Wine has always travelled by sea, though much of the romance has worn off.
Today it is shipped in bulk. The majority of Australian, Chilean and South African wine drunk here now comes in giant, 24,000 litre plastic bladders and is bottled on arrival.
Back in the old days, shipping by bulk meant in wooden barrels, in smaller vessels that sailed from Scottish ports to Bordeaux and as far as the islands of Madeira and the Canaries. The trade in casks lasted a lot longer that you might imagine.
"The last vintage shipped and bottled in Ayr was 1970," says Bryce Fraser of Corney & Barrow, who bought the town's old wine merchant, Whigham's of Ayr, 20 years ago. The Ayrshire claret may have gone, but every Christmas there are still a few cases of Ayrshire port for sale.
The business was founded in 1766 by a partnership of local lairds and merchants led by Alexander Oliphant. Not much has changed, especially down in the cellars where casks were rolled in through a trapdoor to be stored. When ready, the bung would be removed and the contents disgorged into bottles.
Centuries of wine fumes have given the cellar its wonderful musty smell. With the temperature barely changing throughout the year it's perfect for storing wine, I was told on my subterranean tour.
The casks have been replaced by stacks of wooden cases belonging to private clients and are stamped with the big names of Bordeaux - Petrus, Margaux and Latour.
Fraser is coy about their value, but it must run to millions. You wonder if the good folk of Ayr have a clue what riches lies beneath their feet in these cellars. Upstairs in the shop are wines for lesser mortals, but some cracking ones at that. The firm's main business is supplying hotels and restaurants and you have to be pretty competitive, says Fraser. Here you can find some of those delicious gems that never seem to get beyond a restaurant list.
Corney & Barrow, 8 Academy Street, Ayr (ayr@corneyandbarrow.com)
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article