Party Like the Founding Fathers Did

On the distillery's second floor are bedrooms where the managers would have lived in the old days, an exhibit on whiskey-making and showings of an eight-minute History Channel video called "Washington's Liquid Gold.'' The distillery is believed to be the only one in the country to use authentic 18th century methods of making whiskey.

Washington's whiskey was very unlike modern drink. It was not aged, but made to be consumed right away, which means it was colorless. Comprised of 60% rye, 35% corn and 5% malted barley, the old recipe tastes rough to modern palates, although it was considered top-shelf quality in the 1790s. It is strong drink, too, at 120 proof.

The wines that Thomas Jefferson savored, and tried to make at his mountaintop estate, would have been considerably smoother. Jefferson learned to love wine as the fledgling American republic's ambassador to France. Unlike Washington, who didn't travel abroad, Jefferson toured the wine-producing regions of France, Italy and Germany, and transported European cuttings to Monticello.

Also unlike Washington, who was a successful, practical businessman, Jefferson was a visionary and something of an impractical dreamer who was in debt at his passing in 1826. Most of his vine cuttings died on slow-moving wooden ships, withered in changing climates or perished from infestations of molds, fungi and the aphid-like phylloxera, according to modern Monticello's wine expert, Italy-born Gabriele Rausse.

Jefferson's two small vineyards flank the lovely Monticello manor house, and together constitute just under an acre. They have been thoughtfully replanted and are calming, bucolic places with panoramic views of the mountains near Charlottesville, a three-hour drive from Washington, D.C. Visitors, who buy general-admission tickets at Monticello's small visitors' center and gift shop and ride shuttle buses to the top, are free to walk around and snap photos.

« Previous Page

1 2 3 4

Next Page »