Happy New Year. And happy new wines. For those of you with livers still equal to the task of a little light exploration, I thought I 'd look this week at some interesting bottles which are relatively recent arrivals on the Irish market. Some offer outstanding value - just what's needed if you're partying your way through the last weekend of the festive season with a twinge of fear that your credit card may self-combust before the month is out. Others are a little more luxurious, on the basis that a last bit of pampering may be in order before the lights come down and life turns new-year-austere.
For anybody in Dublin who's curious to see a selection of new wines en bloc, one obvious starting point is Oddbins - now at 17 Upper Baggot Street and at 23 Rock Hill, Blackrock. From a quick shuffle around the shelves on opening night followed by a perusal of the jazzy Irish list, my impression is that, while around two-thirds of the wines in Oddbins have already been readily available to Irish wine buyers, the rest are new to us. With over 700 different bottles on offer (at least theoretically: demand has been so steep that a number are temporarily out of stock), that makes for some excitement.
While the newcomers are spread across all wine types, it's encouraging to note that the German section is much stronger than we're used to in Irish shops. A feast of delicious-sounding Rieslings to try! South Africa looks interesting, especially at the quality end which we've tended to see rather patchily in the past. Chile, which Oddbins claims to have been among the first to recognise in 1989, is very extensively covered, with promising producers like Veramonte, Morande and Unofuera adding to the many already tickling Irish tastebuds on a regular basis. I'm also looking forward to exploring the small but tempting Californ ian section.
But the most dramatic impact Oddbins is likely to have on our wine-buying habits relates to champagne and sparkling wine. For one thing, the breadth of the range is superb, with about 20 vintage and 25 non-vintage champagnes and no fewer than 30 sparklers.
For another, Oddbins is famous for its seven-bottles-for-the-price-of-six offer on champagne and sparkling wine, running all year 'round. If my shaky mathematics are correct, that's equivalent to a 14.3 per cent discount. But, even without that carrot, some of the prices are very sparkling indeed. This is wonderfully cheering for all of us who have struggled in vain to understand the exorbitant prices charged here for so much fizz - with unexplained pounds often creeping in to the equation even when due allowance has been made for unpalatably steep Irish bubble taxes. Canard-Duchene is £19.99 in Oddbins, Perrier-Jouet £22.49, lovely Billecart-Salmon £23.99, for instance. As for the value sparklers, prices start at just £6.99 and, at the pricier end, stylish Green Point is £14.99 - noticeably cheaper than usual. Do the seven-for-six sum on any of these and you have a pretty unbeatable bargain.
The other place where you can see a huge slab of novelty is, of course, Tesco/Quinnsworth. In the wake of the takeover, about 80 new wines arrived in Ireland: most at the low-price end of the market, and quite a number from countries with a pretty non-existent wine profile here - Peru, Uruguay, Brazil for instance. `The reaction has been outstanding,' says Andrew Tidey, Customer Planner for Beers, Wines and Spirits in Ireland. "We're offering a very wide variety and extremely good value."
The next phase, he explains, will be to introduce a new range in the £6-8 bracket to selected stores. Given our high taxes and the c onsequent near-impossibility of finding many wines worth drinking at around £5, that sounds like a sensible move. In the meantime, some goodies from Tesco are here already at that slightly higher, more quality-linked price.
Of course, you don't have to go to Oddbins or Tesco to uncover new temptations. With per capita consumption still rising fast, the market is growing more competitive as it grows in volume. To prosper, importers are obliged to scour the world for appetising, keenly priced wines. That means new bottles are appearing on the shelves all the time, except in the sleepiest outlets. New vintages of wines here for a while may also be worth trying. As Hugh Johnson said a week or two ago, the most stimulating thing about wine is that we're forced to focus, all the time, on a moving target.
So here is a selection of new wines to welcome the new year.
Whites
Honore de Berticot Cotes de Duras Sauvignon 1996 (Pettitts, Searsons, Grapes of Mirth, Rathmines, DeVine Wine Shop, Castleknock, and Dublin Wine Co, Malahide £4.99£5.65). This wine tastes so classy that I had to check t he price three times in case festive blur had attacked the brain cells. But yes, it's spot on. See Bottle of the Week.
Perrin Reserve Cotes du Rhone 1996 (Foleys, Bird Flanagan, DeVine Wine Shop Castleknock, Gibneys & Shiels Malahide, Foxhunter Lucan, Galvins Cork, Fine Wines Limerick and other outlets, £7.99£8.49). During a summer visit to Beaucastel, the Perrin brothers "outstanding Chateauneuf-du-Pape property, I heard their Reserve Cotes du Rhone red and white would soon be here. Now they are - great news, as they're well made, tasty, characterful wines. The white makes a lovely change, with its gentle hints of almonds and peaches - but be careful not to chill it into nothingness.
Gewurztraminer Reserve Personelle, Alsace, Paul Buecher et Fils, 1995 (Wine Vault Waterford, £11.95). This wine isn't all that new to Ireland - but it's new to me and so delicious that I'm slipping it in on the pretext that it may also be unfamiliar to many at one remove from the Wine Vault's regular clientele. It has all that smoky, lychee intensity you expect of good Alsace Gewurz, with a gloriously lingering, spicy aftertaste. A bit too much to spend right now? Economise on food. It's stunning with a simple onion tart.
Reds
Beyers Truter Pinotage, Stellen- bosch, 1995 (Tesco/Quinnsworth, £6.49). You either like Pinotage or you don't. . . or, like me, you're growing restless while the jury is still out. This one, made by Beyers Truter of Beyerskloof and Kanonkop fame, is quite persuasive - a big, gutsy mouthful of berry fruits, spice and vanilla, typically earthy but with no harshness. As temperatures drop it comes into its own.
Col di Sasso Sangiovese- Cabernet, Banfi, 1996 (Redmonds, Foleys, Shiels Dorset St, Shiels Malahide and some other outlets, usually £7.99£8.99). A luscious young Tuscan, brimming over with fresh raspberry and cherry character, and with super acidity to keep you sipping (and eating). Extremely attractive.
Metala Langhorne Creek Shiraz-Cabernet, Stonyfell, 1995 (Oddbins, £8.99). Here's another wine that tastes several pounds more expensive than it is - a rich, round Barossa red, well worth trying if you haven't overdosed on Shiraz with the turkey. (Or even if you have. Few wine styles are more efficient at generating mid-winter warmth.) Give it plenty of time and a whole tapestry of tan talising flavours emerges.
Seghesio Sonoma Zinfandel 1995 (Findlaters, Cooneys, Gibneys, Redmonds, Higgins, Bolands Glasnevin, about £12.50). A cracking new example of another winter warmer, Californian Zinfandel, from a family winery specialising in it. Big aromas of raspberries and loganberries are the lead-in to a supple, full-flavoured wine with a nice whack of spice.