articles

This time it's personal

THE whole business of going to France, travelling to the best regions for wine, building up contacts and bringing home the booze is one of the most pleasant occupations in the life of the highly taxed Irish wine-lover.
When the single market was adopted by the European Union in 1993, it was not unreasonable to think that 13 years later the price difference between wine in France and in Ireland would berepresented just by the cost of the transport.
That, of course, has not happened. The Exchequer continues to tax wine as if the Single Market did not exist and many Irish wine drinkers like myself take to the high seas.
Over the years, we have found that trips to Burgundy and the Rhone are more fruitful than trips to Bordeaux: the Bordeaux chateaux are more formal than those of Burgundy and the Rhone, and are also less welcoming. (Many Bordeaux chateaux will not sell at all to passers-by!) And by going to Burgundy and the Rhone you also get in two regions in one trip.
First, a word about what exactly is legal regarding wine importation to Ireland from France. The key words are 'personal use'. If you're someone who opens a bottle of wine three or four evenings a week, the sobering truth is that you will consume quite a few bottles of wine in a year.
As far as the Revenue isconcerned, you can import up to 90 litres of wine - 120 bottles - and personal use will be assumed. Above that limit, say the rules, you may have to prove that the goods are for your personal use. Note the 'may'.
Only if you plan to sell the wine are you breaking the law, which is why customs officers in Rosslare are always curious to know the occupations of those coming home laden down to the axles with wine. Publicans, night-club and hotel owners (to name but a few) are in a weaker position to claim that the ton-and-a-half of booze in the back is for their personal consumption.
We always say a decade of the rosary the night before that the ship will arrive in Cherbourg on time, which is around noon, and that bad weather will not have slowed the crossing. The objective here is to get around Paris before dark. Remember that French motorway motels and B&Bs fill up quickly every night after 7pm, so get to your destination by this time and secure your room.
Next day get up early, loop around Lyons - and you'll hit the Rhone by lunchtime.
There was a time when Rhone wines were scorned at the tables of the high and mighty. No more. Wines from the Cotes du Rhone are now justly praised and savoured all over the world, with producers such as Guigal, Chave, Jaboulet, Chapoutier and Clappe to the fore of a long roll call of distinction.
The wine co-ops in the Rhone valley sell straightforward, no-frills table wine for less than €2 a bottle; and if you're prepared to buy it in large containers, bring it home and bottle it yourself, the cost is even less.
The Syrah (in Australia, shiraz) and Grenache grapes are predominant in Rhone reds, with Viognier, Grenache Blanc and Marsanne predominant in the whites.
Fully flavoured red wines from the Rhone come in a great variety of styles and are of a very high quality. Full-bodied and intense in colour, they come with full bouquets and great flavours. They may either be drunk young or matured for several years. White Rhone wines have improved consistently over the last 25 years and classics such as Jaboulet's Chevalier de Sterimberg are world-famous.
The reason for getting down to the Rhone quickly, seeing some old friends and then turning around with a partial load and driving back north next day, is so as to spend as much time as possible in and around the Burgundian town of Beaune.
French wines are invariably named after the place in which they are grown and so the litany of little towns around Beaune is like music to wine lovers' ears - Pommard, Volnay, Mersault, Rully, Givry, Aloxe Corton.
Some of them are mere hamlets, but the wine grown and made here over centuries by masters of the craft has made these tiny communities famous. In such charming villages as Mercurey, just north of Givry, the producers are more than happy to bring you down to their cellars at ten in the morning to taste that year's production.
The two main grapes are Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, although others worth noting are the White Aligote (from Bourgogne Aligote) and Gamay, the classic variety used to make red Macon.
In autumn, when the colours of the vines turn withthe year, Burgundy is among the most beautiful places on earth. One Sunday morning near the town of Puligny-Montrachet, we pulled in to look on as hot-air balloons with their passengers slung beneath gently rose from a green field surrounded by vines.
To one side stood a man in a beret, smoking a cigarette, a gun broken over his arm and two Springer-spaniels at his heels. (Rhone and Burgundy wines were crafted to accompany snipe and woodcock, wild boar and pheasant.) Alas, the shooting man told us, game has all but disappeared around Beaune, since the land has either been shot out by successive generations or cultivated in vines.
His permit, which he showed us, ran to over three pages and allowed him to shoot (in a three-week period in autumn) a total of one hare, two pheasant and two snipe. He all but wept when we told him of Ireland's abundant rough shooting. Driving back north to the ferry in Cherbourg always takes longer, because of the weight. Slow-moving foreign-registered vehicles seem to attract the attention of roving French customs squads.
Twice we have been pulled over, despite being 100km from any national border, for French customs officials to go through us like a dose of salts. Make sure that you have a Vat-paid invoice for every bottle of wine you buy. Otherwise the bureaucrats may get you in the end.
TRAVEL FACTS: Irish Ferries operates overnight ferry sailings from Rosslare to France every second day (to either Cherbourg or Roscoff, depending on date of departure). For information on sailing dates and fares, log on to www.irishferries.com
Peter Cunningham
© Irish Independenthttp://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/ & http://www.unison.ie/