By Aillinn Brennan • Special to The Current
“My manner of living is plain…a glass of wine and a bit of mutton.”
– George Washington
It seems he enjoyed his wine but his appetite was much broader as his expense account shows great expenditures for beer, cider, brandy, port, sherry, liqueurs, rum, spirits and Madeira. In his autobiography based on the expense account Madeira is his favorite drink, which he “never drank more than a bottle a night.”
In Military Journals from this period, alcohol is prescribed for celebrating victories, encouraging enlisting, and for fatigue. Washington’s soldiers had an allowance for 1 quart of beer a day from the commissary. Punch, another popular drink of the time was noted to be in bowls large enough to swim a swan!
“Beer is living proof that God loves us and wants to see us happy.”
– Benjamin Franklin
On May 13, 1787, George Washington dropped in on Benjamin Franklin who “opened up a cask of dark beer to entertain him.” In a Franklin autobiography, he mentions a large China beer jug which he “fell in love with at first sight; for I thought it looked like a fat jolly dame, clean and tidy with a neat blue and white calico gown on, good-natured and lovely, and put me in the mind of somebody.”
As a young man in London he worked for a printing press where an “alehouse boy attended always in the house, to supply the workmen.” Franklin, who only drank water at work, got the nick name, “Water-American” for not partaking with his peers, who were all “great guzzlers of beer.” He explains their belief that drinking “strong ale,” will make one “strong to labor,” but he disagrees with them and proves his point when they note him going up and down the stairs with two letter sets one in each hand, while they carried only one with two hands. Why was the “Water-American” stronger than them?
“Good wine is a daily necessity for me.” – Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson is well known for his passion for wine and his belief that America could be a producer of great wines. At his estate at Monticello he grew American and European varieties with not much success but that did not deter him from his dreams and enthusiasm for wine. As ambassador to France (1784-89) he became a true connoisseur of wine. He traveled extensively through-out all of France’s famed regions and to Germany and Italy, where he immersed himself in wine culture and purchased it great quantities.
As President Jefferson, the White House had an impressive cellar with wines from famed regions such as Margaux, Hermitage and Yquem. One of the most expensive bottles of wine ever sold is thought to have been one of Jefferson’s wines, a 1787 Château Lafite. It sold to Malcolm Forbes in 1985 for $132,000 (Euro) and unfortunately gained the name “billionaires’ vinegar.” Forbes placed the bottle on display under warm lights where the cork dried out and dropped right into the bottle!
This Fourth, raise your glass of wine, beer, cider, brandy, port, sherry, liqueur, rum, spirits, punch or Madeira and toast these great men of the Revolution!
Aillinn Brennan is proprietor of The Marion Hose Bar located at 16 W. Broadway in Jim Thorpe. For more visit www.marionhosebar.com
Add Comment