Posts Tagged ‘bubble brothers’

bubble brothers blog reborn, Paul at the wheel

Thursday, January 19th, 2012

When Julian left Bubble Brothers we lost a great wine blog. Recently, Paul Kiernan, who ran my favourite (and possibly the only genuinely independant) wine blog, under the moniker Grapes of Sloth started to work for Bubble Brothers. Paul has taken over the social media side of the house, and has relaunched the blog, titled “a terroirible beauty”.
The new Bubble Brothers blog is fun and well worth a read. Plenty of competitions too, with decent prizes.

He seems to be finding the time to keep Grapes of Sloth alive too, which is great. Keep it up Paul, who needs sleep?*

* or maybe you’d be less absent minded if you did get more sleep ….. :P

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blackrock wine club

Thursday, March 25th, 2010

This evening we tasted a selection of white wines in tall bottles, a.k. bottles that don’t fit on the shelves. This was the third meeting of the Blackrock Castle Wine Club. I had missed the second, being snowboarding in Austria at the time, and discovered that The system was modified slightly since the first one.
In response to patron feedback Julian was now speaking through a PA system, so as to reach even the most distant listener and the sequence of pouring and tailing had been refined. Tonight they poured, we tasted, we talked amongst ourselves and then Julian told us a little about the wine and we played guess the price. It’s a nice way to do it, I think everyone gets to enjoy the tasting and still hears the background information, which for me is a huge part of the experience.

Blackrock Castle Wine Club round 3

The event went swimmingly – excellent organisation from Blackrock Castle and the Bubble Brothers team.

A brilliant addition to the system was the introduction of a “guess the mystery bottle” round. We were all poured a glass from a mystery bottle and wrote down our thoughts as to the provenance on a piece of paper. The first piece of paper incorporating a correct guess as to the country of origin drawn from the hat (cardboard box) would win a mysery prize! It took some persistance but eventually a winning answer was drawn and the mystery bottle identified. I’m quite proud to say I didn’t recognise the bottle of Blue Nun at all!

As always, I’ve attached my notes from the evening. I’m afraid they’re rather more sparse than usual. This is a reflection on my personal lack of affinity with Rieslings and no reflection on what was another splendid evening.

If you’re thinking of attending one of the next meetings – do. They’re great fun, you’ll learn a bit about wine, meet some nice people and best of all, taste some lovely wines.
You can sign up here.

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bubble brothers australian tasting

Thursday, September 24th, 2009

this evening I attended Bubble Brothers Australian tasting in the AGA Shop in Cork.
We had about 35 people in the AGA shop, which is a fantastic setting for an event like this, moreso when you learn they’re offering discounts on everything instore (bar the AGAs themselves).
One of these days I hope to have the surreal experience of returning from a tasting with a new kettle.

Aaron Drummond and Ryan Morgan* of Rathbone Wine Group were our MCs for the night. In true colonial style they immediately threw the tasting order out and opened with number 3 on the list – an absolute belter. The really amazing thing about this wine was that it’s the ’09. Gordon mentioned that about 7 months ago this was still a grape!
The Rathbone Wine Group is a family run wine producer. Some of the philosophies they follow are very interesting;

  • the idea of simple wine true to the grape, with minimal intervention
  • reducing alcohol content to focus on the taste
  • reducing yield in favour of quality
  • not being afraid to restart vineyards if necessary
  • how “manual labour” intensive the work is

the thing there that really surprised me was the alcohol percentages. I have a perception that new world wines are higher in alcohol percentage, and this can often mask the taste of the wine. It’s very refreshing to see a producer allow the wine to speak for itself.

The enthusiasm with which Aaron and Ryan speak of the business is infectious, and despite the harsh sounding conditions in which they grow it sounds like a very intriguing place to work.

This was an excellent tasting – I think it was one of the quieter audiences ever, as the stories being told were so interesting.
My thanks to all at Bubble Brothers, the AGA shop, and Aaron & Ryan.

As always, you’re welcome to attempt to read my notes from the night.

* thanks Julian for the updated information.

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bubble brothers spanish wine tasting

Wednesday, August 19th, 2009

bubble brothers wine tasting

this evening I popped along to Bubble Brothers spanish wine tasting. this time the tasting was held in their warehouse in the Marina. The crowd they had in just about filled it – I suspect a couple more people could have been crammed in but only by playing some human tetris.

The wines on offer were all spanish, and ranged from low teens in price up to twenty one odd euro.
Julian was the chief MC for the night, assisted by Billy, Valerie and the nice chap whose name I forgot, even though he’s the one that filled our glasses all night.

Aside from the actual tasting, I heard the best and simplest explanation for the cost of fine wines this evening. The core of the argument is the years of labour that goes into producing the wine – lifting down barrels, turning them and so on. Years of maintenance and you can see why the cost would be higher.

I’ve scanned my notes from the night as usual. I’m afraid my handwriting is atrocious, but you’re welcome to try to make sense of it. Anything written down not in quotes is my own thinking, anything in single quotes was something I heard someone else in the room say, and double quotes was from one of our hosts.

bubble brothers spanish 1

bubble brothers spanish 1

bubble brothers spanish 2

bubble brothers spanish 2

It was another excellent night, with some lovely wines on offer. If you’re interested in trying a wine tasting, and you should be – check their blog.

thanks again Julian et al.

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bubble brothers wine tasting

Thursday, July 16th, 2009

This evening I attended a wine tasting presented by Bubble Brothers in the Aga Shop in Cork.
Julian from Bubble Brothers presented 8 wines, all from the Langeudoc region in France. This is a region I’ve visited a couple of times and found it to be lovely, so I had high hopes for the wines.

It may be the scientist in me, but I’ll have to explain the procedures for this tasting. Julian would pour us all a glass, and then tell us a little about the producer of the wine. We’d then taste it and at my table at least, would all have a different opinion and argue about it. Noone at our table was spitting, but we used the supplied bucket to (regretfully) dispose of the remaining wine after we’d tasted a sufficient quantity. Some of the drivers and local critics were spitting with impressively tidy technique. Not something I’m interesting in learning though, I’ll keep on drinking. Anyway, there was plenty of time to ask questions and look for further information. I was delighted that one of the wines on the list was on my list of wines to try. It’s now on my list to buy.

Bubble Brothers wine tasting

At my table I had 3 members of my clan, my father, my uncle and my sister Emma, newly returned as a Dr. from Edinburgh. I don’t think that we had more than 2 people with the same opinion at any one time. I suppose that’s family for you.

The venue was lovely, the company was jovial, the wines were nice and the experience was a delightful counterpoint to the doom and gloom omnipresent in todays media.
If you’re looking for some wine related fun, or you just want an evening out with a difference try a wine tasting.

For anyone interested, the wine list and my scrawled notes. Up top are random thoughts that struck me, in double quotes are things said either by Julian (our host) or someone in the room, single quotes came from people at my table.

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