SUMMER throws into sharp relief one of the dismal paradoxes of Irish life. The country is at high tide with tourists and natives on holiday - out to have a great time. The universal craving is to eat and drink well while spending rather less than it might cost for a comparable period in the Sandy Lane in Barbados, say.
The food end is all right. The number of restaurants serving honest to good, tasty meals without pretension or millionaire pricing keeps increasing. But the drink.
All too often, the wines on offer are duller than Bundoran in a downpour. Not infrequently, they are the liquid equivalent of a production line hamburger and chips, with plenty of vinegar.
There are exceptions, thank goodness, and news of them travels fast. One is the Whitethorn Restaurant and Crafts Centre in Ballyvaughan, Co Clare. "A lot of people come in looking eager and say: `We've heard about your winelist. Can we see it'?'" says John McDonnell, who runs the Whitethorn with his partner, Sarah Culligan.
"Then sometimes they look puzzled particularly if they're purists. Maybe they expect an enormous list with back vintages - 1961 Labour, that sort of thing. But if they're real wine lovers, as distinct from wine snobs, they quickly come around."
Indeed, the list is not extensive. Neither is it expensive. What marks it out as special is that it presents an intriguing selection of wines, hand picked with conviction and described with humour. Under St Veran, Georges Duboeut, you read. We can hardly sell this wine. Maybe if I mention it is made from Chardonnay, that will help. A dry, elegant wine, showing balanced oak, honey and herbal flavours.
Under Riesling Kabinett Beinkasteler Badestube Dr Heidemann: "Yes, this wine has a touch of apple sweetness, but it is beautifully balanced by tingling, lemony, dare I say, Jean Butler dancing across your tongue acidity. Spoil yourself and discover how good real German Riesling can be.
So many wine lists are just inventories, with no attempt to help the nervous or not particularly knowledgable buyer," John McDonnell says. "That really annoys me. You could write `Ripe berry fruit and a nice soft palate for about 90 per cent of the world's wines. I'd rather put down, for the Domaine Drouhin Pinot Noir for instance, `Sarah's favourite wine from our 1995 tastings'. A wine list should educate, enlighten, entice and entertain."
To which end passion, a sunny personality and a wine steeped background help.
John McDonnell was brought up in the Park Hotel in Virginia, Co Cavan, and took early delight (visual, only) in the cobwebby mysteries of the cellar. Later, at the Shannon College of Hotel Management, he claims he was one of the few students not to sleep through wine lectures. The moment the course finished in 1987, he was off on a one way ticket to Australia, where he stayed for eight years.
His first job was picking grapes at Cape Mentelle in the southwest. After a couple of years travelling, he combined work at Yalumba in South Australia with a wine marketing course at Roseworthy, the country's oldest college of oenology. I learned a huge amount," he says. "I was in there with wine makers who were going into the whole thing in a very intense way - poring over maps, ringing weather stations, then pointing out some little area and saying `That's going to be a good plot for Riesling and it's going, to be my Riesling. I became absolutely passionate about it."
He might have stayed for good, had it not been for another passion nurtured back in Shannon. This one centred on Sarah Culligan, a fellow student who was by now managing the Ballyvaughan restaurant her father had artfully created out of a fish factory. By 1994, John wad at the Whitethorn, beginning to play around with the wine list.
One of its great successes, apart from the laid back humour and the liberal sprinkling at curiosities is a wide choice of half bottles - nine white, nine red. It's just a great way to offer people variety - two pleasures instead of one" John says. "At least half our customers would order a half bottle to go with the starter, then a bottle for the main course and dessert.
The other clever thing about the Whitethorn is that every course on the menu comes with wine suggestions in small print. What on earth might go with Couscous With Aubergine And Goat's Cheese Parcels? Why Geoff Merrill Mount Hurtle Rose Grenache (see Bottle Of The Week) or Georges Duboeuf Viognier, we're told. And for Mussel and Clam Masala? Marvellous La Gitana Manzanilla.
John McDonnells own favourites are the Dr Heidemann Riesling Kabinett 1993 in summer, and Yalumba Family Reserve Shiraz 1993 in winter - partly, he admits, because he also worked that vintage at Yalumba. The years Down Under have brought an unexpected bonus from Ballyvaughan he is contracted, for 15 days a year, to run the Irish arm of the Australian Wine Bureau. And the easy manner, the delight he takes in talking about wine of every sort, should mean few students fall asleep in the lectures he is to give for the Wine Development Board in Ennis this autumn.
In the meantime, if you are anywhere in the vicinity of Ballyvaughan, head for the long, low building by the sea, faced in local limestone. The bit you can't see from the road is the restaurant's wall of window, framing Galway Bay and the misty Connemara Mountains. Mouthwatering especially with a decent glass of wine.
Best bottles
WHITE
Vinicola Hidalgo La, Gitana Manzanilla Sherry (half bottle £8 in restaurant; Merchants Wine Club, Galway, £4.30). Why didn't this go under the heading of aperitifs or sherries? Because the Whitethorn sells it as a food wine, just like the other whites. "Bone dry, fresh, just slightly tangy and absolutely gorgeous," John McDonnell says. "It's made for seafood."
Jurancon See Blanc de Blancs Grain Sauvage 1994 (£13.40 in restaurant; Searsons, McCabes, £6.95). "Henry IV had his lips anointed with Jurancon wine at his christening. A chance to share the pleasure." And to make a brilliant discovery - full bodied, slightly spicy, stunning in the mouth and a steal at this price.
Solana Torrontes & Treixadura 1994 (£11.20 in restaurant; widely available, £5.99). "Torrontes and Treixadura . . . grape varieties or rock stars' daughters?" asks the winelist. "Either way, a very agreeable partner with or without food." Light, aromatic and summery - traditional Spanish grapes kicked towards modernity by New World techniques.
Teruzzi & Puthod Vernaccia di San Gimignano 1995 (£14.50 in restaurant; Searsons, Karwig's Wine Warehouse. £8.25-£8.50). The best white wine from Tuscany, the Whitethorn says, and nobody's going to argue. This one's from one of the very best makers beautifully refreshing, with hints of peaches and almonds.
ROSE
Geoff Merrill Mount Hurtle Rose Grenache, 1994 (£12.90 in restaurant; Vintage shops, Vintry Rathgar, Higgins Clonskeagh, Spar Rathcoole, £6.59 £6.99). No, not pink and sugary but dry, fruity and really yummy. "Great with food," says the This Australian, which featured strongly in the wine column's recent round up of roses, gets star billing. See Bottle Of The Week.
RED
Trapiche Malbec 1990 (£11.50 in restaurant; widely available in retail outlets, £5.99). If Argentina is the world's rising wine star, then Malbec is its flagship red grape, the Whitethorn's rising winelist writer argues. Jammy fruits with a savoury, slightly smoky finish which makes this a great barbecue nomination, I'd say.
Lungarotti Rubesco 1991 (half bottle £8.60 in restaurant; bottle Superquinn, Verlings, McCabes, Higgins Clonskeagh, some, SuperValus, £8.50-£9.50), From Lungarotti, maverick winemaker turned grand old man of Umbrian wine, earthy, brambly flavours culminating in a charateristically flamboyant Italian pirouette, writes J McD. A sharp little kick in the finish, I think he means.
Cape Mentelle Zinfandel 1992 (£21.30 in restaurant Findlaters McCabes Twomey's Deansgrange, Londis Malahide and some other outlets, about £10.99). Anybody who likes big, rich flavours will love, the choeolate, spice and tart raspberry intensity of this rare beast, California's eccentric grape rendered exceptional in Oz.