Wine, the new state secret(2)
The wine earned a rare 100-point rating from wine critic Robert Parker. By the time of the White House dinner, Ware said, it sold for $300-$350. It was listed for as much as $399 per bottle, according to wine websites.
Ware said the winery was approached by the White House and asked to choose which of its wines to serve. The price the winery charged the White House was “closer to the $115″ than to $399, Ware said, while declining to name the price.
Afterward, he said, the winery’s profile in Asia got a “pretty significant” boost.
The White House selection drew derision.
The day after the Hu dinner, the anti-Obama website Gateway Pundit carried a posting entitled, “Sacrifice Is For the Little People… Obama White House Serves $399 Bottles of Wine at State Dinner.”
Comedian Stephen Colbert said that, given the U.S. debt held by China, the Hu dinner “should have been a sweatpants potluck with box wine and a sleeve of Oreos.”
Other changes were taking place at the White House at the time. Between the Chinese and German state dinners, the White House changed social secretaries, hiring Bernard that February.
Since the start of his presidency, aides also have avoided endorsing specific brands such as which golf clubs Obama favors.
Not all wines served by the administration are shielded. At Vice President Joe Biden’s dinner last month for Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping, the list included a 2010 Sauvignon Blanc and 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon from the Hall winery in California’s Napa Valley. The wines sell for $22.99 and $48.99 per bottle, respectively, on the wine.com website. Vintner Kathryn Hall was U.S. ambassador to Austria during the Clinton administration. She didn’t return calls for comment.
Wine has been regularly served at the Executive Residence since 1800, except from 1877-1881 under President Rutherford B. Hayes, Shanks wrote in 2007 for an article for the Journal of the White House Historical Association.
In the 20th century, John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon were known for their familiarity with French wine. The policy of serving American wine took hold in Lyndon Johnson’s administration, according to an article in last month’s Wine Spectator. Ronald Reagan, a former actor and California governor, raised the profile of his home state’s wines.
Ulises Valdez, 42, of the Valdez Family Winery and Tasting Room in Cloverdale, California, said he is “still celebrating” having his 2008 Silver Eagle Vineyard Chardonnay served at the White House for the Mexico state dinner on May 19, 2010.
Valdez snuck into the U.S., from Mexico, as a teenager and found work picking grapes. He got amnesty during the Reagan administration. Today he owns a vineyard management company and the winery. “This is the beauty of the U.S.—if you’re a hard worker and good and honest you can do it,” he said.
White House menus can be a point of pride and business builder for individual vintners whose wines are chosen.
Kerry Murphy, proprietor of DuMOL Wines in Orinda, California, whose wines have been served at the White House since 2002, said he’s become a collector. “God knows how many menus I have—I love ‘em,” he said.
“I’ve been blessed by the association,” Murphy said. “It sets the wine to high standards,” he said, because the White House “can buy whatever they want.”
His Chardonnays sell for $50-$60 per bottle.
After his 2008 Russian River Chardonnay was served at the Hu dinner, he said, “our sales in China quadrupled.”
“I think that has a lot to do just with exposure from that one dinner,” he said. “It makes me feel good because we’ve got some dollars coming back” to the U.S. from China. “That’s a patriotic thing in itself.”
