Madeira wine
Madeira is a
The islands of Madeira have a long
Today, Madeira is noted for its unique winemaking process which involves oxidizing the wine through heat and ageing. The younger blends (three and five years old) are produced with the aid of artificial application of heat to accelerate the aging process; the older blends, colheitas and frasqueiras, are produced by the canteiro method. Because of the way these wines are aged, they are very long-lived in the bottle, and those produced by the canteiro method will survive for decades and even centuries, even after being opened. Wines that have been in barrels for many decades are often removed and stored in
Some wines produced in small quantities in
History of Madeira
Development and success (15th–18th centuries)
The roots of Madeira's wine industry date back to the
The intense heat in the holds of the ships had a transforming effect on the wine, as discovered by Madeira producers when one shipment was returned to the island after a long trip. The customer was found to prefer the taste of this style of wine, and Madeira labeled as vinho da roda (wines that have made a round trip) became very popular. Madeira producers found that
With the increase of commercial treaties with England such as the Marriage Treaty in 1662, important English merchants settled on the island and, ultimately, controlled the increasingly important island wine trade. The English traders settled in the Funchal as of the seventeenth century, consolidating the markets from North America, the West Indies and England itself. Notable brands include Cossart and Gordon founded in 1745 and Blandy's in 1811.[3]
The eighteenth century was the "
Early American history (17th–18th centuries)
Madeira was a very important wine in the history of the United States of America. No wine-quality grapes were grown among the thirteen colonies,[4] so imports were needed, with a great focus on Madeira.[2][5] One of the major events on the road to the American Revolution in which Madeira played a key role was the British seizure of John Hancock's sloop Liberty on 9 May 1768. Hancock's boat was seized after he had unloaded a cargo of 25 pipes (3,150 US gallons (11,900 L)) of Madeira, and a dispute arose over import duties. The seizure of Liberty caused riots to erupt among the people of Boston.[6][7]
Madeira was a favorite of Thomas Jefferson, and it was used to toast the Declaration of Independence.[2] George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, Benjamin Franklin and John Adams are also said to have appreciated the qualities of Madeira. The wine was mentioned in Benjamin Franklin's autobiography. On one occasion, Adams wrote to his wife, Abigail, of the great quantities of Madeira he consumed while a Massachusetts delegate to the Continental Congress. A bottle of Madeira was used by visiting Captain James Sever to christen USS Constitution in 1797. Chief Justice John Marshall was also known to appreciate Madeira, as were his cohorts on the early U.S. Supreme Court. Madeira and walnuts were often served together as a last course at dinner parties in Washington in the early decades of the 1800s.[8]
Modern era (19th century – present)
The mid-19th century ushered an end to the industry's prosperity.
By the turn of the 20th century, sales started to slowly return to normal, until the industry was rocked again by the
In 1988, the Symington family of Portugal invested in the Madeira Wine Company which owned many of the Madeira brand names. They asked Bartholomew Broadbent to re-launch Madeira and create a market for it again in America, which he did in 1989, establishing a firm rebirth of Madeira.
Towards the end of the 20th century, some producers started a renewed focus on quality—ripping out the hybrid and American vines and replanting with the "noble grape" varieties of
Viticulture
Climate and geography
The island of Madeira has an
Grape varieties
Approximately 85% of Madeira is produced with the red grape,
Grown exclusively on the neighboring island of
Regulations enacted recently by the European Union have applied the rule that 85% of the grapes in the wine must be of the variety on the label. Thus, wines from before the late 19th century (pre-phylloxera) and after the late 20th century conform to this rule. Many "varietally labelled" Madeiras, from most of the 20th century, do not. Modern Madeiras which do not carry a varietal label are generally made from Negra Mole.[10]
Other varieties planted on the island, though not legally permitted for Madeira production, include Arnsburger, Cabernet Sauvignon, and the American hybrids Cunningham and Jacquet.[2]
Winemaking
The initial
Younger wines (typically 3 and 5 years old) undergo the estufagem aging process to produce Madeira's distinctive flavor by artificial heating, whereas the wines destined for long aging are barrel-aged using only the naturally high temperatures of the barrel storage rooms (see canteiro process).
Colourings such as
The aging process
Estufagem processes:
- Armazém de Calor: Only used by the Madeira Wine Company, this method involves storing the wine in large wooden casks in a specially designed room outfitted with steam-producing tanks or pipes that heat the room, creating a type of sauna. This process more gently exposes the wine to heat and can last from six months to over a year.
- Cuba de Calor: The most common, used for low-cost Madeira, is bulk aging in low stainless steel or concrete tanks surrounded by either heat coils or piping that allow hot water to circulate around the container. The wine is heated to temperatures as high as 130 °F (55 °C) for a minimum of 90 days as regulated by the Madeira Wine Institute. However, the Madeira is most commonly heated to approximately 115 °F (46 °C)
Barrel-aging process:
- Canteiro: Used for the highest quality Madeiras, these wines are aged without the use of any artificial heat, being stored by the winery in warm rooms that are heated only by the warm climate of the Madeira island. In cases such as Frasqueira (vintage) Madeira, this heating process can last from 20 years to even more than 100 years.[2] The term Canteiro comes from canteiros – the wooden staves that keep the barrels in their places. Canteiro process is used by all of the top Madeira brands, including Blandy's, Borges, Broadbent, d'Oliveiras and Justino's.
Much of the characteristic flavour of Madeira is due to this practice, which hastens the mellowing of the wine and also tends to check secondary
Styles
The noble varieties
The four major styles of Madeira are synonymous with the names of the four best-known white grapes used to produce the wine. Ranging from the sweetest style to the driest style, the Madeira types are:
- Malvasia (also known as Malvazia or Malmsey) has its fermentation halted when its sugars are between 3.5 and 6.5° Baumé (63-117 g/L). This style of wine is characterised by its dark colour, rich texture, and coffee-acidity in the wine, which balances with the high sugar levels so the wines do not taste cloyingly sweet.
- Bual (also called Boal) has its fermentation halted when its sugars are between 2.5 and 3.5° Baumé (45-63 g/L). This style of wine is characterized by its dark colour, medium-rich texture, and raisin flavours.
- Verdelho has its fermentation halted a little earlier than Sercial, when its sugars are between 1.5 and 2.5° Baumé (27-45 g/L). This style of wine is characterized by smokey notes and high acidity.
- Sercial is nearly fermented completely dry, with very little residual sugar (0.5 to 1.5° on the acidity.
A fifth noble grape, Terrantez, almost became extinct on the island but has been making a comeback. Its style ranges in sweetness from that of Verdelho to that of Bual, never being quite as dry as Sercial nor quite as sweet as Malvasia.
Other labelling
Wines made from at least 85% of the noble varieties of Sercial, Verdelho, Bual, and Malvasia are usually labelled based on the amount of time they were aged:[10]
- Colheita or Harvest – This style includes wines from a single vintage, but aged for a shorter period than true Vintage Madeira. The wine can be labelled with a vintage date but includes the word colheita on it. Colheita must be a minimum of five years of age before being bottled and may be bottled any time after that. Effectively, most wineries would drop the word Colheita once bottling a wine at over 19 years of age because it is entitled to be referred to as vintage once it is 20 years of age. At that point, the wine can command a higher price than if it were still to be bottled as Colheita. This differs from Colheita Port which is a minimum of seven years of age before bottling.
- A wine labeled as Finest has been aged for at least three years. This style is usually reserved for cooking.
- Reserve (five years) – This is the minimum amount of aging a wine labelled with one of the noble varieties are permitted to have.
- Special Reserve (10 years) – At this point, the wines are often aged naturally without any artificial heat source.
- Extra Reserve (over 15 years) – This style is rare to produce, with many producers extending the aging to 20 years for a vintage or producing a colheita. It is richer in style than a Special Reserve Madeira.
- Vintage or Frasqueira – This style must be aged at least 19 years in a cask and one year in bottle, therefore cannot be sold until it is at least 20 years of age. The word vintage does not appear on bottles of vintage Madeira because, in Portugal, the word "Vintage" is a trademark belonging to the Port traders.
The terms pale, dark, full, and rich can also be included to describe the wine's colour.
Madeira produced from Negra Mole grapes used to be legally restricted to use generic terms on the label to indicate the level of
Wines listed with Solera were made in a style similar to sherry, with a fractional blending of wines from different vintages in a solera system.[2] The Solera method of blending is most widely practiced in the sherry production of Spain. However, the rules for Madeira soleras are different. When it comes to sherry, as wine is used for bottling, new wine is added to the barrels of older wine and this continuous addition of young wine to old would result in very little wine being from the original vintage. With Madeira, approximately 50% of a bottle would likely be from the stated year because they are only allowed to add up to 10%, not more than 10 times. Another interesting peculiarity of old solera Madeiras is that they were initially developed as a result of trying to extend the stocks of vintages when the vines had stopped being productive due to Phylloxera. Therefore, as there was no younger wine to add to the vintage, it was usually older wines that were added. In recent years, vintage Madeiras have been commanding higher prices than soleras, but, from 1966 (when Michael Broadbent started wine auctions at Christie's), until about the end of the 20th century, solera Madeiras always fetched a premium at auction over the vintage ones.
Rainwater
A style called "Rainwater" is one of the largest-selling styles of Madeira in the United States, most commonly drunk as an apéritif. Nowadays it is almost always an inexpensive medium-dry style of wine made entirely from Tinta Negra grapes, and aged for around three years including a period in an estufa, but Barbeito continues to produce a more expensive Rainwater in the old pre-phylloxera style by blending Sercial and Verdelho grapes.
Accounts conflict as to how this style was developed. The most common name derives from the vineyards on the steep hillsides, where
Characteristics
Exposure to extreme temperature and oxygen accounts for Madeira's stability; an opened bottle will survive unharmed indefinitely. As long as a cork is put into the top of the bottle to prevent the effects of evaporation, fruit flies, and dust, a vintage Madeira, once opened, can last for decades. Properly sealed in bottles, it is one of the longest-lasting wines; Madeiras have been known to survive over 200 years in excellent condition. It is not uncommon to see 150-year-old Madeiras for sale at stores that specialize in rare wine. Vintages dating back to 1780 are known to exist. The oldest bottle that has come onto the market is a 1715 Terrantez.[14]
Before the advent of artificial refrigeration, Madeira wine was particularly prized in areas where it was impractical to construct wine cellars (as in parts of the southern United States) because, unlike many other fine wines, it could survive being stored over hot summers without significant damage. In the Americas, Madeira was traditionally stored in the warm attics of houses. [citation needed]
Uses
Popular uses include apéritifs (pre-meal) and digestifs (post-meal).[15] In Britain it has traditionally been associated with Madeira cake.[16]
Madeira is also used as a flavouring agent in cooking. Lower-quality Madeira wines may be flavored with salt and pepper to prevent their sale as Madeira wine, and then exported for
See also
- Have Some Madeira M'Dear
- History of Portuguese wine
- List of Portuguese wine regions
- Marsala wine
- Port wine
- Sherry
- Vinho Regionaldesignation for simpler, non-fortified wines from Madeira
References
- ^ "Labeling of wine and certain other wine sector products". Europa: Summaries of EU legislation. 20 August 2007.
- ^ ISBN 0-19-860990-6. Pages 416-419.
- ^ "History of Madeira Wine and the United Kingdom". Discovering Madeira. Retrieved 29 May 2023.
- S2CID 144093837.
- ISBN 0-19-860990-6. Pages 719-720.
- ^ encarta.msn.com. "John Hancock". Encarta Encyclopedia. Archived from the original on 28 October 2009. Retrieved on 23 February 2007
- ^ ushistory.org. "John Hancock". Archived from the original on 19 February 2007.
- ^ Poore, Ben. Perley, Perley's Reminiscences of Sixty Years in the National Metropolis, Vol.1, p.178 (1886).
- ^ Silva, António (2023). "Once Upon a Time: The Old Blandy's Wine Lodge - Property Management and Business Strategies in Madeira (1811-1855)". Herança - Revista de História, Património e Cultura. 6 (2): 1–15.
- ^ ISBN 0-7566-1324-8. Pages 340-341.
- ^ "Article in 'Bespoke Unit'". 10 March 2021.
- ^ "Article in 'The Drinks Business'". 11 May 2015.
- ^ Tuten, James (2008). "'Have Some Madeira, M'dear': The Unique History of Madeira Wine and its Consumption in the Atlantic World". Juniata Voices. 8: 55–61. Retrieved 22 February 2018.
- ^ McCoy, Elin (29 March 2010). "J.P. Morgan's Favored Madeira Wines Make Comeback". Bloomberg L.P.
- ^ Herbst, Sharon Tyler; Herbst, Ron (2007), The Food Lover's Companion (Fourth ed.), Barron's Educational Series, Inc.
- ISBN 978-1-74045-542-8, page 59
- ^ "Vinhos Justino Henriques, Filhos, Lda. = VJH". Madeira Wine Guide. 6 January 2007.
- ISBN 978-0-307-76480-5
Further reading
- Hancock, David (2009). Oceans of Wine: Madeira and the Emergence of American Trade and Taste. Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300136050
- Liddell, Alex (1998). Madeira. Faber & Faber. ISBN 0-571-19096-0
- Silva, António (2023). "Once Upon a Time: The Old Blandy's Wine Lodge - Property Management and Business Strategies in Madeira (1811-1855)". Herança - Revista de História, Património e Cultura. 6 (2): 1–15.