The Bordeaux Betrayal

Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, And Wine

“We could, in the United States, make as great a variety of wines as are made in Europe, not exactly of the same kinds, but doubtless as good,” Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1808 in a letter to a French acquaintance. Though Jefferson’s fondest desire was that his own country would cultivate a wine industry, he developed a strong appreciation for French wines while serving as American ambassador to France from 1784–89 during George Washington’s administration. The most knowledgeable oenophile among the Founding Fathers, Jefferson was also the greatest wine expert in Colonial America. Besides acting as an informal wine consultant to many of his famous friends, he advised several presidents on the subject, including Washington and Monroe.

In 1789 when Jefferson returned from France for what he thought was a temporary leave of absence, Washington asked him to remain in America and become secretary of state. Though he’d hoped to return overseas, Jefferson reluctantly accepted the appointment. Once settled at home, he offered to introduce Washington to the world of French wine, helping stock the president’s cellar.

It was not the first time the two good friends had collaborated on the subject of wine. As far back as 1774 when the Continental Congress passed legislation banning imported spirits, Jefferson had enlisted Washington’s financial support as a backer of the Virginia Wine Company, which was formed for the purpose of growing grapes and making wine in Virginia.

Though that project failed, Washington gladly took advantage of his good friend’s expertise to become acquainted with the best French vintages. According to John Hailman’s excellent book Thomas Jefferson on Wine (University Press of Mississippi, 2006), in 1790, Jefferson wrote the American consul in Bordeaux requesting thirty dozen bottles of Château d’Yquem for Washington and ten dozen for himself, and twenty dozen Château à Latour for Washington. On another occasion, he ordered forty dozen bottles of champagne for President Washington. Throughout his tenure as secretary of state, Jefferson continued ordering wine for Washington, both for Mount Vernon and during his presidency in the then capital city of Philadelphia.

Like Jefferson, George and Martha Washington entertained most days of the year, opening Mount Vernon to both friends and strangers who passed through the region. Through their letters and diaries, it was evident the Washingtons welcomed hundreds of guests annually, providing food and lodging.

“My manner of living is plain,” Washington once said. “A glass of wine and a bit of mutton are always ready.”

Plain though he claimed to be, Washington always served wine at his afternoon dinners and evening suppers—both with the meal and afterward. Never a connoisseur like Jefferson, Washington enjoyed a daily glass or two of Madeira, a fortified Portuguese wine, or Claret, the generic term for red wine.

Over the years both men tried and failed to establish vineyards on their properties. Washington ordered vine cuttings from Madeira, which never bore fruit in the soil of Mount Vernon, just as the dozens of species of wine grapevines Jefferson tried to grow at Monticello did not produce a single bottle of wine.

Nevertheless both were successful in other ventures involving alcohol and spirits. For years Jefferson brewed his own beer at Monticello and Washington enjoyed considerable commercial success as the owner of a whiskey distillery, to such an extent that he may have been the number-one whiskey producer in Colonial America.

Over the years, the two close friends undoubtedly drank many bottles of wine together. However, a few years before Washington’s death, Jefferson committed the unpardonable political blunder of writing a private letter to a mutual friend in Italy sharply criticizing Washington. The letter made its way back to America, where it created a firestorm when it was published in a Philadelphia newspaper.

Though he had considered Jefferson one of his most trusted partners since before the American Revolution, Washington was so hurt he refused to write or speak to his old friend ever again. Unlike the prolific Jefferson, Washington left behind no documents mentioning what he thought of all the wines Jefferson had procured for him, or the occasions on which they drank them together. With their decades-long relationship irretrievably severed, the two Founding Fathers never again shared a bottle of wine.