You know George Washington and John Hancock as Founding Fathers. But what about George Washington, successful whiskey distiller? Or John Hancock, fortified wine importer?

Take John Adams, second president of the United States and father of the sixth, who started each day with a tankard of cider. Adams also served as lawyer for Hancock, who got into a kerfuffle in 1768 when the British seized his sloop, the Liberty, in Boston Harbor, claiming - charges that didn't stick - that Hancock had avoided paying duties on most of his shipment of Madeira, a fortified wine.