Great Acadian Wine Event

Thomas Jefferson liked wine. Specifically, he liked French wine. He had acquired extensive knowledge of the wine of France but he wanted first hand experience. He wanted to set foot on the terroirs of the Bordeaux's vineyards.  He wanted to sip from a barrel. He wanted to sniff, to swirl, to savor. But how could he satisfy his thirst for wine knowledge while he was busy forming our country?

The breakthrough came when President Washington appointed him as the first U.S. Ambassador to France. His two extended "business trips" to France just happened to take him on a grand tour of the vineyards.

After he returned and was elected President, he put his wine expertise to good use as he introduced a generation of Americans to the finest wines of his time.

And even two centuries after his death, Jefferson continues to entertain guests: a stash of bottled etched "Th. J." and forgotten in a Paris cellar was auctioned off in 1985 to wine collectors eager to taste Jefferson' remarkable wine collection. Except, it turns out, that these were $157,000-a-bottle fakes.

Dr. Phillipe Girard will give a lecture on Jefferson's relationship with French wines in French. It will be interpreted by Mr. Adley Cormier.

A tasting of five French wines from the same areas visited by Ambassador Jefferson, will follow the talk.

Interested in Tickets? Send an e-mail to Angie Manning-Istre at aistre@visitlakecharles.org with "GRA Wine Event" as the subject line, and you'll be alerted once the tickets go on sale.