News Opinion

WINE O’CLOCK: Some cracking reds to go with your Easter eggs

By Kilkenny Now 19th April 2019 0

NO lambs will die on my account this Easter. It’s not a matter of principle, I just don’t like the meat very much. It tends to be fatty or stringy or both. If you disagree, I recommend Chateau Moulin de Mallet as an accompaniment, a fruity red from Bordeaux (€16.95 in The Wine Centre, Kilkenny). […]

News Opinion

WINE O’CLOCK: There’s more to this one than a fat, fancy bottle

By Kilkenny Now 12th April 2019 0

BACK in the Seventies, no trendy home was without a Chianti bottle. Some people even drank the wine, but the key thing was the rotund bottle, known as a fiasco (flask), in which candles could be burned, the accumulated wax giving them an even chubbier shape. Ruffino Chianti was the best known label bottled in […]

News Opinion

WINE O’CLOCK: Fizz may not be better but it’s usually dearer

By Kilkenny Now 5th April 2019 Post a comment

LAST week I mentioned, in passing, the two types of Prosecco on sale in Ireland – frizzante and spumante. A number of readers (well, one’s a number isn’t it?) have asked for more information. So … Prosecco is the name of a village where the sparkling wine is produced but that is not important since […]

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WINE O’CLOCK: A nice wee Prosecco, just what mammy ordered

By Kilkenny Now 29th March 2019 0

WHAT’S your mum’s favourite tipple, asks a flier that has popped into my email basket. I didn’t have a mum. I had a mam, sometimes a mammy, and her favourite tipple was tea. She drank gallons of the stuff and always in the same minuscule measure. Whether quaffed from a giant mug or sipped like […]

News Opinion

WINE O’CLOCK: A hint of Oil of Olay to go with the fish

By Kilkenny Now 22nd March 2019 0

THE late Simon Hoggart, a fine political journalist who also wrote about wine, recalled the most ridiculous description he had ever read of a wine, a Gewurztraminer. “Top notes of vanilla, spice and lychees,” it said, “with undertones of Nivea cream.” Can you imagine telling your guests, “You’ll love this – it tastes of Nivea […]

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WINE O’CLOCK: How to have a grape St Patrick’s Day

By Kilkenny Now 15th March 2019 0

SO what wine will you drink on St Patrick’s Day?  I recommend Vin de Liffey, the black one with the white head, best sipped from a pint glass. But Ireland is officially listed as a wine producing country by the European Commission and if you are very persistent (and a wee bit mad) you can […]

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WINE O’CLOCK: Pinto Gris and Pinot Grigio: neighbours divided by shades of grey

By Kilkenny Now 8th March 2019 0

PINTO Gris and Pinot Grigio are neighbours. Both wines come from the same white grape with a greyish skin (hence the French name ‘gris’). At one stage these wines must have been identical but different production methods have driven them apart. In Alsace, where most of the French Pinto Gris is made, the harvest is […]

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WINE O’CLOCK: A papal favourite but it’s not infallible

By Kilkenny Now 1st March 2019 0

MOST of us know it as the name of a wine, but Chateauneuf du Pape is also a village near Avignon, the southern French city that housed the papacy when it moved from Rome for much of the fourteenth century. It is a pretty village of stone walls and cobbled streets, spread around the foot […]

News Opinion

WINE O’CLOCK: When it’s easier to drink it than say it

By Kilkenny Now 22nd February 2019 0

THERE was a time, apparently, when German wines were highly regarded and expensive. Hock, named for the region of Hochheim, was the drink of kings, sipped from special hock glasses, with a green bowl and ribbed stem. I say ‘apparently’ because I don’t remember that time. I do remember a market flooded with thin, sugary, […]

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WINE O’CLOCK: Some like it cold – and sweet

By Kilkenny Now 8th February 2019 0

WINE is produced in a great many countries but I never thought of Canada as one of them. But there it was, on a supermarket shelf, wine from the Canadian outback. The product in question turned out to be ice wine. It was a new thing to me, but apparently it has been around for […]