Thanksgiving Before the Wine Age

During the Colonial period, there was probably no wine at most Thanksgiving dinners in America; the beverages of widest choice were beer, apple cider and rum.

Historians say there is no evidence that wine played much of a role in the days before--and immediately after--independence; what wines did exist were generally sweet and served with dessert, and then only in the homes of the better-off.

The only fine dry wines served 200 years ago were in the homes of some very wealthy connoisseurs; there are well-documented stories about the wine exploits of Thomas Jefferson. The Virginia-born governor and president wrote extensively on wine; he counseled all presidents through John Quincy Adams on wine, and he imported great quantities of it from France for his own cellar. Much of this was published recently in connection with the 250th anniversary of Jefferson’s birth; he was born April 14, 1743.

John Hailman, a Jefferson historian and wine columnist from Oxford, Miss., says that in the late 18th Century, wine was essentially a drink of the wealthy, because of the high cost of importing it. This led to a great debate between Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton.

“Hamilton said wine was for a limited group and that it would never catch on in America,” says Hailman. “Jefferson challenged that notion. He said wine was much healthier than spirits. He wouldn’t drink whiskey or brandy, and he said it was the leading citizens’ duty to promote the healthful benefits of wine, and he felt taxes on wine should be lowered because of that and he wanted to raise the taxes on whiskey instead.”

*

The two most important alcoholic beverages in the Colonial period were Madeira and Port.

Port was then largely controlled by British companies, so it was natural for the British to sell it to the Colonies. Even today, many of the most famous Port houses--Taylor, Graham, Dow, Sandeman and Smith Woodhouse--carry British names. Madeira, however, was the wine favored by American patriots. “The British taxed all wine from the (European) continent,” Hailman points out, “and Madeira was technically African, so it wasn’t subject to the taxes.”

But rarely was either one served with dinner.

“Prior to independence, no one was importing alcoholic beverages directly from France,” says Michael Kammen, a Cornell University history professor. (Jefferson imported wine later.) But economics ruled what drinks were available.

“The British were getting Sherry and other fortified wines from the Iberian peninsula, and as long as they got their stuff off the top, they were happy to ship the re-export stuff on to the Colonies--after taking a nice profit.” He said the British imposed rules prohibiting such products from going directly from the producing countries to the Colonies.

Most of these sweet wines, known as sack , were fortified with brandy and were probably inappropriate to be served with dinner.

*

Timothy Breen at Northwestern University’s Department of History, a specialist in the food and mores of the Colonial period, confirms that the wealthy may have had access to some dry wine, but the common man undoubtedly didn’t.

He says table wine was served with meals only in the homes of the wealthy, such as the Jeffersons of Virginia and the Hancocks of Boston. He assumes much of that wine was red because it shipped better than white.

“The drink for the non-elite types would have been beer, which wouldn’t be made at home, because that stuff often tasted like shoe polish,” says Breen. “So they generally would go to taverns to buy it. But beer spoils, and it also competes with the other needs for grain, such as cattle feed, so by early in the 18th Century, hard cider became the big deal because of the efficiency. You could get a lot more juice out of less land and less labor, and it stores pretty well.

“One other drink we can’t overlook is rum coming in from the Caribbean,” he says, but rum was a pretty coarse drink and generally considered strictly for men. “Guys would drink rum at parties or at pubs,” he says. “It was a tough drink, and almost all the rum went into punches.

“One of the most beautiful silver displays in Colonial Williamsburg today is a collection of silver strainers for these punches. They used dark rum and fruit--especially a lot of citrus--to make the punch. The point of these strainers was to leave the citrus rinds and seeds behind as they poured you a glass from a ladle.”

He said such punches probably wouldn’t have been accompaniments to food, because “you had to add just disgusting amounts of sugar to make them palatable.”

*

One wine-based dessert with English roots that was popular in the Colonies was called syllabub. It called for the addition of cream to sweet wine, which often was Sherry. At least one tavern in Colonial Williamsburg still serves a form of syllabub, using a lighter sweet wine.

The first wines on the East Coast were made from the Muscadine family of grapes, originally a variety of wild grapes. These wines are very pungently scented and generally made syrupy-sweet. They accompanied dessert or were served after dessert. Muscadine wines, including Scuppernong, are still produced in some East Coast and southern states.

It wasn’t until the 1880s, when dry wines began to be made on the East Coast in places such as New York and Ohio, that harvest-time dinners included wine with the main course of the meal.

Wines of the Week

1992 Quady Winery Black Muscat, “Elysium” ($13)-- After Thanksgiving dinner, when people are sitting around with plum pudding or raisin cookies, this is the perfect dessert wine. Black Muscat is a wine rarely seen in California. Andrew Quady makes about as good a version as any I’ve ever tasted.

This 10th edition is from grapes grown in Manteca in the San Joaquin Valley and harvested very ripe. The wine ferments down until half of the 25% sugar is converted to alcohol. Then Quady adds neutral brandy. The result is a wine with 13% residual sugar and 14.5% alcohol.

The wine has extremely strong varietal character of black currants, violets and rose petals. It is a versatile dessert wine because the Muscat flavors are so assertive that the wine can compete with even the heartiest foods. This is one of the few wines I know that works well with chocolate. Served chilled, the wine is great on its own or even with a tiny piece of lemon zest added.

For those who want a dessert wine without the alcoholic bite, Quady makes a stunning, low-alcohol Orange Muscat called Electra ($8). This wine is made from the orange-scented cousin of the Black Muscat. It is fermented extremely cold until the wine has only 4% alcohol. Then the tank is chilled to stop the fermentation and all the yeast is filtered out. The resulting wine has as much sugar as the Black Muscat but tastes drier because it has no brandy added and the acidity is quite crisp. The 1992 version is a superb accompaniment to fruit-based desserts.

*

1991 Cotes de Sonoma “Deux Cepages” ($6)-- For the holiday season there may not be a better value in red wines than this terrific 50-50 blend of Carignane and Pinot Noir. The Cotes de Sonoma brand is another of Pelligrini Bros. Winery’s successes. Merry Edwards blended Russian River Pinot Noir with old-vines Carignane to make a wine that has the aroma of a light Rhone and the aftertaste of Burgundy. A number of California shops are featuring this wine for $4.99. Another huge success from Pelligrini, also made by Edwards, is 1992 Cotes de Sonoma Chardonnay ($7), with a perfect floral/citrus varietal aroma, delicate nuances of oak and a flavorful, rewarding finish for such a reasonably priced wine. This wine is also being discounted.