Fred Ryan, author of ‘Wine and the White House: A History’, joins Steve Hayes to discuss the competition between American and French wines.
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but there was an really important moment between Nixon and Reagan that sort put American wines on the map can you describe to us what happened the Judgment of Paris talking about and you’ve got a great section in the book about that you’ve got the actual Time Magazine there was the One Time Magazine journalist who was there who reported this but it’s a I mean it’s a great story some of you may have seen the movie Bottle Shock right I have not actually seen the movie Bottle Shock which is sort of incredible um but it’s a great it’s a great the Judgment of Paris story itself is a great story and it really is what put American wines on the map well and one thing I learned by the way I I I did see uh Bottle Shock but I I reached out to Stephen sper he was the guy who who did the tasting posted the tasting not the University of Florida football coach no no no this is a British British wine merchant living in Paris and he gone to California and he had tried he was impressed with the wines and he brought some back and he invited the heads of the most elite French uh experts on wine to a lunch uh he and he had some of the owners of the top Roman kti the top uh burgundy and some of the first growths and some of the the top restaurants in Paris and he was going to serve California wine it was meant to be kind of a novelty come to this lunch and try California wine at the last minute he made two decisions that really made history he decided to also serve French wine yeah side by side and he decided to make it blind yeah so those were that the the movie kind of suggest that was his plan along he said that was a kind of a DAT like spur your FL coach it was a game time call which is in your book which is in the book yeah so he he decided and what happened that kind of that major moment in for American wine was all these experts tasted the wine blind they ranked it and the American wines won right they beat the top first growth wines uh stagsleap chatow monolena both kind of were were voled up to high levels and um uh and they that was a transformative moment for American wine but one thing with the president what can I just just to pause you there what happened after that moment I mean because it was it was always the case that the fanciest restaurants in New York wanted to be serving French ones wanted to be serving Italian wines but there was a change at that a after that after the Judgment of Paris yes they wanted American wines it became it sort of was the the the California wine Growers were were Scrappy trying to get into the New York restaurants yes and everything flipped it suddenly became the wine every wanted everyone wanted to try even very kind of elite East Coast wine snobs who would never touch anything outside of burgundy and Bordeaux said well I’ll give this California a try and it started appearing as you say on restaurant wine lists started getting served in the white house but it its actual origins in the White House of serving it apart from Abraham Lincoln and all was uh after prohibition indended and you know the prohibition essentially wiped out the American wine industry and then you had World War II that ended most wine Imports so there wasn’t a lot of wine in the United States so when they began serving wine again U Elanor Roosevelt declared it would be served uh domestic and uh in small amounts and that didn’t work too well either uh I mean small amount part aside the domestic because it still wasn’t that great in fact uh Harold dickis who was a member of the cabinet wrote in his diary that he’ he’d been to the White House and the parklan American wine that Mrs Roosevelt is serving is undrinkable wow um so that was Roosevelt then you you come puman then Eisenhower it was kind of served as a novel it’ be well here’s a lunch that’s not very important let’s bring in an American wine and we’ll have it uh then you get to Kennedy of course and as you mentioned all the focus on French elegance and the best wines in the world as you know were served during the Kennedy administration it wasn’t it’s a pretty impressive list that you’ve compiled yeah uh so if you could go back in time as a wine enthusiast Kennedy would you would hang out with Kennedy yes for sure um then it it kind of you know so you moved to Johnson and at the time Johnson became president the uh the California WI industry opened up the um their whole wine uh Washington representation um the wine Council and uh they would send California wines over to the White House just so the president hopefully he would serve it and uh actually very kind of historic wine moment took place in the Johnson White House um after uh when President Kennedy was assassinated there had already been an invitation to the Italian Prime Minister to come to the White House for a state visit it was Johnson’s first state visit so he wanted to highlight prominent italian-americans he extends the invitation to Robert mandavi who’s then just not well-known California guy making wine and mondavi’s told if you’re going to the White House you have to really step up your game you have to wear a tux you have to your your wife has to come in a f length uh a full length Mt coat and you have to arrive in a limo so he gets the limo he gets rinse the tux he shows up at the White House the photos are taken his brother who’s his wine partner they go back and his brother or his brother’s wife actually starts to think that mandavi must be embezzling from the business because how could he afford the the tuxedo and the limo and the fur so they get literally get in a fight fist fight on the floor they break up he leaves and said all right I’m starting my own wine company and then of course Robert Mondavi went on to become one of the great wine makers of the world yeah all because of this White House visit um but to to fully answer your question then when went on Nixon alternated back and forth between California and French and it really became Reagan who basically said let’s only it wasn’t just California only American primarily California but only American ones yeah I mean he and and and the pattern stays really through through that what when when um American Presidents had guests from France or guests from Italy were they inclined to serve French and Italian wise were they inclined to serve you know I’m talking about the last half century were they inclined to introduce the um leaders of these wine making countries to American wines how did they think about that it basically evolved once the point American Wines had arrived and after the Judgment of Paris um the the idea was to Showcase American wines because because White House State diners we try to Showcase everything great about America great entertainment great food interesting people and great wines and so they didn’t want to depart from serving American wines but presidents were very thoughtful and Reagan I think actually was the first one to do this but it’s it’s it’s the policy or the um practice now he had um prime minister sherro of France coming to visit him and and Reagan and sherro had known each other back from when he was governor of California sherro was a May of Paris they were both wine afficionados they drink wine together so he’s coming as president the United States to in to host sherro he thinks what do I do how do I showcase American wine but not insult my guest so he serves Opus One that was the joint venture between mandavi of California and Philipe the Rothchild of France and he invited both to the White House they both they were both came to the dinner so he was able to Showcase American wine with the tip of the hat to the French