Joe Breen's gifts for wine lovers
Fancy having a tutored wine tasting at home? Stuart Brechin and Gavin Watchorn, of the wine shops, in Ranelagh and Terenure, Dublin 6, are offering this service, for a suitable sum. Neat idea. Call 01-4911763.
• Tired of keeping your treasures under the bed or stairs? Check out www.wineobsessed.com, the site of a Kilkenny-based company, or www.eurocave.com for everything from bespoke cellarsto temperature-controlled wine cabinetsand . But be warned: www.wineobsessed.com's entry-level Dometic WineCellar which holds up to 54 bottles, costs €1,769.
• As travel broadens the mind, Mitchell & Son (www.mitchellandson.com) runs a number of wine tours. Call 01-2302301. Time for Wine (www.timeforwinetours.com), run by former sommelier Nick O'Callaghan, features trips to Burgundy, Rioja and the Loire, among other places.
• Unlike some of its other wine glasses, Waterford's Connoisseur Goldseries is elegant and useable, if very expensive (www.waterford.com; also widely available). The Patrick GuilbaudTipperary Crystal series (www.tipperarycrystal.com; also widely available) is equally impressive, and also quite expensive. Riedelis still the outstanding wine-glass maker. Mitchell & Son distributes them in Ireland. See www.riedel.com.
• The Joy of Wine- wine tasting made simple, from Mitchell & Son (€79.99) - is a very clever idea. The wood-encased pack includes four half-bottles of Bordeaux, representing the key wines of the area; nine aroma crystals, to assist in recognising different flavours (including spoiled wines); and a DVD that is let down by the use of an Australian oaf as the dumb punter but is still very instructive.
• A wide range of accessoriesis available from Terroirs, Dublin 4 (www.terroirs.ie), including the Alessi Parrot corkscrew (€32) and the L'esprit & le vin Merlot decanter ( €225)
• The Wines of the Northern Rhône, by John Livingstone-Learmouth (University of California Press, £30) is a 700-plus-page work of stunning scholarshipthat gives great insight into an area that produces some of France's greatest wines.
• The Best of Wine in Ireland 2007(A & A Farmar, €12.99). John Wilson has done everyone who loves wine a favour by trawling through more than 2,000 bottles to present the best available on Irish shelves. Clear, helpful and authoritative.
• Wine Report 2007(Dorling Kindersley, £9.99). Tom Stevenson and his fellow writers pack loads of information into the 400-plus pages of this gritty no-nonsense guide. A serious publication for anyone serious about wine.
• The World's Greatest Wines(Stewart, Tabori & Chang, £24.95). Michel Bettane and Thierry Desseauve are longtime editors of France's top wine guide, La Revue du Vin de France, and this classily designed and beautifully illustrated heavyweight contains short profiles of 365 winesthat could fill a wondrous year. Read it and dream.