Enjoying Claret in Georgian Ireland: A History of Amiable Excess

Based on extensive research from national collections and recent studies, this book looks at Ireland’s love affair with claret in the eighteenth century which began in earnest with the establishment of Irish families in the wine trade in Bordeaux early in the century. So much red wine from Bordeaux was being consumed by Ireland’s nobility and gentry that Jonathan Swift referred to it as ‘Irish wine,’ in the full knowledge that his correspondent would understand that he meant claret. The boo...