Serious wine-tasting was carried out by a dedicated crew in the elegant rooms of Newman House earlier this week. Connoisseurs all.
They gathered to comment on some of the bottles selected by wine expert Mary Dowey in her first wine book, which has just been published by Town House. The Irish Times Best Wines is based on the wines chosen by Dowey in her Saturday column in this newspaper over the past six years. It comprises 250 wines.
"I had to retaste all the wines (for the book) because the vintages would have changed," she explained, with a wicked twinkle in her eye. Dowey's job is not for the faint-hearted.
Marie Heaney, of Town House, helped direct us to the wines on the table. She is working on her own book, a follow-up to her children's book, The Names Upon the Harp, a collection of Irish legends with illustrations by P.J. Lynch.
Between sips, Gerry Sheridan, in a pin-striped suit, and chairman of the two-year-old group Wicklow Writers, says he'll be launching an anthology of work by the group later this month, to be called Humanity. As for the matter in hand: "I love wine," he said.
Kate Bateman, a teacher at Stratford College in Rathgar, discussed the full-bodied Barossa Shiraz with Ann Quinlan, a financial consultant who is originally from Waterville, Co Kerry. They both agreed it's the best.
Seamus McKenna, a chartered surveyor and "consumer of good wine" loved the Wakefield Clare Riesling and "the Shiraz, of course". Of course.