New film to offer ‘cinematic toast to Ireland’s drinks legacy’
A film is being released this month that promises to offer a “cinematic toast to Ireland’s drinks legacy”, according to the producer Frank Mannion, and you can watch the trailer below.
Called A Sip of Irish, the film will be released in North American cinemas on October 19 – following its premiere at Newport Beach Film Festival – and on digital platforms on 28 October.
Mannion, who is Irish, was responsible for Sparkling: The Story of Champagne, which was released in 2021 to shine a spotlight on the influence of “great female entrepreneurs” in the famous French sparkling wine region.
His latest drinks-related film looks at the story of the ‘Wine Geese’: the Irish emigrants who became involved in the wine business, particularly in Bordeaux.
Among the locations and people featuring in the film are Châteaux Lynch Bages (with Kinou Cazes), Leoville Barton (with Lilian and Damien Barton), Phelan Segur (with Veronique Dausse), Clarke, and Kirwan.
Mannion notes that at another location, Château Margaux, MD Philippe Bascaules acknowledges that Irish wine merchants pioneered blending, which the Irish film producer said is “probably the most significant development that established Bordeaux’s global reputation”.
Indeed, as you can read in an essay by wine historian Charles Ludington, it was the Irish merchants who created ‘luxury’ Bordeaux by preparing it for the English, as well as Irish and Scottish markets – who wanted “deep, rich claret”.
And, as Ludington notes, “It was from the sales books of a Franco-Irish wine brokerage, Tastet et Lawton, that the 1855 classification of Bordeaux wines was derived.”
The Irish emigrated to France to escape penal laws against Catholics in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, along with economic restrictions placed on Ireland by the British Parliament. And such people were especially present in Bordeaux because, Ludington records, “there had been an Irish Catholic seminary in Bordeaux since 1603 so Irish Catholics felt welcome.”
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But Mannion’s latest film does not just feature wine and Bordeaux, but a range of drinks, as well as famous Irish figures involved in the trade today.
Among those are the publican Oisin Rogers of the legendary Devonshire Soho, wine writer Oz Clarke, Jameson whiskey blender Deirdre O’Carroll, Irish dancer and founder of Flatley Whiskey Michael Flatley, Dermot Sugrue the Limerick winemaker behind some of England’s best sparkling wines, Jurassic Park actor Sam Neill – who grew up in Tyrone and owns Two Paddocks vineyard in New Zealand.
Also in the film is the Irish-American Bo Barrett of Napa Valley’s Chateau Montelena – the winery that shocked the wine world in 1976 by winning the Judgment of Paris – as well as Chateau La Coste in Provence, which is owned by Irish billionaire hotelier Paddy McKillen, and Margaret River’s Leeuwin Estate, which was founded by the Horgans of Cork.
Another that features is Donegal-based Muff Liquor Co – in which actor Russell Crowe is an investor – along with descendant of the House of Guinness, the Honorable Rory Guinness, who discusses “the legacy of his scandalous ancestors and what it means to follow in the family tradition of philanthropy”, according to Mannion.
He added that “Albert II of Monaco also appears discussing his Irish connections through his Oscar winning mother Grace Kelly and reveals that he is related to the Guinness family.”
Concluding, he said, “The film is a cinematic toast to Ireland’s drinks legacy and tells a fascinating story that will surprise international viewers who think of Ireland as just the home of Guinness.”
Mannion’s previous films include Quintessentially British with Ian McKellen and Judi Dench, Quintessentially Irish with Pierce Brosnan and Sparkling: The Story of Champagne with Stephen Fry.
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