Thomas Jefferson on Wine

by John Hailman

Book Overview

In Thomas Jefferson on Wine, John Hailman celebrates a founding father's lifelong interest in wine and provides unprecedented insight into Jefferson's character from this unique perspective. In both his personal and public lives, Jefferson wielded his considerable expertise to influence the drinking habits of his friends, other founding fathers, and the American public away from hard liquor toward the healthier pleasures of wine.

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• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 157806841X
• ISBN13: 9781578068418
• Release Date: November 2006
• Publisher: University Press of Mississippi
• Length: 457 Pages
• Weight: 2.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.5" x 6.5" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Better than I thought it would be !!

I bought this book a couple of weeks ago because it looked interesting. I really enjoyed reading this book from the very first page !! Has alot of interesting facts and I also learned alot about wines from Thomas jeffersons era. Also has alot of history about Jefferson that I was never aware of. Get this book if you can,.......... I am glad that I did !!

First class wine in 1776

Good read. This book provided an historical perspective I had not been exposed to before. The insight provided as to the difficulties of shipment, payment, location of goods, etc. was unique. This book is something of a biography of Jefferson and an insight into life and commerce in the late 1700's

History by the glass

What I was hoping for and got was a historical perspective on the man relative to the events of his time and how wine was viewed, served and distributed. In general the book is a great mix of all three although at times the inventory lists of wine in Jefferson's possession do not yield enough clues about him. Sometimes they are just lists. For those that want to try to at least purchase a little bit of history, the book is helpful in identifying French wineries that are still in existence from Jefferson's time. Some winery terms used to today are explained in the context of Jefferson's. The use of his letters to people are cool but sparse. Could have used more.

THOMAS JEFFERSON ON WINE

This book is super for anyone interested in wine-to know what was going on in wine in Jeffersons time-some European wines that we drink today but were surly different at that time.Well written as well

Jefferson the Connoisseur

Thomas Jefferson is so well known that it is difficult to find a book about him that offers new insight into his multi-faceted character. This book does: it presents Jefferson through his very discriminating taste in wine, which was so expert that his favorite French wines later became the great Classified Growths of Bordeaux and the premiere wines of Burgundy. He traveled through France, Germany, and Italy with the express purpose of selecting wines for Monticello, the house he had built in Virginia, capitalizing on an opportunity that came when he was appointed Ambassador Plenipotentiary to the French court. When he was elected President he built the wine cellar for the White House and stocked it with his favorite imported wines. All this is to his credit, and provides further evidence of Jefferson's extensive learning, which went beyond books. But he never succeeded in his pet project, of planting a vineyard and cultivating at home the fine wines he enjoyed abroad. That was for later Virginians to do, and the author provides a tour map of the wineries that now surround Monticello, fulfilling the dream Jefferson himself failed to realize.