The Wines of Colonial America
America’s Founding Fathers were a wine-loving group of men. Namely, Thomas Jefferson and Philadelphia’s beloved Benjamin Franklin.
From the beginning, Americans have been wine enthusiasts, consuming wines such as Claret, Maderias, and Ports. Especially at important occasions like the signing of The Declaration of Independence. Granted, these wines were more often than not enjoyed by the colonists who could afford the luxury of imported wines. Nonetheless, an early love affair with certain wines had caught on.
Claret is what the British call Bordeaux. And both Jefferson and Franklin would have sipped copious amounts of it while visiting Versailles. Possibly these diplomats for the states enjoyed some of the earliest <a href=”http://www.vinology.com” target=”_new”>wine tastings</a>. One can’t help wondering. Alas, they would have sipped many other wines as well – Champagne most likely – but it was Bordeaux that captured their hearts, and Jefferson became an avid collector upon his return to the states.
Not long thereafter, Americans made their first attempts at creating vineyards and producing wines of their own. William Penn’s plantings in Philadelphia are the earliest known attempts of winemaking in America, and the vineyards that Jefferson planted at his home at Monticello are well documented.
The wines.
Unlike the Bordeaux we enjoy today (that is, when we can get someone to buy it for us), the Bordeaux – or Clarets – that the Colonists consumed was typically pink and not very rounded in the mouth, thus, closer to drinking vinegar than the rich red Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlots we enjoy today. And it wasn’t until after the American Revolution that the French’s popularity rose in the states and we really began importing and consuming French wines. (Well, Louis XVI did throw in a bit of cash to help us out with that wee war).
Jefferson, even more than Franklin, had a true passion for French wines and spent most of his latter days building up a massive wine cellar. Franklin’s passion, as it were, was for Madeira, not a French import, but a fortified wine hailing from Portugal. The other fortified wine that colonists drank was Port, also imported from Portugal.
Fortified wines are made by adding spirits to the wine during fermentation. This acts as a preservative for the wine – allowing them to cross an ocean without spoiling. And, more often than not, this addition of spirits would render them sweeter, richer, bolder. Madeira was the wine used to toast the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and based on Franklin’s love of it, one wonders whether it was ol’ Ben himself that brought that wine to the table.
Soon Americans would turn to spirits – cheaper and more of the huddled masses could afford and enjoy them. Spirits would actually take hold of this dear land of ours until way into the 20th century. Wine obviously made a come-back – and a huge one at that – but at the onset of America becoming its own country, we were enjoying Clarets from France and Ports and Madeiras from Portugal.
About the Author
The Wine School of Philadelphia
Colonial Life in America
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