What exactly is claret?
“Claret” is a conventional term that traditionally refers to red wine from the Bordeaux region of France, but it has no official, legal definition and is often used as a generic term to refer to dry red wines. It derives from “clairet,” the name for a certain type of light red wine that was exported from Bordeaux in the Middle Ages and became quite popular in England. The wine, because of its light color, was known as “vinum clarum,” “bin clar” or “clairet.” It bore little resemblance to the wines that are characteristic of Bordeaux today–but the name endures.
