Toast to Independence Like the Founders Did: With Madeira

The popular Portuguese wine figured prominently in early American history.

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Food & Dining

If you’re raising a glass to celebrate 250 years of American independence, you may want to fill it with the same wine the founders did — Madeira, a fortified wine that played a key role in U.S. history, including the American Revolution.

“Back then, it was so ingrained in the culture of America and the Founding Fathers that the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence were both toasted with Madeira,” explained Bartholomew Broadbent, a renowned wine importer based in Richmond.

Madeira remained widely popular in the United States until Prohibition brought it to an end. But two and half centuries after the Revolutionary War, Broadbent is on a mission to reintroduce Americans to the Portuguese wine their ancestors loved. 

“Most Americans do not know this history,” he said, “the incredible history with the Founding Fathers and how incredibly linked Madeira is to America, to American history.”

Wine That’s Made to Travel

Madeira is a fortified wine, meaning alcohol is added to the base wine as with a port or sherry. Historically, this process helped prevent the wine from spoiling during long sea journeys, which helps explain how Madeira came to be the favored libation of the Founding Fathers and other early Americans.

Madeira is made on the Portuguese island of the same name, a lush volcanic archipelago with an ancient laurel forest that is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Because it’s situated strategically in the Atlantic Ocean, southwest of Portugal and west of Morocco, Madeira became an important stop for traders and their ships headed to the American colonies.

A symbiotic relationship developed: the ships needed the weight of the wine for ballast, and the wine — unexpectedly — benefitted from the heat of the long journey. Soon the American colonies were consuming 95% of the wine produced on Maderia.

“For many years, there was a law that you couldn't sell any Madeira until it had been shipped around the world twice,” said Broadbent. “That's impractical now, but we still make Madeira by heating it.”

Fuel for Revolutionary Times

The colonies did not produce their own wines at the time, so they relied on imports. But the British government levied heavy taxes on goods shipped to the colonies from Europe, including wine from France, for instance. The island of Madeira, however, was not included, so Madiera wine was exempt from the taxes.

“It’s your first American tax loophole,” said Broadbent. “Madeira had that advantage, as well as being able to withstand the shipping and the heat, it also had the advantage of being tax free.”

This was all taking place during the 18th century at the same time the concept of “taxation without representation” was taking hold, which bring us to what became known as the Liberty Affair. 

In 1768, long before he famously signed the Declaration of Independence, John Hancock’s ship Liberty was confiscated in Boston Harbor by British customs officials, who alleged it was smuggling Madeira wine. The seizure sparked violent rioting and inflamed tensions in the buildup to the war — five years before a famous tea party that took place in the same harbor.

After the war ended, Portugal was the first neutral nation to establish diplomatic ties with the United States, and the two countries have maintained positive relations since 1791. “But beyond that,” Broadbentsaid, “it wasn't Portugal itself, it was the island of Madeira that was the first to recognize America’s independence, which is something they're very proud of.”

The Wine of Patriots

Against this backdrop, Madeira starred in many celebratory toasts for the young nation — from the signing of the Declaration of Independence to the inauguration of George Washginton to the completion of the Louisiana Purchase.

“All the Founding Fathers were mad keen on it,” said the British-born Broadbent. “George Washington drank a pint of Madeira every day for dinner. Betsy Ross, when she was sewing the flag, had a side table with Madeira on it.”

Indeed, the library at Mount Vernon underscores the first president’s “affinity for this particular type of wine,” documenting that his first order for it dates to 1759 and continued throughout his lifetime. In 1798, a guest at Mount Vernon noted that Washington “loves to chat after dinner with a glass of Madeira in his hand.”

Mount Vernon even sells a special George Washington Special Reserve Madeira, which is created in the style he preferred.

The list of patriotic Madeira enthusiasts goes on:

Thomas Jefferson, well known for his love of fine wine, purchased and cellared more Madeira in his life than any other wine. 

Benjamim Franklin, in his autobiography, credited free-flowing Madeira with helping him secure cannons needed to protect Philadelphia from the governor of New York.

John Marshall, the fourth Chief Justice, often invited fellow justices to settle their differences over a glass of Madeira. The story goes that he would only permit such an indulgence if were raining. But since their jurisdiction was so vast, he would note that “it must be raining somewhere.”

James Madison, who served as the fourth president, also was an aficionado of madeira, regularly ordering the wine and aging it to his own specifications. 

But he suffered a great loss, as detailed by wine historian Aaron Nix-Gomez, when the British burned the White House during his tenure on August 24, 1814. While the British troops first consumed the wine that had been set out for dinner — including a “large store of super-excellent Madeira and other costly wines” — they ultimately destroyed the well-stocked wine cellar when they torched the president’s house.

Madison’s cellar was replenished when the U.S. consul in Madeira returned to Washington with a fresh supply of wine “upon a supposition that your stock was burn’t by the Goths.”

A Wine That Never Goes Bad

Madeira remained popular in the United States until Prohibition ended sales, and it was nearly forgotten by subsequent generations.

So in 1989, Broadbent worked with a Portuguese winemaking family to reintroduce Maderia to the American market. In 2024, he talked about the island and its wine with CBS News, which you can watch here.

As the CEO of Broadbent Selections, based in Richmond, he also makes his own line of Madeira wines. Those wines were created in collaboration with his late father, Michael Broadbent, a prominent British wine critic, writer, and auctioneer.

Madeira wine is distinctive, and it comes in various styles for various palates — ranging from dry to sweet and points in between. The wine typically has rich, complex flavors that vary depending on the grape variety. Because it is fortified, with alcohol added during the fermentation process, the resulting wine contains about 20% alcohol that is then aged in cask.

But what sets Madeira apart from other wines is that it is intentionally exposed to heat and oxygen — the opposite of most winemaking techniques. When it made those trans-Atlantic voyages all those centuries ago, the intense heat in the cargo holds transformed the wine in an unexpectedly positive way. Modern methods use heat during the aging process to replicate those effects.

The result is a wine that essentially never goes bad. Broadbent once left a bottle in his car trunk for months and then served it at a dinner party.

“You can open the bottle today,” he said, “and if you don't finish it, or you don't even have another sip or 10 years, it's going to be fine.”

Jane Fullerton Lemons is a Virginia-based writer and recovering Washington journalist focused on wine and travel. A 2026 fellow at the Wine Writers Symposium in Napa Valley, she shares stories of the people and places behind the bottles, while also helping American consumers understand agriculture and how it impacts their lives. You can follow her work here.

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