8 American presidents who loved wine (very much indeed)

From the precedent-setting Whiskey Rebellion to the early days of American wine production, the history of the United States is deeply intertwined with alcohol.

So it probably won't surprise you that many presidents were fond of a glass of wine (or several). Here's an overview of how wine played a big role in different presidencies.

The Founding Fathers certainly enjoyed a drink, and the first president of the United States is no exception. Wines from Spain and Portugal would have been available to American settlers at the time. George Washington was a fan of Portugal's Madeira and drank it all his life. However, as a man of some means, he would also have had access to champagne.

He apparently loved it. According to the Mount Vernon estate website, "In 1793, Washington bought 485 bottles of champagne and burgundy as president, which cost him $355.67."

Washington tried several times to produce his own wine. In one attempt on his Mount Vernon Estate, he had enslaved workers plant about 2,000 cuttings of a local wild grape. However, the outbreak of the Revolutionary War made it impossible for Washington to complete the project.

Washington may not have had much success in wine making. But he did own a distillery, which at the time was one of the largest in the country. Beer was apparently also an interest - he carried a notebook with a recipe for "small beer," which produced a beer with less alcohol compared to other brews at the time.

John Adams started each day with a pitcher of cider for breakfast, a habit he had formed while attending Harvard. And that was just the first of the alcoholic refreshments he consumed throughout the day.

Adams would also end his day with three glasses of Madeira. To further confirm his love of this fortified wine, in 2017 the Liberty Hall Museum in New Jersey discovered three cases of Madeira dating back to 1796 and about 42 bottles from the 1820s, Town and Country reported. Several of these cases had been ordered to celebrate Adams' inauguration.

For the president who said, "in nothing have the habits of the palate more decisive influence than in our relish of wines," it is not surprising that Thomas Jefferson is often considered America's first wine connoisseur.

According to NPR, prior to the Revolutionary War, Jefferson drank mostly Port, Sherries and occasionally red wine which was common at the time. However, that all changed during a trip to France in 1784. After that, Jefferson became particularly interested in Burgundy, bordeaux, Champagne and Rhone wines. He imported French bottles as well as selections from other major wine-producing countries such as Portugal, Italy and beyond.

On his plantation in Monticello, Jefferson had two vineyards maintained by hundreds of enslaved people. He tried to grow several European grapes. But without success because there was not yet a way to control diseases such as phylloxera.

Although the vineyard did not produce wine during Jefferson's lifetime, we can say there were still plenty of bottles - he had more than 10 different wineries during his lifetime.

Jefferson's love of wine influenced many of his contemporaries, including the fifth president, James Monroe. Jefferson even wrote a letter to Monroe after his inauguration, which consisted mainly of wine suggestions and how many bottles the new president should have.

It seems Monroe followed Jefferson's advice, but with an unfortunate result: the Monroe administration was rocked by scandal when 1,200 bottles of imported wine were billed to Congress as furniture.

As for alcohol, Buchanan enjoyed just about everything, but he had a special affinity for the high-end stuff. He especially loved champagne: when he was secretary of state in 1846, Buchanan threw a party where several hundred bottles of wine were served, 150 of them champagne. Buchanan is even said to have reprimanded a wine merchant for sending too small bottles of champagne.

But he didn't just love bubbly. Buchanan's political manager, John Forney, is quoted in the book Mint Juleps with Teddy Roosevelt: The Complete History of Presidential Drinking as saying, "the Madeira and Sherry [Buchanan] has consumed would fill more than one old cellar, and the rye whiskey that he has 'punished' would make Jacob Baer's heart (a well-known whiskey merchant at the time) glad."

Grant was a notorious drinker and it is clear that this habit followed him to the White House. In those days, presidents were responsible for paying their "entertainment" bills. On several occasions, Grant's dinners alone produced a $2,000 bill for champagne.

Needless to say, when Grant's presidency ended, he was in huge debt.

You might think that the president responsible for raising the drinking age from 18 to 21 wouldn't like alcohol that much, but no ...

Ronald Reagan “truly considers himself a wine enthusiast,” presidential aide Michael K. Deaver said in a 1981 article in the Washington Post. “He was never someone who was interested in hard liquor.”

The 40th president of the United States had an extensive wine cellar at home, where he kept such acclaimed bottles as a 1947 Lafite Rothschild and a 1947 Haut Brion. But he is perhaps best known for bringing California wine to the White House: Reagan was known for serving bottles from the Golden State at state dinners. Kendall-Jackson saw their sales skyrocket after First Lady Nancy Reagan remarked how much she loved it.

Unlike his predecessor, the 44th president of the United States enjoyed a beer, a cocktail and, of course, a few glasses of wine. The Obama family home in Chicago even has a wine cellar with a capacity of 1,000 bottles.

We're not sure how full that cellar is. But the Obamas did pop some Graham Beck Brut NV sparkling to celebrate election night. And after serving Peza do Rei, from Spain's Cachin Wineries, the wine became a bestseller and unavailable anywhere. It was dubbed "Obama's wine."

Source: wineenthusiast