Much has been written over the years about the Irish ‘Wine Geese’, the men who left these shores to start a new life trading in and making wine in Bordeaux. ‘Wine Geese’ is a play on ‘Wild Geese’, a term which referred to those who fled Ireland for Europe after the Treaty of Limerick in 1691, following the defeat of Patrick Sarsfield’s Jacobite army in the Williamite War. Many joined their host nations’ armies in search of adventure, while others sought success in trade and commerce.
Irish names still abound in Bordeaux: Barton and Dillon, Lynch and Lawton, Kirwan and Clarke. They are well known in the wine trade, but when it comes to global recognition in the wider drinks world, one name stands above them all: Hennessy. Richard Hennessy was born at Ballymacmoy House, Killavullen, on the River Blackwater, Co Cork, in 1724.
Coming as he did from a Jacobite background, he was prompted to leave his native land by the uncongenial mood there, setting out for France while still a teenager. He immediately joined the French army, serving as an officer, but after being wounded at the Battle of Fontenoy in 1745, he left to pursue a career in business. It is clichéd to say the rest is history but it is not far from the truth either.
In 1765, he settled in Cognac and founded the house that now forms part of the LVMH, which, after Louis Vuitton, is second in revenue terms for the luxury goods conglomerate. Might his choice of beverage have been influenced by the aphorism.