Tag Archives: Dublin

Durvillea Girls on Tour – Irish Update

Posted on by Libby
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Now that we have arrived in London after our (Jane, Simon, Arabella and Libby) whirlwind weekend in Paris, which Arabella will write more about later in the week, I thought I would post a bit of a recap of our Irish trip last week.

Arabella and I arrived in Ireland on Monday evening, some 36ish hours after leaving Blenheim. We joined the rest of the family at the apartment near St Stephens Green in Dublin where we stayed for 5 nights we had in Ireland. 

Dad speaking at the O'Briens Dublin tasting

Dad speaking at the O'Briens Dublin tasting

Tuesday was spent recovering from jetlag and getting our bearings around Dublin, which was especially beautiful with the festive Christmas decorations around the city. Mum and Dad had a Astrolabe dinner meeting, so us girls took advantage of Marks and Spencer’s ridiculously massive selection of pre-made meals for tea. 

On Wednesday evening, after a full day of sightseeing, we were lucky enough to attend a fantastic tasting put on by Astrolabe and Durvillea’s Irish distributor, O’Briens, for around 100 of their best customers, held at the swanky Westbury Hotel in downtown Dublin. While Dad talked the group through the wines, we got a chance to meet several of the O’Briens team, including marketing manager Cora-Jane (who, with her lovely red hair, fit right in with us Durvillea girls!), wine buyer Lynne and co-owner and founder Kevin. It was great to see the strong support in both the customers and the staff at O’Briens for the Astrolabe brand, and we felt very lucky to have such a good team now looking after Durvillea in Ireland as well.

Libby Launch Websize

 

On Thursday we took a train to Limerick. Unfortunately, Ireland has been caught in something of a national disaster, with major flooding in the midlands area, which has caused a lot of damage and closed a lot of roads in and out of Limerick. Luckily, however, the train lines were still operating, so we made it there safely. Our first stop when we arrived in the city was the fantastic new Limerick O’Briens store, managed by Mike Curran who we had met at the tasting in Dublin. Astrolabe is a big seller in the store, and Mike had a big Astrolabe Marlborough Sav display taking pride of place in the middle of the shop, which was great to see! As well as managing the store, Mike is also in charge of the new wholesale venture by O’Briens, which will directly supply restaurants with a range of exclusive wines sourced by O’Briens from around the world. We are excited that our Durvillea wines are part of this new project.

After lunch we joined with Mike, Lynne and Kevin to see and taste the full range of wines that will be launched through the wholesale venture. It was a great opportunity for us not only to discuss Durvillea with the O’Briens team but also to take advantage of Lynne’s wonderful wine knowledge when tasting the other wines, including some from Bordeaux, Côte du Rhone, Chile and Spain. So, despite being in Limerick in the midst of a bit of a civic disaster, we still had a lovely day enjoying some great wines and great company, and feel confident that Mike will be a great ambassador for the Durvillea brand in the Limerick area.

Durvillea girls in Limerick

Durvillea girls in Limerick

On Friday, our last day in Ireland, we got in some last minute sight-seeing, including a great walking tour of Dublin’s History. Mum and Dad were again busy with Astrolabe business, so we had a nice quiet evening on our last night, since we had an (unreasonably!) early start in the morning to head to Paris… but more on that later!

Sláinte chugat (Good health to you!)

- Libby

On the road

Posted on by Jane
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Week Two: Dublin

We are on the train from Limerick on the way back to Dublin. We travelled down this morning,  which took about 3 hours. Now Limerick is an ancient city formerly inhabited by Vikings and more recently by Frank McCourt of Angela’s Ashes fame.

obriens crew and girls
Some of the O’Briens staff with the family at an Astrolabe tasting

We are here to launch Durvillea with the O’Briens Wholesale team. Durvillea will be a restaurant brand in Ireland. It is a challenging market in these times but Mike Curran is doing a great job and we wish him well. The weather today in Limerick is also challenging. It has been raining for a week and there has been a lot of flooding and road closures. Tonight the Shannon river is expected to flood and conditions are expected to worsen. In spite of this it has been great to begin in this market and to get to know Mike, Lynne Coyle the Head Buyer for O’Briens, and of course Kevin O’Brien. So here we are on the train with a bag of lovely Irish cheese and crackers, a bottle of Rioja left over from the tasting and 5 paper cups. We can’t wait to come back. 

critics
Jane and Arabella making tasting notes!

While we are off on our Durvillea journey Simon is in Dublin doing a tasting at the Blackrock O’Briens store. Last night we all attended another tasting at the Westbury Hotel for about 100 O’Briens loyal customers. It was the first time the girls heard their dear old dad talk formally about the wines to an audience.  Tomorrow it is a winemaker’s lunch at the Royal Irish Yacht Club and then Simon is presenting a masterclass at the Good Food Show.

Tomorrow is our last day in Dublin. We head of in separate directions on Saturday. Meg and Henry head off to Liverpool and London. Arabella, Libby, Simon and I are off to Paris for the weekend. On Monday Simon is off to Perth to meet Jason and fly the Astrolabe flag for the first time in Western Australia. The girls and I are meeting up in London and I will spend a couple of days in the trade, visiting customers.

Dublin is such a fantastic market for us.  O’Briens  import us into Ireland and distribute us through their 28 stores and now Durvillea through the wholesale division. They are terrific stores and a wonderful family based company. We enjoy working with them all. Coming here is like visiting old friends and we have grown very fond of the city of Dublin.

-          Jane.

Down on the farm – Home at last

Posted on by Jane
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It has been a ridiculous month. Mexico, Simon’s birthday and then Marlborough Wine Weekend. I am tired and happy to be home…for a little while.

Firstly a word about the birthday. For me to have so many family and friends together and to have such a great night was overwhelming and fabulous. Also lots of silly dancing. To my girls (and Genevieve you get included here), my sister Nicki, Sophie, Aunt Maureen, Liz Morgan you are wonderful women who made it work and of course Vicky and Janet the ladies in the kitchen. Simon isn’t just a great winemaker he is also a good chap. We should celebrate more often.

So post events I have time work in the garden and Monday was a public holiday and I had a terrific day weeding and pottering in the vege garden. The tomatoes and broad beans are in flower, strawberries and raspberries are forming and weeds are flourishing. My main concern is to weed and mulch as we are away in November. In the flower garden the irises are glorious and roses beginning to bloom.

However roses are a constant challenge as I am determined not to spray. The roses look terrific at this time of year in the full flush of new leaves and blooms and then they succumb to disease. My current problem is scale.Scale treated with olive oil

On a suggestion from a friend I took the left over olive oil from the party and painted it on the stems with an old pastry brush. The results are fantastic. The scale has died and healthy systems have emerged. I am encouraged.

The young chickens are broody. I have lifted them each day but it is amazing how drugged they appear. They are completely passive and let me carry them about. I have checked out the chicken blogs and it would appear I need to get them off their warm, snug nesting box and lower their body temperature. IMG_0711
Tomorrow they we go into the more spartan isolation unit (aka dog run). However the other broody hen is Widow Twanky, our lady pheasant, who is living amonst the rhodenrodens and is currently sitting on 7 eggs. I shall leave her to fruitless task.IMG_0715
My latest project is to make seaweed soup for the garden. On Wednesday Simon and I headed down to Ward Beach and collected some Durvillea. Ward Beach is very beautiful and Durvillea flourishes there. I love stony South Island beaches. So we hauled some durvillea ashore, bundled it into the truck and headed home. I chopped it up into a half wine barrel and added some comfrey. Now it is steeping.IMG_0710IMG_0688
The vineyard is full leaf and Nick is busy bud rubbing. Arabella and Libby will be joining him in the vineyard when we get back from Ireland. Durvillea is being launched in Ireland in 2 weeks so we are all very excited to be heading over there. Hopefully all those alders we planted will help off set the carbon emissions. So the next blog from me will be from Dublin.