Robertfranciswine.ie keeps on keeping on in Cork

Following on from last weeks part one post I headed on from Fenns Quay to Bubble Brothers main shop at Marina Commerical Park,  just outside of cork city. I have visited Bubble brothers stall in the English Market on a number of occasions and have covered wines that are available in bubble brothers in the past – they also carry the waterwheel wines from Australia which have scored very well critically- these wines are actually imported by Frank of the Vineyard here in Galway.

If you havent called in to Julian from Bubble Brothers you are missing out in my opinion. Not alone has Julian[twitter id - @bubblebrothers] a very knowledgeable wine palate but he is just a great guy. Super easy to talk to, honest on his opinions of wine and an Ipswich Town fan so why not call in and lets all try and cheer him up with Roys Boys not doing so well in the Championship at the moment. Unfortunately the visit to Bubble Brothers was very short but we did have time to inspect the nice new shelving in shop. I also was lucky to meet the unofficial mayor of Bandon – Conor O’Neill who was as usual working away in the background keeping whirring smoothly. For those not yet familiar with the unofficial major of bandon – here he is. I understand that there is a name change in the future to Ned White

Hitting the road after our visit to Julian we head out the road to Karwig Wines. While I love living in Galway it really is only when you go to Cork or Dublin that you realise that Galway isn’t a city as such. It is essentially a big town with a ridiculous number of round abouts and an automatic traffic lights system which meant it took me 45 mins to get out of the eye cinema car park on the wrong side of the lights. On the plus side I had just been to see transformers 2

As we headed to Carrigaline I was expecting to pass Karwig Wines shop at any moment, we then entered a business park which was interestingly called the Connamara Business Park I seem to recall.  We then headed to the back end of the Business park still expecting to pass Karwigs at any second. However when we took the turn off onto a road with grass running down the middle I feared that @mauriceomahony was going to “take care of me” in a sopranos sense. However we then reached a small cottage building that has been the HQ of Karwig wines for over 30 years. Being totally honest I am not sure I would have found it but for the fact that I was following Maurice.

The wine shop itself is crammed to the rafters full of wines and wines that you will not see everyday. By this I mean that as I was standing investigating the Italian Reds another lady asked – “So which of your Austrian Kosher Wines is best ?”. Firstly I have seen very little Austrian red wine, secondly I have seen NEVER Austrian Kosher wine  ! and thirdly I don’t know if there is another shop in Ireland that carries different options in the range of Austrian Kosher wines. 

Maurice gave me the full tour of the building, which was hugely interesting. The range and volume of wines was amazing – with the tasting room containing some fantastic Bordeaux that I would have loved to be able to buy. But at over €200 a bottle I am afraid I will have to hope that I win the lotto first. Mouton Rothschild, Margaux to name but a few lie peacefully awaiting some special occasion somewhere. I was fortunate enough to catch a few minutes with Mr Karwig himself and to listen to him talk about wine is hugely fascinating. What the man doesn’t know about wine and the wines he stocks isnt worth knowing ! I walked out of their having bought a Haan Barossa Red – 2003 vintage if I recall correctly. That I had never heard of before, but that I have found out subsequently got 94 points from Robert Parker. Good Times !

 If you want to learn more about the wines from Karwig wines watch out for a wine series on their wines coming soon on robertfranciswine.ie. Having taken up enough of the staff of karwig wines time maurice agreed to point me in the direction of bandon so I could visit the brothers Kane at curiouswines.ie on this whistle stop tour of the peoples republic !

With excellent directions from Maurice I approached the Viaduct pup and rang Mike to say that I was 32 kms out – ironcially as I passed the pub I was looking for landmark that I could use to explain to mike where I was. It was only when I passed it that I saw the massive structure itself – sometimes I think that if I had brains I would be dangerous !!

A short visit to the curiouswine shop we had to hit the road as Mikes beloved Liverpool were playing in the late kick off. Little did I know that Mike had been slaving away all morning cooking what can only be described as an Indian Feast fit for a king/Queen. My god – homemade bhajis, numerous curries and fancy rice. I would have happily paid food of this quality in a restaurant ! One of the topics of discussion was the recent decanter awards and the high number of selections this year – Matt was studying the massive edition of decanter in detail and the following post on their blog is the result. As you can see the bandon brothers have done well with a large number of their wines selectied from an award of some sort.

Following on from the theme of the night before there was more Bordeaux – these were samples for possible additions to the curious listing. So I gave my thoughts at the time but there are no tasting notes – it was also getting a little late and as we sat and watched Match of the Day – official tasting notes were merely a distant notion. The visit to the kanes was much more of a social call rather then wine related hence the smaller posting.  

I have to say a massive thank you to both the O Mahony and Kane families who put up with me invading their usual routine for the weekend ! I hope to see everyone again at the Good Wine Show in November and hopefully catch up with some more people that I didn’t manage to meet this time !

I have bought my ticket, have you bought yours ?  Do it now – I will be attending the event on the Saturday and would love to meet you !