Taste curiosity, which has fueled a demand for single-batch bourbons and single-malt Scotch, also has ignited a demand for Madeira and other dessert wines.
Not long ago, sales of Madeira, port and sherry–three great fortified wines–were minuscule. “Dry” was “in,” and “sweet” was way, way “out.”
The softening of this stance has been caused by consumers’ increased willingness to experiment; better products, packaging and promotion by producers; and a desire on the part of restaurants and bars to find new sources of revenue.
Madeira saw a 25 percent increase in sales in the U.S. during 1994, while Port was up about 30 percent. Both percentages are higher so far this year.
“Madeira has ridden on the coat-tails of port,” says Bartholomew Broadbent, the young Englishman who has made the revival of dessert wines in this country a personal crusade. “It began with a tasting in San Francisco in 1989, started to appear on major wine lists in New York City three years ago and and now is in demand around the country.”
Well before there was a United States, there was far greater demand for Madeira. The astonishingly rich and long-lived wines from the tiny volcanic island 600 miles west of the coast of present-day Morocco suited the taste of 18th Century Americans.
Fortified with brandy, they easily withstood the rigors of a transatlantic voyage. Because the island was a popular port of call in the sailing-ship era, Madeira was easy to obtain. Even after the Revolution, well-to-do families in Savannah, Philadelphia and other East Coast cities often would have a barrel of Madeira shipped directly to them, and they would have it on display for their guests.
America’s best-selling wine declined in popularity during the Civil War and its aftermath as supplies were disrupted and fire and plant disease devastated vineyards on the island. In the 20th Century “Prohibition killed it,” says Broadbent, “and after World War II the focus was on cocktails.”
The resurgence of interest in Madeira began in 1989, when the Symington family, port merchants whose brands include Warre, Dows’s, and Graham, took control of the Madeira Wine Co., whose brads include Blandy’s, Leacock, Cossart-Gordon and Miles. The availability of Madeiras from the early years of this century and back into the 1800s has intrigued wine buffs and collectors.
Michael Davis of the wine auction firm Davis & Co. says the market is “erratic,” but “awareness is growing.” He estimates a l9th Century Madeira will bring $120 to $150 at auction, while a bottle from the 1920s might fetch $80 to $100.
Madeira is made by heating the fermented grape juice and adding brandy to sweeten and stabilize it. The best comes from four grapes, listed in ascending order of sweetness of the wines they make: sercial, verdelho, bual and malmsey.
Sercial is first fermented until completely dry, then fortified. The others are fortified earlier. About half the grape sugars remain in boal and even more in malmsey The wines are aged 3 to 15 years before bottling, while some of the best may be aged as long as 20 years and be vintage dated.
Sercial and a special, very pale type called “rainwater” are most often served as aperitifs.
But collectors have focused their attention on the sweeter boal and malmsey. Hugh Johnson, in his “Modern Encyclopedia of Wine,” calls these “the longest-lived wines in the world,” which have the “unique quality” of “going on getting better and better.”
A recent tasting of seven Blandy’s Madeiras revealed the tannin and alcohol in these wines to be less apparent than it is in young ports. The progression in sweetness held up in 5-year-old bottlings of wines made from the four grapes.
The sercial had a nutty, off-dry flavor appropriate to an aperitif. The verdelho, distinctly sweeter but multi-dimensional, might be poured with a cream soup, smoked fish or poultry or spicy Asian fare.
The boal, with its intensely nutty bouquet and medium-rich flavor would be an ideal companion to a nut-based or nut-topped cake or pastry. The malmsey possessed a toffee flavor and would be a delightful dessert all by itself.
A new shipment of these Madeiras with a suggested price of $16.50, was due in retail shops during the second week of June. For reference, a 15-year-old malmsey, softer and more intens than the 5-year-old, carries a price tag of $45.
