Norman Monagan explores the contribution the Irish have made to the French wine-growing industry.
Some may find it surprising that Irishmen were involved with wine-making well before Arthur Guinness invented his famous brew. Early 18th century Dublin imbibed vast quantities of fine claret, greater than the combined total of England and Scotland. The Irish “Wild Geese” who left for France after the Treaty of Limerick took their wine-making skills with them and today some of the great French wineries have Irish roots.
When James II left Ireland after the Battle of the Boyne in 1691, he established the Jacobite headquarters at the Chateau of St Germainen-Laye, just outside Paris. Along with his court and household came three Irish regiments formed in 1690: Lord Mountcashel’s (Justin MacCarthy’s), Clare’s (Charles O’Brien’s) and Dillon’s.
After the Treaty of Limerick in 1691, a further 14,000 of Sarsfield’s Wild Geese, following the old maritime trade route between Ireland and France, sailed for Nantes (with an already large Irish colony), Rouen and Bordeaux.
Over 450,000 Irishmen were to die in the service of France over the next century. By 1725 most of them were born in France of mixed marriages. They especially distinguished themselves at Fontenoy in 1745, when they shattered the English advance and won the day for Louis XV.
Several rose to the highest echelons; Edme Patrice de MacMahon was made Marshal of France and created Duke of Magenta by Napoleon III, and was later President of France 1873-79. A more recent French President, Charles de Gaulle, had Irish Wild Geese ancestry on his mother’s side, a maternal great-grandmother descending from Captain Anthony MacCartan of Dundrum, Co. Down, who enlisted with Galmoy’s Regiment in the Irish Brigade in 1715, and whose family later settled as medical doctors in Lille.
Chateau Lynch-Bages wine, a magnificent Pauillac 5e Cru (cinquieme cru, French wine rating system established in 1855. 5e Cru= Fifth Growth) from the Medoc region, is probably the best known of the Irish Chateaux vineyards. The Lynch family were one of the “fourteen Tribes of Galway,” an oligarchy of prosperous merchants of the town.
Col. John Lynch of Cranmore, Co. Galway, who followed James II to France in 1691, was the ancestor of the French Lynches. He founded an important trading company in Bordeaux and his son, Jean-Baptiste, although initially a Royalist, was created Comte by Napoleon, and became Mayor of Bordeaux.
By 1750 the family had acquired Chateau Lynch-Bages estate through marriage, though during the French Revolution the property was confiscated. Comte Lynch was a wily politician, a master of political expediency, changing sides when necessary. After Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo in 1815, he returned to Bordeaux, was made Peer of France at the Bourbon Restoration and died in 1835.
The Chateau sold in 1824, but the Lynches retained Hotel Lynch, a magnificent townhouse in the city, where the last direct descendants lived in the 1890s. The Lunch-Bages estate has been the property of the Cazes family since 1934 and the wine has the characteristic concentrated blackcurrant bouqnet of the best Pauillacs, with a stunning rich ruby color. They also produce a dry Bordeaux while wine Michel Lunch named after the Mayor of Pauillac during the Revolution.
Another part of Comte Lynch’s properties, Chateau Lunch-Moussas, after year of neglect and abandon, was acquired by the Casteja family in 1919, and Emile Casteja has gradually brought this attractive, fruity-flavored pauillac back from obscurity. In the 1970s the Casteja and Cazeses went to court to prevent the then owner and Chateau Dauzac, Alan Miailhe, (who has both Clanrickard Burke and Lynch blood in his veins) from adding the Lynch name to the title of his wine. A lesser known Cru Bourgeois Superieur undergoing a revival of its fortunes recently.
One of the most beautiful chateaux in Medoc is Chateau Kirwan, near Cantenac, which is named after Galway-born wine merchant Mark Kirwan, who married the daughter of sir John Collingwood, who had purchased the estate in 1715. Kirwan lost the property and his head, being guillotined during the French Revolution. Edward, his son, although a Royalist, survived to become editor of a local newspaper, before returning to Ireland. having regained possession, the family finally sold the estate in 1802. Now the property of Societe Schroder &Schyler, this Chateau Kirwan wine is at the height of its powers after 10 to 15 years in the bottle; a full-bodied, deep-colored, powerful Margaux.
A Norman family who became completely Gaelicized, with a clean chief known as “An Diolanach,” the Dillons were a powerful clan at Costello-Gallen, County Mayo, and in Roscommon. The Dillon name was famous in 18th century France as hereditary commanders and colonels of Dillon’s Regiment in the Irish Brigade. General Robert Dillon, whose father, Robert, emigrated to France when his bank failed in Dublin, acquired Chateau Dillon (or Terrefort) in 1735.
Edward, his handsome son, known as Le Beau Dillon, born in Bordeaux in 1751, served in Dillon’s Regiment, and is said to have inspired deep emotions in the doomed Marie-Antoinette. A stately 18th century mansion, Chateau Dillon has been abandoned for some years, and this cru Bourgeois wine, produced by the Lycee Agricole de Bordeaux-Blanquefort since 1955, is an unpretentious, light, elegantly-flavored Haut Medoc.
An American diplomat, Clarence Dillon, of Franco-Polish origin, bought Chateau Haut-Brion in 1935; his ancestors were Irish-born officers in the Dillon Regiment in the service of the polish king circa 1615-20, who settled there.
Another Irish Jacobite family, the Clarkes of Bordeaux, still live there today, though no longer connected with the wine business. Luc-Tobie Clarke, whose father, James, was an alderman of Dublin in 1688, and a captain in the army of James II, gave his name to Chateau Clarke estate in Listrac.
The Clarkes hailed originally from Dromantin, near Donaghamore in Co. Down, and James settled in nantes in 1691, where he became a prosperous shipowner. He died in 1769. Luc-Tobie, an avocet and magistrate in Bordeaux, bought Chateau Clarke estate in 1794, building the mansion there in 1810. At his death in 1818, his children being minors, the estate was sold to the Saint-Guirons family who owned it until 1955. The new owner demolished the mansion nd today only the ornate iron gates remain, and the Chateau Clarke vineyard, now completely restored is part of a 177 hectares estate owned by baron Edmund de Rothschild since 1979. The wine is developing into a typically rich, assertive Listrac, with generous fruit, and wine writers predict a great future for it. The estate also produces a second-label dry white wine, La Merle de Chateau Clarke, launched recently.
A Kinsman, Henry James Clarke, a former Lieutenant in Berwick’s Regiment, elevated to the rank of Marschal de France, was War Minister under Louis XVIII and Napoleon, who made him Duc de Feltre.
Other 18th century Irish families in France descended from entrepreneurial Anglo-Irish Protestant families like the Bartons and Boyds.
The Barton name adorns two prestigious estates, Chateau Langoa-Barton and Chateau Leoville-Barton. They descend from “French Tom” Barton who left his Curraghamore home, near Enniskillen, Co. Fermanagh in 1722, and by 1744 Bartons of Bordeaux had become the biggest buyers and shippers of fine claret in the region. They are the longest established growers in Medoc, resident at Langoa since Hugh Barton bought it in 1821. He was imprisoned during the French Revolution, escaped to Ireland, leaving his business in the hands of his partner Daniel Guestier; thus founding the firm of Barton &Guestier (now part of Seagrams). Hugh Barton bought Straffan House in Kildare, returning to France in 1799. (Now the “K” Golf and Country Club).
The Cheat Langoa-Barton wine has great elegance and charm, with classic St Julien finesse, and can be drunk earlier than the Chateau Leoville-Barton. The Leoville wines, finely-perfumed St. Juliens with full-fruit richness, re the result of the careful nurturing of the late legendary Ronald Barton, who died in 1989. Today, Anthony Barton and his family still carry Irish passports, to ensure that the estate can not be divided up under French law. ..TX,-The Boyds were a prominent Scotch-Irish merchant family in Belfast. Their name comes from the Gaelic boidh meaning “yellow-haired” and were kinsmen of the Lords Boyd, earls of Arran. Excessive English tax on wool led many young merchants to settle in Bordeaux and engage in wool smuggling. By 1745 Jacques Boyd, ennobled, had acquired Chateau Boyd-Cantenac vineyard from Mr. Sainvencens, a former Treasurer of France. He had to file for bankruptcy by 1782, as did his son George in 1789. They sold the property in 1806 to John Brown of neighboring Chateau Cantenac-Brown, which was totally integrated, with the name even disappearing for 50 years, only resurfacing in the 1920s. The Guillmet family bought the estate in 1932 and now the 40 hectares vineyard produces 7500 cases a year of this fine Margaux, considered well-made, rich, supple and stylish.
In 1792 Hugh Barton of Fethard, County Tipperary, introduced his friend and neighbor Bernard Phelan to his Bordeaux partner Daniel Guestier. The Phelans (or O Faolain in Gaelic) trace their lineage back to the “Princes of the Deices,” who ruled over a wide territory in South Waterford in the early medieval period. Scion of a prosperous land-owning family, Bernard Phelan was born in Clonmel in 1770. He purchased a share of Clos de Garramey estate in St Estephe in 1804, married Guestier’s daughter in 1806, and four years later, acquired Domaine de Segur. He combined the two properties to create Chateau Phelan-Segur. At his death in 1841 his son, Frank, inherited the chateau and married into the Guestier family. His three daughters married into the French aristocracy and finally sold the estate in 1918. Owned by the Delon family since 1924, it was bought by Champagne Pommery firm in 1985. A handsome Palladian mansion near St Estephe, Chateau Phelan-Segur estate produces an outstanding Cru Grand Bourgeois Exceptionnel wine; rich and supple, with a deep ruby color, great complexity and breed. Under new owner Xavier Gardiner, President of Champagne Pommery, wine writers believe it has a great future.
They also have a second-label Frank Phelan St Estephe red wine, named in memory of the son who died in 1883.
St Estephe boasts another chatueau estate with Irish links, Chateau MacCarthy. Its name comes from Denis MacCarthy, a member of the senior branch of MacCarthy Reagh of Carbery, originally seated at Cloghan Castle, near Skibbereen, who sought refuge in France after the collapse of the Jacobite cause. He became one of Bordeaux’s leading citizens, Director of the Chamber of Commerce in 1764 and First Consul in 1768.
Ennobled in 1756, he established a highly-successful firm “MacCarthy Freres” that flourished until 1828, run by his Irish-born nephews. He bought Chateau MacCarthy vineyard in Medoc, and the last male representative of the family, Donald, Comte MacCarthy, died in 1925. The family is still remembered by rue MacCarthy in Bordeaux. The remaining six hectares of Chateau MacCarthy estate are now part of the Duboscq family empire (along with Chateau MacCarthy-Moula) and this Cru Grand Bourgeois wine has a reputation of a pleasing, harmonious St Estephe, with deep, intense color, ready to be quaffed after four to five years.
Other Wild Geese families owned important, though now long disappeared, estates in Medoc in the 18th century. The O’Byrne clan were Lords of Gavel Ranelagh, a territory in the Wicklow mountains south of Dublin, and fiercely resisted the Crown’s attempts to seize their lands. The O’Byrne family, established in Bordeaux by 1750, descended from John O’Byrne of Cabinttely, Co. Dublin, who bought Chateau La Houringue-O’Byrne and Chateau la Roche-O’Byrne estates in Macau. Ennobled along with his brothers by Louis XV, he was known as “Le Chevalier O’Byrne of La Houringue.” The former O’Byrne estate, finally sold by public auction during the Revolution, now forms part of the Chateau Giscours vineyard, though the old O’Byrne mansion still stands. A related branch of the O’Byrnes still reside at Chateau de St Gery, near Toulouse. The Giscours estate has recently resurrected Chateau La Houringue as a secondlabel Margaux red that can be drunk relatively young.
Irish Jacobites also settled in other wine-growing regions of France. The MacMahons were a branch of the paramount O’Brien clan in Clare, who descended from Brian Boru, High King of Ireland in 1002, who conquered the Danes at the Battle of Clontarf in 1014.
Patrick MacMahon of Dooradoyle, County Limerick, and his wife margaret O’Sullivan Beare came to France after 1690 with their three sons when their ancestral lands at Reynanagh near Sahnnon were confiscated. Michael, the eldest, returned to Ireland and became Bishop of Killaloe until his death in 1807, while Maurice was a captain in the Fitzjames cavalry regiment, fought with Bonnie Prince Charles Edward at Culloden in 1749, returning to France where he died in 1791.
Jean-Baptiste, born in Limerick in 1715, studied medicine in Rheims, before setting up a medical practice in Autun in Burgundy. He eventually married Mme de Morey, the widow of a wealthy vineyard owner, inheriting the Chateau de Sully and the title of Marquis. Each year he sent a cask of fine Burgundy wine back to his brother, the Bishop of Killaloe in Ireland. His great-grandson, Edme Patrice de MacMahon, Marschal de France, was created 1st Duc de Magenta by Napoleon III. He later became President of France 1873-79, and died in Paris, where he is buried in splendor at Les Invalides. His name is found on boulevards, parks and squares throughout France.
The 12 hectares Domaine du Due de Magenta estate is located at Chassagne-Montrachet, where the present 4th Duc, Philippe (also 8th Marquis de MacMahon) produces some of Burgundy’s finest white (and some red) wines including a superb Clos de la Garenne Puligny-Montrachet. This wine has a delectable lemony aftertaste, crisp and clean on the palette and the palest yellow in color; it has place of honor at Irish Embassy receptions in Paris. The estate recently launched a new label, the “Marquis de MacMahon” Bourgogne-Aligote white wine.
In the Loire Valley region, two Irish Wild Geese families the O’Briens and Galweys, are linked to the excellent white Muscadet produced by the 11th Marquis de Goulaine at Chateau de Goulaine, near Nantes. The Chateau has been owned by this old Breton family for 1000 years. Several Goulaines were guillotined during the French Revolution but a two-year old son survived and in 1820 married Henrietta Galway, daughter of Andre Galwey, a Nantes wine-shipper of Cork origin. The present Marquis also has O’Brien blood on his mother’s side as she descends from Antoinette O’Brien de Thomond, whose father, Charles O’Brien, 6th Viscount Clare, was created Marschal de France by Louis XV. He was proprietor and commander of Clare’s Regiment, and doyen of the Irish at the Court of Louis XV. (The monarch had a passionate liaison with his beautiful Irish mistress, Mlle. Louison O’Morphy, daughter of a Kerry-born officer in the Irish Brigade.)
The Marquis de Goulaine Muscadet has the characteristic crisp sharpness, delightfully dry yet with a round fruitfulness; an ideal counterpoint to fish or seafood.
A survey of the Wild Geese families in France would not be complete without reference to one of the most successful; not linked to wine but to cognac brandy.
The Hennessys, who settled in the Charente Region, near La Rochelle, descend from Richard Hennessy, born in Ballymacoy, near Mallow, County Cork, in 1740, who enlisted in Clare’s REgiment, based in La Rochelle. After 12 years service and many wounds, he retired to Cognac and established a shipping firm in 1765. James, his son, after some yeas with the Irish Brigade, ran the business, and then was elected to represent La Charente region in the French Parliament under Louis XVIII and Louis-Philippe. He married Marie Martell, daughter of the famous cognac firm, and had three sons. James, the eldest, took over the business, which expanded over the years. Maurice, his brother, invented the start system for ranking brandies. In 1766 Jas. Hennessy &Co shipped some 13,000 cases of cognac; by 1995 they were shipping over 30 million bottles annually and are affiliated with LMVH, the leading French luxury goods group. The family lives at the Chateau de St Brice, near Cognac, but has not forgotten its Irish ancestry; Maurice Hennessy, born in 1950, still maintains a house at Ballymacoy, and the firm sponsors the prestigious Hennessy Literary Awards and the Hennessy Handicap in the Irish racing season.
So much bottled history – these Irish Wild Geese have, over the last three centuries, made a lasting contribution to the development of French wine-growing and its high international standing today. Next time you uncork an Irish Chateaux wine, raise your glass to the 17th century Irishmen whose names still grace these fine bottles today.
Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in the September/October 1996 issue of Irish America. ⬥
Leave a Reply