Learning about Wine at Ballymaloe Cookery School
A great presentation by Maurice O’Mahony, of Wine Alliance - with great slides showing the dramatic Douro Valley landscape, a unique part of the wine world, and a brilliant tasting of a selection of whites and reds to taste, from Quinta do Judeu, Douro and Isidro de Pegoes, Setubal. Our thanks and appreciation to Maurice for a very enjoyable and  educational evening at the cookery school.
2013 is already looking like a good vintage Рfor wine events at Ballymaloe. We are looking forward to great line-up of wine events, and to welcoming Jean-Charles Cazes of Ch̢teau Lynch-Bages, on March 10th, and to welcoming back Jancis Robinson MW in May 2013 as part of the Ballymaloe Literary Festival of Food and Wine.
Jean-Charles Cazes
Château Lynch-Bages, needs no introduction in Ireland – one of the best known, respected, collected and followed, of the ‘Irish Wine Geese’ Château of Bordeaux. We are delighted to be welcoming Jean Charles to Ballymaloe – and as part of The Gathering 2013, there will also be a series of other wine events, which are being planned for Cork City and County, throughout the year, with ‘Irish Wine Geese’ winemakers from all over the wine world, ‘flying home’.
Born in Bordeaux, Jean-Charles Cazes grew up in Pauillac in the heart of the family vineyards at Château Lynch Bages, and since 2006, taking over from his father, Jean-Michel Cazes, he has been in charge of all the family vineyards, in France and abroad. Join Jean Charles at Ballymaloe, for one, or both, of the following events – a wine tasting & presentation in the Grain Store at Ballymaloe, followed by a wine dinner, with the wines of Château Lynch Bages and The Cazes Family Collection wines. Wine tasting & presentation, by Jean Charles Cazes, at The Grain Store, Ballymaloe, 6.30pm, Sunday 10th March €18. Followed by a wine dinner, with Jean Charles Cazes, in the Yeats Room dining room, at Ballymaloe House 8.30pm €95. Advance booking advised. Special rates also available for accommodation
Jancis Robinson MW
One of a handful of wine communicators with an international reputation, Jancis Robinson writes daily for JancisRobinson.com (voted first-ever Wine Website of the Year in the Louis Roederer International Wine Writers Awards2010), weekly for The Financial Times, and bi-monthly for a column that is syndicated around the world. She is also editor of The Oxford Companion to Wine, co-author with Hugh Johnson of The World Atlas of Wine, co-author of Wine Grapes – A complete guide to 1,368 vine varieties, including their origins and flavours, each of these books recognised as a standard reference worldwide.
An award-winning TV presenter, she is invited all over the world to conduct wine events and act as a wine judge. In 1984 she was the first person outside the wine trade to pass the rigorous Master of Wine exams and in 2003 she was awarded an OBE by Her Majesty the Queen, on whose cellar she now advises.
She loves and lives for wine in all its glorious diversity, generally favouring balance and subtlety over sheer mass.
We are delighted to be welcoming Jancis & Nick back to Ballymaloe, and looking forward to the Ballymaloe Literary Festival of Food and Wine
We were all delighted in Ballymaloe to be recently awarded ‘Best restaurant wine list and wine service (nationwide)’ by Tomás Clancy in his annual Sunday Business Post wine awards, published 6th January, 2013.
We were also delighted that our pop-up wine shop at Ballymaloe featured in the Top 5 ‘Best new wine merchants’.
Our congratulations to all listed and to Ireland’s vibrant wine community.
We opened a pop-up wine shop at Ballymaloe House, offering a selection of wines from the wine cellars and wine list for the festive season. In the ‘Pop-Up wine shop’ here in Ballymaloe, we have put some wines into ‘festive collections’ with Christmas and the festive season in mind – aperitif, first course, main event, sweet wines, fortified – sherry, port and madeira; a variety of large format bottles in every shape & size possible; an ‘Icon’ selection, including Chateau Petrus , Chateau Latour, Chateau Leoville Las Cases and Penfolds Grange – as well as wines for the ‘day after’ and ‘party wines’. We were delighted to welcome guest wine people who opened some of their favourite wines to taste and wine advice on all things wine related for the festive season.
‘Wine for the Festive Season’ with Colm McCan & Peter Corr, at Ballymaloe Cookery School, Tuesday 11th December, 6pm
This entertaining & educational wine evening will run like a dinner party, starting with the Aperitifs, moving on to the Main Event and finishing with the End of the Day. Presenting the evening, with wines to taste, are Colm McCan, Sommelier at Ballymaloe House & Wine Teacher at Ballymaloe Cookery School, together with Peter Corr of Febvre & Co Wine Merchants who is also a guest wine teacher at Ballymaloe Cookery School, both of whom have a combined 50 years experience in the wine world, making them the ideal guides to Festive Wines.
Amaze yourself, your family and your friends with your wine knowledge, food & wine pairing, hot tips and wine gift ideas, all with Christmas and the Festive Season in mind.
Proceeds for this evening to the East Cork Slow Food Educational Project
On 27th September 2012, we welcomed back well known winemaker, David Hohnen, of McHenry Hohnen Wines, Margaret River, Western Australia for a wine tasting in The Grain Store at Ballymaloe. We had a number of events planned to co-incide with David’s visit - we were joined by the East Cork Cricket Club for a cricket experience on the lawn at Ballymaloe House, and also memebers of the local Kite-Surfers put on a display and demonstration – before returning to the Grain Store for David’s wine presentation & tasting on his wines from McHenry Hohnen – all followed by Ted Berner’s Wildside Cooking ‘fire-cooking’ Harvest Supper. Also see Muray Hohnen’s recent visit to Ballymaloe here
‘A New Zealand Wine Adventure in Ballymaloe’, which took place on Sunday 16th September.
With New Zealand winemakers Larry McKenna, Escarpment Wines, Martinborough & John Hancock, Trinity Hill Wines, Hawkes Bay.
Escarpment Wines are one of the success stories of the Martinborough region in the north island of New Zealand. The vineyards are dwarfed by the stunning mountain backdrop of the Aorangi Ranges, and the Te Muna Valley, where the vineyards are situated, means ‘secret’ or ‘special place’ and that is exactly how the people at Escarpment feel about the land and what it means to live, grow and make wine there.
Trinity Hill was established in the Gimblett Gravels sub-region of Hawkes Bay to produce world class wines that just happen to come from New Zealand. The emphasis is on the classic ‘Bordeaux’ varieties and Syrah for red wine from the Gimblett Gravels and Chardonnay, Pinot Gris and Sauvignon Blanc for
A great tasting with Larry and John, and thanks to Anthony Tindal, Nigel Werner and all at Tindal Wines for organising the visit of these two great New Zealand winemakers.
It’s a long way from Clare to here …. ‘A Taste of Clare in East Cork’
was held recently in Ballymaloe, with winemaker Dave Palmer, Skillogalee Wines, Clare Valley, South Australia
& Artisan food producers from Co. Clare, Ireland, Birgitta Curtin of The Burren Smokehouse and Siobhán Ni Ghairbhith, of St.Tola Goats Cheese
Skillogalee is a family-owned, highly acclaimed, boutique winery set amongst wooded hills in the picturesque Clare Valley, in South Australia.‘Our favourite South Australian winery’ Lonely Planet
‘Australian Top 100’ – Matthew Jukes
Delighted to recently welcome back to Ballymaloe, Paul-Vincent Avril, Clos des Papes, Chateauneuf-du-Pape, Southern Rhone. Clos des Papes needs little introduction in Ireland – his brother-in-law is Bill Kelly of Kellys Hotel Rosslare, and indeed, Clos des Papes needs little introduction in the world of wine, being much enjoyed by people who enjoy good wine, along with great reviews, including respected wine writers, Jancis Robinson MW here where she is writing about the 2010 vintage in the Rhone, and Mary Dowey here (Mary is a renowned expert on this part of France – Southern Rhone and Provence, and her blog is well worth following www.provencefoodandwine.com Clos des Papes also were awarded in 2007 ‘Wine of the Year’ by Wine Spectator and Producer of the Year 2010 by Le Grand Guide des Vin de France – Brettane & Desseauve.
We were delighted to welcome the Guibert Family of Mas de Daumas Gassac, Aniane for a Long Table Dinner in the glasshouse at Ballymaloe Cookery School on Thursday 2nd August, hosted by the Guibert Family and the Allen Family, with the Grand Cru wines of the estate, to launch Veronique Guibert’s cookbook ‘ Savours and Flavours of Daumas Gassac’. Ours thanks to two of Munster’s well known wine merhants, who represent Mas de Daumas Gassac, in Ireland for all their help in organising this evening –  Gary Gubbins of Red Nose Wine and Michael Kane, Curious Wines. Proceeds for the evening in aid of the East Cork Slow Food Educational Project.
For any futher information on Mas de Daumas Gassac wines, please contact wine merchant, Gary Gubbins, Red Nose Wine. Please also see the excellent video clips here from Mike & Gary’s voyage to Mas de Daumas Gassac – the vineyard here and the winery here
