The Winebuff Blog

Archive for 2011

A hot one…Jalapeño Cranberry Sauce

Dec
11
2011

A Christmas dinner with turkey is just not complete without a good dollop of cranberry sauce. Tom and Linda from the Wine Buff Sligo have added a tex mex slant to one of our favourite sauces. The jalapeño, cardamom and cloves bring out the special depth of flavours from the cranberries.

Ingredients

Roasted Cranberry Sauce
1 orange
1 lb. fresh or thawed cranberries
1 cup sugar
2 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
1 tsp. salt
4 green cardamom pods, crushed
4 whole cloves
2 sticks cinnamon
1 small jalapeño, stemmed and thinly sliced
1 1/2 tbsp. port

Heat oven to 180°. Using a peeler, remove peel from the orange, taking off as little of the white pith as possible. Cut peel into very thin strips about 1 to 2″ long. Squeeze juice from the orange; strain and put aside one 1 tbsp. of juice.

In a bowl, combine peel, cranberries, sugar, olive oil, salt, cardamom pods, cloves, cinnamon, and jalapeños. Toss and transfer to a parchment paper–lined baking sheet. Roast in the oven until cranberries begin to burst and release their juices, about 15 minutes should be enough.

Transfer the cranberry mixture to a bowl; stir in put aside orange juice and port. Let sit for at least 1 hour so that the flavours are infused. Remove and discard cardamom, cloves, and cinnamon before serving.

Christmas……Sweetie’s

Dec
07
2011

Curiously, Christmas pudding (plum pudding) was a latecomer to Ireland, but it caught on quickly and to this day it’s one of the most traditional of all Christmas dessert dishes.

While some still prefer home cooked puddings, ready-made and cooked puddings are now available. Higher quality shops such as Nash 19 in Cork offer Christmas puddings comparable to homemade, without the hours of your work and preparation.

For a nation that love our sweet chocs after dinner, we surprisingly don’t make much of dessert wines, we often stick with whatever we were sipping with our main course, despite the fact that a thick-set red isn’t remotely the right partner for pudding or the sweet tasting delights.

Clear the decks, and away with your red… The sweet wines are coming!

We did a wee taste preview last night of a Christmas pudding from Nash 19 in Cork, the recipe was handed down to Clare from her grandmother, which we matched to four of our favourite Wine Buff dessert tipples.

Up first, was the 2005 Loupiac-Gaudiet a sweet wine from Bordeaux, best to add fresh cream to the pudding this brought out the best in the Loupiac, great taste of honey and caramel.

Second was the 2004 Tokaj Classic 3 puttonyos from Hungary, a concentrated wine with apricot and pineapple flavours, an excellent balance between sweetness and acidity and a perfect match for the rich pudding.

Next up was the Reserve Port from Van Zeller, young ports really cope where other dessert wine falter, try it lightly chilled, it was rich and robust with the pudding and if you have overdone the Christmas dinner its great with a couple of mince pies.

And finally we drank the Dios Baco Pedro Ximenez sherry, this is sweet syrup, liquid raisins and figs, in a glass, almost two sweet for the pudding, amazing with vanilla ice-cream and a huge favourite for those with a sweet sweet tooth.

Clare is keeping the original recipe a family secret.

Ingredients  

Peter Ward Fruits, Sugar, Eggs, Nuts, Spices, Salt, Brandy, Rum, Flour.

Ranelagh, my new career and my feet !

Nov
23
2011

What’s left of my foot. (With apologies to Christy Brown)

I can now officially say I have been in business for myself as a wine merchant, for over one month. Although that’s such a small period of time for any business, I would like to pass on some nuggets of information I’ve learned so far.

I had thought that opening a wine shop in the teeth of a recession would mean my real worries would be overheads and insane professional fees (and insane professionals) but no. It’s my poor achin’ legs and feet! Don’t get me wrong, overheads costs and insane professionals and their fees have all taken their toll on my previously unfurrowed brow but what keeps me awake at night, mainly with cramps, is the oul’ calves and feet. In my previous life I might have walked forty minutes to the office, another thirty ambling at lunchtime and again forty coming home. Now I spend most of my day on my feet, talking to customers and walking around the shop showing them the finest wines available to humanity. This is over an eight hour day. Not the less than two hours spent casually strolling which once passed for exercise.

I’ve tried runners, I tried Sketchers and Doc Marten’s. I’ve tried soft soles, hard soles and I would have worn sandals if there weren’t obvious Health & Safety concerns over my exposed blue throbbing feet. I’ve tried boots that were previously more comfortable than a T.D.’s lifestyle and shoes more supportive than an amateur boxer’s mother. None helped. The stylish pointy Italian shoes were no worse nor no better than the barge shaped Hush Puppies. There would be nothing for it but to persevere and build up calves that would do a senior county hurler proud.  My daughter, who works in the hotel industry, tells me that my legs and feet will adjust after two or three weeks but then again she comes from a long line of liars.

It does mean that I’ve shelved my plans to visit the gym in the mornings as all this footwork has the added benefit of weight loss. Slowly but surely the pounds I put on while getting the shop together are falling off again. Result! Of course my increased consumption of wine (research don’t ya know) might take the gloss off that but, on balance, I’m a happy wine merchant as I hobble home in the evening.

The Race – from grape to glass

Nov
18
2011

At one minute past midnight on the third Thursday of each November, banners in France and around the world proclaim the news: Le Beaujolais Nouveau est arrivĂ©! “The New Beaujolais has arrived!” So let the party begin.

To celebrate the new arrival date we had a special tasting in the Wine Buff Cork on Thursday night, with a group of ten French wine drinkers (no pressure)  and two of the wines tasted on the night were the Beuajolais Nouveau 2011 from George Duboeuf and Chateau de Vaux Beaujolais Villages 2009, these wines are made from the same grape but that’s where the similarity ends, lets just say it was a resounding 10 to nil for the villages.

So what’s it all about? Beaujolais Nouveau is a funny thing, people get worked up about it, wine connoisseurs  turn their noses up at it. For reasons not entirely clear, in the 1990s the Japanese went completely gaga for the wine and became the world’s largest consumer of Beaujolais Nouveau and, increasingly, Germans and Americans—flash cash to get their hands on it.

Anyone within a wheelbarrow’s journey of the Beaujolais wine-growing region is either planning festivities, maximizing their profit margin, or both.  By the time it is over, over 65 million bottles, nearly half of the region’s total annual production, will be distributed and drunk around the world.

It is a triumph of marketing and promotion, mostly due to the efforts of local negociant George Duboeuf.

Basically, the guys in the cartoon are more in touch with Beaujolais Nouveau than the so called wine connoisseurs.

Without going  into unnecessary detail, let’s just say that most years it’s not very good. Beaujolais Nouveau is as about as close to white  wine as a red wine can get, due to the way it is made, no dryness, leaving an easy to drink, fruity wine.

It tastes better when chilled, this makes for a festive wine to be gulped rather than sipped, enjoyed in high spirits rather than critiqued…… in any case, a bottle of Beaujolais Nouveau is a fun way to mark the calendar, a yearly wine ritual that you can share with wine drinkers all over the world.

The Wine Buff goes International.

Oct
25
2011

The Wine Buff opened its first non-Irish shop this October in Plasencia Spain, which is situated about 200km west of Madrid. The franchise was opened by Asun Manzano Sanchez-Ocaña.  Asun is extremely excited about her new adventure and proudly states, “I am now part of The Wine Buff International family.”

 

Asun, a pharmacist by profession, sold her pharmacy in 2009 and was searching for a rewarding business opportunity when she encountered The Wine Buff. Asun is confident The Wine Buff’s concept of extraordinary wines @ ordinary prices, suits the Spanish market, especially in the current economic climate. So confident in fact, she has plans for two further boutiques in Salamanca and Caceres.

The opening of the new Wine Buff shop was attended by over 250 visitors to the shop and the selection of French wine is proving a winner with the Spanish customers.  

The Wine Buff 2011-10-25 13:20:00

Oct
25
2011
The Wine Buff Plasencia is up and running for less than a month, and though there are teething issues, overall the Spanish launch is working smoothly.The feedback from Asun is great; she is already experiencing repeat customers, and, visitors to the her shop are delighted by the quality/price of The Wine Buff selection. We have sourced locally a most incredible organic Olive Oil, it will go on sal...
Read the rest of this post on Paddy's Blog ››

A Tipple of Sherry

Oct
23
2011

We are looking to add Sherry to our exculsive portfolio of wines and ports and next Wednesday the 26th of Oct we have a Sherry tasting in the Wine Buff Cork, yes you heard right a Sherry tasting not the mass produced sherry “Grandma drinks at Christmas” but real sherry from the oldest wine producing regions of Spain and in Robert Parker’s magazine the Wine Advocate, he gave rave reviews to 3 different bodegas and the scores ranged from 87 points all the way up to 96 points. Whether you agree with Parker’s scores or not, if someone with so much knowledge about wine can put a sherry in the same league as a first growth Bordeaux, maybe there is something to be said for it.

The wines are from 5 to 20 years old and are made in the traditional solera system. Basically this means that each harvest new wine is blended with old wine. This is accomplished by building a pyramid like stack of barrels, one on top of the other, where the oldest wine is at the bottom and the newest wine is at the top. In this way, the wine at the bottom of the stack is drawn off to be bottled, and in theory, contains wine from the very first time the solera was filled up. The goal is to add complexity to the wine over time, while mitigating the harmful effects of bad vintages.

How do you get different styles of Sherry ?

Sherry is what it is because of a yeast called flor, if you looked into a barrel of sherry it would appear as having something wrong with it. Every year, in a percentage of the newly filled barrels the yeast flor begins to grow and creates a thick layer of yeast cells that coat the top of the wine within the barrel. Where the wine touches the air it creates a slightly oxidised flavour.

 Sometimes this is actually wanted, as in the case of Tawny ports and Oloroso Sherries – the longer the wine is in contact with this air, the darker it will become, taking on colours of dark wood and rich caramel. With Fino sherry, the flor protects this from happening, and a wine aged 20 years is still as crystal clear as the day it entered the barrel.

Wines that develop the flor, a process that is neither guaranteed nor exactly understood, can produce the following styles:

Fino - Served cold, pale in colour, sharp acidity with light salt nut quality.

Manzanilla - A light style of fino make around the port of  Sanlucar de Barrameda a city in the south of Spain. This style is the only type of sherry that is so site specific it cannot be produced anywhere else.

Amontillado is basically a wine that is first aged under flor but which is then exposed to air. The wine with time becomes darker and richer than a fino.

Oloroso is left to mature longer with the air producing a darker, richer wine. Again naturally dry,  can be sold sweetened this is called Amoroso.

In the end, most Sherries are dry with two exceptions, Cream and Pedro Ximenez.

Pedro Ximenez is a grape that is harvested at a naturally high sugar level, these grapes produce an intensely sweet dark brown or black wine.

Cream Sherry -  a common type of sweet sherry made by blending different wines, such as oloroso sweetened with Pedro Ximenez.

The Wine Buff 2011-10-17 12:39:00

Oct
17
2011
Two new Wine Buff Franchise stores have opened this month, the first in Ranelagh Dublin, and the second in Plasencia Spain. We wish Ivor in Ranelagh, and Asun in Plasencia, huge success with their new ventures.The Wine Buff Plasencia is the first Wine Buff outlet to open outside of Ireland, and the fabulous reaction to our concept in Spain mirrors the reaction received in Ireland over the past dec...
Read the rest of this post on Paddy's Blog ››

The NEW !! Wine Buff Ranelagh

Oct
05
2011

The Wine Buff launched a new store in Ireland on Friday the 30th of September, when Ivor Geraghty opened his new Wine Buff shop at 51 Cullenswood Road on the Triangle in the centre of Ranelagh village, Dublin 6. 

Ivor is a true local having been born and reared in the area and now lives only a five minute stroll from the shop.

Ivor has strong business backgrounds, he “did the state some service” for over thirty years before deciding that providing the good people of South Dublin with great wine might be even more satisfying! During this time Ivor was also working as a music critic and radio presenter and it was here that he learned that while there might be such things as a free lunch, free wine just isn’t worth lifting the glass for!

Having learned about wine from long languid holidays in Italy it was only when Ivor became familiar with The Wine Buff range that he truly appreciated the qualities of a good French and Spanish wine.

“In fact it was a chance gift of  French wine bought in The Wine Buff Clonmel, which introduced me to both the wines and the shops!, I did some further research on the businees and of course the wines and the rest is history” said Ivor.

So call in for a chat when we are open or a taste during Wine Time  at weekends. Ivor will be delighted to take you through our range of wines and his favourites.

Winter Salad

Sep
30
2011

This is the second post from Tom and Linda at the Wine Buff in Sligo; it’s another foodie recipe and one of Linda’s favourites not sure about Tom’s fondness for beetroot! 

A couple of customers from the shop (Tom and Fiona), dropped in some fresh home-grown beetroot and Linda decided to throw together a winter salad with beetroot, orange sections, vinaigrette and blue cheese. The dish involves roasting the beetroot with orange juice, zest, honey and thyme, these bring out the natural sweetness of the beetroot which could be served on their own or made into a salad. Tom even was impressed with the taste; the vinaigrette will be enough for several salads and will keep in the fridge for a couple of weeks…

Ingredients (serves 4)

¾ kilogram of  beetroot (about 5 medium)
1 orange, zested and juiced
3 thyme sprigs
1 ½  teaspoons sea salt
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons unsalted butter

Salad & Vinaigrette

4 cups mixed lettuce
2 oranges
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
½  teaspoon orange zest, finely grated
ÂĽ cup white balsamic vinegar
½  cup canola oil
¼  cup olive oil
1 cup blue cheese, crumbled
salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 220 degrees. Peel the beetroot and cut into quarters place these on a large piece of foil.

Peel the zest from one orange and sprinkle over the beetroot quarters. Cut the remainder of the orange in half and squeeze the juice over the beetroot, add the honey, thyme sprigs, salt and butter.  Seal the foil and place on a baking tray in the oven.  Bake for 45 minutes or until tender.

For the dressing, finely grate ½ teaspoon of orange zest and place in a mixing bowl. Remove the skin of the oranges including the white membrane with a knife, cut between the white membranes to release the orange segments. Set the segments aside and squeeze out any remaining juices into the mixing bowl.

Add the mustard, vinegar and orange zest to the mixing bowl.  Then gradually add the oils while whisking constantly to emulsify the vinaigrette adding salt to taste.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the lettuce leaves with just enough of the vinaigrette to lightly coat the leaves.

Arrange the lettuce on four serving plates.  Add the beets and orange segments.  Spoon a little more of the vinaigrette over the beets.  Add black pepper to taste and sprinkle on the blue cheese.