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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 Dún 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 18, 2014

Who ever heard of...



Early Saturday morning, drag yourself out of bed, put on suit (battledress all day as no time to change before tonight’s dinner), struggle to café for breakfast, feel refreshed (just), move on, find seat and ask yourself if you want to sleep or do a tasting of 46 wines?
But then…start with a pinot gris from the Valle d’Aosta and wow! where did that come from? Then a red made from the well known fumin grape (?) and the next thing you know you’re happily smiling as you taste one more new grape after another…
Old and well known such as trebbiano but being made into really good wines then new to me varieties such as schioppettino, tintilia, centesimino, mantonico, magliocco, timorasso, croatina, frappato, carricante and many more. I blame Jancis – it’s obviously a plot to sell more copies of J3… we all wanted to dip into it during the tasting!
Some stunning wines – centesimono is a red wine that basically tastes like gewürztraminer and there are only 20 Ha planted. Somebody found this old vine many years back and planted cuttings. A few other growers did the same and then got it DNA tested, discovering that it’s unique. Not knowing what it was they called it after the guy who first found it and whose nickname was “centesimono”!
Eventually, struggle back to the auditorium but enlivened and uplifted – what a revelatory tasting. You may be tired but when you get real quality allied to interesting and unknown wines the effect is amazing. Tiredness dissolves and happiness evolves…

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