Clothes stores may have January sales to clear old stock but in the wine industry September and early October is a key time for sales. The tradition stems from France where Supermarkets have long held ‘Foire aux Vins’ each autumn. presumably it’s to tie in with a celebration of the grape harvest.
Superquinn were the first retailer here to follow this fashion over 20 years ago but these days most of the supermarkets do something. Superquinn will be hosting theirs from October 3rd, while Tesco are already running an ‘Autumn Wine Festival’. Tesco boasts lots of wines at half price but as has been said here many times, there’s not really any such thing as prices are artificially inflated by supermarkets prior to the cut. But there should still be bargains.
Lidl announced this week that they will be having a French wine sale from September 24th and curiously this is an Ireland only event rather than UK and Ireland. Having seen a preview there are plenty of wines worth buying.
Dunnes will be running a French wine sale from September 24th to October 14th and like French supermarket sales they are heavy on Bordeaux wines. The trick here is to go for the better vintages. In Bordeaux 2008 was ok, 2009 and 2010 were exceptional and hard to get wrong while 2011 and 2012 were less successful.
Supermarkets aside O’Briens also has a September sale running at the moment running until the 22nd with some exceptional offers. See www.obrienswine.ie for details.
Wines Tasted on the Show
Gerard Bertrand Naturae Chardonnay 2012, Sud de France, O’Briens, €9.99 reduced from €13.99.
The interesting thing here is that this is made without any addition of sulphur at all. Sulphur acts as an antioxidant and very few winemakers can pull this off and usually the result is oxidised fruit that tastes like cooked apples. This though is pristine, fruity and fresh. There’s also a matching Syrah in the sale and that works too.
Chateau La Pirouette Medoc 2009, Cru Bourgeois. Dunnes, €11.50.
There’s plenty of dreary Bordeaux Rouge around for €10-11, so this is an exceptional price for a higher level wine from an exceptional vintage. There’s plenty of black fruit with a bit of tannin, oak and spice to enjoy.
You can find Martin Moran MW on twitter as @winerepublic for view on wine and life or as @thegargleguru for comment limited to drink.
