This Week’s Schedule:
- Special Event Tuesday, 5-7p: Taste the Wines of Bulgaria
- Beer Thursday, 5-7p: Devils Backbone Brewing Co.
- Wine Friday, 5-7p: A Taste of Spring with Robins Cellars
The President’s Drinks:
From George Washington until today, all of our Presidents have had a strong connection with alcohol. George Washington was a whisky distiller and Donald Trump is a winery owner. John Adams favored a ‘gill’ of cider in the morning and Barack Obama favored a pint of honeyed home-brew to relax in the evening. Here are a few more Presidential drinking facts:
- Thomas Jefferson: He loved the best wines and shared them with friends and dinner guests, as the best hosts do! It greatly contributed to his dire financial situation, in some years he spent thousands of dollars on wine, and by the time of his death he was on the brink of bankruptcy.
- John Tyler: The first vice-president to ascend to the White House because of the death of a President, Tyler was a self-professed lover of Champagne. Since the Whig party disavowed him, he was a man with a party and so to close out his term, he threw a large party. He used some of the best wine in the Executive Mansion’s (aka White House) cellar. Joking, that “Now they cannot say I am a man without a party!”
- Woodrow Wilson: Because Prohibition unfolded during Wilson’s presidency, it might be assumed he approved, but he vetoed the Volstead Act. He was overruled by Congress and even attempted a compromise, but it failed. Wilson even moved the wine cellar that he built at the White House to his new residence prior to leaving. The request to transport the wine had to approved by Congress since it was illegal under the Volstead Act.
- Lyndon Baines Johnson: LBJ followed in the footsteps of many great Presidents and used alcohol as a voting lubricant. While George Washington paid for alcohol out of his own pocket, LBJ somehow got Anheuser-Busch to provide free beer for his campaign for Congress in 1937.
And there are even more great facts in Mint Juleps with Teddy Roosevelt: The Complete History of Presidential Drinking. We highly recommend that you check it out, if you are interested in politics, history, and/or drinking.
