WINE: The wine warehouse has landed, writes Mary Dowey.
It's an open secret that Majestic, the flourishing UK wine warehouse group, has had its eye on the Irish market for some time. But while it has vacillated, along comes Cellars: The Big Wine Warehouse on the Naas Road - a new retail concept driven by two energetic Dubliners.
Mark Delaney, former marketing director of the Brown Thomas Group, and Peter O'Grady Walshe, former managing director of Xtravision and finance director of Power Leisure, got together in 2002 to launch a takeover bid for Arnotts. When it proved unsuccessful, they discussed the idea of creating a wine warehouse group. "After a while, our wives pretty much told us to stop talking about it and just do it," Delaney says.
The rationale was straightforward. "Wine is overpriced in Ireland compared to the UK. When you strip the prices right back, allowing for euro conversion, duty, VAT and so on, you find a significant differential. We believe that by sourcing wines in a better way we can bring prices down."
This better way may mean doing smarter deals with existing Irish importers, based on higher volume. Or it may mean bypassing them altogether to bring certain wines in direct from other EU countries where their prices are much lower. (Wolf Blass, for instance, comes to the Naas Road from Norway.) The Irish wine trade will love that.
The first thing that strikes you in the vast, bright space - a converted car showroom next to Köping Volvo - is that most of the 500 wines on display cost a couple of euro less per bottle than elsewhere, even allowing for the discount normally offered on case sales. (The minimum purchase is 12 bottles, but cases may be mixed.) Prices are easy to compare because so far most of the stock consists of familiar brands. This, coupled with 7,000 square feet of retail space, puts Cellars closer to the Australian chain, Dan Murphy's, than to Majestic, whose outlets tend to be smaller and more oriented toward fine wine.
The reaction so far? "We've had no problem at all selling by the case," Delaney reports, "and we seem to be attracting a very mixed clientele - people who are new to wine, people who know a lot about it, people buying wines for weddings, even restaurateurs." The unexpected demand for Spanish and Italian wine may see the Old World section at the back of the shop expand into the large New World chunk at the front. More fine wines will arrive in time for Christmas - and more Big Wine Warehouses are on the way, with five planned for the Dublin area by the end of 2005. Watch this (enormous) space.
Cellars: The Big Wine Warehouse, 1a Concord Industrial Estate, Naas Road, Dublin 12, 01-4299633. Mon-Sat, 10.30 a.m.-8 p.m.; Sunday, noon-6 p.m.
ALBERTO TELLS ALL
One of the most fascinating wine visitors to Dublin in recent weeks was Alberto Antonini, the consultant responsible for last Saturday's Argentine Bottle of the Week, La Remonta Malbec from La Consulta.
As you might guess from the name, Antonini is Italian, with a strong cohort of Italian companies in his portfolio of 30 clients. But commitments in Spain, Argentina, Chile and California have given him a broad international perspective. Studies in Bordeaux can't have done any harm, either - unless you count inculcating a lingering antipathy to French arrogance. "I was treated as a second-class citizen in Bordeaux," he sighs. "All the foreigners were." Later in the conversation, he fights back with mischievous sarcasm. "The French are really very lucky, because each year their harvest is better than the one before!"
Unlike many producers and consultants, Antonini is remarkably open about all the magic tricks now available to make wines taste better. He is a strong advocate of thermoflash, a technique which involves heating the grapes, then putting them in a vacuum so that the skins explode and the tannins are immediately extracted. The resulting wine is softer and brighter than it would otherwise be.
He is also a fan of micro-oxygenation, the process whereby tiny bubbles of oxygen are released into wine for a period after fermentation, to smooth out bitter tannins. And he doesn't condemn oak chips or staves - a cheap way of giving wines a fashionably oaky taste without recourse to expensive barrels. "Oak chips or staves are great if they come from good oak. "
Although he still works in Tuscany, Antonini clearly feels that other parts of Italy such as the Marche and Puglia offer much better value. But it seems that Argentina excites him most of all, with its endless sunlight and rich treasury of old vines. "I think Viognier and Bonarda will become the most important varieties there," he predicts. "They both make real wines - not silicon wines." Good news indeed. And value is undisputed while labour costs remain low. "A vineyard worker in Argentina earns the same amount in a day as a worker in Tuscany earns in 20 minutes." Think about that before you buy your next Chianti.
MEDAL MANIA
Interesting to see Aldi's recent full-page advertisement announcing the fact that a number of its wines have won medals in competitions such as the International Wine Challenge. The main reason why this monster taste-off carries little weight with many wine pros is precisely because it hands out so many prizes. This year, just over 9,000 wines were entered - and of those an astonishing 5,300 scooped awards. How crazy is that! Look closely and you will see that most of the Aldi winners garnered "Seal of Approval", the lowest category of commendation. Beware those little medal stickers on bottles, not just in Aldi but throughout the wine trade. They don't mean a hell of a lot.
START YOUR CHRISTMAS DRINKS LIST
Wyndham Estate Bin 222 Sparkling Chardonnay is a new and utterly delicious Australian sparkling wine which has just been launched on the Irish market at the tasty price of €14.95. Winemaker Brett McKinnon introduced the entire Wyndham Estate range a few weeks ago at an ambitious wine and food matching dinner in One Pico in Dublin, reflecting the approach which this Hunter Valley winery has adopted for 10 years in its Seasons' Plates dinners staged at the winery with help from guest chefs. More details of the welcome sparkling addition soon. In the meantime, enjoy Brett's Pinot Noir - see Bottles of the Week.
KILLINEY WINE NIGHT
Gabriel and Pamela Cooney of On the Grapevine promise a vast array of unusual and exciting wines at their annual wine fair - as you would expect, given the wealth of bottles in their Dalkey and new Booterstown shops. It will be held in Fitzpatricks Castle Hotel in Killiney on Thursday, November 4th, 7-9pm. Tickets, €10, may be bought in advance from either outlet: 01-2353054 (Dalkey) and 01-2108157 (Booterstown).
AND IN BRIEF
The latest Bridgestone Irish Food Guide by John & Sally McKenna has excellent wine shopping updates. Pointers to Cabot & Co in the IFSC (now in bigger premises on Custom House Square), McCambridges in Galway, Compendium in Belfast and others will generate a serious thirst ...
The Premium Whiskeys of Ireland Club is offering members 10 per cent off premium Irish whiskeys at Midleton, Bushmills and Bow Street distilleries - see www.premiumwhiskeys.com. Following its Riesling bonanza last year, the Wicklow Wine Company is running another great German offer - but time is short, so hurry ...