Chateau Grand Monteil Bordeaux Rouge (£9.45) is a long-standing success. "The £810 price bracket is the main thrust of our business," he says. Shatterproof cartons have been specially acquired, orders can be for any number of bottles, however small, and delivery is guaranteed within 24 hours - "provided there's somebody in the house, of course," the Waterford dynamo adds.īut David Dennison never forgets that his main priority is to offer an exciting selection of wines from worthwhile producers, for many of whom he acts as sole Irish agent. Now, blow me down, he has branched out still further with a nationwide mail order service. At that time, I thought it would take more than an evening glass or two to save this impassioned oenophile from the stress of running, simultaneously, a wine shop, restaurant, wholesale business and wine club. On south to Waterford, where I've been a vocal fan of David Dennison's Wine Vault ever since I first set foot in his medieval cellar a couple of years ago. "I could start drinking champagne at breakfast time and never stop," he confesses, admitting to a special fondness for Gosset and Veuve Clicquot Rich Reserve. This, too, may have to do with the boss's fervour. It's encouraging to hear that champagne is also in constant demand, selling a steady two cases a week and far, far more at Christmas last year festive season figures were four times up on the previous year. In fact, the bestselling wines of all, according to James O'Connor, are around £10.99 - bottles like Lawson's Dry Hills Chardonnay from New Zealand or Klein Constantia Chardonnay from South Africa. The reserve wines of Chile's Santa Rita, for instance, easily outsell those of the 120 range here: £7.99 compared with £5.99. At £7.99, it too costs a pound or two more than typical supermarket bestsellers: apparently the average Greenacres customer is prepared to pay for a decent drink. Much of his Bordeaux, luckily, is more accessible in price to the everyday buyer, with our Bottle of the Week a runaway success at £7.99.Īn equally popular white is Saint Clair Sauvignon Blanc 1997. "That year my wife Paula had triplets, and a bottle of wine in the evening is the one thing that has kept us going ever since." Bordeaux is a central plank of the business - partly because it's in demand during the Wexford Opera Festival (English visitors fill their cars with classed growth claret and Irish cheese), and partly because the proprietor has a personal weakness for it (Lynch-Bages, his favourite, is available in seven vintages including 1981, 1988, 19, all at £110 a bottle). "We started with wine in 1994," James O'Connor explains.
The fruit and veg are still there, and towards the back you will see the promising glint of a range of bottles that grows wider by the day. These days, they are lured by the tempting smell of 200 cheeses, 20 kinds of salami and heaven knows how many sorts of olives, set out in enormous pottery bowls on a table just inside the door. The premises on North Main Street had been in the O'Connor family since 1860, when a steam bakery drew crowds of shoppers. That was the beginning of Greenacres, one of the most enticing food and wine shops in the entire southeast. On the road, the two struck a deal about a fruit-and-vegetable partnership.
#CHATEAU DES GANFARDS BERGERAC DRIVER#
The first driver to stop was a fellow with a van load of turnips. In 1984, young James O'Connor of Wexford was hitching a lift up to Dublin to discuss with his tutor at Dublin City University what life could possibly hold in store for a person who had failed his Business Studies repeats. If your household has been cast into gloom by less than brilliant exam results, there's comfort to be gained from this week's wine column - and I don't just mean the balm of tasty bottles.
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