2016 Award Winners WINE AWARD OF THE YEAR 2016

Stanley's Restaurant & Wine Bar, Dublin 2

While there is no shortage of establishments describing themselves as ‘restaurant & wine bar’, how many nail their colours to the mast from the outset with the appointment of a Wine Director?

Owned by its talented chef, Stephen McArdle, Stanley’s is a place with a great restaurant and also all the usual attractions of a wine bar - interesting wines available by the glass or bottle, served in an attractive casual setting with the temptation of small plates of food suitable for sharing or snacking, or indeed grazing on before moving to the upstairs restaurant - and, thanks to the passionate leadership of a Wine Director with an adventurous palate, Morgan VanderKamer, there’s a lot more.

Keen to encourage customers to develop that same sense of adventure, she and her well trained team offer tasting flights - of skin-contact whites, aka ‘orange’ wines, for example - run a wine club that gives wine-lovers access to unusual and carefully sourced treats, offer regular wine-pairing dinners, also exclusive and intimate tastings with visiting wine-makers.

All this, plus an active Facebook page featuring short educational video blogs on under-appreciated wine styles, gives an idea of the highly contagious enthusiasm at work here.

For their energy, passion and imagination, the team at Stanley's - and in particular the Wine Director, Morgan VanderKamer - merit special recognition.