About Me

My photo
Dublin, Ireland
Hi, I'm Dermot Nolan, and I became a Master of Wine (MW) in 1997, and resigned from the Institute of Masters of Wine in 2023 after being an MW for exactly 26 years. I opened a wine shop in DĂșn Laoghaire, Ireland, called The Wine Library, which closed in 2018, and this is my personal wine blog. I will do my utmost to be fair and responsible in my posts – please read my Who Pays article in re the ethics of wine trips and writing. I have worked in wine education, retail, and consultancy since 1990. I was a Director of the Institute of Masters of Wine (IMW) from 2008 to 2014 and was also a member of the Events Committee, founder of the Trips Committee, and member of the Governance Committee. Having had problems with potentially libellous comments from unidentifiable posters, I now require that if you post a comment, you must identify yourself properly or it won't be published. Please note that I do not review products or services on request so kindly don't ask. I value my independence and I believe my readers (few that they may be) do so also.

Sunday, May 30, 2010

More from Vienna

Now that we're on the second day of VieVinum it's time to briefly reflect on the events so far. Yesterday was a very busy day - perhaps too busy. Huge numbers of people all crowded into the Hofburg resulted in a difficult tasting atmosphere. Also, for me, the wines were generally too cold - young wines (2009 mainly) served so cold the glasses frost are really difficult to taste. Having said that, there were some very good wines to taste.

Saturday, May 29, 2010

Back in Vienna

Well here I am in Vienna at VieVinum as a guest of the Austrian Wine Marketing Board and struggling to figure out how to get a comma on the german keyboard. Since I always instruct my students not to use commas perhaps I should try to practise what I preach! VieVinum is a big tasting of Austrian wines and it's an opportunity to get to know the country and its wines better.