Chateau de la Ligne at Dunnes Stores: An Irish story of 20 successful years in Bordeaux
The story is well told. Irish business man Terry Cross falls in love with Chateau de la Ligne in Bordeaux. The property has not seen a vine on its land since the great freezing fogs of 1956. Terry buys de la Ligne on St Patricks Day 2000 and proceeds to renovate the Chateau back to its glory days. In addition, he employs some of the greatest talent in France to plant new vineyards around the Chateau and then to bring winemaking back to its cellars. Today both the Chateau and its vineyards are magnificent. As are the wines! Chateau de la Ligne Bordeaux Superieur is distributed across the island of Ireland by Dunnes Stores. In this podacst we are very fortunate to chat with Stephane Toutoundji, one of the finest consultant winemakers working today. Stephane's company Oenoteam has been with the Chateau de la Ligne project from the beginning. His insight to why he considers de la Ligne to be both an excellent property and a fabulous wine is fascinating. Of course as with all my chats we expand our horizons beyond de la Ligne and find oursleves touching on Bordeaux, France and even into the vineyards of China! Apologies to Michael Morris of Hinch Distillery in Lisburn, the North of Ireland. I left him sitting in the Zoom Waiting Room by mistake! Embarrassing. Funny (sort of?) when I finally 'let him in'! The new, and very impressive, Hinch Distillery is also a Terry Cross venture. Watch out for some fabulous cross merchandising with Bordeaux from Chateau de la Ligne and Irish Whiskey from Hinch. Another great example of The Wine Geese at their modern best. -------------------------------------------------------------------- While all restaurants in Ireland were closed until recently many reopened only to have to close again! We should remember that many of these, including the wonderful Monty's of Kathmandu, are family businesses. They are often small and brilliant and need our support more than ever. This is a very, very difficult time for restaurants across Ireland. Keep Safe and Keep well. Kevin Ecock's WinePod is brought to us with the assistance of the Santa Rita Wine Room at Monty's of Kathmandu - an excellent place to host events and celebrations. One day, hopefully soon, this will once again be available to us all. Contact Shiva at 01 -6704911 or HERE at the Santa Rita Wine Room web page.