Episode 057

It is rumored that this practice of cooking the wine began when some barrels of wine were exposed to fire early in the island’s history when the explorer Zarco burned the woods on the island to clear it for agriculture. When the wine was tasted, the practice of intentionally cooking it began.

Madeira Cocktail Ideas

Madeira, like most expensive wines, tends to be drunk by itself as an aperitif, food pairing, or dessert wine. However, there are a couple really fun cocktail applications you can experiment with at home.

Madeira Punch – If you’re making a punch with a spirit like rum or whiskey, you can either swap out the spirit for Madeira entirely, or perhaps just swap out a portion of the spirit for an equal amount of Madeira.

Maderia Floats – If you have a cocktail that could use some jazzing up, consider adding 1/4 oz of Maderia right on top as a float that will gradually integrate with the drink.

Swap for Sherry or Vermouth – Madeira is a fortified wine, so it makes sense that a great place to start utilizing it in cocktials would be in place of some of the other great fortified wines of the world.

Rare Madeira Types

Terrantez and Bastardo are also grapes used to made Madeira. However, due to the difficulty of cultivating these grape varietals on the island, onlya few dozen barrels of these styles have been producedover the last century. Thus, a bottle made with these grapes is exceedingly rare and valuable.

Vintage vs. Non-Vintage Madeira

A “vintage” represents wine made from the grapes harvested in a particular year. In many types of fortified wine, producers blend wines from different vintages together for reasons that include consistency, artistry, and even in response to market forces.

If the juice from multiple vintages is blended together in an end product, it is called a “non-vintage” wine. However, if there is a great harvest in a particular year, you might see the produer create a product using only the juice from that particular vintage. These bottles will actually bear the term “vintage,” and they will often be more expensive due to the relative scarcity of these bottles.

Rainwater Madeira

This is Madeira that is diluted with water to around 17%, which places it somewhere between the potency of a high-alcohol wine and a normal sherry or vermouth.  This style of Madeira is really popular in the United States, partially because it is extremely quaffable.

Harvest Madeira

This is Madeira bottled without being aged long enough to technically be bottled and labeled as “Madeira.” Although this doesn’t hold the same value as a true Madeira, it’s a great way to engage with the flavors of the grapes used to make it.

Lightning Round

Favorite Cocktail

The Negroni

If You Were a Cocktail Tool/Ingredient, What Would You Be?

My ancestors are from Sicily, so I’d be a Sicilian Amaro (like Averna).

Cocktail with Anyone, Past or Present

My great grandfather, who immigrated to New York City from Italy in the late 1800s. I believe he spoke 7 languages and was a barber. I’d also love to share a magnum of Champagne with Shaquille O’Neal.

Influential Books on Madeira

Madeira, The Island Vineyard (Expanded Second Edition) – Mannie Berk

Advice from a Sommelier

If you want to be a Sommelier:

• Have fun with it
• Get reference points beyond learning about the wine
• Understand and listen to your guests
• Don’t let the guest get in the way of their own experience
• Work for free somewhere – you often learn more from apprenticeship than academic study
• Certify yourself – the Court of Master Sommeliers (CMS) and the Wine and Spirits Education Trust (WSET) both run great programs

CC Attributions

Featured Cocktail Background Music

Backbay Lounge Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/