If you were to pay too much attention to the media in recent times, you’d think there were only troughs in our collective lives right now. Bad news sells and on that basis, there must be a lot of newspapers selling right now. But for every trough, there is a peak. There are still plenty of peaks in this country and we’ve certainly had a few this eh, summer!
So here are the top 10 peaks in the little world of Cases Wine Warehouse so far in 2012:
- Our new Italian wines have been a revelation. Over the last 5 years, we had struggled in particular to find really good Chianti at a good price but the Ser Dante Chianti DOCG and its Classico and Riserva bigger brothers are just that!
- How proud we were when our Domaine des Anges red & white wines from the Ventoux in the Rhone Valley were chosen as the pouring wines at the banquet to mark the arrival of the Volvo Ocean Race fleet at the start of July. Produced by one of Ireland’s brilliant diaspora, Gay McGuinness from Kilkenny.
- The launch of Móna Wise’s new book The Chef & I in May. Móna, a Claregalway native, is the new food writer in the Irish Sunday Times and a prolific blogger!
- The arrival of the lovely Espigueiro Vinho Verde from Portugal. It would have seemed a simple task to find a great local white to rekindle fond memories of a great Portuguese holiday, but it is amazing how many of them fall short without the sunshine and the holiday atmosphere. This one is the exception!
- Our Irish craft beers. This time last year we started to delist the behemoths – Guinness, Carlsberg, Budweiser, Bulmers and Heineken in particular—and stock an exciting range of beers brewed all over Ireland in small batches. They have exploded in sales and we are proud to a small part of that success story. Apart from the fact that they taste like real beer and create way more jobs per pint than the multinationals, it is deeply satisfying to see Ireland’s local brewers re-emerging after decades of assault from the big boys. Unfortunately not available online because the margins are too low to cover the couriers!
- Spain—the country that had reacted best to the difficult times we live in, possibly because they are going through the same thing. We are seeing a constant stream of really good, great value, well-presented wines pouring in from Spain and it is a pleasure to deal with them. Already, the organic and biodynamic wines from Dominio de Punctum in Castilla have become one of our biggest-selling ranges and tomorrow, we take delivery of new wines from Rioja, Ribero del Duero, Viura, Priorat, Catalunya, DO Cava and Castilla. Exciting wines, exciting times.
- Stonewell Medium Cider. From Kinsale, Co Cork. Craft cider. One of the restaurants we supply told us that once their customers try it, they don’t want to go back to the ‘more commercial option’. Need we say more? Also now available in Dry for real cider aficionados.
- Our new Top-8 Wine Shelves—In order to help our customers orient themselves and to entertain ourselves, we have set up new shelves showing our top 8 selling red and white wines. And our top 4 selling roses and sparklings. Why top-8? Because that’s the way the shelves came.
- Our new bubblies. Particularly the most summer in a bottle wine we’ve ever tasted, Innocent from Australia. Plus in the middle of peak wedding season, our great new Prosecco—ask us for a special price for your wedding!
- Bank Holidays. We can’t claim any credit here but these weekends add a regular peak to our summer weekends and for that they deserve much credit. So much so that we’re launching over twenty deals for this august Bank Holiday.
Now, that’s better, have a great Bank Holiday.
Peter
Cases Wine Warehouse
Riverside Commercial Estate
Tuam Road, Galway
Tel: 091 764 701
Fax: 091 764 706
www.cases.ie
