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Two pipes of Madeira were received for the presidential household in Philadelphia in August of 1793 and paid for in January of the following year. Significant amounts of Madeira continued to be purchased for the Washington household both after the war and during the presidency. 6 In the last orders prior to the American Revolution, Washington sent flour from Mount Vernon directly to Madeira instead of having his English agent pay the island firms and received wine and other products from the islands in exchange. By 1768, Washington had not gotten around to drinking the 1766 order, but still asked that an additional 150 gallons be sent. Two years later, Washington switched suppliers and requested similar or larger quantities from the firm of Scott, Pringle, Cheape & Company. He purchased a second pipe from John Searles in 1764, even though he admitted that he still had not yet tapped into the first one. Washington's orders for Madeira continued throughout his lifetime. 4 In his letter to the Searles, Washington specifically asked for "a rich oily Wine," and asked that, "if the present vintage shoud not be good, to have it of the last, or in short of any other which you can recommend." 5 Three years later, in the spring of 1763, Washington notified Cary & Company that he would be writing directly to the island firm of John and James Searles for a pipe of Madeira wine, and that they, in turn, would be contacting Cary for payment. McKee brought from Madeira," along with "a chest of Lemons and some other trifles." 3

2 About a year later, Washington transported a pipe of wine to Mount Vernon from Alexandria, "wch. The first order for Madeira in George Washington's correspondence dates to the spring of 1759, when he asked his London agent, Robert Cary & Company to "Order from the best House in Madeira a Pipe of the best old Wine, and let it be Securd from Pilferers." 1 A pipe held approximately 126 gallons of wine. George Washington had an affinity for this particular type of wine.

A fortified wine produced on the Portuguese island of Madeira in the eastern Atlantic, madeira in the eighteenth century was common in Britain and particularly popular in the American colonies.