Surveying wine in pubs a couple of years ago, I remember discovering two things. The first was hope. A definite feeling that dire old plonk was disappearing. The second was a fellow called Martin McCaffrey, a publican so taken with wine that he was offering 16 different quarter-bottles in The Hole in the Wall up by the Phoenix Park. Bloody great, I thought. But that selection pales alongside what you'll find in his new pub, Nancy Hands. And not a quarter-bottle in sight.
In the vast Parkgate Street premises fashioned out of a bar called the Deerpark with adjacent video shop and hairdresser, McCaffrey sells wine like no other Irish pub I've come across. (That should bring the letters flooding in.) An entire wall is filled with tasty bottles set to become red wines of the week - handsomely displayed in big glass cases. Another wall, behind one of the main bars, is filled with thirst-inducing whites.
He shrugs: "The demand is there. And people are beginning to know their wines." A modest warning is sounded to all the publicans who "take the attitude that the pint of Guinness reigns supreme, and stuff the rest of it".
Martin McCaffrey is a wine lover, which helps - a man who has travelled widely, visiting wine bars and wineries, especially in Australia. In Nancy Hands, his enthusiasm shows in the changing selection of wines by the glass - at least 10, all decent, all £3. There are also two wines of the week - a white and a red which are on special promotion by the bottle (the evening I dropped in, a Mondavi Chardonnay and an Oregon Pinot Noir, each £14).
And if there's nothing in that lot to grab you, you can ask for the truly terrific wine list from the restaurant upstairs. Here, among over 200 offerings, you'll find recognisable, drinkable house wines (£12), some attractive Italians, a decent French selection (right up to crus classes and the very best from the New World, with Australia in the forefront. Petaluma, Shaw & Smith, Grant Burge, David Wynn, Cape Mentelle, Hollick, Leeuwin . . . what a line-up! Rather than settle for one or two suppliers, McCaffrey has handpicked star wines from 10 or 12. It shows. And most are priced at £15-£25.
He doesn't bother much with half bottles, preferring to focus on wines by the glass. But, good heavens, he does bother with champagne. Is fin de siecle fever already sweeping along the Liffey? "No, not really, but it's a great talking point." He means his selection of outsize Bollinger bottles - up in fourbottle steps, from jeroboams all the way to mighty 20-bottle nebuchadnezzars. But there are also 14 non-vintage champagnes, including the best of the best; nine vintage labels and seven cuvees prestiges. Pretty amazing for a pub. Except that this is a pub so dedicated to choice in every sphere that it has a glossy list of over 100 malts, 14 Irish whiskeys and 60 vodkas.
Nancy Hands may be a fairly extreme manifestation of the forward march of wine in pubs, but there are other positive signs. Take the pubs with Cheers Take Home franchises in and around Dublin. The staff have got stuck into wine education in a serious way and this - along with in-store tastings, wines-of-the-month-promotions and the like - has brought huge benefits to wine-quaffing customers. "The whole thing is exploding", says Mary O'Callaghan, wine consultant to the Cheers group. In many premises, punters who don't like the pub selection can choose something more adventurous from the offlicence next door and have it brought in.
Gibneys in Malahide is one such place. "No problem at all," says Siobhan Gibney. "We quite often have pub customers who are looking for something special - maybe even spending £70 or £80 on a bottle." But the pub wine list is so attractive, varied and value-oriented that you couldn't blame wine customers for staying put. It includes: Tangy Marques de Riscal Sauvignon from Rueda at just £10.99; Villa di Vetrice Chianti Rufina Riserva 1995 and Norton Malbec, one of Argentina's best, both at £10.69; Heggie's gorgeous Eden Valley Viognier at £13, which isn't much more than what it costs off the shelf.
It may be early days yet, but from various parts of the country reports are filtering through that pubs are getting into wine in earnest - with the impetus often coming from their restaurant business. I heard only the other day about the Uluru Bar, a new venture in Ardkeen in Waterford. If the name is intriguing (it's Aboriginal for the land around Ayer's Rock: the owners are returned immigrants to Australia), so is the volume of vino being consumed. "One of our suppliers says we're selling as much wine as any of the big bars in Dublin," says manager Jim O'Shea.
If the six quarter-bottles in the bar don't take your fancy, you can mull over the full Ayer's Restaurant list, which includes eight half-bottles and about 35 nicely varied full bottles - 22 of them under £20. The Uluru reckons this breadth of choice is crucial: "Customers are coming in and naming the wines they want to drink. That was unheard of in a pub a few years ago."
O'Dowds in Roundstone is a good example of a long-established rural pub slipping steadily winewards. "We have to. People are just drinking a lot more wine," says Nicholas Griffin. And wine that's a lot more interesting, too. Tucked away from the Atlantic winds and the Connemara wilds, you can sit here and sip anything from the reliable Chilean, Caliterra (£11.50) to a good Chablis, a winning Chianti, a top-drawer New Zealand Sauvignon, a peerless Sancerre. Or Savennieres, for heaven's sake: the rich, concentrated Chateau de Varennes (see below), from that tiny little Loire appellation that makes wine nuts drool. In an Irish country pub - imagine! It'll be sake and Bellinis next. Nancy Hands is already selling oodles of those, too.
Nancy Hands, 30-32 Parkgate Street, Dublin 8 (01-6770149); Gibneys/Cheers Take Home, New Street, Malahide (01-8450242); Uluru Bar & Ayer's Restaurant, Dunmore Road, Ardkeen, Co Waterford (051-855333); O'Dowds, Roundstone, Co Galway (095- 35809)
Pub PickingsWith luck, you should find some of these wines in other pubs, restaurants and off-licences, besides those mentioned.
Sparkling
Pelorus , Cloudy Bay, 1994 (Nancy Hands, £25; retail outlets including Jus de Vine Portmarnock, Higgins Clonskeagh, Redmonds Ranelagh, McCabes Merrion, Mitchells Kildare St and Glasthule, Findlaters Harcourt St, usually about £19.99). Supremely stylish fizz from the same source as New Zealand's most stylish Sauvignon, Cloudy Bay. Creamy, toasty, rich . . . and Nancy's price makes it especially tempting.
White
Wynns Coonawarra Riesling 1998 (Ayers Restaurant £10.50; Gibneys Malahide £10.99; many retail outlets including Vintry Rathgar, Sweeneys Dorset St and Fairview, Deveneys SCR, Redmonds Ranelagh, McCabes Merrion, Noble Rot Navan, Vineyard Galway, Kellys/Next Door Longford, O'Donovans Cork, usually about £7.99). Lime-fresh Aussie Riesling at its easy-drinking best: good with food or without.
Grant Burge Old Vine Semillon, Barossa, 1997 (Nancy Hands, £18, retail outlets include Martins Fairview, Sweeneys Dorset St, Kellys Clontarf, Lord Mayors Swords, Jus de Vine Portmarnock, Hartes-Spar Clonakilty, Dailys Douglas, usually £10-11). The Riesling revival is under way; Semillon next, anyone? This is a luxuriously textured, mouthfilling, spicy version. Try it with spicy pork.
Chateau de Varennes Savennieres 1997 (O'Dowd's Roundstone, £18.50; retail outlets include Thomas's Foxrock, Vineyard Galway, £12.99£13.99). You'll see the influence of oak here, making for a full-bodied Savennieres with a dash of vanilla and spice. Good with fish in a creamy sauce.
Red
Masi Valpolicella Classico 1997 (Gibneys Malahide £10.39, Nancy Hands, £3 glass, £13 bottle; retail outlets include Deveneys Dundrum, Vintry Rathgar, McCabes Merrion, Redmonds Ranelagh, Cooneys Harold's Cross, Foleys Cabinteely, Nolans and Kellys Clontarf, SuperValu Raheny, Killester, Malahide, Westport, O'Donovans Cork, usually about £6.99). Escape the sweetness of so many New World light-to-middleweight reds with this juicy Italian. See Bottle of the Week
Ninth Island Pinot Noir, Tasmania, 1997/8 (Nancy Hands, £18; retail outlets include Sweeneys Dorset St, Kellys Artane, Londis Malahide, McCabes Merrion, usually about £13.99). Second label of Tasmania's well known winery Piper's Brook, where the visionary Andrew Pirie holds sway. Lovely soft fruit with a slight spritz - very attractive.
Chateau Charron Les Gruppes, Premieres Cotes de Blaye, 1996 (O'Dowds £18; retail outlets Vineyard Galway, Loughnane's Food Hall Galway, Feeneys Salthill, Redmonds Ranelagh, usually about £9.50). Claret with class . . . here's a wine that shows you don't have to shell out a month's school fees to enjoy decent red Bordeaux - flavoursome and firm. A Dail restaurant favourite, apparently. Bring on the beef . . .