Discovered: One of the largest collections of early Madeira in the United States

In 2015, during a six-month renovation project at the Liberty Hall Museum in New Jersey, a decision was made to remove a plywood and plaster wall in the wine cellar of the house. The wall was likely to have been erected during the Prohibition era.

Liberty Hall, which is now part of the Kean University campus, was built in 1772 and has been home to many notable figures across its long history, including future Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton; William Livingston, the first Governor of New Jersey and a signatory of the American Constitution; Henry Brockholst Livingston, United States Supreme Court Justice; and, from 1811, members of the Kean political dynasty, which has numbered US senators and congressmen. Mary Alice Kean was the last resident of the house, which she began transforming into a museum in 1949.

As the wall in the cellar came down, the original wine cellar cage was revealed behind. Covered in years of soot, dust and cobwebs, its contents included almost three cases of Madeira wine from 1796, and assorted cases of gin, whiskey and other liquor. Approximately 40 demijohns — barrels or large bottles — of Madeira from the 1820s were also found in the attic wine closet of the house, buried beneath piles of straw.

‘We had no idea what we had until we began to do the background research, and we realised we had something very rare for the United States,’ explains Bill Schroh, Jr., Director of Museum Operations at Liberty Hall Museum. He is right, for the discovery represents one of the largest known early collections of Madeira in the United States, and one of the most extensive in the world.

According to historical accounts, America’s original 13 colonies imported about 95 per cent of wine produced on the Portuguese islands of Madeira, which sit in the Atlantic Ocean some 520km west of the coast of North Africa. Madeira was a popular beverage in colonial America and the early United States, chiefly because it was easy to ship and it lasted. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were noted collectors, as was Chief Justice John Marshall, and Madeira was used to toast both the Declaration of Independence and the inauguration of George Washington.

Much of the Madeira discovered at Liberty Hall is still labelled with handwritten tags, and can be referenced in the thousands of documents relating to the house that date across more than 200 years. The paperwork shows that some of the wine in question was for the personal use of Robert Lenox, Esq., a banker and financier who was known to import Madeira in demijohns, and then bottle and label it once it arrived. From 1795, Lenox was the exclusive US importer for Newton, Gordon & Murdoch, then the largest shipper of quality Madeira.

John Kean Sr., Mary Alice Kean’s son and President of Liberty Hall, reveals that at the time of the find he was unaware that Madeira didn't spoil, and assumed instead that the hundreds of bottles of wine in the hidden compartment were unfit to drink. ‘Initially, we decided to leave it as it was and as a prop for visitors to look at,’ he says. ‘Curiosity led us to clean a few bottles, and the rest is history.’

The demijohns discovered in the attic, some containing up to five gallons of Madeira, had wicker around them to protect the glass. ‘I was going to give them away to our employees because they liked to make lamps out of them,’ reveals Kean. ‘Fortunately that did not occur.’

‘To find those demijohns from the 1820s is unique,’ confirms Christie’s Head of Wine, Edwin Vos, an expert on Madeira, and the man who put together the inventory of the Liberty Hall Museum discovery in 2017.

On 7 December in New York, Christie’s will auction an offering from this historic collection, highlighted by a selection of demijohns that were re-corked in October this year in partnership with APCOR, the Portuguese Cork Association, and catalogued under the expertise of Francisco Albuquerque, Winemaker for the Blandy's Madeira Wine Company, S.A., and Edwin Vos. The auction also includes four demijohns of American Bourbon from the late 19th century.

‘From demijohn number one on we were just flabbergasted by the quality of the wines,’ reveals Vos of his first tasting of the historic Madeira. ‘I was honestly expecting a few small disappointments, but I was overwhelmed by their quality.’ At a recent lunch attended by leading wine writers at Christie’s Rockefeller Center HQ, the reception for the wines was equally rapturous.

‘This is a landmark moment,’ confirms Francisco Albuquerque. ‘This discovery not only represents one of the largest collections of early Madeira in the United States, but also signifies the timeless duration and lasting quality of Madeira wine. These vintages are approximately 200 years old and yet they still retain the nuanced qualities and notes found only in Madeira, coupled with the inimitable finish of time. This auction offers a remarkable opportunity not only to own a piece of history, but to taste it.’

The sale, Finest Wines and Spirits, Including The Liberty Hall Museum Collection of Historic Madeira and an Extraordinary Collection of Pre-Prohibition Whiskey, takes place on 7 December at Christie’s in New York.