While sitting down to dinner in the Great Room at the
Merchant - a restaurant set in one of the most lavish interiors I have ever
dined in - I was pleasantly surprised to spot a South African wine on the set
degustation menu of the day. Located in the grandiose Ulster Bank (1860) in the
Cathedral Quarter of Belfast, the Merchant is one of the city’s finest hotel
and dining venues today, with plush booths set under the giant gilded dome with
frescoes and neo-classical columns more suited to a cathedral.
The menu displayed on the smart lectern paired a Chenin Blanc 2013 from distant Saan Mountain Vineyards in Paarl - made at Perdeberg Winery by that talented trio of winemakers Albertus Louw, Riaan Moller and Carla Herbst. I enjoyed it paired to a delicious starter of Portavogie crab with fennel puree - one of the signature dishes of chef John Leake who worked in London under luminaries like Marco Pierre White. After a sublime dish of wild sea bass with prawn and chorizo risotto, I ended up on a tour of the grand hotel kitchen with chef, who commented on the revival of Irish cuisine since the recession, and focuses on local ingredients like Skeaghanore duck, Portavogie shellfish, Lough Erne lamb, and organic boar fed on apples and acorns.
After driving the coastal causeway from Belfast
to Bushmills and Giant’s Causeway, one of the great scenic touring routes of Ireland through the glens of County Antrim,
I ended up at Deane’s Brasserie the next night. One of several Belfast venues
run by restaurateur and chef Michael Deane (a man with a Michelin star), the
brasserie specialises in short-horn Irish beef cured for 36 days in a Himalayan
salt chamber - exported to the top restaurants of Paris and London. The wine
list is just as innovative with wines grouped under flavour categories such as “green,
tangy and dry” (Savvy’s), “exotic, aromatic and fragrant” (off-dry), and “warm,
smooth and spicy”.
I was also delighted to spot Cape reds on Deane’s wine-list, well paired to the earthy, savoury, meaty fare - Vinimark’s Long Beach Cabernet Sauvignon 2013 (R400), Wolftrap 2013/14 (R476) (“under black fruits”) and Chocolate Block 2013 (R686) from Boekenhoutskloof (under “big, beefy and intense”) - next to legendary Chateau Musar (R1075) from Bekaa Valley in Lebanon. I enjoyed a sublime bottle of Musar’s Hochar blend of fifty year-old Cinsault, Carignan, Grenache and Cabernet recently. I also spotted Boekenhoutskloof Semillon 2010 (the most expensive of the Cape wines at Deane’s at R1007) - in the “minerals, citrus, butter and nuts” category - and Adi Badenhorst’s Secateurs Chenin Blanc 2014 (R462) (“full, rich and ripe”).
It is good to see South African wines holding their own on
on-trade wine-lists once dominated by country categories such as France, Italy
and Spain - in the company
of new-world producers from Argentina,
Australia, Chile, New Zealand
and the USA.
At Coppi, a rising star on Belfast’s burgeoning dining scene, a trendy
wine-list also featured Cape Heights Chenin Blanc and Shiraz - made by Boutinot
South Africa, a well-known UK-based association of grape growers and importers
- whose wines are regulars in the UK on-trade. I also saw Cape
Chenin on the wine-list while spending
a few nights at Malmaison, a boutique hotel set in one of Belfast’s gorgeous old renovated Victorian warehouses,
within walking distance of the new Titanic Quarter.
Lunch at Ballywalter with Lord and Lady Dunleath was one of
the highlights of a wonderful week spent exploring the art, architecture and heritage
of the grand Georgian country houses and pleasure gardens of Northern Ireland -
from Mount Stewart (home of Lord Castlereagh, one of the world’s top ten
gardens) to the royal residence of Hillsborough Castle and Glenarm Castle (home
to the Earl of Antrim).
Built in the Italian Palladian style 170 years ago,
Ballywalter is one of the few estates still in family hands. I wasn’t the fist
South African visitor. Archbishop Tutu stayed here while filming a BBC series
called Facing the Truth in Ireland
- as well as Jeremy Irons. Opened to the public in 2002, it features in the
Great Houses of Ireland. I didn’t spot any Cape wines in the 4000 bottle cellar
with Sauterne 1935 but we did enjoy a glass of Italianate Prosecco Marca Oro Extra
Dry in the library before moving onto a Bourgogne Les Setilles 2011 and Chateau
Tour St Bonnet 2003 (Medoc) over lunch.
Over in the north-west of Ireland in County Mayo, the Tollman family (owners of The Twelve Apostles, Bushmanskloof and Oyster Box Hotels) recently relaunched Ashford Castle in their Red Carnation Hotel collection. Dating back to 1228, this five-star luxury resort on a 350 acre estate was voted #2 in the top ten resorts in Europe in the Condé Nast Traveler Readers’ Choice Awards 2014 - and one of the world’s top 500 hotels by Travel & Leisure. Winner of the Restaurateurs Association’ best wine list In Ireland (Restaurateurs Association), it showcases the wines of Bouchard Finlayson, a sister property. At a recent tasting of his new 2013 releases at La Colombe, Peter Finlayson told me he was off to lead a tasting of his wines at Ashford Castle at a seven-course dinner prepared by chef Philippe Farineau in late May.
I did a fabulous salmon and wine tasting on a stop-over in the
Burren in County Clare while exploring the new Wild Atlantic Way, an epic road
journey around the rugged fringe of Ireland from Malin Head in the north in
Donegal to Kinsale in County Cork. The wine buff led the tasting at Burren
Smokehouse, world-renowned for its organic smoked salmon on the menus of
Harrods and top chefs in Europe. Their salmon
was presented to President Obama on St Patrick’s Day - and served to the Queen
at a banquet. We feasted hungrily on the salmon of knowledge (an old Irish
legend of the Shannon
River), pairing the salty
seaweed, honey and lemon dill, cayenne paprika and hot smoked salmon with
Sancerre, Chablis, Tokaj and Alsace Gewurztraminer.
Heading down to Dublin, I also visited the “K Club” (Kildare
Hotel and Country Club), one of Europe’s most famous luxury hotels and golf
resorts - where Ireland hosted the Ryder
Cup for the first time in 2006. Styled after a French chateau in 1832, set on a
magnificent 550-acre estate on the banks of the Liffey, Straffan House is
world-renowned for its Irish cuisine - and for a legendary wine cellar which
has rare vintages of Chateau Pétrus, Romainée-Conti, Cheval Blanc, Margaux and
Mouton Rothschild going back to the 1950s. Looking at the display case of empty
magnums and rare vintages at the plush Vintage Crop bar, the sommelier talked
fondly of wines listed at three to thirty thousand Euros (R40 000 to R405 000)
- and recalled exactly who they had served the great bottles to and when. Now
that’s wine culture.
While sitting at the exclusive golfer’s bar, I only came across one South African wine on the gilt-edged wine-list at the K Club - Waterford Sauvignon Blanc, a bargain at R600. I was disappointed not to spot Kevin Arnold’s The Jem - and fondly recalled tasting stunning older vintages with the winemaker at the Great Wine Capitals Best of Wine Tourism Awards 2015 in late 2014. I headed off to a tour and tasting at the new Irish Whiskey Museum which opened right opposite Trinity College in Dublin in late 2014. When in Ireland, drink the local dram - I was in the land of whiskey and Guinness which, as they say, is good for you, in moderation anyway. Slainte! Cheers!
* Graham Howe visited Ireland as a guest of Tourism Ireland in Johannesburg on 011 463 1132. For more info, visit www.discovernorthernireland.com,
www.ireland.com and www.nationaltrust.org.uk