Our Annual Wine Geese Wine Tasting and Wild Goose Awards is one of our signature events. Founded in 2010 by Janet Walsh, it is inspired by the “wine geese,” those emigrant Irish families, and their descendants, who, from the 17th century onwards, engaged in the wine trade in their adopted countries. The evening features a wine tasting of delicious “Irish” wines from France, California and Australia (such as a Chateau Phelan Segur and a Chateau Clarke Medoc), and culminates in our presentation of the “Wild Goose” awards to Irish and Irish-American legal eagles for their interesting and creative endeavors beyond the practice of law. The event has traditionally been held at the home of the Consul General of Ireland. Previous award recipients include

• Bill Whelan - Riverdance

• Marie Reilly, Cherish the Ladies 

• Hon. Brian Cogan, EDNY

• Former CG, Noel Kilkenny

• Rusty McGranahan, General Counsel of Focus Financial Partners

• Kelly Currie, Former Acting U.S. Attorney, EDNY

• Hon. Kevin McGrath, Judge of the Criminal Court, City of NEw York

• Aidan Synnott, partner at Paul Weiss

• Cormac O'Malley, Author & Historian

• Hon. John Sweeny, Associate Justice of the New York Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, First Judicial Department

• Prof. James Sample, Hofstra Law School

• Sheila Tendy, Founder, Tendy Law Office

• Catherine Duggan, Author of The Lost Laws of Ireland

• Kathleen Sullivan, former dean of Stanford Law, partner Quinn Emmanuel

• Hon. John Ingram, Kings County Supreme Court

• Gary Healy-Moskowitz, Riverdance

"Wine geese" is the name given to the emigrant Irish families, and their descendants, who, from the 17th century onwards, engaged in the wine trade in their adopted countries. Many of these pioneering Irish families played significant and enduring roles in the viticultural development of some of the principal winegrowing regions in both the Old and New World, such as Michel Lynch of Bordeaux.

The Irish did not become involved with the wine and brandy business by accident. For centuries there had been trading connections between Ireland and the wine producing areas of Europe. Irish emigrants were mainly involved in wine production in France, but they also settled in parts of Spain, Italy and Germany.  In later centuries, further generations of ‘winegeese’ settled further afield in North America, Chile, South Africa, Australia and Madeira.  In fact, the Irish helped launch the wine industry in America. The oldest commercial surviving winery in California prior to Prohibition, the San Jose winery, built by the Santa Barbara Mission in the early nineteenth century, was owned by Irishman James McCaffrey from 1853 to 1900.

So where does Thomas Jefferson fit in?  Aside from being a lawyer, and President of the United States, Jefferson is recognized as being America’s first great wine connoisseur.  During his first term as president he spent $7,500 on wine – this may not seem like a lot until you consider that the salary for the president at the time was about $25,000/year. His love affair with wine developed during his tenure as Ambassador to France when President Washington instructed him to visit Bordeaux with the express intention of sourcing the best quality Bordeaux wines for the Presidential wine cellars.  Jefferson was struck by the number of Irish families involved in the wine trade in the world’s most famous wine producing region and thanks to Jefferson many of the wines in the presidential wine cellars were from those Bordeaux wineries with Irish connections. 

“No nation is drunken where wine is cheap; and none sober, where the dearness of wine substitutes ardent spirits as the common beverage.”

                                                          -Thomas Jefferson

Image courtesy of Dominique Hoekman.