Negus

Port wine, hot water, lemon, and nutmeg — Colonel Negus's early 18th-century creation, a gentler Georgian social staple that Charles Dickens referenced repeatedly.

The Negus is a warm fortified wine drink named for Colonel Francis Negus, a British army officer and Member of Parliament who served in the early 18th century. According to the most consistent historical accounts, Negus combined port wine with hot water, lemon juice, nutmeg, and sugar for guests at social gatherings during the reign of Queen Anne (1702–1714) or possibly the early reign of George I (1714–1727), and the drink took his name from the frequency with which he served it. Port wine, produced in the Douro Valley in northern Portugal and exported to Britain under the Methuen Treaty of 1703 — which granted Portuguese wines preferential tariffs in exchange for British textile access — had become the fashionable British fortified wine of the early 18th century, displacing French claret that was difficult to import during the War of the Spanish Succession. The Negus became a staple of Georgian and early Victorian social entertaining, a warm alternative to punch bowls at card parties, assemblies, and evening gatherings where a lighter, less intoxicating hot drink was desired. Charles Dickens, whose novels documented the material culture of early Victorian England with unusual specificity, referenced negus in several works. The drink's warmth, port's fruit-and-nut richness, and the gentle acid of lemon combine into something that remains genuinely pleasant despite its age.