Take it home: an Irish farmhouse ale and a Portuguese wine

Black Donkey Brewing Sheep Stealer Irish Farmhouse Ale

5.6%

€3.39 for a 500ml bottle.

Black Donkey Brewing is based in  Ballinlough, Co. Roscommon. Richard Siberry and Michaela Dillon returned here from New York, having learnt the art of brewing in their garage.  ‘Next Thursday marks a year since our first sale to the Salt House in Galway,’ says Siberry, ‘ so we’ll be having a tap takeover with our three beers there. The following Friday we will have four on tap in 57 The Headline in Clanbrassil St., including Beyond, our new rye pale ale.’

But it is the Sheep Stealer we look at today. ‘When we launched it people said it wouldn’t take off, but it was a favourite style of mine and we have been very pleasantly surprised by the reaction. It is very accessible, but that doesn’t make it bad. I think it’s where spaghetti or pizza was twenty years ago. People will fall in love with it. I suspect Irish brewers were brewing something similar a hundred years ago, even if it is seen as a Belgian style nowadays.’

The Sheep Stealer is a cloudy, funky Saison, full of  sweet maltiness and peaches with a clean dry citrus finish. Thirst-quenching and moreish, this is one of the best beers I have tasted in quite a while. You can certainly enjoy it with food – mine went very well with a few cheeses – but I would happily sip this solo any day.

If you feel like going one step further, try Buck It, which Siberry describes as a malt-bomb. ‘Buck It is divisive’, he admits. ‘Some people love it, others can’t bear to be in the same room as it. But that’s fine with me - if I had wanted to please everyone I would have made Budweiser!’

Available from specialist off-licences

Dom Rafael 2012, Mouchâo, Alentejo, Portugal

€14.50

Herdade de Mouchâo is one of the legendary wineries of Portugal. Sitting deep in the baking hot Alentejo countryside, it is made up of several old functional stone buildings with large wooden vats and mature trees outside to provide shade. Thomas Reynolds moved here from Oporto in the mid-19^th century, hoping to set up a cork farm. Most of the 900 hectare estate is still a cork forest, but Reynolds also began producing wine in 1901. In 1974, Mouchâo was nationalized during the revolution, and for a period became a co-operative, when apparently the locals drank all the reserves of wine. In 1985 the family took possession once again.

Mouchâo have toyed with several modern-style oak-aged wines, but I love the deep earthy meaty flavours of the flagship Herdade do Mouchâo. Sadly you will pay €40 (in The Black Pig, Donnybrook and The Corkscrew, Chatham St.) for a bottle. Happily, the Dom Rafael is less expensive this full rich and spicy wine has a little of that meaty character too. Great with red meats. I would suggest pouring it into to a decanter or jug before serving.

Available from 64wine, Glasthule; Martins, Fairview; On the Grapevine, Dalkey; Redmonds, Ranelagh; Searsons, Monkstown; Wicklow wine co.; Black Pig, Donnybrook; Jus de Vine, Portmarnock.