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 book deals with questions such as how was the domestic wine cellar planned and used? When did connoisseurship in wine commence? What was the role of the merchant, apart from providing the wine?