We are pleased to invite you to our fourth annual Wine and the White House “fun” raiser!

Thomas Jefferson famously asserted in 1808 that “we in America can make wine doubtless as good” as the great wines of Europe. Despite Jefferson’s best efforts, however, this prediction was not fulfilled in his lifetime or indeed in the lifetimes of his next 34 successors.

The U.S. President that presided over the coming of age of American wine was none other than Gerald R. Ford, and the event that heralded the rise to global prominence of American wines was the 1976 international tasting that has come down to us under the name of the Judgment of Paris.

Our wine event this year, hosted by two certified wine sommeliers joining us from Rome, Italy, will recount this fascinating true story and allow you to sample wines from the great American wines that President Ford served to princes and presidents as he highlighted the US contribution to the history of viticulture. Join Elizabeth Lev and Thomas Williams for an evening you won’t forget!

Tickets
$100

Please RSVP by October 27, 2023
Sorry, but we cannot accept RSVPs after the deadline!

Dress Code: Cocktail Attire

Elizabeth Lev studied art history at the University of Chicago as well as the University of Bologna and has been teaching Renaissance and Baroque art at Duquesne University’s Italian campus since 2002. She is a well-known tour guide and serves as a consultant to the Vatican Museums for their art and faith itineraries. She has worked on projects with the Vatican Patrons of the Arts and wrote “Vatican Treasures: The Via Pulchritudinis,” a 2012 film presented to Pope Benedict XVI.

Lev’s books include The Tigress of Forlì and How Catholic Art Saved the Faith, and she has written for many news outlets, including The Washington Post and First Things. She is a Vatican analyst for NBC, and has appeared on the Today Show, Nightline, and 60 Minutes, and her TED Talk on the Sistine Chapel has garnered more than 1.8 million views. She has lectured in the U.S., Italy, Ireland, Singapore, and at the United Nations on art, wine, and spirituality. She and her husband, Thomas Williams (see below), both became certified wine sommeliers in 2015 and have been leading wine experiences in both Italy and Burgundy for almost ten years.

Thomas Williams teaches Economic Ethics at St. John’s University’s Rome Campus, having also taught for many years at the Regina Apostolorum Pontifical Athenaeum and the University of Saint Thomas.

Williams has worked as a consultant and commentator on faith, ethics, and religion for several television networks, including NBC, CBS, and Sky News in the UK. He was appointed by the Holy See as spokesman for the Synod of Bishops in 1997 and again in 2001. He has published more than 1,500 articles and essays on a broad variety of topics, from philosophy and social ethics to theology to spirituality.

Among his eighteen books are Who Is My Neighbor? Personalism and the Foundations of Human Rights and The World As It Could Be: Catholic Social Thought for a New Generation. Like his wife, Elizabeth Lev, Williams is also a certified wine sommelier and had his professional acting debut in 2019 with a part in the Netflix original The Two Popes.