The social drinker

Summer is not too far away — a season when most of us are probably at our most adventurous when it comes to drinking, and when it comes to many other pastimes. In this spirit, I recently sampled an unusual Irish wine made from strawberries, which is well worth trying.

Strawberry wine sounds like an alcopop, but Wicklow-made Moineir is a complex wine, and I could easily imagine finishing a bottle or two of this pinkish wine, while sitting in the garden, picnicking with friends on a summer’s evening.

Every bottle is made with 150 strawberries or so, but tastes very different to what you might imagine; the strawberries are far from sweet or overpowering, and the wine itself is quite refreshing.

Moineir is made by Californian sound engineer Brett Stephenson, and his wife, Pamela Walsh, using normal winemaking techniques. They use Irish strawberries, which they buy from suppliers in Dublin and the south-east.

Brett is the sort of happy, energetic Californian who gives both America and the Irish drinks industry a good name. There is something wonderful about the idea that people like Brett and Pamela are working all over the country at this moment to invent new varieties of food and drink for our delectation. For all the complaints about supermarkets, it seems that this artisan inventiveness has followed the emergence of supermarkets that have created a food infrastructure which encourages food experiments. This enables us to eat and drink in Ireland far better than was possible 20 years ago.

Brett and Pamela also make a blackberry and elderflower wine, which tastes rather as you would expect. It’s OK, but if I was splashing out the €21 or so that a bottle of Moineir costs from many specialist outlets around the country, I’d definitely plump for the strawberry wine and a little taste of summer in a bottle. Recommended.