Wine merchant Jim Nicholson is no stranger to awards. His import, wholesale and retail business has been a regional winner in the International Wine Challenge Awards no less than 29 times, and earlier this month the UK’s oldest and most respected wine publication, Decanter, voted JN Wine the best retailer in Northern Ireland and named its London branch, Highbury Vintners, the best regional wine shop in the capital.
Have you ever found yourself at a drinks tasting in the company of someone who seems to talk effortlessly about the aromas and flavours of whatever is in their glass, and all you can manage is a rather feeble, “Hmm, very nice”? Yeah, me too.
Just about the time when TV scriptwriters were dreaming up the quirky sitcom Colin from Accounts, Belfast was being introduced to what sounds like Colin’s workmates Karl from IT and Susan from HR. These weren’t rival shows, however, they’re the names of beers made at what must be the trickiest location for a brewery anywhere in the city.
Some very special bottles of wine were uncorked in Belfast last week. Their contents have been described as some of the greatest examples of Shiraz in the world, and they’ve been categorised as ‘outstanding’ in the Langton classification of Australia’s finest wines. One bottle at the tasting in the Merchant Hotel was 34 years old, and others were from exceptional vintages of the past three decades. They’re not something you can just go into a shop and buy; most are in the hands of collectors and investors, and they’re hardly ever opened.