Palm Beach Celebration - February 17, 2008

• Event over - photos and report >

Honoring
Robert, 11th Marquis de Goulaine, Château de Goulaine
&
Kerry J. Murphy, DuMOL Wines
Honorary Members of The Ireland Fund’s WineGeese Society

The Kessler Residence

Cocktails at six o’clock, Dinner at seven o’clock, Cocktail Attire

Kerry Murphy
DuMOL Winery, Russian River Valley, Sonoma, California
Kerry Murphy, first generation Scots-Irish, was born and raised in San Francisco.

Kerry’s career began in the family tire business founded by his father in 1947. When he sold it to Goodyear, it had grown from 14 employees and one location to 250 employees, eight locations and three manufacturing plants. Murphy’s Inc. was the third oldest Michelin distributor in the United States. His association with Michelin peaked his interest in and developed his taste for fine wines. As a result, in 1996 he founded DuMOL to produce wines from the Russian River Valley, California, one of the finest appellations in the world for growing their chosen grape varietals of Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Syrah.

Consistently reviewed and rated by Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate and Wine Spectator in the mid to high 90s, DuMOL in just 12 years has had a meteoric rise. DuMOL wines can be found in The White House, The American Embassy in Paris, France and fine restaurants here and abroad. Since their inception, their wines have sold out months prior to their spring and fall release dates making pre-release membership the only sure way to acquire these wines.

Kerry and his wife Margie, have five children and an equal number of grandchildren whose names appear on many of their designate bottlings. Kerry Jr., their eldest son, works with his father at DuMOL. Kerry has parlayed his love of people, wine, and golf into a second highly successful career. He is very proud of his Scots and Irish roots and of his membership in the very prestigious Ireland Funds’ WineGeese Society.

Robert, 11th Marquis de Goulaine
Château de Goulaine, Haute-Goulaine, Loire Valley, France The Marquis de Goulaine, noted author, wine expert, and overall Renaissance man, studied in Paris, including the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Saint-Cloud and has been an active member of the charitable Knights of Malta.

He has devoted the last half century to restoring Château de Goulaine to its former glory. A fortress during the early Middle Ages, the castle was entirely rebuilt in limestone in the style of the great homes of the Loire valley during the Renaissance. Today, the Château de Goulaine welcomes some 20,000 visitors each year who enjoy the wines of Goulaine as well the live tropical butterfly farm and the LU Museum.

The Goulaine family has numerous links to the European royal families including the Habsburgs, the Stuarts, and the French royal family. But, the most important connections are with Ireland and the United States.

Henrietta Gallwey (a member of a prominent Cork family), married Alphonse de Goulaine in the early 19th century; whilst the Harcourt, on the other side, are descendants of the old royal Irish family, the O’Briens, later viscounts Clare.

Captain René de Goulaine, more often referred to as Captain Laudonnière, a Huguenot navigator, was commissioned by French king Charles IXth and Admiral de Coligny to start in 1564 a French settlement in northern Florida. Laudonnière created the first permanent European settlement on the outskirts of present day Jacksonville.

The Goulaine family has been producing wine for more than a thousand years making them the oldest winemaking family in the world.