Irish Wine & Coffee

There are actually a small handful of wineries in Ireland, but none of it leaves the small communities where they are produced.  The climate is not proper for producing good grapes—it is too cold, wet, and storms are unpredictable, and the Romans never brought grapes with them during their visits way back when.  In some research, I did find one winery in Cork County, Ireland.  The Thomas Walk Vineyard has .98 hectares of grapes!  Probably some obscure hybrid grapes of Eastern European origin.
 

Irish Coffee, as the story goes, was first served to American passengers on a Pam Am flight while in western Ireland sometime in the early 1940’s.  A flight attendant added Irish whiskey to the coffee to warm the passengers up on a cold stormy day.  When the passengers inquired where the coffee was from, the response was “Ireland.”  Unfortunately, because of climate, coffee beans do not grow in Ireland.