Some of the most adventurous developments in the Irish wine market are happening beyond the champagne bars and glittering new wine shops of Dublin,Cork and Galway.

In Wexford, Wicklow, Sligo and Kildare, four avant-garde wine businesses have joined forces to forma group of radicals who display their wares together.

Inis Wines of Sligo,Taste of Italy in Wexford, Tyrrell Wines in Kildare and the Wicklow Wine Company also favour ‘small’ artists with strong ideologies about biodynamics, organics and carbon concerns.

The winemakers they support choose them because of this shared philosophy. Dirk van der Niepoort, for example, leader of the fashionable Duoro Boys wineries, works closely with the Wicklow Wine Company.

Niepoort is a superstar on the international fine wine scene. He spends his life being fawned over by Texan millionaires and Asian billionaires.

Robert Parker and Wine Spectator Magazine are in love with him,while the deeply soaked old money of Bonn, Geneva and Paris haggle for his time and allocations of the small quantities of wines and ports he makes annually.

The key to these Irish operations is that they are ideologically driven. They are businesses set up with a view to importing wines made by producers who have chosen to avoid the driving forces of the mass market. The wineries involved here and the Irish group, known collectively as the Wine Bunch, are examples of 21st century capitalism at its best.

Each Irish company is run without bureaucracy. The principals are intimately aware of every litre of stock, yesterday’s weather in the southern Rhone and how many cases have been promised to a midlands hotel before 3pm.This skill set is becoming sought after by Irish consumers as well as by the ‘on-trade’ (hotels and restaurants).

It is vital that restaurants, hotels and wine shops match the ambition of Irish consumers, who choose to shop in individually owned butchers, vegetable shops, markets and for organically grown foods.

Inis Wines, Donegal

Inis Wines is based in Burton port in Donegal and was founded by husband-andwife team Liam and Alice Sweeney.

They launched the firm about six years ago with the avowed aim of sourcing good handcrafted wines from people whom they knew and trusted.

They have concentrated on France and Australia and have established a reputation for the quality of the wines and contacts they have quickly built up.

Setanta Wines of Adelaide Hills and Tony De Lisio’s Classic McClaren Winery are both suppliers to Inis Wines. These small but hugely sought after Australian wineries are adored by influential US critic Robert Parker.

It is not just Parker’s praise that caught the Sweeneys’ attention. Their most interesting wines are from Beaujolais and the Languedoc, where they have partnered with Domaine des Pradels, Domaine de Jougla in Minervois and St Chinian and Domaine Lardy in Beaujolais.

Domaine de Jougla and its vineyards have been worked by the present family since around 1575. Since the 2005 vintage, Alexandre and his sister Lauren have taken the front seat from their father and mother. It has been a fresh beginning with new labels and a concentrated emphasis on ramping up the quality.

The results have been spectacular. In a small family-run firm with a handcrafted emphasis, small changes of personnel can make a huge impact.

In Beaujolais, we are increasingly seeing a well-known wine region that has been undervalued for decades due largely to the self-inflicted harm of Beaujolais Nouveau.

Nevertheless, Beaujolais is now showing green shoots of recovery into a fine wine haven.

What is most significant is that this is being mostly missed or overlooked by the big players. However, two of the four members of the Wine Bunch offer superb examples of Nouvelle Vague Beaujolais.

Along with Tyrrell’s Wines’ Domaine Olivier Merlin, Domaine Lucien Lardy is flying the flag for Beaujolais fine wines, with its exquisite and complex Fleurie and its luscious and meaty Moulin a' Vent from very old vines.

Inis Wines highlights

* Domaine Lucien Lardy, Fleurie Vieilles Vignes 2006 (90), €18

* Domaine Lucien Lardy, Morgon Vieilles Vignes 2005 (89), €18

* Domaine Lucien Lardy, Moulin a’ Vent, Vieilles Vignes (91), €20

* Domaine des Pradels, Chaˆteau Quartironi de Sars Rouge 2005 (88), €16

* Domaine des Pradels, Cuve´e Campanil 2005 (88), €17

* Setanta Wines, Emer Chardonnay 2005 (90), €18

* Setanta Wines, Cuchulain Shiraz 2004 (91), €20

Wicklow Wine Company

With decades of wine trade experience between them, Ben Mason and Michael Anderson have built up one of the most dynamic and formidable ranges of wines in the country and won several awards for their portfolio.

Their tastes and their expertise complement each other perfectly. Originally Anderson was the French voice, with Mason bringing Germany and Portugal to the table. Together, they gel into an astoundingly solid unit. To read their wine list is a joy, to visit their Wicklow Town shop a veritable workout for the senses.

Wicklow Wine Company has brought to Ireland the avant-garde wonders of Niepoort wines and ports. It also stocks Austria’s Schloss Gobelsburg, which has been making wines since 1171 a time when Ireland was still a twinkle in Norman eyes.

French gems Moulin de Gardette in Gigondas make wines of real charm and depth at very competitive prices.

More recently, Anderson and Mason have begun an ambitious venture with Domaine Martin, which has produced one of the most gorgeous Rhone syrah wines on the Irish market.

Anderson and Mason have worked with Eric Martin to produce just three barrels of this single varietal syrah, taken from the very best Syrah plots in the Domaine.

The wine is called Syrah Yves Martin and is named in memory of Eric Martin’s father. It is beefy, polished, thick with liquorice and spice and is more than a match for many Australian Shiraz priced €10 or €20 beyond it.

Wicklow Wines Company highlights

* Moulin de La Gardette Gigondas Cuve´e Tradition 2004 (89), €25

* Moulin de La Gardette Gigondas Cuve´e Tradition 2005 (90), €25

* Moulin de La Gardette Gigondas Cuve´e Ventabren 2004 (91), €30

* Moulin de La Gardette Gigondas Cuve´e Ventabren 2004 (93), €30

* Domaine Martin, Plan de Dieu 2005 (89), €15

* Domaine Martin, Syrah Yves Martin 2006 (93), €26

* Schloss Gobelsburg, Gru¨ner Veltliner Grub 2006 (91), €30

* Schloss Gobelsburg, Gru¨ner Veltliner Renner 2006 (90), €26

Taste of Italy, Wexford

Gorey, Co Wexford is the home of Italy’s bespoke wine champions, Taste of Italy.

Driven by Pasquale Cavaliere and Rolf Hoegger, this operation has quickly begun to do for Italy what Simon Tyrrell has done for France it has snapped up all the internationally sought after dynamos of the drive for quality and authenticity in Italian wine.

Cavaliere makes no secret of the fact that the goal for his wine business was ideological and involved finding people and wineries with the same ambitions for small, dedicated operations.

Typical of this idea is the Endrizzi Winery of Trentino, a region north-west of the Veneto, usually associated with a great deal of forgettable light white wines among a scattering of fine wineries. It is not an easy sell (for that you head to Tuscany or Piedmont).Cavaliere, however, has found soulmates in Endrizzi, a family-owned winery run since 1885.

They do have the standard single varietal wines made from international grapes such as cabernet sauvignon, but the focus is on traditional methods and local varieties.

The grape they love most is teroldego, a slightly fruitier half-way house between cabernet and merlot. They make a straight version, a blend and, best of all, a Ripasso version called Gran Massetto which is a sort of amarone with even brighter fruit at the mid palate.

Taste of Italy highlights

* Cantina Endrizzi, Cabernet Sauvignon 2005 (88), €13

* Cantina Endrizzi, Teroldego Rotaliano 2005 (89), €13

* Cantina Endrizzi, Masetto Nero IGT 2004 (89), €18

* Cantina Endrizzi, Gran Masetto IGT (92), €50

* Capannelle, Chianti Classico Riserva DOCG 2003 (90), €30

* Capannelle, Solare IGT 2001 (90), €50

* Capannelle, 50&50 Sangiovese Merlot 2000 (91), €130

Tyrrell & Company Wines, Kildare

Tyrrell & Company Wines has, quite rightly, achieved the distinction of being the group’s poster boys.

Simon and Emma Tyrrell work with a small group of wineries who have an almost heroic group work ethic.

I visited six of the hippest and most dynamic wineries in the Rhone Valley a few years ago. At each one, I was asked if I knew Simon Tyrrell.

His reputation as a knowledgeable wine lover, with a tremendously adroit business sense has led to him being sought out by many of France’s best avant-garde properties.

From the Cote-Rotie to Rioja and from new Macon to new Priorat, Tyrrell is there getting the leading wines lined up for Irish shelves and wine lists.

Tyrrell & Company highlights * Domaine Ogier, Ame Soeur, Syrah, Vins de Pays 2004, €35 (92) * Domaine Olivier Merlin, AC Moulin-a-Vent 2005, €22 (90) * Domaine Bonnefond, CoˆteRoˆtie 2003, €38(93) From top left: Michael Sweeney; Pasquale Cavaliere; Simon Tyrrell; Michael Anderson; Ben Mason; Rolf Hoegger; Liam Sweeney and Alice Sweeney.