As Thomas Jefferson (pictured above) was a serious wine enthusiast (he'd travel through Bordeaux extensively and impress his guests with his knowledge of the intricacies of wine), it is no surprise that 60 bottles of claret were in the mix.

In fact, Thomas Jefferson’s salary was $25,000 per year - a princely sum at the time, but the expenses were also great. In 1801 Jefferson spent on average $6,500 for provisions and groceries, $2,700 for servants (some of whom were liveried), $500 for Lewis’s salary, and $3,000 for wine. He also helped stock the wine cellars of the first five U.S. presidents and was very partial to fine Bordeaux and Madeira.

But what's more, Thomas Jefferson frequently would write to the owners of Chateau Lafite asking them to especially bottle and ship wine for him directly. He feared that the wine when bottled by the merchants would not always hold the same wine that it was supposed to. Given the quantities of wine that he purchased both in a professional and a person capacity, the Chateau was happy to oblige. This was well before it became a common practice for the Chateau to bottle its own wine. That only happened in 1920.

With those fun facts, we wish our American readers a Happy Independence Day.