This week sees the 50th Anniversary of mankind's greatest achievement of the 20th century. The United States' commitment to land humans on the moon before 1970 was a spectacularly ambitious goal: NASA's entire computing power (on the rocket, mission control and the Eagle lander) was less than that found in today's mobile phones. When Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became th...
Cortese estate, Sicily
With the O'Briens Italian Wine Sale continuing until 18th March there is at least 20% off all Italian wines. This offers the perfect opportunity to explore some of the lesser-known regions of the largest wine producing country in the world for the past two years. This week I will look at some of the exciting wines coming out of one of the great cult...
Steeped in grape growing history and wine-making know how, the first vines were planted in California by Spanish missionaries, the gold rush which started in 1848 increased the numbers of people arriving in the state and increased the demand for the local wines. In 1919 California faced the challenge of prohibition which all but wiped out the industry but in 1976, The Judgement of Paris tasti...
There are many thousands of grape varieties planted in a vast array of regions worldwide, Italy alone accounts for over a thousand, yet when it comes to choosing a wine, most of us invariably fall back on a very small selection of old favourites.
There is of course great security in choosing one of these old favourites, but wines produced from less familiar varieties and region...
Each year France comes in at either 2nd or 3rd place in the list of the world’s biggest wine producers depending on the weather conditions during the vintage (although last year saw an historic low).
However, it is fair to say that no country comes close in terms of their contribution to wine culture globally.
Our Fre...
With our Italian wine sale kicking off this Friday the 9th , I thought now would be the perfect time to take a whistle-stop tour through Italy’s wine regions and look at some of the wines produced therein.
We start our journey in the Northwest, in the region of Piedmont which is home not just to Italy’s finest reds; Barolo and Barbaresco, but also to one of the country’s ...
In just the last 15 years, Malbec has gone from being a niche grape that was largely unheard of, to now being one of Ireland’s favourite grape varietals.
And while Malbec’s home region may be Southwest France, the credit for this recent success sits squarely with Argentina, with the World’s largest planting, and its own distinctive style Argentina is undoubtedly now its...
Ireland welcome Italy to the Aviva Stadium this Saturday, and hopefully, the men in green can kick on from last week’s drama in Paris and deliver the bonus point win we need to keep the grand-slam dream alive.
Italy may still be considered relative new-comers the rugby competition having only joined at the turn of the Millennium, long before that though we were welcoming Ital...
With today being Australia day, I thought I would use my blog to celebrate Shiraz, the best-loved vinous export from the land down under. While this grape variety, known as Syrah in its French homeland is not native to Australia, they have certainly made it their own in the relatively short time since it was introduced to the Country by James Busby in 1831 and since that time the spel...
California is steeped in grape growing history and winemaking know how, the first vines were planted in 1863 by Spanish missionaries. The Californian gold rush started in 1848 which increased and the numbers of people arriving in the state and the subsequent demand for the local wines increased.
Today California has an impressive Sustainable Winegrowing Program. It has far reaching objectiv...
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