well together and there are so many lovely Irish cheeses on the market nowadays that there’s always a good excuse to try out […]