IF there are any of those You Don't Have To Be Mad To work here, But It Helps notices still lying around in humdrum offices, they could be put to more appropriate use, it strikes me, in the wine trade. I am sitting in a wine warehouse in Carrigaline, Co Cork. The proprietor, Joe Karwig - a native of Bremen, given to conversing at autobahn speed in a mesmerising Germano-Cork accent - is talking about a visit to the gifted winemaker, Eloi Durrbach, at Domaine Trevallon in Provence.
"He gave me two barrel samples of his 1990 Cabernet Sauvignon to taste and asked me which one I liked best. One was definitely much better than the other so I chose that and asked him what the difference was. `I trod those grapes by foot,' he said. `It means the tannins are softer.' I love these wine fanatics," Joe rushes on. "You find them everywhere. Sometimes they're a bit loopy - but probably people think I'm loopy too." Well, maybe. That was certainly the view taken 20 years ago by Joe Karwig's employers, the monster German company Pieroth - specialists in selling wine to customers in their homes, rather like Tupperware or the Avon lady. The young Karwig had abandoned his job as a cargo salesman for Lufthansa, to work for this international wine giant, first in Germany, then in London. By the mid-1970s he was ready for a change. Pieroth was opening new offices in the States and Australia and he was invited to take his pick. No, he said. Cork was where he wanted to go. He had been there presenting wines at the Ideal Home Exhibition and fallen in love. They told him he was crazy.
The former bosses might judge differently now, seeing Karwig's importing and retailing business built around an impressive list of some 450 wines. While private customers are still important, the restaurant trade, in the food- smitten south, is his main focus. Over 100 restaurants in Cork, Kerry, Limerick, Tipperary, Waterford, Galway, even Dublin, sell Karwig wines. A third of them sell only Karwig wines, from a wine list specially devised for, them by Joe. "Soon after I arrived in Cork the whole food thing got going," he recalls. Luminaries such as Brian Cronin of the Blue Haven, Dermod Lovett and Gerry Galvin (then at The Vintage, now at Drimcong) have been customers ever since, helping to trigger a snowball effect.
For the infrequent restaurant goers among us, the good news is that Karwig's excellent wines can be bought direct, from his refurbished Carrigaline warehouse, complete with a smartly professional tasting room at the back. Here, on Saturdays, eight to 10 bottles are open to browsers to try. And if Carrigaline seems too far to travel, many of his wines are available through other outlets - notably Searsons, with whom he has worked closely for years, as well as Verlings, Terroirs, the Cornstore in Galway and Fine Wines Limerick.
Where does the main excitement lie? In Joe Karwig's passionate preference for wines with interesting flavours. "Why on earth do people insist on drinking Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon all the time when we have 3,000 grape varieties?" he splutters. Not surprisingly, Germany is a particular strength. "Riesling is for me the best white wine grape in the world, he says, echoing Jancis Robison - for whom, incidentally, he provided the wines for a Riesling tasting at the Arbutus Lodge. "It's ideal for delicate fish, which is overpowered by oaky Chardonnay, and it can also be very good with pork or with Chinese food." There are almost 50 German wines on his list, with a special soft spot for the Mosel-Saar-Ruwer - especially the dazzling Rieslings of Dr Heinz Wagner. France has been another key area since the very beginning, with a noticeable bias towards the Rhone and Provence. Italy, also visited every year on a foraging trip, is a more recent obsession: a dalliance that began a decade ago has developed, the intensity of a full blown affair.
I love Italy and I love the wines he says. "They interest me, they're different and of course I was very excited by the Super Tuscans." Speaking of which, if you come across his wonderful Terrabianca Piano del Cipresso, try it, even if it means eating bread and cheese for a week.
"People used to say: life is too short to drink bad wine," he declaims. "Now that most wines are well made, the motto needs to be changed. Life is too short to drink boring wine!" Karwig's Wine Warehouse is at Kilnageary, Carrigaline, Co Cork. Tel/fax 021 372864. Open Monday-Friday 9.30 a.m.-6 p.m., Saturday 2-6 p.m., Sunday 3-6 p.m.
White Chateau Tertre de Launay Entre deux Mers 1994 (Karwig's Wine Warehouse, Verlings, Cornstore Galway, Cornstore Galway, Fine Wines Limerick, £7-£7.50).
One to prove that Entre-Deux-Mers needn't be nondescript. An appealing, quite rich dry white. All it needs is a big plate of Cork seafood.
Teruzzi & Puthod Vernaccia di San Gimignano 1995 (Karwig's Wine Warehouse, Searsons, Terroirs, £8.25-£8.99).
Golden, slightly hazelnutty Vernaccia was supposedly Michelangelo's favourite wine, and is the only Tuscan white approved of by America's hard marker, Robert Parker (whom Karwig follows with interest). This one, from a top producer, is delicious.
Dr Wagner Saarburger Rausch Riesling QBA 1994 (Karwig's Wine Warehouse, Terroirs, Verlings, Cornstore Galway, £9.75-£10.50). A super, textbook Riesling from one of the great masters of the art - and unlike so many white wines, it will be even better in a year or two.
Rose Panizzi Ceraso 1995 (Karwig's Wine Warehouse, Terroirs and some other outlets £6.99-£7.99).
The last rose (acute accent on e) of summer? Make it this unusual, beautifully balanced Tuscan. "Rose is a passion of mine," says Joe Karwig. "In time people will come to realise how well it goes with food." Red Barone Cornacchia Montepulciano d'Abruzzo 1994 (Karwig's Wine Warehouse, Verlings, Terroirs, Cornstore Galway, Fine Wines Limerick, £5.99-£6.49).
A January Bottle of the Week that flew out of the shops - a big flavoured, peppery, extrovert Italian at a great price.
Domaine Santa Duc Cotes du Rhone 1994 (Karwig's Wine Warehouse, Searsons, Verlings, Terroirs, Cheers Old Orchard Rathfarnham, Cornstore Galway, Fine Wines Limerick, £6.95-£8.50).
From an up-and-coming star of the southern Rhone, a really well made, traditional Cotes du Rhone, fragrant with all those typical aromas of black cherries, spice and herbs. See Bottle of the Week.
Domaine Richeaume Cuvee Columbelle 1992 (Karwig's Wine Warehouse, Verlings, Terroirs, Corastore Galway, about £13.99).
A powerful, gloriously rich Provencal red, made on a biodynamically-run estate by one of the wine fanatics Joe Karwig so admires.