When French President Hollande was at the White House for a State Dinner in his honor on February 11, 2014, President Obama served 3 American wines, from California, Washington State and Virginia. All three wines, though made with grapes grown on American terroir, had their roots in France. Also, breaking with previous practice, the White House made the wine choice public this time.
American Wines with Roots in the Home Country of the Guest of Honor
When President Obama welcomed President Calderón of Mexico to the White House in 2010, the dinner had a Mexican soul, both the food and the wines. Two of the wines were made by Mexican-born American winemakers who worked their way up to become America’s best. One of them, Ulises Valdez, of the Valdez Family Winery, California, had come without papers to the US from Mexico, worked at picking grapes and received amnesty during the Reagan era.
When Chancellor Merkel from Germany was in Washington DC in 2011 and President Obama honored her with a State Dinner, regrettably, he served American wines that did not have much of a link to Germany. I have written extensively about American wines with German roots that President Obama could have served at the State Dinner for Chancellor Merkel, but chose not to do so.
Yesterday, President Obama served 3 wines with strong French links for President Hollande. Indeed, all three wines he served were made by winemakers who were borne, grew up and got their education in France, before moving to the US and starting to produce wine in America – American wines with a French soul.
Names of the Wines Released
The state dinner for China in 2011 spurred criticism of the administration’s lavish spending on wine after the worst recession in decades. A 2005 Quilceda Creek Cabernet Sauvignon from Columbia Valley, one of the wines poured that night, was $115 a bottle at release. The wine earned a rare 100-point rating from critic Robert Parker. By the time of the White House dinner, it listed for as much as $399 per bottle, according to wine websites.
The practice of listing the name and the vintage of the wines served was stopped after the China State Dinner in 2011. It was resumed for the French President yesterday
Seventh State Dinner of President Obama
This was President Obama’s seventh State Dinner. The President and Mrs. Obama's previous State and Official Visits were: India in November 2009, Mexico in May 2010, China in January 2011, Germany in June 2011, Korea in October 2011, and the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland in March 2012. There was no State Dinner in 2013. Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff refused to attend a dinner planned for October 2013 amid the furor over Edward Snowden’s revelations about U.S. spying on foreign leaders.
The first visit of a ruling monarch for a dinner at the White House was in 1874 with King David Kalakaua of the Sandwich Islands as the honored guest. It wasn’t until President Dwight D. Eisenhower that the modern protocol of the State Dinner was established, with the visit of South Korea’s president in 1954.
See for Previous State Dinners of President Obama:
President Obama Serves a “German” Riesling at State Dinner for Chinese President Hu Jintao
State Dinner at the White House: Chancellor Merkel Dined and Wined with President Obama - The Wines they Drank and the Wines they did not Drink
Wine Event: The Wines served at President's Obama State Dinner of the Indian Prime Minister
The Wines Served at President Obama's State Dinner for Mexican President Calderon
President Hollande in Washington DC
President Hollande arrived on Monday, February 10, in the afternoon. As a kick-off to his State Visit, President Barack Obama treated the French leader to a tour of Monticello, the historic Charlottesville, Virginia plantation home where President Thomas Jefferson lived for four decades. In the evening, President Hollande hosted a dinner at the French Embassy for the Managing Director of the IMF, the French Christine Lagarde, and the President of the World Bank, the American Jim Yong Kim.
On Tuesday, February 11, President Hollande's State Visit began at the White House with a review the troops. After, there were bilateral meetings. Then, Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State John Kerry co-host a luncheon for President Hollande at the State Department.
The day culminated with the State Dinner at the White House. Mary J. Blige, a nine-time Grammy award-winning singer-songwriter, producer and actress born in the Bronx, N.Y., performed for some 350 guests who were seated at a modern-looking mix of square and oblong tables inside a huge white tent on the South Lawn. Guests first entered the White House and waited in a receiving line to be greeted inside the Blue Room by President Obama and the First Lady Michelle Obama. Then they boarded an old-fashioned trolley for a ride down to the tent for dinner and Blige's performance.
President Hollande Solo
On the tour of Monticello, President Obama might have had something beyond historic meaning for President Hollande: Jefferson never married Sally Hemings, the enslaved woman who bore him six children during their decades-long relationship.
President Hollande has never been married. He lived several decades with Segolene Royal, the mother of his 4 children, as a family, but they were not married. Segolene Royal is a leading French Socialist Politician, who run for President, but was defeated by Nicolas Sarkozy, Hollande’s predecessor. Francois Hollande separated from Segolene Royal in 2007 for Valerie Trierweiler, who became France’s First Lady, when Francois Hollande was elected President. Last month he went through a messy split with her, amid reports he had fallen for actress Julie Gayet. In fact, the invation for the Hollande State Dinner had initially Valerie Trierweiler’s name on it.
Coming solo on a state visit is not unheard of. Then-Chinese President Hu Jintao, who is married, came by himself on his 2011 state visit. In 2007, Nicolas Sarkozy traveled alone on his first visit to the U.S. as the leader of France.
The Menu
The first course featured American Osetra Caviar, farmed from the estuaries of Illinois, and paired with quail eggs from Pennsylvania and a dozen varieties of potatoes from farms in New York, Idaho and California.
That was followed by a salad of petite radishes and baby carrots on a bed of merlot lettuce and splashed with red-wine vinaigrette. It was served in a clear, glass bowl and resemble a terrarium.
The main course, dry-aged rib eye beef from a farm in Greeley, Colo., was paired with blue cheese, charred shallots, oyster mushrooms and braised chard.
Dessert was chocolate malted cake, described as a modern version of a layer cake made with bittersweet chocolate from Obama’s native Hawaii, Florida tangerines and served with vanilla ice cream from Pennsylvania.
After dinner, guests could dip into a serving dish made entirely of sugar to sample fudge made of Vermont maple syrup, shortbread cookies made with lavender from Mrs. Obama’s garden and cotton candy dusted with orange zest.
The Wines
American wines with French roots were served. They retail in the §30 to $50 range.
2011 Morlet Family Vineyards, "La Proportion Doree", Napa Valley, California
Morlet Family Vineyards is a niche producer in California, owned and run by Luc and Jodie Morlet. Luc Morlet was borne in the Champagne region and represents the fourth generation of a French winemaking family. Growing up in Avenay-Val d’Or, he spent all his spare time working on his family’s estate. His university studies of viticulture and winemaking were put into practice during years of work in vineyards and wineries in Burgundy, Bordeaux, and the south of France.
When Luc left France in 1996 to join his wife Jodie in her native California, his goal was to adapt the old world principles he knew so well to his new home.
The core of the Morlets’ endeavor is the eight-acre vineyard they planted on the Knights Valley bench, near Calistoga and facing the western slopes of Mount St. Helena. In addition to these family acres, they direct the farming under long-term contract on seven acres in the Sonoma Coast, Bennett Valley and Dry Creek as well as five acres in Oakville, Napa Valley. In St. Helena, near the family home, the wines are crafted and matured in a naturally cool cave, which was drilled into the volcanic rock.
La Proportion Doree is a blend of Sémillon, Sauvignon Blanc and Muscadelle grown in Sonoma County, inspired by the whites of the Bordeaux Pessac-Léognan
2009, Long Shadows Vintners, Chester Kidder, Red Blend, Columbia Valley, Washington State
Long Shadows in Walla Walla has become, in a short time, one of the premier wineries in Washington State. It is an unusual set up: Former Simson-Lane CEO Allen Shoup works with renowned winemakers from around the world for this venture. Each winemaker produces a single wine using Washington State fruit and resident winemaker Gilles Nicault assists them to shepherd all of the wines along at Long Shadows in Walla Walla.
After learning his craft in the Rhône Valley, Provence, and Champagne, resident winemaker Gilles Nicault came to Washington State in 1994. He worked at Staton Hills Winery, Hogue Winery, and Woodward Canyon, where he was head of enology and production from 1999 to 2003, before being hired by Shoup at Long Shadows.
Chester-Kidder is a Bordeaux-style blend named after Alan Shoup’s grandmother and grandfather. Most of the Cabernet Sauvignon is sourced from warm vineyard sites on Red Mountain and Candy Mountain. Gilles Nicault keeps the juice in contact with the skins for as long as 40 days during fermentation, then ages the wine for 30 months in 90%-new French oak.
I visited Long Shadows Vintners in June 2011 (and focused with Gilles Nicault on Armin Diel’s Poet’s Leap Riesling, Armin Diel, from the Nahe region, is one of Germany’s most highly regarded Riesling producers).
See:
Allan Shoup’s and Gilles Nicault’s Long Shadows Wines from Washington State, USA
Visiting Long Shadows Vintners in Walla Walla, Washington State - Where Armin Diel’s Poet’s Leap Riesling is Made, USA
President Obama Serves a “German” Riesling at State Dinner for Chinese President Hu Jintao
NV Thibaut-Jannison "Blanc de Chardonnay", Monticello, Virginia
Thibaut-Janisson is a new and small producer of ultra-premium sparkling wine in Charlottesville, Virginia. The flagship sparkler NV Thibaut-Jannison "Blanc de Chardonnay" -- Monticello, Virginia is arguably the best sparkler produced in the US East Coast and is as close as you get to (French) Champagne outside of France (in terms of quality). The NV Thibaut-Janisson Chardonnay, Brut was served at President Obama’s first State Dinner in 2009, which gave the Thibaut-Janisson sparkler a nation-wide audience.
Pictures: Christian G.E.Schiller with Claude Thibaut and the Thibaut-Janisson Sparklers from VirginiaThibaut-Janisson is owned by Claude Thibaut and Manuel Janisson. Claude is also the winemaker, while Manuel is producer of Grower-Champagne in France. Output currently is around 2500 cases.
Born and raised in the Champagne, Claude Thibaut, after having studied oenology in Reims, left his family’s vineyard in France to spend years creating well-known sparklers in Australia (3 years) and California (7 years). Claude Thibaut worked at the Kendall-Jackson, Jordan and Iron Horse wineries in California as well as Champagne Veuve Devaux, Bar sur Seine, France and Yarra Bank, Victoria, Australia. Claude is the original winemaker for the popular J sparkling wine from California
In 2003, Claude moved to Charlottesville, Virginia, joining the Kluge Estate (which was recently bought by Donald Trump) as a consultant to spearhead the creation of a sparkling wine. Two years later, in 2005, he started his own label – Thibaut- Janisson - in partnership with Frenchman and friend Manuel Janisson, producer of the Champagne Janisson & Fils. Right from the beginning the objective was to produce ultra-premium sparkling wines from Virginia grapes.
“Why is it 100% Chardonnay and not a blend of Chardoannay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier” I asked Claude. “Because of the Virginia terroir and climate, there is no Pinot Noir produced here” said Claude.
See:
As Close as You Can Get to Champagne – Claude Thibaut and his Virginia Thibaut Janisson Sparklers at screwtop Wine Bar, USA
schiller-wine: Related Postings
Allan Shoup’s and Gilles Nicault’s Long Shadows Wines from Washington State, USA
Visiting Long Shadows Vintners in Walla Walla, Washington State - Where Armin Diel’s Poet’s Leap Riesling is Made, USA
President Obama Serves a “German” Riesling at State Dinner for Chinese President Hu Jintao
The Wines Chancelor Merkel Served President Obama and Michelle Obama in Berlin (and the Wines she did not Serve), Germany
State Dinner at the White House: Chancellor Merkel Dined and Wined with President Obama - The Wines they Drank and the Wines they did not Drink
Wine Event: The Wines served at President's Obama State Dinner of the Indian Prime Minister
The Wines Served at President Obama's State Dinner for Mexican President Calderon
As Close as You Can Get to Champagne – Claude Thibaut and his Virginia Thibaut Janisson Sparklers at screwtop Wine Bar, USA