Wine:Selling wine rather than writing about it has paid off for Ronan Foster
"Many great Italian wines are undervalued," says Ronan Foster, "because many consumers don't want to pay as much for a wine if it's not French. That just shows the effectiveness of the French marketing machine over the years, rather than being based on the quality and value actually on offer from Italy."
Foster should know. He has experienced the wine business from two distinct angles, first as wine writer for The Irish Times for about a decade, until he left journalism in 1991 to set up a wine importer, Best Cellars. Since then he has been quietly sourcing high-end wines for his extensive private, restaurant and retail clients. "It has been brilliant, hardly like work at all. I love meeting and talking to people who love wine - of whom there are more and more in Ireland all the time."
As befitting a poacher turned gamekeeper, he continues to seek out the best. "I am always on the lookout for great new growers. I concentrate on finding not just good but great wines from top growers. I look for quality, quality, quality. I am not a volume dealer, and never will be, but that's fine, because none of the growers I deal with are volume producers, so we fit one another very well."
His portfolio is now 75 per cent Italian, with the rest French, though he says he would be interested in taking on a suitable New Zealand or Californian winemaker. The producers he imports include leading names such as the Barolo kingpin Aldo Conterno, La Spinetta from Piedmont and Tuscany's Castello dei Rampolla, plus bright new talent such as Alberto Longo from Puglia, who works with indigenous grapes.
"They are all small estates run by passionate owners. I don't deal with big négociants or co-ops. Aldo Conterno is the best example of a passionate winemaker. He makes wine only in what he considers to be good years. For example, he made no wine at all in 2002 and very little in 2003, while many other winemakers in the region made and bottled their entire crop as usual. This meant a huge financial loss for him, but he wants people to know, as he puts it, that 'if the name Aldo Conterno appears on a label, then it is a good wine'."
At the moment Foster is planning to develop his website. In the interim, those interested "can call or e-mail me and I'm happy to chat with people about the wines and make recommendations if they wish". The minimum order is one 12-bottle case, and the minimum quantity of any one wine is six bottles.
What to go for? Apart from those already named, Foster also has Promis 2004, from the Tuscan venture of the Piedmont superstar Angelo Gaja, at €25, and plenty of other interesting wines from about €15 up. It probably is best to start there and work your way up to the sublime pleasure and nosebleed prices single- estate Barolos. But be warned: these wines can be seriously addictive.
Best Cellars is at 01-4946508 and www.bestcellars.ie
Beer necessities
You didn't always need an international phrase book to enjoy a beer. But as Ireland changes, so do its drinking habits. Today international beers are commonplace, but connoisseurs will still find plenty to interest them at the Conrad Hotel in Dublin this month - the hotel is having a "festival of world beers", featuring products from 13 countries, including lagers, pilsners, kölsh and wheat beers, as well as Trappist ales. Among the fair-trade, gluten-free, fruit and organic beer will be names such as Chimay Rouge, from Belgium, Schneider Weisse, from Germany, Baltika, from Russia, Coopers Sparkling Ale, from Australia, and Beerlao, from Laos.