ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that while many Bordeaux merchant houses specializing in wine were founded in the eighteenth century by Germans, Dutchmen, and Danes, and by volume the Northern Europeans were Bordeaux’s biggest traders, it was the Irish merchants who purchased the most expensive young wines from the most illustrious estates (the word “château” was not used at the time), perfected aging techniques in their cellars along the Quai des Chartrons, and provided the necessary capital to growers in order to make wines worthy of their high price. The Irish merchants then sold these wines to the most lucrative markets: London and Dublin. This chapter shows precisely how the Irish merchants in eighteenth-century Bordeaux “grew” the wines in their cellars as they prepared them for market, and in particular how they blended or “cut” the best Bordeaux wines with wines from elsewhere, especially the northern Rhone and eastern Spain. Ironically, it was this practice that enhanced the consistency and quality of Bordeaux wines and in the process gave Bordeaux an international reputation for vinous excellence.
