Claret

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Jaap Fabriek Asks...
             The Answers:
             Bruce Trinque
             Adam Quinan
             Cathy McMann
             Martin Watts
             Jaap Fabriek
             Martin Watts
             Bill Nyden
             Oliver Mundy
             John Gosden - OED
             Jaap Fabriek

Jaap Fabriek Asks...
Like most writers in the English language, PO'B calls the red wines from Bordeaux 'claret'. Why is this? I have been pondering this mystery for years (I think since I saw 'Upstairs Downstairs" in TV). My Webster's Dictionary just tells me claret be Bordeaux wine, which I already knew. But is does not explane why it be so.
Can anybody clarify the origin of this name? In Dutch we call this beverage "Bordeaux": just like the French do, which seems logical to me. Why don't the Anglos do the same?

The Answers:
Bruce Trinque
I'm not a Brit, but by Googling about I came across an explanation that the English description "Claret" derives from the French word "Clairet," used to distinguish the light style red Bordeaux wines of the medieval period, from the more robust reds of Portugal and Spain.

Adam Quinan
It is obvious to the meanest intelligence, the colour of the wine is claret, so the wine is called claret.
Or perhaps Bruce has the right of it. Bordeaux was once part of the English Empire in France and Bordeaux wines were the ones most likely to be shipped to England from mediaeval times. So there was no reason to call them anything other than clear red wine or in the jargon of the day vin claré (meaning a light clarified wine not full of sediment).

Cathy McMann
My impression, gained from reading historical fiction, is that the English of the period referred to all French red wine as claret and all white wine as hock. Maybe there weren't so many varietals back then. The word claret is also occasionally used to describe a dark red color, as are wine, burgundy, maroon, etc.

Martin Watts
Of course Haut Brion is a claret and POB was not above making the pun himself.

Jaap Fabriek
I do not get that pun re Haut Brion. Can you brighten me up, in simple plain English if possible?

Martin Watts
My southern English understanding of French pronunciation suggests that the H is practically silent , also the T, and that the overall effect is something like O'Brian.

Bill Nyden
To Stephen he said, 'The Haut Brion should go well with the Dublin horse, ha, ha, ha! Ain't I a rattle?' -- Nutmeg of Consolation, Chapter Two.

Oliver Mundy
That they were so shipped [from France to England], we know from Chaucer's description of a bit of 'capabarre' on the part of the Shipman (Prologue to the Canterbury Tales, 396-7): -

                          Ful many a draught of wyn hadde he y-drawe
                          From Burdeaux-ward while that the chapman slepe.

It is noticeable that Chaucer refers to 'wine' generally. Perhaps Bordeaux was the exit port for a wide variety of wines from all over the south of France - red and white, clear and muddy - so that its name was then of little use for the purpose of designating the type of wine meant.

John Gosden - OED
The wines from Bordeaux, particularly in the early years of its fame, when it was an English possession, were lighter in clour (and in alcohol) than those from other regions of Europe.

OED:
Claret [orig. qualifying wine after OFr vin claret (mod. clairet) superseding OFr clare(e acute but I can't do accents in yahoo)(see CLARY) and later applied to light red wines.
1.orig. a name of yellowish or light red wines as distinguished from 'red' and 'white' wines; used about 1600 for red wines generally. Now applied to the red wines imported from Bordeaux.

Clary: (ME clare - OFr clare:- Med L. claratum (sc. vinum) 'clarified wine' ...... A liquor consisting of a mixture of wine, clarified honey, pepper, ginger etc.

Jaap Fabriek
I do see the similarity between 'clair', 'clear' or 'klaar' in Dutch. However this eems more apropriate for a white wine and claret always seems to be the red stuff.
Maybe 'claret' is more easily pronounced then 'Bordeaux', which might seem to be too complicatedly foreign to your average English winedrinker. Or maybe the only reason is that the French call it Bordeaux, so an honest Brit needs another name for it.