On a cold January Tuesday evening, UbiFrance Ireland held their annual trade tasting in the Aviva Stadium in Dublin. It offers importers like WineOnline a great opportunity to met with new boutique wineries and winemakers from all over France who are looking to get their wines launched into the Irish market.
We always make some great new contacts at this fair and find some lovely wines that you our customers have loved in the past. Last night a highlight for us was meeting a renowned Burgungdy producer Henri De Villamont. Actually we did not meet Henri, but instead, Julia Simmard, the export manager for the house.
Julia introduced us to their range of white Burgundies before taking us through the Pinot Noirs afterward.
Anne, Gerry and I were blown away at the quality of the wines, including the entry level Chardonnay and Pinot Noirs and they are not expensive.
The wines themselves are all available for you to see at www.hdv.fr and hopefully they will be available in Ireland for you soon, we are working on this and will keep you posted here!
The highlight of the evening was Auxey Duresses, an incredibly well rounded and complex white Burgundy from 2009. It was drinking great now but it will age for the next 5 - 6 years comfortably, getting better each year!
as for the reds, Their Chambolle Musigny et Chambolle 1er Cru 2009 was sensational. In my own opinion it drank far greater than the grand Cru of the house , Grands-Echezeaux Grand Cru Julia herself maintained that the Grands-Echezeaux Grand Cru was at this stage for tasting and not drinking - Unusual logic but completely understandable. It was from the 2010 vintage and it was so closed with 20 years plus ofageing ahead of it. Julia maintained that we were committing infanticide by even drinking this wine today. These are wines for laying down for a few years and WineOnline is looking at the options available to bringing some of it in for you to lay down yourself or simply to fill your cellar for early drinking.
We will let you know when we have more on Henri De Villamont's wines but for now, check out their very French website - Check out ours too, register for our newsletter and we will also keep you informed when these wines hit our shores. You won’t be dissapointed!