Claret is the chiefly British name used in English for red wine from the Bordeaux region of France, along the valleys of the rivers Gironde, Garonne and Dordogne. Americans call it red Bordeaux or just Bordeaux.
The Plantagenet kingdom, covering England and much of France from 1152 to 1453, encouraged wine trade and the development of English taste for this wine, adopting the French word clairet to describe it.
Claret is a protected name within the European Union for describing a red Bordeaux wine; it was accepted after the British wine trade demonstrated over 300 years usage of the word. The name Claret is also used in the United States as a semi-generic label for any style of red wine.
Samuel Johnson commented: He who aspires to be a serious wine drinker, must drink Claret.
Claret is also the colour which resembles the red hue of this wine. It is used as a descriptor for dark red when it appears in football strip; for example the shirts of Aston Villa F.C. are described as "claret and blue".
Claret is also a slang word for blood.
Claret is also the name of several communes in France: