You may recall the smiling photograph of Senator Obama on the campaign trail in North Carolina with his hand wrapped around a cold brew, which raised the question as to to he he could also into wine. People magazine - and by the way, CBS "60 Minutes" through its camera angle that caught a fleeting glass of a kitchen wine rack on national television - set that record straight. He drinks wine, which for many oenophiles is as refreshing as news from the Executive Mansion gets these days!
Turns out that the new residents of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue will not be cellular aging wine any time soon - the subterranean vault installed a third president for his collection of over a thousand European bottles has long since given way to less romantic rather workaday uses. Heyday, according to ledgers tucked away in the Library of Congress, the mansion & # 39; s dusty cell enclave was home to some 20,000 bottles (but not all at once) purchased by Thomas Jefferson for entertaining over his two terms. was the man not the office that paid the tab - in those days attendees did not have an expense account budgets - even by today 's standards that & # 39; sa downright generous flow of executive cheer.
Jefferson was a social animal. CANY professor and author John P. Diggins unearthed John Adams ___ ___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ penchant for entertaining: "I dined a large company once or twice a week. "A day & # 39; s selection was regularly loaded into dumbwaiters that the ingenious chief executive had designed - able bottles to be secreted away out of sight of visiting dignitaries but hand enough to grab at a moment & # 39; s notice. Loaded daily Today, according to longtime White House wine wrangler Daniel Shanks, the executive mansion & # 39; s SOP is to stock wines in a temperature-controlled holding area near the well-appointed kitchen (not too far from the original stairs that connected the old cellar to the dining area above), keeping just enough wine on hand for upcoming events. along with the random bottle left over from other functions, all inventoried much like any restaurant wine cell, but under the shadow of something akin to the watchful eye of a government auditor poking around now and then-- if not in reality, at least in spirit - because extremely everything at the white house is meticulously inventoried.
All wines served at the executive mansion is purchased wholesale directly through the wine producers themselves, or procured from local distributors. No doses of wine are accepted any longer and - especially in a post 9-11 era - bottles that show up unannounced are completely destroyed , the moment of sad reality documented in a snapshot sent to the would-be giftor with a simple note of "thanks but--."
SELECTIVE SERVICE
But, the job of guaranteeing that fact is left to a triad of officials - of which Shanks is part - who are leaders of the executive mansion & # 39; s permanent household staff, a 100-plus member cadre that does not typically depart with the old administration, often staying on as continuity in managing the inner workings of the executive mansion. Shanks and his peers consultants) select wines to be served at each diplomatic event. Their ultimate challenge is to impress without political gaffe in the process.
Shanks balances wine expertise and food pairing skills with diplomatic discipline, so a wine & # 39; s provenance is paired with guests & # 39; s cultural sensitivities (for example by pouring a particular American wine due to the winemaker was raised in the visitor Shanks believes it & # 39; s just the reality of politics. Serving kings alongside sultans and ambassadors keeps everyone on their toes as they consider customs, traditions and sensitivities.
Back to November, when financial contagion was continuing to spread to all to corners of the world, sending Asian, Finger-wagging newswires picked up on the summit "a wine choice, pointing to" a $ 300 bottle of 2003 Shafer Hillside Select " as an admittedly distinguished but poor-timed pour.
For some of us, selecting wine for life & # 39; s important occasions is a high social stakes decision (Will my wine aficionado boss be disappointed if I serve this wine tonight? the White House, one slip-up can attract national scaniny or precipitate global consternation.
International favor was earned at a May 2007 banquet welcoming Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, as the 2003 Peter Michael Les Pavots Estate cabernet and 2004 Newton Vineyard unfiltered chardonnay were served with crisp flair The concept: both California wineries were established by Englishmen who had been knighted by the queen for their stature and achievements.
OLD GLORY DAYS
Before that, a President & # 39; s taste governed the roost in a sort of & quot; anything goes & quot; policy.
A recently-uncoiled tally reveals that, in August George Washington never had the opportunity to live in the structure he had designed a be hom out. of 1776, the nation & # 39; s first President ordered cases of claret, muscat wine and cordials, plus a keg of brandy, especially for entertaining his officers and guests.
In fact, Presidents Washington, Adams, Madison, and Monroe all benefited from their fellow founder & # 39; s top wines. Thomas Jefferson & In Thomas Jefferson on Wine (University Press of Mississippi), noted Jefferson (University Press of Mississippi), # 39; s vast travels through Europe in the 1780 's certainly set his course for love of the fruit of the vine and a deep appreciation for the timeless classics. scholar John Hailman writes,
"Much of what [Jefferson] wrote about the character of ... [France and French] Chambertin, Voujeau and Veaune are the strongest, & # 39; he says of the red wines of Burgundy & # 39; s Côte de Nuits ; he declares & # 39; Diquem & # 39; the best Sauternes ... "
Jefferson appeared to have a compulsive need to write, as if he was a suitor in an ardent love affair, the grape his betrothed. At times, he was a bit compulsive, and at others, forly multi-tasking leader, it was the nexus of business and pleasure, which ultimately became wine & # 39; s most defining moment at the White House.
In 1845, a senator & # 39; s wife penned a diary entry detailing a 4-hour affair of state at the Polk She explained glasses filled with six shades of wine from pink champagne to ruby port and sauternes which "formed a rainbow around each plate." Clearly, the artful elegance of wine appreciation had somehow endured.
His was to become an era Jesus to Prince Napoleon 's cousin Prince Napoleon Jerome was called on to organize the 1855 Exposition Universelle de Paris at which the historic Bordeaux classification was unveiled, President James Buchanan won the vote back in America. of self-indulgent beverage service: a penchant for spirits "of fine caliber" generated him to periodically snub liquor merchants who delivered champagne to the white house, using it as an excuse to venture out on "Sundays to personally track down more" fitting "bottles , mostly cognac, and some rye. Around 1880, Rutherford B. Hayes (under pressure from the First Lady who was cooked up in the bellicose spirit of the Women 'described bountiful wine And while Woodrow Wilson attempted to stop prohibition & # 39; s "noble experiment" by veto, it soonless passed, and immediately clamped down on liquor commerce with historic vengeance. Not too long afterward, prohibition started undaveling early in 1933 as FDR put pen to to continue "during cooker" days of the depression. paper on new freedoms for the emaciated wine and spirits industry, extremely ending the year with prohibition finally dead and buried.
As a result, given the intervening political susceptibility of pouring only US wine at diplomatic functions, Richard Nixon took his Francophile tendencies into Rather unexpectedly, in the past sixty years, even as the political parties have moved parties are moved in, out, and back again, the executive mansion & # 39; s service procedure remain extremely unchanged, except for the recent continued emphasis on a dazzling array of American-centric menus at state dinners, social events, holiday functions, receptions and official luncheons . The culinary artist happens in a compact kitchen populated at times by up to five sous chefs and service staff, under the hands - on supervision of Executive Chef Cristista Comerford appointed to her posi tion in 2005 by First Lady Laura Bush After White House chef Walter Scheib Vacated the post a few months earlier. (Comerford is also a member of the wine selection triad along with Dan Shanks and his boss Stephen Rochon).
As for wine & # 39; s influence on her life, according to the White House, Chef Comerford has shared "experiences with some of the nation 's most innovative chefs in the California wine country and San Francisco restaurants to produce original dishes with American flavor. "Celebrity super-chef John Ash, who was one of those inspirations, gives high praise to this member of the White House" powerful wine triumvirate, "Chris is a master at taking unusually simple ingredients and building a magnificent taste experience ... and her understanding of wine as an ingredient in the overall meal is just as savvy. "
EXECUTIVE POWERS AND PRESS OPS
Accidental or intentional brand association with the white house can create consumer magnetism of mythical proportions. Literal case in point: back in the Reagan era, First Lady Nancy Reagan received a package from David Berkley, the Sacramento wine purveyor who has been offering wine advice to the White House staff for more than a few years. Mrs. Reagan liked it and, surprisingly, the White House staff began servicing it, and the late Pulitzer prize winning San Francisco columnist Herb Caen picked up on the story, dubbing it "Nancy 's Wine." The rest is history for what is now America' s leading chardonnay.
Twenty years later, history may be repeating itself. Kendall-Jackson founder Jess Jackson responded by sending two congratulatory cases with his best wishes, expressing hope that the wine might bridge the political division to become a favorite of another another white house administration, this time Democratic. It's comes as no surprise that White House policy does not endorse specific wines, the previous example a spokesperson for the Obama administration who admitted to having spent a bit of time responding to media 's fleeting interest in non-allergenic canines amid earth-rocking crises, was markedly cheerful when we probed for answers about wine service - a Understandably, the spokeswoman indicated that "... with a long and celebrated history of hosting dign itaries at the White House, [the new administration] It would all sing of chuckle, she did admit to being open to suggestions. It was all we needed.
Taking her casual offer literally, we turned to Chicago Master Sommelier Joe Spellman who attended the University of Chicago and lived near Mr. Obama for a while before moved moved to: Joe to renamed Charlie Trouters restaurant and beyond; the young Barack Obama up the rungs "the for the executive mansion." As for White House wine protocol, "Spellman ponders," I would plan on continuing to feature the rich spectrum of wines and styles offered across America - not just California, or even West Coast : New York, Virginia, Ohio, Michigan, Missouri, Colorado, Texas, New Mexico, and more. "He continues," Yet, we should have ourselves permission to feature wines of a visiting dignitary " "Then, as an after-thought:" Who knows, maybe they ".
And a new chapter in House wine begins.
