More than 1000 years in fact. That's when the chieftains and nobles of Ireland's earliest clans first drank their 'Heather wine', flavoured with honey, herbs and spices.
By all accounts the tradition continued right through to the 17th century - when the Irish aristocracy fled to the continent after their defeat at the Battle of Kinsale in 1601, to be followed in subsequent years by a number of their countrymen. With the 'Flight of the Wild Geese', as it became known, went the knowledge of how to make that heather wine.
