Spectrum 47010 Euro Wine Rack 3-Bottle

You may recall the smiling photograph of Senator Obama on the venture trail in North Carolina with his hand wrapped around a cold brew, which raised the question as to whether he was also into wine. People magazine–and by the way, CBS “60 Minutes” through it is camera angle that caught a fleeting glimpse of a kitchen wine rack on national television–set that record straight. He drinks wine, which for a heap of oenophiles is as freshening as news from the Executive Mansion gets these days!

Turns out that the new residents of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue will not be cellar aging wine anytime soon–the subterranean vault installed by our third president for his collection of over a thousand European bottles has long since given way to less romantic rather workaday uses. In it is heyday, according to ledgers tucked away in the Library of Congress, the mansion’s dusty cellar enclave was home to some 20,000 bottles (but not all at once) purchased by Thomas Jefferson for agreeably diverting over his two terms. When you consider it was the man not the office that salaried the tab–in those days presidents didn’t have expense account budgets–even by today’s standards that’s a downright generous flow of executive cheer.

Jefferson was a social animal. CUNY professor and author John P. Diggins unearthed John Adams’ reaction to his successor’s penchant for entertaining: “I dined a big company once or twice a week. Jefferson dined a dozen each day.” A day’s selection was regularly loaded into dumbwaiters that the ingenuous chief executive had designed — permitting bottles to be secreted away out of sight of visiting dignitaries but handy sufficient to grab at a moment’s notice. Loaded each and everyday with wines got rid of from the cellar a lot of 16 feet under the east colonnade, White House servants had little reason to intrude on private functions–and privileged executive conversation. Today, according to longtime White House wine wrangler Daniel Shanks, the executive mansion’s SOP is to stock wines in a temperature-controlled keeping area near the well-appointed kitchen (not too far from the introductory stairs that connected the old cellar to the dining area above), keeping just sufficient wine on hand for upcoming events. It still amounts to dozens of cases, along with the random bottle left over from other functions, all inventoried much like any restaurant wine cellar, but underneath 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 in the end everything at the White House is meticulously inventoried.

All wines served at the executive mansion are purchased wholesale directly through the wine makers themselves, or procured from local distributors. No donations of wine are accepted any longer and–especially in a post 9-11 era–bottles that show up unannounced are summarily 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

Receiving a ratified invitation to a White House affair promises both the flash and substance of refined and tasteful hospitality and unforgettable cuisine. But, the occupation of guaranteeing that fact is left to a triad of officials–of which Shanks is part–who are leaders of the executive mansion’s permanent household staff, a 100-plus fellow member cadre that does not distinctively depart with the old administration, often times staying on as continuity in managing the inner workings of the executive mansion. Shanks and his peers (along with a few outside consultants) select wines to be served at each diplomatic event. Their uttermost challenge is to impress without causing a political gaffe in the process.

Shanks balances wine skillfulness and feed pairing attainments with diplomatic discretion, so a wine’s provenance is paired with guests’ cultural sensitivities (for example by pouring a peculiar American wine because the winemaker was raised in the visitor’s country, or because the varietal originated there.) Sometimes the White House matches wine to guests first, menu second, with the extreme goal of neither offending the dignitaries nor the cuisine. Shanks believes it’s just the reality of politics. Serving kings alongside sultans and ambassadors keeps every one on their toes as they consider customs, traditions and sensitivities.

It becomes a puzzle of global proportions, wherein the perfective kitchen and wine pairing recipe may run afoul of politics, creating a recipe for social blunder. Back in November, when financial contagion was continuing to disseminate to all corners of the world, sending Asian, European and South American stock markets reeling, President Bush hosted a summit on financial markets and the world economy. Finger-wagging newswires picked up on the summit’s wine choice, pointing to “a $300 bottle of 2003 Shafer Hillside Select” as an admittedly discerned but poorly-timed pour.

For some of us, selecting wine for life’s primary occasions is a high social stakes decision (Will my wine aficionado boss be disappointed if I serve this wine tonight? Is this wine indispensable sufficient for the wedding party?) For those in the White House, one slip-up may attract national scrutiny or precipitate international consternation.

On the other hand, getting it right may be exceedingly rewarding. 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 conventional by Englishmen who had been knighted by the queen for their stature and achievements.

OLD GLORY DAYS

While it was Carter whose administration set the official policy of serving only US wines, the tradition begun with Lyndon Johnson. Before that, a President’s taste ruled the roost in a sort of “anything goes” policy.

George Washington never had the chance to live in the structure he had designed to be home to the First Family. Nonetheless, he was a generous host who found pleasure in wine (and spirits) service. A recently-uncovered tally reveals that, in August of 1776, the nation’s firstborn President ordered cases of claret, muscat wine and cordials, plus a keg of brandy, likely for agreeably diverting his officers and guests.

By all accounts, Jefferson was the wine guru amidst the founding fathers. In fact, Presidents Washington, Adams, Madison, and Monroe all benefited from their fellow founder’s intimate cognition of the world’s top wines. Thomas Jefferson’s immense travels through Europe in the 1780′s surely set his course for love of the fruit of the vine and a deep appreciation for the timeless classics. In Thomas Jefferson on Wine (University Press of Mississippi), brought up Jefferson scholar John Hailman writes,

“Much of what [Jefferson] wrote with regards to the reputation of …[France and French] wines he ran into could have been written last week, spelling eccentricities aside. ‘Chambertin, Voujeau and Veaune are strongest,’ he says of the red wines of Burgundy’s Côte de Nuits; he declares ‘Diquem’ the best Sauternes…”

Jefferson appeared to have a compulsive need to write, as if he were a suitor in an enthusiasti love affair, the grape his betrothed. At times, he was a bit compulsive, and at others, exclusively functional and systematic. For this multi-tasking leader, it was the nexus of business and pleasure, which in the end became wine’s most defining moment at the White House.

Eight administrations later, by big measure the prompt willingness for wine had waned, but not the patient and practiced art of wine service. In 1845, a senator’s wife penned a diary entry detailing a 4-hour affair of state at the Polk White House (heretofore believed to be a teetotaling era). She described 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 in some way endured.

Just a few years after Napoleon’s cousin Prince Napoleon Jerome was called on to coordinate the 1855 Exposition Universelle de Paris at which the historic Bordeaux classification was unveiled, President James Buchanan won the vote back in America. His was to become an era of self-indulgent beverage service: a penchant for spirits “of fine caliber” caused him to sporadically snub liquor merchants who delivered champagne to the White House, using it as an pardon to venture out on Sundays to personally track down more “fitting” bottles, for the most part cognac, and a good deal of rye. A season of temperance set in. Around 1880, Rutherford B. Hayes (under pressure from the First Lady who was caught up in the bellicose spirit of the Women’s Temperance Movement) exclusively banned wine and liquor service at the mansion. And while Woodrow Wilson attempted to stop prohibition’s “noble experiment” by veto, it nonetheless passed, and without delay clamped down on liquor commerce with historic vengeance. Oddly, there is proof that White House liquor service may have continued for the duration of prohibition underneath Hoover’s watch, for the duration of the “pressure cooker” days of the depression. Not too long afterward, prohibition started unraveling early in 1933 as FDR put pen to paper on new freedoms for the emaciated wine and spirits industry, in the end ending the year with prohibition in the end dead and buried.

In the ’60s and early 70′s, both John Kennedy and Nixon loved their French wine. As a result, given the irruptive political sensibility of pouring only US wine at diplomatic functions, Richard Nixon took his Francophile tendencies into private quarters, or instead, occasionally sought the cultural anonymity of a champagne flute delivered tableside, gleaming with fresh-poured ribbons of dancing bubbles, no label in sight.) Rather surprisingly, in the past sixteen years, even as the political parties have moved in, out, and back again, the executive mansion’s service procedures stay for the most part unchanged, except for the recent continued special importance and significance on a dazzling array of American-centric menus at state dinners, social events, holiday functions, receptions and official luncheons. The culinary artistry happens in a compact kitchen populated at times by up to five sous chefs and service staff, underneath the hands-on supervision of Executive Chef Cristeta Comerford appointed to her position in 2005 by First Lady Laura Bush after White House chef Walter Scheib vacated the post a few months earlier. (Comerford is also a fellow member of the wine selecting triad along with Dan Shanks and his boss Stephen Rochon).

As for wine’s influence on her life, according to the White House, Chef Comerford has shared “experiences with a good deal of of the nation’s most innovative chefs in the California wine country and San Francisco restaurants to give rise to initial dishes with American flavor.” Celebrity super-chef John Ash, who was one of those inspirations, gives high praise to this fellow member of the White House’s powerful wine triumvirate, “Chris is a master at taking unusually simple ingredients and building a splendid taste experience…and her understanding of wine as an ingredient in the overall meal is just as savvy.”

EXECUTIVE POWERS AND PRESS OPS

The world recognizes that the White House is America’s Presidential Palace and a powerful symbol. But not too oftentimes do we see that power leveraged on behalf of the business sector. Accidental or intentional brand association with the White House may develop buyer 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 had been supplying wine counsel to the White House staff for more than a few years. It contained samples of a California wine then largely unknown, Kendall-Jackson Vintner’s Reserve chardonnay. Mrs. Reagan liked it and, subsequently, the White House staff started out serving 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. In a pre-election People magazine profile on Barack Obama, he was cited as saying that the same wine is a staple at his Chicago address. Kendall-Jackson founder Jess Jackson responded by sending two congratulatory cases with his best wishes, expressing hope that the wine might bridge the political divide to become a favored of yet another White House administration, this time Democratic. It consequently comes as no surprise that White House policy does not endorse specific wines, the former example notwithstanding. A spokesperson for the Obama administration who admitted to having expended a bit of time responding to media’s fleeting interest in non-allergenic canines amidst earth-rocking crises, was markedly cheerful when we probed for answers regarding wine service–a role managed directly through the office of the First Lady. Understandably, the spokeswoman indicated that “…with a long and celebrated history of hosting dignitaries at the White House, [the new administration] would focus on the overall intent and message of the gathering, and not just one element such as the specific wine being poured.” But with a sort of chuckle, she did confess 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 each moved on: Joe to widely known and esteemed Charlie Trotters restaurant and beyond; the young Barack Obama up the rungs of the political ladder that led to 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 throughout America – not just California, or even West Coast: New York, Virginia, Ohio, Michigan, Missouri, Colorado, Texas, New Mexico, and more.” He continues, “Yet, we ought to give ourselves permission to feature wines of a visiting dignitary’s country, as a display of respect and honor.” Then, as an after-thought: “Who knows, possibly they’ll need a Master Sommelier. One from Chicago. What an honor that would be!”

And a new chapter in House wine begins.

Spectrum 47010 Euro Wine Rack 3 Bottle Pic

Spectrum 47010 Euro Wine Rack 3 Bottle Picture

Spectrum 47010 Euro Wine Rack 3 Bottle Picture

Spectrum 47010 Euro Wine Rack 3 Bottle Photo

Spectrum 47010 Euro Wine Rack 3 Bottle Picture

Spectrum 47010 Euro Wine Rack 3 Bottle Photo