Thomas Jefferson ’s influence on American culture extends far beyond theDeclaration of Independence . He was also one of early America’smost prominentand passionate protagonist of wine , influenced by his sojourns in France as the American ambassador . And now you’re able to explore which wines captured his fantasy in the 18th and other 19th centuries , from 1791 to 1803 .
The New York Public Library has digitized one ofJefferson ’s story booksheld in the library ’s archives , asThe Wall Street Journalreports , observe the type and amount of wines he purchased in addition to his change of location records and other expenditures .
He spent $ 22.50 in duties for import 200 bottles of Champagne , consort to this banknote .
It ’s a trivial difficult to decode Jefferson ’s minute scribbles , but if you spend enough prison term with the book you’re able to start to outline out his life just before and during his first years in the White House ( he took berth in 1801 ) . In 1791 , for representative , he register the meat of his quarterly house expense , which included about $ 271 in piece of furniture and $ 35 in foodstuff . He details elsewhere how much he expend in hiring coaches , when he generate citizenry money out of brotherly love ( about $ 979 in his first class as president ) , and whose debt he ’s repaid .
As for his drink purchases , asWall Street Journalwine author Lettie Teague , who flick through the book in someone in the library ’s archives , details :
In his first year as president , from March 1801 to March 1802 , Jefferson writes that he spend $ 2797.38 in vino , compare to $ 2003.71 in groceries . ( He spent nearly$11,000 on wineduring his tenure as chairman . )
When he retired from politics , Jefferson throw himself into winemaking , procuring cutting to grow aboriginal American wine grapes ( then largely sour and terrible , to Jefferson ’s frustration ) at Monticello . However , he would remain a better wine toper than vino God Almighty .
“ Though he planted vines of every verbal description — aboriginal and vinifera both — at Monticello over a period of half a century ( the other record in his garden record is in 1771 , the last in 1822 ) , there is no evidence that Jefferson ever succeeded in bring on wine-coloured from them , and probably after a certain time he lay off even to hope very strongly in the possibility for himself , " scholar Thomas Pinney indite in his bookA History of Wine in America . “But he cared much that others should succeed , and , by virtue of his zeal and his eminence , can be called the great patron of vino and winegrowing that this country has yet had . " In this , he in spades put his money where his mouth was .
[ h / tThe Wall Street Journal ]
