Wine Board of Ireland Ceases all Educational Activity

The following appeared today on the Wine Board of Ireland's web site:

30th June 2009
Wine Board of Ireland - Announcement
Due to a precipitate decline in student numbers a decision has been taken to cease the educational activities of the Wine Board of Ireland from 31st July 2009. We greatly regret this decision and the impact it will have on our employees, tutors, members, students and all other stakeholders.
The Directors of the Wine & Spirit Education Board, the governing body of the Wine Board, would like to thank the staff and tutors of the Wine Board for their dedication and support over many years. They would also like to thank the thousands of students who have advanced their wine and spirit education through the Wine Board and consequently raised the standard of knowledge in the Irish marketplace. The wine and spirit trade have also provided excellent support and guidance, which is greatly appreciated. It is unfortunate and regrettable that current economic circumstances and the decline in student numbers do not permit the maintenance of the valuable service given by the Wine Board over many years.
Current students and those who have booked courses will be contacted shortly to make suitable arrangements.

While I am not in the least surprised I think it is only right to ask, 'How the hell was this allowed to happen?'

I passed my WSET Diploma through the Wine Development Board way back in 1988. Of course I had a few years of courses before that also. George O'Malley and Tom Franks pushed hard to make the board into a well oiled educational beast. It existed for the trade and worked closely with the trade.

For many years now though the Wine Board has existed for no reason other than to stay afloat. If that meant running strange and meaningless tastings just so that a few bob could be made then so be it. Its association with the trade was slowly eroded to the point that most of the heavy hitters joined up with an IBEC sponsored Irish Wine Association. As a consequence the Wine Board was always going to suffer. The writing was on the wall.

How has the wine trade lost its appreciation of the value of quality education? Why would it watch the Wine Board suffer for so long without anyone crying foul? (Well, I did. And they chose not to listen!) Because very few owners or senior managers have the Diploma and right now the value of the wine trade to them is not measured in knowledge or future potential. Right now it's measured in how many redundancies can they reasonably afford and how can they survive the slow down. The Wine Board which has been servicing the general public (possibly for too long and too often; one member of the trade was keen to remind me today that if you wanted to take the bank exams you had to be a banker. Not so with the Wine Board who effectively subsidised the general public to take trade wine exams!) is an expense the trade can do without.

Strange to say but during the dark eighties the answer was the complete opposite. The trade felt then that continuing education was one of the keys to future success.

I'll miss the Wine Board. I'll miss slagging it off when all I wanted was to make it a better place. I'll miss making suggestions and throwing ideas into a void. I'll miss wondering why the Board did such and such....again! I'll also miss the potential that a real Board could have brought to the trade. I'll miss the quality and the professional image that the Board brought to the Irish wine trade. Where is it all now? Certainly not in the hands of IBEC.

So. I won't be invited to the 50th then?

Time to step up to the plate? Mary Gaynor has in Thomastown with the Wine Academy of Ireland. Time for more to join her. Any takers?

Well, there will probably be movement from within the remnants of the Wine Board itself. One hopes that any development will take its time and take soundings from the trade as a whole. If I'm hearing right there is a move to rescue pieces of the Board from within the Board itself. The same group would do better to leave well enough alone and get on with something brighter and newer and more qualified than what's gone before.

songlines, bylines and leylines

At a truly excellent Gilbeys portfolio tasting earlier this year I tasted a Songlines Shiraz. I was bowled over by the quality. I followed this up with a quick re-taste at the London Wine Fair and so I felt privileged and delighted, in equal measure, when I received an invite to a Songlines Estates tasting here in Dublin recently. To cap it all nicely not only were the wines on show but the wine makers were in town. Aye, there's two of them.






In the very recent past (2002) winemakers David Fatches and John Duval hatched a plan whereby they would buy the best fruit possible and make the best Australian wine ever. Modest guys. John Duval had in the past been chief wine maker at Penfolds and David had considerable experience both at Orlando Wyndham in Australia and with a number of properties in Bordeaux. So two industry leaders/experts embarked on a plan normally reserved for the foolhardy, the young or the uber wealthy.



The fruit for Songlines, Bylines and Leylines Shiraz comes from the McLaren Vale (40 to 100 year old flawless shiraz vines) while the Chardonnay wines are made from the Songlines Estate in the Hunter Valley (no vines under 30 years old is considered!).



John Duval and David Fatches at the Chapter One Songlines Tasting


Along the way they fell into business with Martin Krawjeski, owner of Chateau de Sours and an all round world business traveller. He likes to get things done and leaves no stone unturned doing so. He also came to Dublin for this tasting- via Beijing, Bordeaux and London!



The tasting (very shortened notes below) was at Chapter One on the 18th of June. It began with an extraordinary Semillon.......




Byline - a line at the beginning of a news story giving the authors name - a secondary line

Bylines Hunter Valley Semillon 2008: Brilliantly lean with immense depth of lemon and lime; sharply sculpted varietal edges. Will age, and change while doing so, for anything up to 20 years.


Bylines Hunter Valley Chardonnay 2005: Quite full colour, obvious clean and zesty fruit, mouthfilling, soft and very approachable, backburn of warm fruit and toasty wood, fantastic structure through the finish. Has many years left in it.


Bylines Hunter Valley Chardonnay 2008: Clean but very undeveloped (boring?) nose, uni dimensional until it gets into the palate which is very impressive. Primary effect is light and refreshing with a very full back palate. Very young yet. Look up how this is made . It's amazing. http://www.songlinesestates.com/

Leylines -hypothetical alignments of a number of places of geographical interest such as ancient monuments

Leylines McLaren Vale Shiraz 2007: Brash and stalky edges, fat and full nose, full and soft attack onto the palate, mellows quickly, fine light tannins, young and a bit spirity, needs time.

Bylines Shiraz Cabernet Sauvignon 2003: super impressive great depth of deep ruby young purple, deep and rich wine, elegant and clean on nose and palate, structure good and not tight or obtrusive, fine balance at end, very good, perhaps lacks a bit of originality.

Bylines McLaren Vale Shiraz 2005: I wasn't sure about this wine. (Noone else seemed to think its was a bit oxidiseywhiffy at the edges!) also a bit spirity. Jumps onto the palate with a dry savoury style and a bit of an old barmat - probably bottle stink - firm and fine structure

Songlines - invisible pathways which criss cross the land all over Australia; ancient tracks made of song; wherever men have walked they have left a song emphasising the importance of land

Songlines McLaren Vale Shiraz 2006: instantly impressive with very very clean and very very big ideas rising up out of the glass. Bright alert and lively yet dark fruit, perfume is light and elegant, it wafts, fine example of a ripe style that has an endless depth of seriousness. A no nonsense finish with lots of structure and very little aggressiveness. Absolutely love it.

Songlines McLaren Vale Shiraz 2005: Distinct edges of minerality show through a strong but reserved fruit on the nose, palate here is immense, great weight and softness on the tongue, presence in the mouth is big and bold and makes endless statements of intent, layers of goodness, structurally near perfect, tight and 'young' finish, will age very well. (My Wine of the Tasting but the room was divided)

Songlines Shiraz Cabernet Sauvignon 2004: a bit confusing as the blend shows a bit obviously and masks the purity of the fruit. bit dull and needs a lot of work to get into it. This follows through the palate also. Lazy wine. Perhaps its asleep? Both David and John reckons it's undergoing a change and will taste brilliantly again next time around!

These wine are not cheap,. Expect to pay up to €80.00 for a bottle of Songlines and a more modest 30 for Bylines with Ley somewhere in between. Production is only a couple of thousand boxes; collectors are tucking a few boxes way; Australian wine is beginning to auction well. In a few years time these may very well be seen as bargain prices!

Riesling & Co World Tour 2009

This was held last week at the Westbury in Dublin. Seven German wine regions were represented by about 100 wines shown by 22 producers. It was a fabulous opportunity to take a quick glance at a country that's hardly represented in Ireland at all. On show were 60 Rieslings, 10 Pinot Noirs and a total of 21 different grape varieties!!

Sylvaner table at the Westbury last week

Only three Irish importers had wines at the event - O'Briens with Graf von Schonburn; Gilbeys with Lingenfelder Estate and The Wicklow Wine Company with Max Ferd. Richter. So, most of the wines on show were either hoping to score an agent or were just out to show off. It seems that German wine exports to Ireland have grown to 3.9million litres - up a whopping 42% year on year to March 2009. Now there's one to think about.....

Ben Mason of the Wicklow Wine Co showing his very brilliant range of German wines .

Wine of Germany opened an office in Dublin last year. It's chock full of info material and even has a 70 minute DVD on German wines. Its press release for the Westbury event focused on Riesling remaining the 'darling' of German wine growers, its light fruity nature and its ability to produce healthy low alcohol wines. In addition we are told that while Riesling now has 22% of the German vineyard area plantings of Pinot Blanc (Weissburgunder), Pinot Gris (Grauburgunder) and Sauvignon Blanc have all increased recently.

(Geek facts: Germany has 60% of all Riesling plantings in the world: the Pfalz is the world's largest Riesling area with the Mosel a close second)

Overall impressions:

Excellent quality

Alcohol is in check

Lighter, fruitier, softer and drier than in the past

Producers are open and are good communicators

Incredibly interesting

More commercial than before

If I was an importer (it's real easy to spend other peoples money!) I would have to bring in a few cases from Germany. These are trendy and worth a punt. Get with the old fashioned labels. Make them trendy as well! Maybe I'll take a trip down Wicklow way.

Taste of Dublin

I was impressed by the wine and drinks content of the recent Taste of Dublin. Donnybrook Fair and Coole Swan met us at the entrance. A short stroll brought us to Bordeaux Wines which was close by to the Edward Dillon Wine and wine tasting bar.

Anyone guess who the scribes are 'tasting' the latest from Grange! Did you get yours?

Across from this Jacquart Champagne was pouring away under the watchful eyes of the Beer Naturally Academy. Russian Standard was making fantastic cocktails. Wine Australia, Wines of Chile and Mitchell and Son were joined by http://www.booze.ie/

Jim Flynn was in fine form at the Porterhouse where the best black pints in town were being poured. By the time I noticed the Carry Out stand and was captivated by the Pink Elephant Portuguese Rose it was time to go! Oh, I then caught up with Cassidy Wines and their Oyster Bay and Marques de Caceres. (Mind you, I'd had an amazing burger at the Ely, (another at l'Ecrivain) dumplings to beat all comers at the China Sichuan and sizzling organic sausages from the Craft Butchers of Ireland. Where else would you get it!!)

Ever present and incomparable John McDonnell of Wine Australia - complete with surf board

Wines of Chile showing their wares.

I know I missed quite a few wine people - didn't have time to talk to O'Briens -very big presence, or to Jacobs Creek and I am sure I have left a few out. I also think its a pity that a lot of time was given over to the celeb chef and no-one thought of the bring forth the celeb wine guy - I'm still waiting for the call! and waiting......

Great event. Bring it on again.

Rising Stars

Had a quick look into the blog associated with the Rising Stars Spanish Wine tasting due to take place on Sept 3rd. http://therisingstars2009.blogspot.com

I love this sort of blog initiative. Hope they keep it active, accurate and fresh.

It encouraged me to take time out to think of how many other generic bodies are blogging into the trade. None as far as I know. Then, I am often in the dark!

Take the Italians. They do very little direct marketing for their wine trade. They don't have a budget. As we all know wine fairs are expensive (and often poorly attended) affairs and who's to know if they are effective or not?

While I know time is money and all that it would take very little time to have a fun blog promoting Italian wines. Problem solved. So, why don't they do it? Well I suppose blogging out of an embassy might need a few controls - can't have loose cannons in embassies now can we? More likely however is that the unknown is a scary place.

Blogging is often viewed as a lot of noise where a few loud bangs wake us up to its usefulness every now and then. But isn't everything the same? Life is a lot of noise within which we choose to organise ourselves.

Blogging is not new any longer. It is becoming well organised and less noisy all the time. So well done to the Rising Stars Annual Spanish Wine Tasting and the Spanish Commercial Office for their new initiative. Now all they have to do is make it more personal and we'll be fans for a long time to come.

EasyFood June Issue now out: Kevin Ecock recommends..

It's the beginning of summertime and I recommend a few new ideas and interesting styles for my EasyFood readers.

First out of the traps is Quatro Sei Gavi from Marks and Spencer. I really like Gavi with its tight, dry skinned, stone fruit. Cortese might be a difficult grape to get right but this wine is a beauty.

I follow with a wine that really impressed at a recent tasting in Dublin given by Aurelio Montes himself. It's his entry level Montes Classic Series Sauvignon Blanc. This just zings with tender, ripe and crisp fruit. It really is a classic.

Believe it or not I then jump over to a celebrity label by none other than our very own Christy O'Connor Jnr. I'm a fan of celeb labels so long as the wine is alright. In this case the Christy O'Connor Jnr Private Selection label is a fantastic rich and interesting wine out of the Alentejo in Portugal. Welcome to the world of wine Christy!

At this point we fly off to a new label to Ireland out of Australia called Redbank Shiraz. Its from the King Valley in Victoria and its subtle, soft tones enchanted me and re educated me to believe that the King Valley is a lot more than 'rich in your face fruit' wines. I love the fact that the winery recommends sausages and roast potatoes to go with this wine!

Cono Sur Sparkling from Chile is my bubbles number for June. Its brill value and a very good drink. Every fridge should have one.

Blossom Hill gets a mention for its new, and quite exciting, international range. More on that next month.

Finally, I review Michael Schuster's Essential Wine Tasting. This is a must for all wine lovers shelves. Excellent is my verdict if only for the fact that he seems to agree with so many of my pet moans - forget about legs, THEY MEAN NOTHING.

Reminds me of the last time I was asked what do legs mean ... have a peek at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TH-7zyF4oNw&feature=email

EasyFood has an additional 80 pages of recipes in addition to my two Drinks pages. All for the princely sum of only €3.00

EasyFood EasyValue.