The Michelin star is the most coveted award for any restaurant, with only 220 hard-won stars earned amongst almost 40,000 eateries across Britain and Ireland last week, including one for Bullaun’s amazing wood-fired Lignum Restaurant outside Loughrea.
Arguably, the 2025 Michelin Special Awards are even more exclusive, with only five handed out to individuals – rather than businesses - who particularly impressed the Michelin Guide’s restaurant inspectors over the past year.
Zsolt Lukács, co-owner of Daróg Wine Bar on Galway city’s Lower Dominick Street, did this parish proud last week, scooping the singular Michelin Sommelier Award for what undercover judges described as “infectious enthusiasm” for his carefully curated menu of artisan and organic wine producers.
The award was a genuine surprise for Lukács, who runs 26-seater Daróg with his wife Edel McMahon, chef Attila Galambos, and a small cadre of professional staff. He agrees that his front-of-house role is partly a performance job, and that he must adopt a certain persona for promoting his range of mostly European wines which go from as little as €7.50 a glass, to €900 per bottle.
“The most important part of the businesses of being a sommelier is taking out that difficulty and pretentiousness that sometimes goes with ordering wine,” says Hungarian-born Lukács, who grew up in Reutlingen in southwest Germany, in a home where his parents and brother were not really wine drinkers.
He moved to Galway 18 years ago, “where I bumped into the right people, who poisoned my mind with delicious wine” working in Sheridan’s On The Docks with Enda McEvoy and Seamus Sheridan, and then a 12-year stint in JP McMahon’s award-winning Aniar, also on Dominick Street.
Lukács holds a qualification from the Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET ) in London, but describes himself as largely self-taught. He specifically recalls Galway’s marvellous raconteur, the late Gerry Flynn of Sheridan’s Cheesemongers & Wine Bar, as a major influence.
“Of course Ireland has always been a wine country,” exclaims Lukács. “Isn’t it Catholic, with a chapel in every village? And if they were importing wine for the churches centuries ago, then you can be sure they were importing barrels of wine for the nearby taverns too.”
Lukács is interested in Galway’s specific wine history. For centuries, it was imported here from ports such as St Malo, Pisa, Florence, La Rochelle, Malaga, Nazare, Porto, Bordeaux, Cadiz, the Canaries, Coimbra, Nantes, Dieppe, and Lisbon. In more recent decades, wines from Lebanon became popular, as Galwegian soldiers returned from UN missions there. One gets the impression Lukács has a story for each of his 180, hand-picked labels.
The father of twins Odin and Freya (8 ) does not drink wine every day. “It’s better to drink wine well, than often.” For customers looking for recommendations for a tipple at home, he advises expert advice from Galway’s independent retailers, or online wine clubs which deliver. Lukács is not a fan of supermarkets.
And what did he celebrate with when the Michelin awards were announced in Glasgow last week?
“Champagne of course: a glass of La Closerie. We were saving it for a special occasion. And yes - it was very special.”
Daróg serves seasonal menus of hot and cold small plates from Tuesday to Sunday. See www.darogwinebar.com for menus.
