Presidential Politics and Wine Can Make for an Awkward Pairing
Wine and the White House is a comprehensive look at the role the popping of corks has played in American diplomacy.
Illustration: Jay Daniel Wright
President Rutherford B. Hayes had embraced the temperance movement in his election bid, but at his first White House event in 1877, his advisers begged him to avert a diplomatic disaster and serve wine. The dinner was for Grand Duke Alexis, the Russian czar’s son who’d enjoyed Champagne while hunting with Buffalo Bill Cody on a previous U.S. visit.
Theodore Roosevelt, however, was all too willing to accept free Champagne from Moët & Chandon for a state dinner in 1902 honoring Prince Henry of Prussia and to launch the imperial yacht. The only problem? The prince’s brother, the kaiser, had supplied a German sparkling wine and was not pleased.