The Wine Geese

Tomas Clancy

Tomas Clancy amongst the vines

Saturday April 17th to Saturday May 8th

The unsung story of Ireland and the global wine trade. Tomas Clancy, wine critic and author, tells the remarkable story of Ireland's unexpected role in the rise of wine from Sir Walter Raleigh's Youghal barrel business to California's latest virtual Irish wineries. He discovers why so many of Bordeaux's most famous wine chateaux bear Irish names and follows the Irish émigrés those who created the world wine trade, brought the grape to America and pioneered New World Wine.

Saturday April 17th
Programme 1:
The Gaelic League of Misery

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Tomas Clancy embarks on his tour of the Irish world of wine with a visit to the Fountainstown cottage of Ted Murphy, wine trade veteran, collector and chronicler of the impact of Ireland on the history of the wine trade. He discovers that the signs of the phylloxera epidemic that was to ravage Europe's vineyards were first noticed in Powerscourt, Co. Kildare, one of many twists in the untold history of Irish wine.

Saturday April 24th
Programme 2:
"A Bottle of the Heritage"

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Tomas Clancy meets two of the men who helped shape the Californian wine industry: Jim Concannon whose family, originally from the Aran Islands, pioneered the Livermore Valley, in Southern California; and Jim Barrett, the man who created Chateau Montelena, the wine that won 'The Judgement of Paris' in 1976, shattering the comfortable old world of wine.

Saturday April 30th
Programme 3: Vineland

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Tomas Clancy meets Francis Mahoney, the prophet of pinot noir, who helped modernise Sonoma, and climbs the Silverado Trail to visit the vineyard described as "the most beautiful in Napa".

Saturday May 8th
Programme 4: Appellation "Lusk" contrôlée

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Tomas Clancy meet the latest wave of "Wine Geese" Irish people who have chosen to make their lives in wine. He visits the organic vineyard in the Dordogne that Caroline and Sean Feely traded for their Dublin home at the height of the boom, and walks the North County Dublin microclimate which may yet produce Ireland's first truly great native vintage.

Written and presented by Tomas Clancy
Original music: Kevin Brew
Producer: Luke Clancy
Series producer for RTÉ lyric fm: Olga Buckley

A Soundsdoable Production for RTÉ lyric fm made with the support of the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland's Sound and Vision Scheme.