Brilliant Chianti Classico in Sheridans

Although bred as a Dublin city slicker, I was lucky enough to spend a few years working in Galway on Ireland’s west coast. These were the years before some clever advertising agent had branded the entire western seaboard as The Wild Atlantic Way, but Galway was still a hive of artisan activity, even if it was frustratingly hard to get a decent cup of coffee – Ard Bia now, as then, being a notable exception.

Expeditions to the city of the tribes are all too infrequent these days unfortunately, but each trip has one mandatory stop-off – the winebar above Sheridans Cheesemongers.

Many bars offer cheese and charcuterie boards to nibble on alongside your glass of wine, but none do it quite like Sheridan’s. It goes without saying that, as Ireland’s premier Cheesemongers, the variety and quality of their Irish and Continental cheeses is unrivalled; the salumi are great too with some sourced from Antica Macelleria Falorni in Greve in Chianti.

But, for me, the wine is obviously the star of the show with shelves full of Foradori, mags of Col d’Orcia Brunello, Montevertine (if you’re lucky), Fattoria San Lorenzo and the like. The selection has been assembled by Enrico Fantasia of Grapecircus, and although it was hard to resist the incredibly quaffable Ampeleia Un Litro on my most recent visit, I opted for a perennial favourite from Radda in Chianti…

The 2012 Monteraponi Chianti Classico is delicious. I wrote last year that it was the best 2012 Chianti Classico I had tasted, and this tasting did nothing to alter that opinion. The really lively acidity is still there, but if anything, the wine seems to have fleshed out a little in recent months. It feels a little juicier than before but still has that mid-weight classic savoury edge that I love so much. It was impossible to confine myself to just one glass.