Showcasing food, wine and entrepreneurship at Taste of Kildare

Lovers of good food, wine and company will soon gather at Naas Racecourse for the 2024 Taste of Kildare festival. Ballymore is proudly supporting the event, which takes place in the county where our business was founded and demonstrates all that’s great about the region’s community, creativity and entrepreneurship.

From 20th-22nd September, the festival gives visitors a chance to savour the county’s best artisanal produce and learn from Kildare’s top chefs and experts in everything from pastry making to mixing cocktails. In the lead-up to the event, we’re featuring some of those taking part, including expert presenter Michelle Lawlor, founder of Naas-based online wine retailer The Nude Wine Company.

Michelle is today known to many as the resident wine expert on Virgin Media’s Ireland.am morning TV show, but her career started with a part-time job in a wine shop around her studies. “I loved it and that became my life,” she says.

The Nude Wine Company, which she established in 2019, grew out of experience running the Hong Kong office of a UK-based online wine supplier. “When I came back to Ireland from Hong Kong I realised the potential of ecommerce and at that time I didn’t see anyone focusing on the types of wines that I love, which were the more sustainable, organic wines,” she says. That became the focus for the micro-business Michelle now runs with life and business partner and golf professional, Tony O’Regan. 

For both Michelle and Ballymore, Kildare’s a great place to live

The Nude Wine Co is based in Kildare, quite simply because Michelle’s partner hails from Salins. Michelle has been converted to the delights of the county, and the Naas/Salins area in particular, saying, “It’s a gorgeous place to live”.

That’s a view shared by Ballymore and its customers. The company has developed a string of neighbourhoods in Kildare, including Longstone, Stoneleigh and Stonehaven in Naas and River Walk in Ballymore Eustace. All Ballymore’s new neighbourhoods complement Kildare’s special environment with their beautifully designed homes and landscape features like Stonehaven’s riverside walking trail. 

Making connections at the festival

At the Taste of Kildare festival, the wine retailer will have a stall and Michelle will be co-presenting a masterclass on the perfect dinner party drinks. “Because we’re an online business, we only usually get to meet people via Facetime,” she says. “For us as a micro-business of just four employees, it’s amazing to be able to spend time with our customers and future customers, and to make connections and be with our peers.”

Having participated in the last festival two years ago, held at The Curragh Racecourse, Michelle is excited to see it evolve and grow this year. “People who come to Taste of Kildare love food, wine and that whole experience,” she says. 

For this year’s festival, host and tourism board Into Kildare is collaborating with more than 100 partners in the tourism and hospitality sectors. 

Championing the best of Kildare

As well as selling wines online, the retailer markets food and other gifts made in Kildare and Ireland. “We’ve tried to champion them” says Michelle. “The appetite to shop local and shop Kildare has been transformational for our business.” And Kildare is, she says, “a real hub of entrepreneurship for food, wine and business”.

Michelle hosts wine tasting evenings for local people, with her next tasting event coming up at Naas restaurant Neighbourhood in November. Another aspect of the business is its new online Wine Rack Planner, launching soon. This is designed to help customers build their own wine collection, “great for people moving into a new home, who want some ideas for wines to buy,” says Michelle.

And Michelle’s favourite wine?

We couldn’t let Michelle go without asking her to share her own personal favourite from the wine list. “That would be a Chardonnay from Burgundy – I love a Chablis or a Pouilly-Fuisse. And champagne,” she says. 

Book your tickets to the 2024 Taste of Kildare festival here.