Cork people are fast talkers, as everybody knows. But Gary O'Donovan of the Cork off-licence chain talks faster than Sonia O'Sullivan runs, faster than Roy Keane scythes a path through the midfield. Within three minutes of our meeting - I can't help noticing that he is wearing one of those blue shirts with a white collar favoured by action men like Tony O'Reilly and Tony Ryan - he is rattling through company history and strategy. The county byroads we are galloping along haven't yet straightened out enough for the taking of even minimal notes. But here are the salient bits. O'Donovans now has eight shops in and around Cork. Although beer and spirits aren't neglected, there is a clear focus on wine, sharpened to meet the demands of a booming market. And, if things go according to plan - the master plan, that is, to make O'Donovans the most significant wine retailers in the south - more branches will soon spring up. Not just in Cork city and county, but in neighbouring counties, at the rate of about one a year. Gary O'Donovan won't sit still until there are about 20.
This isn't bad going for a family concern that was barely mentioned in the same breath as wine four or five years ago. Joe O'Donovan, Gary's father, slid from garages and grocery into the off-trade back in 1980, opening his first premises near his home in Douglas and gradually securing a foothold "in the four corners of the city and the middle". But, as in most Irish off-licences, wine wasn't paid much attention until fairly recently.
"He's still the main man," says Gary, youngest of the three children involved in the business. (Liz runs the Douglas shop; Ken is in Blackpool and Shandon Street.) "Very ambitious, so that's where I get that from, and I think he passed on the work ethic, too." It was not until after young Gary had joined the company in 1991, with a degree in economics and sociology in his pocket from UCC, that the wine side came under scrutiny. "It was up to me to get that up to scratch."
First, he got his wine knowledge up to scratch, obtaining the Certificate and Higher Certificate of the Wine and Spirit Education Trust (WSET) in Cork; then travelling up to Dublin through 1995 and 1996 to prepare for the diploma, both parts of which he passed first time. Now he wants all his staff to sit their wine exams and in his spare time - a mystery entity, of which more later - Gary is a WSET tutor.
If you didn't know about this thoroughgoing approach, you might guess it from a quick perusal of the shelves of the latest O'Donovans in the Riversdale Centre in Midleton - now more thrusting Cork suburb than rural town. Tasting notes hang around the necks of the bottles. There's a fine wines corner with a counter for Saturday tastings. Most important of all, there's a broad, interesting mix of wines, sourced from over 30 importers.
You'll see some worthwhile recent arrivals to the Irish market, like the Marques de Monistrol range from Penedes in Spain and Vina Gracia from Chile. Chile's Canepa range is valued, less for the obvious varietals than for the more offbeat Semillon and Zinfandel. Weinert represents the best of Argentina alongside many more affordable bottles; the Australian selection stretches right to up Penfold's Grange 1994 at £150 a bottle. France naturally dominates the Old World section, with a wide span of classics. And, although O'Donovan complains that Italy is hard to sell, there's an adventurous choice embracing Piero Mancini's well made, well priced Sardinians, Michele Chiarlo's seriously good Airone 1996 from Piedmont (£14.79) and the superb Carpineto Chianti Classico 1991 (£18.49).
If the gold foil of champagne shimmers noticeably, with Ruinart to the forefront, it's because O'Donovans have recently become Munster agents for the oldest champagne house of them all - rather an under-recognised treasure whose full-flavoured `R' Brut non-vintage (on special at £21.99) and `R' 1992 (£32.99) are right on form. Big spenders will also notice the list of over 20 Bordeaux 1996s bought en primeur and now on sale through all the shops - everything from straightforward crus bougeois at under £20 to Mouton Rothschild at £259.99. "A lot of Cork professionals still go to Dublin to buy their wine," O'Donovan laments. `We're trying to claim that business back by saying, look, everything you want is here in your own back yard."
The Riversdale shop, designed by Dublin architects Douglas Wallace, is the flagship, with a new logo and look that will be replicated in the other branches. "It's a smart shop - a very smart shop," says Gary O'Donovan, proudly showing it off like a new baby.
But then he has a new baby too. Indeed, two - the flesh-and-blood sort and the new venture sort. There's son Sam, six weeks old. And, to help fill in all that spare time afflicting working parents of two tiny tots, Gary and his teacher wife Katie have opened The Exchange on Georges Quay - Cork's first wine-oriented pub.
With one of the first Verre de Vin machines in the country to keep opened bottles fresh, this bright, buzzy spot offers a smashing selection of wines by the glass (ISO tasting glasses, no less), including Ruinart champagne at just £4. The formula seems to work. One couple who came in for a glass of bubbly before dinner elsewhere were so entranced that they stayed for another and another . . . until all notion of dinner was abandoned and they'd each downed twelve. "The idea of a wine-focused pub came about because we had nowhere to go ourselves when we felt like having a few glasses of wine," Gary explains. Now he has somewhere to go, all right - for he's in The Exchange masterminding operations after the day job, every Friday and Saturday night. "It's a great little hobby," he says, "and it's going really well."
Talk about you snooze, you lose! Watch these O'Donovan people.
O'Donovans off-licences are at Douglas, Bishopstown, Blackpool, Summerhill, Oliver Plunkett St, Shandon St, Main St Midelton and Riversdale Midleton. Head office tel 021 895746, fax 021 893391. The Exchange is on Georges Quay, Cork, tel 021 311786.