THE glamour is back. After a dull summer, with visiting stars from the wine firmament as rare in Ireland as heatstroke, we've had a flurry of September action. Names previously spotted only on wine labels assumed human form (and strikingly well cut suits) as they descended on Dublin to present their wares. It was the wine equivalent of having a bunch of Hollywood Oscar winners turn up to give private audiences, to save fans the trouble of, going to Los Angeles.
There are moments, during these visitations, when you feel two minutes' more detail on malolactic fermentation or tangential filtration may induce apoplexy and possibly abandonment of the grape for ever. Mostly, though, they are fascinating - not just because of the chance to hear at first hand how an impressive wine is made, but because the winemaker's own story is compelling.
Take Aurelio Montes, voted Chilean Winemaker of the Year in 1995. I imagined this debonair, sporty man had stepped into some elderly relative's shoes to raise the profile of the family business. Not at all. The company, set up with three partners, is only eight years old. In that short period, Montes has produced the well priced wines so visible on our supermarket shelves, and pursued the quality end of the market with the classic Montes Alpha Cabernet Sauvignon, winner of many awards, and the Montes Alpha Chardonnay developed recently as its partner.
"I'd worked for years for big companies like Underraga and San Pedro," Aurelio Montes told us. "But I had also bought some land. I knew I would go crazy if one day I didn't start my own company." He also knew the market was moving increasingly towards quality. A story of passion, guts and sleepless nights to realise a dream.
Ignacio Recabarren arrived in Dublin two days behind his rival. Probably the best known of Chile's winemakers, Recabarren is credited with the major thrust to develop the Casablanca Valley as one of the country's most exciting new cool climate regions. The exuberant white wines he has created under the Casablanca label have already attracted a huge amount of attention, and now there's a luscious Cabernet clamouring for notice. Recabarren was in Newman House to celebrate northern merchant James Nicholson's launch of his business in the South. Many of the wines on offer in his, tempting Crossgar shop are now available by mail order south of the Border (tel 045-483767).
Another wine ambassador who extracted gasps of approval, even from notoriously jaded palates, was Laurent Navarre, commercial director of Jean Pierre Moueix - one of the fanciest wine empires of them all. Founded in 1937, this Bordeaux family business has continued to operate in a very traditional way, with a narrow focus on the wines of the Libournais - Pomerol, Saint Emilion and Fronsac.
Chateau Petrus is the most precious jewel in the gem studded Moueix crown, still maintaining its reputation - and the associated prices - as the greatest red wine in the world. Fortunately for non millionaires, the empire, encompasses many other excellent but slightly less rarified properties and in recent years has begun to put its august name to generic and varietal wines. Some offer superb quality, not to mention the stylish Moueix reputation, at more or less affordable prices.
One other interesting passer through was Martin Shaw, winemaker of the dynamic Australian partnership, Shaw and Smith, another outfit intent on producing wines of high quality.
Before dull summer exploded into radiant September we had globetrotting Robin Day introducing his Kavar range of budget wines from Hungary - a bit of news you may seize upon with relish or dismiss depending on how you rate his best known creation, Jacob's Creek. (Detractors note: it's still the bestselling wine in Ireland.)
Before that, there was Peter Bright, the Australian who has worked so diligently in Portugal for the past 15 years, unveiling two new ranges of modern, well made wines under the Bright Brothers and Fiuza labels.
Isn't it wonderful proof of our rising status as a wine drinking nation that more and more visitors like these fly into Ireland?
