The World of Irish Wine
Irish names grace the labels of the world’s finest wines. This is the story of The Wine Geese.
Sipping chilled white wine on the terrace, opening a special bottle of red, or raising a toast at the bar, you’re always in the right place to enjoy a glass of wine. And even though the history of wine making goes back more than eight thousand years to what is modern day Georgia; for many, France is the true home of the delicious drink. But did you know, some of France’s greatest fine wines owe their legacies to a group of Irish nobility on the run?
Known as The Wine Geese, these exiles, set about making their fortunes across the Celtic Sea from the 18th century on. Many were fleeing reprisals following the wars in Ireland as the forces of William of Orange defeated those of the Catholic king, James II. The most famous of these, Cork-born Richard Hennessy, escaped with his life in 1740, aged just nineteen. After fighting in the service of King Louis XV, he made his home in Cognac, and the rest is Hennessy brandy history.
While most of The Wine Geese were exiles, some, such as Thomas Barton, who left his home in Straffan, Co. Kildare, went in search of greater opportunity. Many settled in Bordeaux, finding there the perfect land and climate to shape the stories of the world’s greatest wines. Barton initially made his name in import and export, and he clearly had excellent taste, buying huge quantities of Château Lafite and Margaux.
When Thomas died, his son William took over, and with his own son, Hugh, he had big ambitions. In 1786, he reportedly bought “every drop” of that year’s Lafite, Latour, Kirwan and Brane-Mouton, which is today named Mouton-Rothschild – quite the shopping list… Loyalty and longevity runs in Irish families, and Hugh would go on to create Léoville Barton and Langoa-Barton, which are still owned by the Barton family today, giving them the longest history of family ownership of any of the wine estates in Bourdeaux.
A glance at the Grand Cru sections of the world’s finest cellars reveals more Hibernian stories: take John Lynch from Galway, renowned today through Château Lynch-Bages. Then there’s Phélan Ségur, Château Clarke, Château Dillon, Château Kirwan and more. You will find Lynch-Bages and Léoville Barton on the wine list at The Merrion’s Garden Room alongside another name that has been more recently added to the illustrious list of Irish wineries in France, Château de Fieuzal.
Growing grapes on its Bordeaux lands for more than 400 years, the Fieuzal terroir gained the name in 1864, honouring the last descendant of the original family there. A generation later, Château de Fieuzal was gracing the table of Pope Léon XIII himself. Since then, five families have kept the legend alive, the most recent being The Merrion Hotel’s own Chairman Lochlann Quinn and his wife, Brenda, who took on the legacy a quarter of a century ago in 2001.
Recognised as one of Bordeaux’s finest Grand Crus, Château de Fieuzal is sheltered by forests in the commune of Pessac-Léognan in the Graves region, its lands lying on the left bank of the Garonne river. Location is vital in the making of truly magnificent wines, and Graves takes its name from the gravel stones and sandy soil that add a minerality and freshness to things, but that is only part of the story. An awful lot of learning, love and lore also go into the creation of fine wines.
Lochlann was one of the of visionary heritage lovers, who bought the Merrion’s Georgian buildings back in 1992, along with Martin Naughton and Billy Hastings, shepherding through the painstaking restoration that led to the Hotel opening five years later. At Château de Fieuzal, he and Brenda brought in head winemaker Champagne-born Stephen Carrier, who learned his craft both from his parents, and at Château Lynch-Bages.
Initially renowned for its white wines, Stephen and his team have been working on the lands at Fieuzal, bring back biodiversity, planting and tending the cabernet sauvignon, merlot and cabernet franc vines, to create a red, the quality and depth of which, we can be sure, Pope Léon himself would have approved. Today, a special selection of the multi-accoladed Château de Fieuzal red and white wines is available in the Garden Room Restaurant at The Merrion Hotel, while Restaurant Patrick Guilbaud has a wine cellar of more than 30,000 bottles, many of which, you may be guaranteed, have come from The Wine Geese themselves.
Since the days of those first Wine Geese, to the newest generation, there has been a continuous connection in the story of viniculture between Ireland and France. And, when you think about it, each time you raise a glass of Wine Geese wine, you are making another link in the tale. As Stephen Carrier says, even though Grand Crus are considered a luxury, it is a luxury that they re-make every single year. According to Stephen, there is no “right” time to drink a wine, “instead a truly great wine is great throughout the whole of its lifetime.”
Sláinte and Santé to you all.