Find Out What Wine Thomas Jefferson Liked

The will host Don Becker and Damian Siekonic for a special program on Colonial winemaking on Friday, December 16. 

Don Becker and Damian Siekonic are authors of the newly published book “A Guide to Winemaking in Early America.” Both authors are winemakers, having more than 40 years of winemaking experience between them. With their mutual interest in early American history, Becker and Siekonic took on the challenge of reproducing wine as it was made more than 200 years ago.

Becker and Siekonic will have their new book available for sale at their presentation Friday at the Sigal Museum.

• Book signing will be at 6 p.m.
• Program begins at 6:30 p.m.
• Admission to the program is a $5 requested donation. 

Five wines common to Colonial America were chosen for the project:

• Scuppernong, a white grape, and a favorite of Thomas Jefferson
• Norton, a North American red grape
• A blended red and black wild raspberry wine
• An apple wine
• A spiced apple mead

The ingredients used to make the wine were selected for their existence in the United States prior to 1850. Becker and Siekonic produced the wines using both historical methods and modern methods, which they then had tasted by qualified wine judges in order to determine the similarities and differences between the wines.