< The WineGeese Stories

Right before the June 2001 Worldwide Conference in Dublin, Netta Blanchard, Bobbie Sue Williams, Deanna McHugh, and Mike Corboy were traveling with the McHale golfing group who were on a Fly-In to Ireland.

In Kinsale, while the golfers were playing at Old Head, the three ladies were to lunch with Mike Corboy at the Golf Club. Unfortunately, due to a strep throat, Mike had to renege on the lunch date. The ladies looked for something to do and decided to visit Desmond Castle in Kinsale thereby discovering the Wine Museum and the beautiful poster of the Irish French chateaux.

Back in Texas and looking at the poster, Netta thought what a great pre-conference trip for 2002 to visit the Irish French chateaux of the Médoc would be.

Where to start? Calling the Wine Museum, she asked for the author of the poster and she was told that they could not reveal that information. Next call was to Eamonn Cregan at the University of Limerick asking him to call his friend Peter Barry known as “Mr. Kinsale”. Peter said “the person you need to talk to is Ted Murphy and here is his number”. Dr. Ted in his typically generous way, sight unseen, said “of course I will help you and here is the number of Professor Michael Scott of the University of Bordeaux”.

Calling Michael, Netta found another connection: Michael’s father and her father, both now deceased, had been friends in Dublin. And so, a trip was born. Michael Corboy claims credit, as he says if he had not been ill, we would never have visited the Wine Museum.

Bordeaux
Seeing the possibility of a wine tour for the Texas delegation, Netta and her assistant, Elisabet Bordt, visited Bordeaux on September 11, 2001 – theirs was the last flight to land at Bordeaux Airport on that day. Ted arranged for Netta and Elisabet to meet with Anthony Barton and Daniel Lawton. A group of 22 including Kingsley Aikins, President & CEO of The Worldwide Ireland Funds, toured Bordeaux for five days before the 2002 conference. Kingsley seeing the potential of making this a permanent part of The Ireland Funds programs urged the development of an ongoing Society in the fall of 2002.

The WineGeese Society
It was established in Dallas, its mission statement “From Wine what Wondrous Friendship Springs”. Ted Murphy became its honorary Chairman with the Society’s Co- Chairmen, Ken Gorman, John Sharkey, and John Tillotson.

The Book
In 2005, the Society funded the publication of the first edition of the book

A KINGDOM OF WINE: A Celebration of Ireland’s Winegeese by Ted Murphy

which has gone on to receive several awards including Best in Wine History for 2006 from the Gourmand Book Awards.

Events
As of this writing, the Society has toured Bordeaux three times; Loire Valley; Cognac; Spain; Napa and Sonoma, California; and the Hunter and Margaret Valleys in Australia.  more >

Major dinners highlighting many of the wines discussed in this book have been held in Dallas, Texas; New York City; Kinsale and Dublin; as well as cocktail parties and wine tastings. Membership is by invitation only. Today we have over 110 paid members and 32 honorary members. The profits from membership fees and tours advance the work of The Ireland Funds throughout Ireland.