About a month ago I sat down with three other Irish journalists and two young Chilean wine makers in the newly refurbished Ely Wine Bar. The purpose of this dinner was for we journos to learn about our upcoming Chilean itinerary. Oh yes, we were about to go to Chile for a week to investigate at first hand their wineries, and during the dinner we were treated to a presentation of what exactly we were going to see and do. Since that meal took place, we've done the Chilean tour and are home again. Soon enough I'll be writing about it, but apart from the excitement on that night that predates a long trip, I was struck by how well we were fed. On that particular night the wines we drank were those of our Chilean hosts, but I felt that a return visit was needed.

I've remarked before that sometimes events unfold in such a way that you'd think everything is actually pre-ordained. I was vaguely thinking about that return visit when I got a text from my friend Sonia Thornton, who was over from London to celebrate her birthday. And where was she having this little celebration? Why in the Ely, of course. Portents, omens and runes had converged once more into a moment of synchronicity and the decision was made - <it>alea iacta erat.

The last time I wrote about the Ely was nearly four years ago and since then much has grown. Their customer base has grown, their wine list has grown and the premises has just grown as well. The upstairs is as it was before, but downstairs they've acquired another basement, so there's a new dining/drinking area as well as much more storage space for wine. This last storage area is responsible in part for the longer wine list - they can now store more of the stuff. There are now several discrete areas where you can eat or drink, or indeed do both. Upstairs there's a split level with a couple of tables on a dais looking out onto Ely Place, while six or seven tables surround a counter and the fireplace in the rest of the room.

At the bottom of the stairs you meet another bar counter and the room is visually divided by the sturdy pillars that support the building above. The new part is on the other side of this bar, easily missed I discovered, after wandering around a while looking for Sonia. Eventually I found her, sitting in this new area. What differentiates the Ely from other places is that the tables here don't define what you do at them. You can sit at them and sip a glass of wine, or you can order food. Or you can do both, which is what I did.

Because it's a wine bar, the wine list is where I'll begin. It's very long; there are over 400 wines listed, which is long by anyone's measure. Apart from the sheer length of it, what really sets it apart is the number of wines that are available by the glass, quite the largest selection that I've encountered. The joy of this is that you can taste and try lots of different wines, something you mightn't do if you had to buy a whole bottle each time. Unusually there are four sherries listed from Emilio Lustau and three of them cost well less than €20, which considering the quality of these wines is remarkable. If you haven't yet discovered the delights of good sherry, then here would be a good place to introduce yourself to them.

If you were feeling nostalgic for times past, you can also treat yourself to a glass of Madeira, once a mainstay of the drinks trade. These days it's reduced to a rarely encountered oddity, but you can try a Sercial or an Old Malmsey (15 years old) by the glass and discover what your great-grandparents used to enjoy. The wine list continues for many pages, covering France in detail - over forty red Rhones for example - to Spain, Portugual and Italy. The New World is equally well represented, there's a long listing of Californian wines, South African, Chilean, New Zealand and Argentinian. Somewhere in this list is the wine for you.

The food menu is a deal shorter than the wine list, but it's carefully constructed to ensure that whether you're looking for a meal, a snack, or something to help metabolise the wine, there's something to fit that bill. At one stage during the evening we ordered the cold charger, which at €27.50 might seem expensive, that is until it arrives. It was a platter heaped with charcuterie and cheeses that could keep hunger at bay for a large number of people, so for groups who just want to nibble, it's the perfect solution.

I picked the bangers and mash, which was described as an organic sausage and came with a mash with peas and shallots. The sausage was perfectly enormous and horse-shoe shaped, which sat imposingly on the bed of mash. The word organic does figure largely on the menu; organic chicken, organic beef and organic fettucine are all listed and the meats are all sourced in The Burren. I enjoyed the food I tasted, it was well-made and well-prepared, served efficiently and was just the right accompaniment to the excellent wines. The Ely continues to do what it does well.