Wine with Leslie: All the best from your local indie winery or offy
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Small is beautiful, so said EF Schumacher’s classic 1970’s book on economics (‘as if people mattered’); it still resonates today.
Sustainable business and farming practices that focus on the human and on the environment are never going to be a bad idea.
The wine that excites me most is almost all from small producers — men and women marching to the beat of their own drum, making wine that excites them, not what the buyer from the supermarket chain dictates.
The same goes for independent butchers, cheesemongers and off-licences; good luck finding bavette, raw milk goat’s cheese or Vin Jaune in the supermarket.
That producer with half a hectare in Morgon’s Côte de Py or on the hill of Condrieu can’t supply the supermarket because they don’t make enough.
They need independent importers and off-licences and so do we if we have any interest in wine as a culture rather than a commodity.
NOffLA is Ireland’s National Off-Licence Association representing the independent wine trade and every year they invite importers to submit wines to the Irish Wine Show.
The winning wines are exclusively stocked in independents, their collective buying power ensuring a discounted price.
A good independent wine retailer will learn your preferences and encourage you to try new wines, broaden your horizons, teach you about geography and rare grape varieties and bring pleasure to your dining table.
600 wines were submitted and tasted blind by members of the trade with the winners chosen by a separate panel of journalists (I was judging reds this year).
I am recommending the best old-world white under €15, the top rosé and the red wine of the year below, I’ll feature others in the weeks before Christmas.
A booklet detailing the full list of winners is available from NOffLA off-licences nationwide.
Produced on the Cramele Recas estate near Timisoara in western Romania. Recas wines are consistently reliable and have featured on this page in the past — the Paparuda Pinot Noir is also worth trying.
Peach and tropical fruit aromas, rounded and textured on the palate and with good weight and balancing freshness.
Chiaretto is one of my favourite styles of rosé, from the hills around Lake Garda and the same grapes as Valpolicella, Bardolino and Amarone.
Always packed with ripe berry fruit aromas and always dry this is a classic example. Very pale in colour, aromas of red currants and raspberry, tangy and crisp.
Chosen as Red Wine of the Year due to its high marks, named for the pig of the same name which is used for presunto ibérico.
A blend of Touriga Nacional, Alicante Bouschet and some Aragonez (Tempranillo) this has violet scented red and dark fruit aromas, a supple soft palate and some balancing acidity.
Brewed on Bow Street in Smithfield Dublin by Hopkins & Hopkins, Hopburgh Helles is also excellent and featured on this page two years ago.
Brewed from pale and roasted malts and noble hops with a cool ferment and lagered (cold conditioned) for six weeks.
Pours a dark red-brown with aromas of smoky dark malts, full flavoured and rounded with a crisp tangy finish.