WINEThorntons' former maître d' has put together a package with a future, writes Mary Dowey
Discovering Dax the week before Christmas was like winning a magic ticket to civilisation. Having just opened, this Dublin wine bar was a calm, welcoming oasis - probably the only place in town where it was possible to down a glass of something delicious and hold a conversation at normal volume instead of having to scream.
Six weeks on, it is still enticing. Remember the Grey Door on Upper Pembroke Street, with Pier 32 downstairs? This is that basement, now a soothing space with cream walls, dark wooden tables and brown leather sofas to lounge on, should you drop in for a glass of wine and a few tapas rather than a full meal. It is the new domain of Olivier Meisonnave, the amiable Frenchman who was maître d' at Thorntons from its opening, in 1995, until last year.
What brought him to Ireland? With a CV embracing the famous Michelin three-star Alain Chapel, near Lyon, a two-star restaurant in St-Tropez, the Ritz hotel in Paris and the talented Parisian two-star chef Alain Dutournier, Meisonnave was urged by Irish friends in France to go to Dublin and learn English. "I met Kevin Thornton by chance. It was a weird interview, because I couldn't speak any English, but he offered me the job of maître d' for a year. Then, after the first year, Thorntons got its first Michelin star, so I stayed on. After a while it gained two stars, so I still stayed. I had nine fantastic years there. But, by last summer, I felt ready to do something else."
It was over a few glasses of wine in Ely that Meisonnave put forward his own wine-bar ideas to two business backers, Simon Kelly and Mark Leavey. "I said, 'Wouldn't it be fantastic to do a wine bar where one part of the room is a restaurant and the other part a wine bar with tapas?' I built the whole project up from scratch - staff, food, wine, decor. I wanted it to be warm, comfortable and relaxing with no pretentiousness, so I chose wood, leather and stone. They're earthy - like wine."
Before we discuss the wine list, one question demands an answer. Why would anybody name a wine bar after a brand of hair wax? Oh dear me, geographical ignorance. "Dax is my home town, north of Biarritz," says Meisonnave. He stresses, though, that Dax's food is not the rich cuisine of the Landes, dripping with goose fat. "It is simple, rustic food - French with a bit of Spanish and Italian."
That also describes the wine list. The focus is strongly on the French classics, with Spain, Italy and Portugal coming in behind. "I believe Europe still has a lot to offer in terms of food and wine, and we have found that the demand for French wines is still very strong. It doesn't mean that I don't respect New World wines. I've been to Australia and drank great wines there."
Few new ventures take so much trouble with their wine selection. The first thing that struck me about Dax's tempting round-up of about 140 wines is that they are hand-picked from at least a dozen suppliers - not just bought in en bloc from two or three, as is so often the case. "I did tastings for five months," says Meisonnave. "I realised there are so many beautiful wines everywhere that the only solution is to buy from a lot of different people."
There are 24 wines by the glass, priced from €6 to 9 and including some delights, such as William Fèvre's Chablis Champs Royaux 2003, Domaine Sipp Mack Riesling 2003, Delas Frères Crozes-Hermitage Les Launes 2001 and Patache d'Aux Médoc 1999. Two of these 24, a white and a red, are selected each week to go on promotion at €3.50 a glass - a smart idea that has seen lunchtime drinking thrive. For enthusiasts there is also a page of grands crus - 26 special wines, priced around €150, including attractions such as Domaine Carillon Puligny Montrachet 2001, Château Chasse-Spleen Moulis 1995, Fattoria dei Barbi Brunello di Montalcino Riserva 1997 and Alvaro Palacios's luxurious Finca Dofi 2000.
Meisonnave admits there is scope for some affordable additions. "We'll increase the number of wines from Languedoc-Roussillon and the Côtes du Rhône - there's a big demand for both regions." Lucky, then, that the importers he praises most are the Rhône specialist Simon Tyrrell of Tyrrell & Co and Paddy Keogh of Wines Direct, a Languedoc fan. "These guys are so passionate, they are fantastic. They know their regions and their winemakers inside out."
One small gripe: there are no wine descriptions on the list. "I like to explain the wines to customers myself, and I'm training our staff to do that, too," says Meisonnave. "It's the same thing if you have a trolley with 20 cheeses: you need to be able to present them all." Notes or no notes, this is a fine new place to drink wine.
Dax Wine Bar, 23 Upper Pembroke Street, Dublin, 01-6761494, www.dax.ie. Monday-Friday for lunch, 12.30-2.30 p.m. and all day for wine and tapas; Tuesday-Saturday for dinner, 6-10.30 p.m.