Washington, Jefferson, and Norton?

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With President's Day and George Washington's birthday this week, presidents are on our mind. Did you know that Thomas Jefferson is widely considered America's first connoisseur of gourmet food and wine? Presidents. They’re just like us!

George Washington tested new ways of farming and was a would-be grape grower and vintner. According to an article on www.mountvernon.org, Washington's favorite wine was Madeira (Thompson, n.d.), a port-style wine made from grapes grown on the Madeira Islands off the coast of Morocco. The main grape used in Madeira is Tinta Negra Mole, a cross between Grenache and Pinot Noir. Today, Madeira can be found in the U.S., but it is not a common wine.

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Wikimedia Commons.

Thomas Jefferson, too, favored Madeira, but that changed when he was named Ambassador to France and travelled to Paris. There, he fell in love with French wines. According to www.monticello.org, he worked with an Italian winemaker to grow grapes found in France’s Burgundy and Bordeaux regions at his home in Virginia (Bear, 1984). Unfortunately, the climate was not conducive to the French grapes, and they did not thrive. His passion for wine and gourmet food did not subside, as James Gabler shares in Passions: The Wines & Travels of Thomas Jefferson, an excellent biography of Jefferson's five years travelling through France, England, Germany, Italy, and Holland.

Where both men tried and failed to grow grapes in Virginia, Dr. Daniel Norton succeeded in 1830 when he developed the hybrid Norton grape, which thrived in U.S. soils. In fact, during Abraham Lincoln's presidency, the first wines served at an official White House function featured local wines made with the Norton grape (Johnson, 2015). However, Norton's success was short lived. With Prohibition, vines were destroyed and Concord grapes, used for juices and jams, were planted in their place. Today, the area around the Potomac River is filled with vineyards who are producing wines made with the Norton grape. In fact, the largest single planting of Norton in the world is located at Chrysalis Vineyards in Middleburg, Virginia, less than two hours from Mount Vernon and Monticello (Norton (grape), n.d.). Washington and Jefferson would be proud!

Sources:

Bear, J. J. (1984). Thomas Jefferson Foundation, Inc. Retrieved from Article Courtesy of the Thomas Jefferson Encyclopedia: https://www.monticello.org/site/research-and-collections/wine

Johnson, R. (2015, February 16). Presidential Wine Trivia: 14 Fascinating Facts. Retrieved from Vinesse Wines: https://blog.vinesse.com/2015/02/16/presidential-wine-trivia-14-fascinating-facts/

Norton (grape). (n.d.). Retrieved from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norton_(grape)

Thompson, M. V. (n.d.). Madeira. Retrieved from George Washington's Mount Vernon: http://www.mountvernon.org/digital-encyclopedia/article/madeira/