In 1787, Thomas Jefferson left his carriage behind, packed his bags onto a mule, and made his way through southern France to taste Hermitage. He called the white version the first wine in the world. Most people today order the red.
In the spring of 1787, Thomas Jefferson — then serving as U.S. Minister to France — stored his carriage, repacked his baggage onto a mule, and made his way south through the Rhône Valley toward the Alps. According to his own Memorandum Books, preserved in Founders Online, he stopped at Tain on the Rhône, tasted the wines there, and studied the vineyards. He later wrote, in his 1787 Memorandum on Wine, that white Hermitage was 'the first wine in the world without a single exception.' The exact distance he covered across the broader three-and-a-half-month journey through southern France, northern Italy, and back through Bordeaux has been estimated at around 564 km for certain legs of the route, though that specific figure does not appear in the primary-source archival record and should be read as an editorial approximation. What is not in dispute is that Jefferson went a very long way, on a mule, in the 18th century, for wine. That part is well documented and completely in character.
What Jefferson Actually Said, and What He Did Not
Jefferson's Memorandum on Wine, compiled after April 23, 1788, from his 1787 and 1788 travel notes, is specific in a way that is worth reading carefully. He praises white Hermitage as 'the first wine in the world without a single exception.' He does not extend that judgment to the red. In fact, he writes that Hermitage red was 'not very highly esteemed.' This is a meaningful distinction, because the modern public image of Hermitage AOC is almost entirely built on Syrah-dominant red wine. Jefferson's extraordinary superlative applied to a style that now represents a small fraction of what the appellation produces.
The Hermitage AOC today covers 137 hectares along the granite slopes above Tain-l'Hermitage on the Rhône, with total production of approximately 3,526 hectoliters and a 42% export share as of 2025, according to Inter Rhône. The appellation received AOC recognition in 1937. It is a very small production area for a wine with a very large historical reputation, which is roughly the dynamic Jefferson was reacting to in the 18th century, when Hermitage blanc made from Marsanne was considered one of the great wines of Europe. He was not wrong, exactly. He was just praising the version that most people have since stopped ordering.
The Mule, the Route, and What the Archives Do and Do Not Say
The mule is real. Jefferson's 1787 Memorandum Books record that he changed his travel arrangements, stored his carriage, and boarded a mule for the Alpine crossing via the Col de Tende. That crossing was a separate leg of the journey from his visit to Tain-l'Hermitage. The 564-km figure circulating in editorial accounts of this story appears to be a calculated route estimate — reasonable in spirit but not a number that appears in any primary-source document currently available through Founders Online. The broader trip, which took him through Burgundy, the Rhône, Italy, and Bordeaux over roughly three and a half months, covered far more ground than a single dedicated wine pilgrimage would suggest. Jefferson was traveling on diplomatic business that happened to involve meticulous wine research, which is a distinction without much of a practical difference.
What the archives do confirm is that Jefferson tasted the famous wine of Tain, studied its vineyards, and later committed his judgment to writing with the kind of confidence that does not leave a lot of room for follow-up questions. He was, by any measure, a serious and systematic wine traveler. Whether he covered exactly 564 km to get there is the sort of thing that would require a historian with a very good map and a tolerance for 18th-century road conditions.
What to Drink If You Want to Understand What He Was Talking About
If you want to taste the wine Jefferson called the finest in the world, you are looking for a white Hermitage from Tain-l'Hermitage in the northern Rhône, made from Marsanne with occasional Roussanne. Producers like Jean-Louis Chave, M. Chapoutier, and Paul Jaboulet Aîné all make white Hermitage that reflects the appellation's granite-and-loess terroir. Chave's Hermitage Blanc in particular is regularly cited as one of the most age-worthy white wines made anywhere. It is rich, waxy, and structured in a way that takes years to resolve, and it is not cheap, which Jefferson would have understood completely.
For a regional cheese to put alongside it, Picodon — the small, firm goat cheese of the Rhône-Alpes — is a contemporary editorial recommendation, not a documented part of Jefferson's 1787 itinerary. The historical record does not give us his cheese notes from Tain. What it gives us is a man who stored his carriage in the south of France, climbed onto a mule, and kept taking notes on everything he drank. That is, by any reasonable standard, the correct approach to a wine tour, and the founding fathers had at least one thing exactly right.
The headline claim that Jefferson traveled 564 km specifically for Hermitage is best understood as a dramatic shorthand for a much longer, more complicated trip that happened to include one of the most confident wine opinions ever committed to paper. The white Hermitage he praised is still being made on the same granite hill above the Rhône. The mule has been retired. The wine, if anything, has gotten more expensive. Jefferson would probably have strong opinions about current vintage pricing, and he would probably be right about those too.
* This article contains opinions, satire, and possibly correct information about wine and cheese. It is not medical advice.
