▻ The Irish Influence on Bordeaux with Professor Charles Ludington


In conversation with Professor Charles Ludington

 
 

Episode Summary:-

Bordeaux’s most expensive young wines were overwhelmingly bought by Irish merchants during the eighteenth century, and the Irish formed the dominant community of overseas merchants in the city for much of the 1700s - with names that are still found everywhere in the region today, such as Lawton, Barton, Johnston and Kirwan. Professor Charles Ludington speaks to Jane Anson about their social lives, the ease with which both Catholic and Protestant families socialised together, and their crucial role in developing both the commerce and the style of Bordeaux wine.

“Chateaux didn’t have the warehouses to store the wine, so it was purchased by Irish merchants who would grow the wine – known as negociants-eleveurs’... who would prepare it for market – mostly for London, Dublin and Edinburgh”
— Professor Ludington

Running Order:-


  • – Professor Ludington's specialisation in wine history, and how politics and fiscal policy influences wine styles.
    – The role of Britain (England and Scotland) in the development of the Bordeaux wine trade.


  • – New research into Irish merchants and their role.
    – The early Irish merchants, the makeup of the Irish merchants in the city - the first arrivals, where the came from, how they adapted to wars and Revolutions.


  • – The Boyds and the Bartons.
    – Integration into French life, and the Seven Years War.


  • – Cutting the wines with wines from other regions/countries; Irish merchants blended Bordeaux wine with wines from the Rhone Valley and Eastern Spain in preparation for sale in Britain and Ireland. Irish merchants were keenly aware of the frequent deficiencies of even the best wines, and in blending them were responding to the demands of elite British and Irish consumers.
    – Chateaux taking over ageing and bottling process in 20th century.


  • – The demands of the English and Irish clients for richer, more concentrated styles of wine (compared to clients in northern Europe for example).
    – Bordeaux Chamber of Commerce attempt to eliminate blending in mid 18th century, and why it failed.
    – Professor Ludington's choice for the Irish merchant he would most have wished to meet... Hugh Barton.

 



Keep up with our adventures in wine


▴ Top: A list of Irish merchants in Bordeaux and the tax (capitation) they owed in 1762, in the middle of the Seven Years' War.

▴ Above: Grove House, Fethard, Tipperary, the house bought back in Ireland in 1751 by "French Tom" Barton with the proceeds from his negociant business in Bordeaux. Barton rarely left Bordeaux, however, so that Grove became the home of his son William, who would move to Bordeaux after the death of his father in 1780. 


Further information:-

To read an extract from Professor Charles Ludington on the role of the Irish in Bordeaux go to janeanson.com the new subscription site.

 
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