In 1569, wines and spirits were smuggled from Irish ports and the Irish coast to England, which caused no end of trouble for the government.
In order to solve this problem, King Henry the 7th of England VII declared Cork & Kinsale as well as 14 other coastal ports as “Wine Ports”. The Lawton family were already involved in the Bordeaux wine business at this time.
Commerce between Bordeaux and Ireland was flourishing in the 18th century. Abraham Lawton, born into a family of Cork merchants, immigrated to Bordeaux in 1739. He became one of the key figures in the history of Bordeaux wine. His first shipment of wine in 1740 went to the firm of Hugh Lawton, who became Mayor of Cork in 1776.

It soon became very profitable for Irish merchants to have a family representative on Bordeaux's famous Quai des Chartrons, which was the heart of the wine district.

The Lawton family has been selling the great growths of Bordeaux completely independently since 1739.

In 1979, Hugues Lawton created the firm of Hugues Lawton S.A.. Currently managed by his son Pierre (8th generation of his family in the wine business), this company ships great growths all over the world.