Moonshine Forefathers

​​Our Founding Fathers Loved Their Whiskey...and Made it, Too

George Washington's whiskey barrels at Mount Vernon

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Yup. George Washington was a Moonshiner. 
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While Thomas Jefferson made wine, our founding father, President George Washington was a proud distiller/whiskey maker, a fact we learned on the Distilled Spirits Council's Whiskey Trail which starts in Mount Vernon, the home and distillery of George Washington himself.

You can visit the actual distillery and taste the whiskey (very good, for the record) made at President Washington's own still.  You can even buy a bottle to bring home with you.

As you make your way through the whiskey tastings on the trail, from Kentucky to Tennessee, you'll realize how important whiskey and spirits were to our American founding fathers and mothers.
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​Back in the day, it seems, whiskey and wine were safer than water was to drink--something we learned on a recent trip to Philly where we were served rum cordials at the City Tavern, a colonial building restored to the silver-tankered glory of the 1700s.
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As Benjamin Franklin once said: "There cannot be good living where there is not good drinking."

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The tour at Mount Vernon lets you see and taste the past

The City Tavern in Philadelphia, Pa.