Jefferson & Wine
Passions
Thomas Jefferson had such a galaxy of interests and accomplishments that he is sometimes referred to as the Leonardo da Vinci of America. Many of his interests were so intensely pursued that they can be classified as passions. Clearly, wine and food were two of his life-long passions. He called wine a "necessary of life." His wine interests went far beyond just drinking wine. He was interested in its viticulture, making notes on German and Italian grape growing and examining "the details relative to the most celebrated wines of France." He planted vineyards at Monticello and experimented with grape growing in his Paris garden on the Champs-Elysees. He encouraged Philip Mazzei, John Adlum and others in their vineyard efforts and accurately predicted that America would, some day, make wines as good as those of France. He was a wine adviser to Presidents Washington, Madison and Monroe.
Wine Advocate
Throughout his life he was an advocate of the virtues of wine, arguing that "no nation is drunken where wine is cheap; and none sober, where the dearness of wine substitutes ardent spirits as the common beverage." His wine advice to merchants and friends opened channels for the importation of wine into the United States from France, Italy, Portugal and Spain. To encourage the importation of wines he effectively lobbied for a reduction in U.S. taxes while serving as Secretary of State, as President, and later in retirement. Jefferson was the most knowledgeable wine connoisseur of his age and his tastes in wine covered the world: France, Germany, Italy, Cyprus, Hungary, Madeira, Portugal, Spain and, of course, America.
Jefferson in France
His love of good food and the pleasures of dining are well documented in his account books, letters and other records. Jefferson's early Monticello dinners included ducks, geese, chickens, partridges, game, beef, fish, oysters, anchovies and an incredible array of vegetables and herbs that he grew in his garden. However, it was during his five years in France that he became serious about the pleasures of the table. Fourteen months after his arrival in Paris and his appointment as our minister, he moved into a new home, the Hotel de Langeac, located on the Champs-Elysees. Over the next four years the Hotel de Langeac became the scene of many lavish dinners where France's best wines were served to an appreciative coterie of friends, both American and French.
Jefferson's White House
President Jefferson turned the White House into the most interesting social center of the new city. His staff included two Frenchmen; to administer the White House, Jefferson hired Etienne Lemaire, and as his chef, 42 year old Honore Julien. The Georgetown market stalls, with produce picked only hours before, were shopped daily by Lemaire (who was often accompanied by Jefferson) for meats, eggs and vegetables including lettuce, asparagus, peas, tomatoes, squash, eggplant, shad, sturgeon, rockfish, oysters, wild game, venison, duck, pigeon, squirrel, poultry, and a variety of fruits, including local currants, strawberries and watermelons. His Monticello overseer, Edmond Bacon, on a visit to the White House, reported, "He had a very long dining-room, and his table was chock-full every one of the sixteen days I was there. There were congressmen, foreigners, and all sorts of people to dine with him. He dined at four o'clock, and they generally sat and talked until night." Dinners were lavish and were prepared by Chef Julien on a large coal-burning stove. Diplomats and politicians were treated at the President's house to menus that included "rice, soup, round of beef, turkey, mutton, ham, loin of veal, cutlets of mutton, fried eggs, fried beef, a pie called macaroni which appeared to be a rich brown crust... a great variety of fruit, plenty of wines and good," according to Federalist Senator Cutler.
Retirement
Without his presidential salary Jefferson knew that he could not maintain his White House staff in retirement, but in an attempt to maintain the presidential culinary standards, Jefferson had Julian visit Monticello in 1809 to organize his kitchen and give cooking instructions. Apparently his attempts to replicate French cooking, without a French chef, fell short of his hopes for he later wrote, "I envy M. Chaumont nothing but his French cook and cuisine. These are luxuries which can neither be forgotten nor possessed in our country." Daniel Webster who was a guest at Monticello during Jefferson's retirement years, reported that dinner was served "about four o'clock in half Virginian, half French style, in good taste and abundance."
Extraordinary Knowledge
At a White House dinner in 1962 President Kennedy told a group of Nobel prize winners that "this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever gathered together in the White House with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone." But Jefferson, when President, rarely dined alone. Dinner conversations, whether at the White House, Monticello or at his Paris villa on the Champs-Elysees, spanned the range of human knowledge with an emphasis on his passions: architecture, gardening, music, wine, food and his years in France.