I suppose the silly season is already upon us. At this time, I am reminded of past years helping customers to plan their Merry Christmas Wines well in advance but also the ‘panickers’ who leave it until the last minute. Whichever category you fall into, to help you avoid your choices falling flat (pun intended) […]
As we get closer and closer to the end of 2018, myself, James and Patrick O’Connor were reflecting on the year that’s almost finished, and challenged ourselves to pick a mixed case of our 2018 favourite wines. This challenge was not as simple as it sounds as we have had the privilege of tasting some […]
A discussion with my son Patrick recently centered around Festive Season gin. Why it came up in our conversation is that we usually experience an increased demand for gin around Christmas. Our dilemma? – We are almost sold out of our stock of Green Acres Irish Gin. You might remember we launched our own labelled […]
How to pair wine and cheese is not as easy as one might think. Because there is more than one type of wine and one type of cheese, the variables are almost endless. Like any other food and wine pairings, some cheeses go better with certain wines. By the way, there is no wrong way […]
As the Wexford Festival Opera Season starts to loom on the horizon (19 Oct – 4 November), the excitement and the preparations begin to ramp up here in Green Acres. Like most businesses around Wexford and indeed the SE of Ireland, the Festival plays a very important part of our annual business activity. For our […]
I’d hazard a guess that one of your first memories of a bottle of sherry was that screw top bottle from which your granny used to fill her small, dainty glass with an amber coloured liquid. If it wasn’t sherry it was vermouth which also got a bad rap over the years because of all […]
If you’re reading this post you probably love wine. If you’re like me, you love the smell, the taste of all wines and uncovering gems while wine tasting. I’m a bit of a nerd about it but I also love the stories behind specific wines i.e. their history – the human element. So as you […]
Myself and Jim Kelly of O’C&K were having a chat recently about wine labels and bottles. We were debating that age-old marketing vs tradition topic. We even broached the subject of different wine glasses, but more of that later. It was because I suggested avoiding gimmicky wine labels in a recent post, How to Choose […]
So, you’re standing in a wine shop with a huge selection of wines in front of you, or hosting a business lunch with just a few minutes to choose a good bottle of wine. Dilemma! You ask yourself in a panic, “where do I even start?” I’m going to use this post to waylay your […]
There are copious blogs, articles, videos, and courses all aimed at helping you to improve your wine experience by learning the vocabulary used about the topic. So really, it would be pointless of me to re-invent the wheel in this post by trying to explain the expanse that formulates wine jargon. Here’s my view on […]
I wear many wine hats. A quick scroll of your mouse over (or click) the ‘wine services’ tab above will describe many of them. Possibly, the one people feel they don’t need advice on is wine storage, other than collectors, investors and trade partners. In this post, I want to highlight the importance of how you […]
We have been advised by the Irish Met Office that our little Island is due a heatwave from this weekend. As this is such a rare occurrence in Ireland, the first thing that springs to everybody’s mind is a beach picnic. We thought it would be a good idea to ask our Head Chef, Richie […]