Welcome to The Barossa Tutored Tasting with Toby Barlow

It was a privilege last year to attend many, many brilliant wine events.

I want to mention a tasting that has been arranged for the beginning of the New Year. On Tuesday evening the 26th January, Toby Barlow of St Hallet Wines in the Barossa Valley in Australia will present Welcome to The Barossa at Fallon and Byrne in Dublin. He will guide everyone through a comprehensive range of wines and host a 4 course meal all for €65.00 pp.

GREAT GIFT IDEA: Buy places at the dinner direct from Fallon and Byrne at 01 4721000. More info from John McDonnell of Wines of Australia at john.mcdonnell@wineaustralia.com

I mention this tasting because over the past year Wines of Australia has popped up on a regular basis with these tutored tastings. Each one has been quite brilliant at teaching us more about wine and more about the region in question. Learning is a life long experience and that's the fun of it all.

A brilliant Wines of Australia Tim Adams Tasting last Year.

Osoyoos Larose 2003 - Okanagan Valley BC

A friend passed this on to me as I am keen on everything Canadian and Vinous. He picked it up in JC's in Swords as part of a Constellation Wines sell out. My first wine 'experience', as they say, was when I was caving in Canada. At the time I was a poor student. What's worse our gang was made up of poor students of caves. We were heading to the Rio Camuy cave system in Puerto Rico. Our research indicated to us that there were long water filled canals in the system. We would need flotation.

An amount of further 'research' led us to a winery, Brights I think, who were good at bag in the box wine. We needed the bags. We drank the wine. Then we stitched one empty bag to the front and one to the back with straps for over shoulders and a tie around the waist.

Wine bag flotation in action - yup , that's me!

Our 'floats' worked brilliantly as they could be blown up and deflated easily, weighed nothing and, most importantly at the time, they cost us nothing at all......well, except for the wine.

All went swimmingly (sorry) until we climbed out of the cave water into a sheltered bell like underground chamber, deflated the life jackets and almost passed out with the stink of oxidised wine!!!


Has this anything to do with the wine I'm writing about? No. Nothing at all except that it's Canadian.



Osoyoos was a collaboration between the owners of the Medoc property Chateau Giraud Larose in Bordeaux and Vincor, then owner of Jackson Triggs Estate in Canada.

As you can see the wine has aged well. While it shows a light edge of brick it still has a full ruby appearance of some depth. The bouquet is obvious, clean and attractive. This latter quality comes from an ageing fruit which unfortunately shows too much stewed plum rather than perfumed cassis. Merlot is clearly dominant and its age is upsetting the harmony of the nose. Palate needs decanting as the tannins are quite hard and drying at first. While these soften they continue to hang around in an annoying way. Good acid balances well with an old fruit. Both last well.

Great with spicy meatballs but I expect the wine was destined for something a lot more grandiose. A couple of years ago this might have been more lively but something tells me that it was simply hard. Its a 'work in progress' style of wine relying too hard on a formula of grapes rather than an expression of terroir.

Enjoyed it immensely. It brought back a lot of old canal smells and good memories of Rio Camuy.

Quinta do Vallado Wine Makers Dinner with Gordon Ramsay at Powerscourt

Themed dinners are brilliant ways to meet the real reason we have a wine trade at all - Meet the Wine Makers. These are the guys who make the choices. These are the guys who have to stand over what's in the bottle. These are the guys who have already decided what they would like to present to us in three, five and even ten years time. These aren't the morketing people who turn up simply to spend the budget. Often they aren't even trying to sell their wine. Last night An Evening in the Douro Valley at Gordon Ramsay at Powerscourt was one such event.

Joao Ferreira owns Quinta do Vallado. He is one of the 'Douro Boys'. Their press dossier describes them as:

The Douro Boys are a multitalented winemaking phenomenon: in the five years since their formation, they have made a worldwide impact and are now considered a major force in promoting the modern face of Douro wine. By stimulating international headlines and positive copy they have captured public imagination within a ruthlessly competitive world of branded giants and cult cuvées. With real personalities and respective passion for indigenous grapes, the Douro Boys have put the fun back into Portuguese wine. Without recourse to caricatured cliché or imported varietals, they have transformed a fortified dinosaur into a modern mixed metaphor of hand-made, distinctive and stunning Quinta wines.

Five great Douro estates joined forces: Quinta do Vale Meão, Quinta do Crasto, Quinta Vale Dona Maria, Quinta do Vallado and Niepoort Vinhos (Nápoles), their combined terroir, heritage and beauty lend a burnished aura to a spectacular marketing success

Last night Joao treated his audience of 80 paying guests to a dazzling array of some of the finest Portuguese and most interesting red wines being made today. Each wine was matched to a food by head chef Jonathan McIver.

This was truly special as each wine lived up to its reputation. My own fave was the Quinta do Vallado Reserva Tinto 2006. Its a field blend from 80 to 100 year old vines. Mysterious and imperial.

The High Spirits Drinks Company is to be congratulated. This was a first for the Ritz Carlton at Powerscourt. I doubt it will be the last.

Joao Ferreira was a genial and knowledgeable host who tells me he comes to Northern Ireland to shoot every year! Wood pigeon.... I hope he shoots as well as he makes wine. Wine Spectator has just begun to award wines from Quinta do Vallado points in the mid nineties. Joao despairs at the power such 'magazine points' can have on the world of wine. He's not really complaining as he says, 'as soon as the points were announced orders from the States arrived to completely deplete supplies'. No need for us to despair. High Spirits has a fair supply for the Christmas!