Posted by Marguerite Thomas on May 23, 2012 at 12:01 PM

As American as...Madeira?

July 4th may seem a long way off, but it’s never too early to start acquiring a bottle of Madeira if you want to drink a proper toast to the holiday. 

“Madeira?” you may wonder.  “For celebrating American independence?”

Yes, actually, and here’s why.  Madeira, which is produced on the Portuguese Islands of Madeira, was an extremely important wine in the early history of America.  Since the European settlers could not grow vinifera grapes in their new homeland because of phylloxera (the deadly vine scourge which was not identified until the mid 19th century) all wines had to be imported.  Although American colonists were relatively few in number, they consumed as much as a quarter of the total volume of Madeira produced.  Madeira s success as an import was due partly to the fact that, thanks to being a fortified wine, it was protected against the extreme heat and constant rolling movement of the ships required to transport it to North America.  And not only did it survive, the wine seemed to actually be enhanced by these challenging conditions. 

Madeira played a starring role in a particularly dramatic event leading up to the American Revolution when, on May 9, 1768, John Hancock’s sloop “Liberty” sailed into Boston Harbor.  As soon as its cargo of Madeira wine was unloaded, the ship was promptly seized and held by a British boat for failure to pay import duties on the wine.  (As a curious postscript to this historic drama, the British vessel that captured Liberty was named Romney.  During the hubbub surrounding the ship’s capture, riots erupted around Boston during which the Romney’s sailors were attacked by an angry Boston mob.   We can perhaps view this kerfuffle as the Boston Madeira Party--a precursor to the legendary Boston Tea Party that occurred a few years later.)

A favorite tipple of America’s first fathers, Madeira was one of George Washington’s preferred beverages.  It was much loved by Alexander Hamilton, Ben Franklin and John Adams, and was stockpiled by Thomas Jefferson.   A bottle of Madeira was used to christen the USS Constitution (a.k.a. Old Ironsides) in 1797.  In 1803, when the distinguished naval officer Commodore Edward Preble sailed the Constitution toward Tripoli at the outset of the First Barbary War, he laid in 20 bottles of fine Madeira, plus a half pipe and six demijohns of ordinary Madeira (a pipe is a barrel containing almost 600 bottles of wine, a demijohn typically holds from one to 5 gallons).  In addition Preble asked for 10 bottles of old Port, 4 cases of Claret, 2 barrels of “strong” beer, 6 hogsheads (63 gallons) of porter, 8 gallons of Cognac, 2 cases of gin, a case of cherry brandy, and 10 dozen bottle of cider, plus assorted other liquors.  Bon voyage indeed!

I hope I’ve convinced you of the patriotic necessity of saluting Independence Day with a glass of true Madeira (not to be confused with imitators from California or any other non-Portuguese locale).  And if you want to throw a little gin or cherry brandy into the festivities as well, then all I can say is…watch out for the fireworks.