When nominated to be the third president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson listed his profession as “farmer.” Although he spent most of his life in the political arena, Jefferson always considered himself a man of agriculture. His accomplishments as a founding father and politician have been well documented. However, his struggles as a vintner and his passion for the finest wines have remained relatively unexplored – until now.

Jefferson held the belief that wine was the most civil of drinks. In wine, he saw an opportunity for civility that the country lacked and an avenue to match in culture, the military and political achievements of the young nation he had helped to found. The ever-optimistic Jefferson believed that the delicacy of fine wine, like knowledge, could uplift man’s spirit and refine his soul. He even went so far as to affirm, “No nation is drunken where wine is cheap; and none sober, where the dearness of wine substitutes ardent spirits as the common beverage.”

When Jefferson envisioned, “We could in the United States make as great a variety of wines as are made in Europe, not exactly the same kinds, but doubtless as good,” he expressed his vision for an future America that was different from Europe, but its cultural equal.

Over the course of his life, Jefferson’s love for wine never waned, stating simply “Good wine is a daily necessity to me.”  The Cultivated Life takes the viewer on a visual journey from Jefferson’s experimental vineyard at Monticello to his epic tours through France’s most prestigious wine regions, to the Napa valley where his legacy is felt strongly today.