Welcome to www.corkage.ie !

This site was born after numerous friends contacted me to advise them on wines for their wedding or other special occasions.


They contacted me having been unimpressed with the wines offered to them by venues, caterer’s etc. they felt that in general the wines offered were often unoriginal, dull and did not represent any value for money.


My own experience of function wines convinced me that there had to be an alternative for people seeking value and quality wines to enhance their special occasion.


Most people will spend a lot of time carefully choosing their food menu and will rely on the venue to advise them on the wine. Unfortunately a little industry secret is that this is the perfect opportunity for venues and caterer’s to 1) make a killing by supplying cheap wines at inflated prices 2) Clear old stock that may be past its best 3) Make mistakes and recommend poor food and wine matches that will take away from your guest’s overall experience of the day.


My aim is to provide information on the whole area of corkage, food and wine pairing and to provide a carefully selected range of wines that represent good value at different price points as an alternative to the selection that you are being offered.


Finally we have this blog space where you can leave comments and chat with other people in the same boat, swap tips, advice, experiences etc.


We hope that you enjoy the site and please do not hesitate to contact us if we can be of any service.


Best Wishes,
Stephen Dillon

My little sister got married recently. We had a super day one of the hottest of the year and the scenery in West Cork where the wedding was – Breathtaking.

If I don’t mind saying so myself the wines were pretty amazing also. They had a Champagne reception in the walled garden complete with Jazz band, here vintage Jacquart rose was served from magnums ensuring everyone was in great form from the outset. 

For the red they chose a Sandalford Cabernet Sauvignon from Margaret River in Australia, this was a nod to Dec the groom’s brother who lives in Perth and has been to concerts in this super winery. The wine had a characteristic mint twist to it which paired amazingly with the open fire rack of lamb.

The white was an old favourite the Sancerre Terroir de Silex (which I also had at my wedding), this is a cracking wine with a steely minerality that lifts fish and poultry beautifully.

While the day was a resounding success, the build up with the venue was quite stressful, we wanted to supply mineral water for the tables and to our shock we were informed that a corkage charge of €3.50 would apply per bottle. Now whatever about Corkage on wine (€12.50 per bottle) this was just petty.

The venue were determined to squeeze every penny out of the wedding which created tension and a bad feeling in the run up. This brings up an inherent truism about weddings, for you it is the most important day of your lives but for most venues you are just another one of hundreds. Some venues disguise this better than others and make you feel special others fail at this like the venue in question as the proprietor declared to my sister ‘but I must make money!’.

If you find yourself in this position, keep a cool head, after all these people have your day in their hands and if you have a screaming match before the wedding they may not be too bothered to make an effort on the day. As the African saying goes…. do not insult the Crocodile until you have crossed the river.

Once you are back from honeymoon give them hell……..

Having completed the WSET Level 4 Diploma in wines and spirits I am delighted to become an asociate member of the institute of wines and spirits (AIWS). We even have a fancy coat of arms that we can use!!!

Happy New Year from www.Corkage.ie, for those of you tying the knot in 2010 you have a very exciting year ahead. We are here to help and advise on the wine side of things so please do not hesitate to ask us any questions that you may have.

Well I for one have had a good start to 2010. The WSET wine diploma results are just in and I have passed the final unit (unit 5 sparkling wines), two years of hard work and lots of wine drinking later (not the hard bit!) I am a WSET.Dip graduate.

2010 also sees the new duty rates on alcohol kicking in, the 50 cent reduction on a bottle of wine is most welcome and as the blood sucking enemy would say ‘every little helps’!.

In general there should be much better value this year as the country comes back down to a new reality. At Corkage we are excited about the year ahead. We look forward to introducing more great wines to our range and playing our little part in making your big day that little bit more special.

Thank you for visiting our site and wishing you all the best……

Kind regards

Stephen

Few wine lovers can have failed to be swayed by the heavy discounts offered in supermarkets.

But many would be horrified if they knew the truth about their cut-price shiraz or chardonnay.

Some brands are little better than alcopops dressed up with flavourings and fancy labels, an investigation claims.

Producers use a host of additives to disguise the flavour or inferior grapes without listing them on the labels. In some cases, they are creating so-called ‘Frankenstein wines’ bulked up with water, sugar and even hydrochloric acid.

In addition, supermarkets stand accused of artificially inflating the price of wine to make discounts seem larger and more attractive.

The inquiry also suggests that only 30 per cent of the champagne sold in this country is worth the high prices demanded by the French producers.

The disturbing findings are reported in a Dispatches programme, which looks at what goes into the 1.5billion bottles of wine consumed in Britain every year.

Malcolm Gluck, author of The Great Wine Swindle, said: ‘Many, many wines are no better than a sort of alcoholic cola. You get artificial yeasts, enzymes, sugar, extracts, tannins, all sorts of things added.’

Win a copy of ‘The Great Wine Swindle How snobs are ruining your wine’ by answering the question below:

Greek wine Retsina’s distinctive flavour comes from what?

Send your answer to stephen@corkage.ie

So you are getting married and money is no object…right? we didn’t think so!. We have been contacted by lots of couples and we have been delighted with the feedback on the site. One message that has been coming through loud and clear is that people are looking for value now more so than ever. Many couples are looking to source good wine but don’t have a big budget to allocate to it. Having looked at going up north or over to France etc. the reality of these options is that when you add in time, transport costs etc. these are not the dream solution either.

In response to this we at Corkage have launched a bin end service. We work with over 18 suppliers from boutique specialists to large wholesalers. We have access to batches of wine from these suppliers that may be discontinued lines or simply stock clearence. These wines can represent great value and are available in various quantities at different times. Basically you tell us what style of wine you have in mind and give us a rough idea of quantity required and we will put it out to tender. It never hurts to ask! and you never know we might stumble upon a real bargin.

As we are dealing in clearence batches we cannot offer our usual sale or return policy on bin end deals so you will just have to drink any left over wine yourselves! To get quoted for bin end deals just contact us and we will do the rest.

The question of how much wine to buy for a wedding or event is often a cause of stress for people. As wine is a major cost centre it is important to get the quantities right. For many people the thought of running out of wine fills them with fear at the thought of forever being remembered as ‘frugal bottomed’ by all their freinds and family for ever more. On the other hand Irish people in particular are firm beleivers that free alcohol tastes better and many are capable of drinking a river dry.

The advice from corkage is that it is better to be looking at it than for it!, easy for you to say I hear you cry as you are selling wine…yes but we also have a sale or return policy so if you don’t use it we will take it back. The amount of wine you will need obviously depends on the number of guests you have, the length of the recption and whether your freinds and family are booze hounds or not.

As a guide at a recent wedding in the Grand Hotel in Malahide, a duo of Concerta Pinot Grigio and Domaine St. Jacques d’Albas Minervois were served (both went down a treat!) with mains of Salmon and rack of lamb. Prosecco Il Cortigiano was served for the reception on arrival. The wedding was for 150 guests. The total amount of wine consumed was 48 bottles of white, 36 bottles of red and 60 bottles of prosecco. For the main meal this works out at just under a half a bottle per person. The fact that more white than red was drunk was probably due to the fact that it was a lovely sunny day. The 60 bottles of prosecco Il Cortigiano were consumed as it was delicious,  light and refreshing and the first drink of the day after the church etc.

As a general word of advice, someone from the wedding party (i.e. the best man or a groomsman) should be tasked with overseeing the pouring of drinks. At many venues the staff tend to be minimum wage teenagers more concerned with checking out the talent at the wedding than pouring wine. Someone needs to keep an eye on the guests to make sure that they do not have to beg for a refill or that the staff are not throwing the wine around (filling glasses to the rim for example). The appointed person should also check that the white is chilled and the red at room temperature (red stored in the boot of a car will generally be too cold ).

The arrival of coffee or the provision of a drink for the final toast is a clear signal to guests that the flow of wine is coming to an end. Most people are happy to stretch their legs after a meal and speeches and go to powder their nose etc. Guests then head to the bar as the newly weds get ready for the first dance. At this stage everyone should have a warm glow from good food good wine and heart warming speeches, meanwhile the honeymoon creeps ever closer………….

Corkage has received a lot of emails lately from brides and grooms on the topic of corkage charges in hotels and venues. Here’s an example:


“…..I was astounded to discover the venue I booked is looking to charge me a €15 corkage fee per bottle! They are already getting room hire, bedroom hire for guests, the catering, plus all the alcohol which they’ll be selling in the evening! I believe that such a corkage charge is obscene …”


Hear, hear. But, unfortunately the topic of corkage is not as simple as that. After much consultation with restaurateurs, industry figures and hotels, this is the situation as I see it corkage, when honorably implemented, is a fair thing.
The common complaint runs something like this: “It’s outrageous! I can buy this bottle of Santa Rita 120 Sauvignon Blanc for €10.49 in Tesco , yet such and such venue are looking to charged €30! It’s outrageous!” (See blog on avoiding serving branded wines!)


In defense of the (good!) hotels and venues of the world, let me hit you with a bit of a reality check. Running a hotel is not a benevolent pastime. Venues have to buy, store, sell and serve wine. “So do retailers!” you say. Yes, but retailers, particularly the Tesco’s of this world and mega-wine chains, have an enormous buying power. Tesco can buy the wine at a rate much lower than a hotel. Similarly, Tesco only has to shelve it and put it in a bag. A hotel or venue has to refrigerate it (well, at least half the time), serve it by the glass (more wastage here), pull the cork and pour it via a team of staff.



The trick particularly at the moment in the ‘current economic climate’ (is anyone else getting really sick of that phrase?) is to haggle and haggle and then haggle some more. Corkage charges like property prices and bank shares are plummeting at the moment. A venue is not going to risk loosing your booking over the corkage fee so there has never been a better time to provide your own wine and wow your guests with a great wine selection……..

The general rule of thumb here is to avoid serving branded wines at your wedding, unless of course you are serving Chateau Petrus, Latour, Margaux (i.e. top class really expensive stuff!)


Brand Definition


“Word(s) that identify not only a product but also its manufacturer or producer, such as Apple, Coca Cola, IBM, Mercedes, Shell, Sony, Toyota.”


Why, you may ask?


Well the answer is simple; in general you do not want your guests knowing exactly how much you have spent on the wine that you are serving. Furthermore big brand wines are really not going to surprise anyone or add to the occasion in any particular way. It is a much better idea to introduce your guests to something new or different (it may even spark a wine debate at the table).
Most hotels and restaurants have wines that you cannot find on easily on supermarket shelves on their list for the same reason. They do not want you getting annoyed at paying €30 for the Louis Latour Macon Lugny that you can buy in your local Spar for €11. Most major wine companies will have specific ‘On Trade’ brands exclusively for restaurants and Hotels so that they can avoid their blushes and hide their margin nice and discretely.
The Irish wine consumer is getting more and more savvy some or lots of your guests will easily recognize many of the following brands and have a fair idea of what they cost;


Australia – Jacobs Creek, Hardy’s, Wolf Balss, Lindemans, Rosemont, McGuigan’s. Brown Brothers


Chile – Santa Rita, Errazuriz, Carmen, Concha Y Toro, Montes, Undurraga


Spain – Torres, Faustino, Chivite, Frexinet, El Coto


France – Louis Latour, Guigal, Louis Jadot, Mouton Cadet, Michel Lynch, La Piat D’Or (obviously!)


Italy – Masi, Antinori,


New Zealand – Oyster Bay, Montana


USA – Gallo, Blossom Hill, Sutter Home
This list is by no means exhaustive (Just the ones I can name off the top of my head). Some of the above make fantastic wines but the point is that your guests can get most of them any day of the week, why not give them something different on your wedding day ?