Madeirized wine
If you are a wine enthusiast, most likely you’ve heard about the wine getting “maderized” or, using simpler terms, cooked. You may have encountered cooked wine yourself. If you did, you know that opening a bottle of wine and discovering it was maderized is a major letdown, especially if you were saving that bottle for a while. Instead of bold fruit and crispy taste, maderized wine has a cognac-and-cooked-fruit flavor and a color that has a tinge of brown. Not what you hoped for, right!
How did your wine get maderized? Simple answer, as a result of a heat! To be precise, it is a result of oxidization due to faulty hot temperature storage either during the wine transport or cellaring.
Can you salvage a bottle of maderized wine? Well, sort of, if you want to cook with it. Based on our experience, even if used in cooking, the result is hit-and-miss. Those who have first-hand experience with maderized wine will likely say that the best way to handle a bottle of maderized wine is to pour it down a kitchen sink, or whatever other sink you fancy.
Madeira wine
So what do you do when you have no way around hot storage and transport for your wine?
If you are a 17th-century wine producer from the Portuguese island of Madeira, you elevate it to the status of art and make it into a masterpiece. And you do it so well that it becomes an alcoholic beverage of choice to toast the “Declaration of Independence” red by Thomas Jefferson. Kind of like that saying that epitomizes human perseverance: “if life gives you lemons, make a lemonade”.
Learning about and tasting Madeira wine was the major highlight of our recent trip to Madeira. Madeira is most often drunk as aperitif or digestive. As staunch believers that the best way to properly appreciate the wine is to try it with food, we could not have possibly accepted that as an answer. We had to experiment with various food and wine pairing ideas to figure out what goes well with the various types of fortified Madeira wine.
Choosing Madeira wine
Before we start talking tasting notes and food pairing, these are some general principles to know when choosing the Madeira wine to taste:
- There is plenty of Madeira wine in various souvenir shops on the Island of Madeira. They tend to be made using a cheap and quick method of aging Madeira and end up obnoxiously sweet and syrupy. Stay away from these.
- Do not mistake “years old” stated on blended wines for the vintage age. It is not an indication of how long the entire content of the bottle was aged either. Blended wine that says 10 years old on the bottle will only have a certain percentage of its wine aged for 10 years or coming from a 10-year-old vintage. Every year, for 10 years, the winemaker will add to the cask from other vintages to achieve the desired flavor profile.
- In contrast, a bottle of wine with a vintage year and a grape varietal on the bottle will indeed contain wine from a stated vintage and varietal. However, do not assume that a bottle of vintage wine that says 1976 was aged 40 or 30 years.
Well then, you may think, is there anything that can be safely assumed about these wines. As a matter of fact, yes, there is!
- You can safely assume that a Madeira wine, referred to as Frasqueira, has been aged for a minimum of 20 years.
- Frasqueiras and Colheitas are considered superior wines. They come with a corresponding price tag.
- If your pockets are not exactly overflowing with money, the better way to introduce yourself to Madeira fortified wine is by trying blended wines.
- You can safely assume that any 3 years old Madeira is made of Tina Negra and using the estufagem process. But why assume? Just ask at the winery when you buy the wine. We do not recommend 3 years old wines because of the method used in making them (estufagem) and the grapes (Tinta Negra) used for their production. While a great way for wineries to make money fast, in our opinion, these wines are not representative of the true Madeira wine.
- To acquaint yourself with Madeira wine, we recommend starting with non-Tinta Negra 10 or 15 years old blends. Depending on the producer, 10 years old Madeira will set you back about 19 €, and 15 years old Madeira will come at a price tag of about 24€.
Tasting Madeira wine
- Be aware that Madeira is always high in alcohol. Wines under 10 years go up to 19%, and wines over 10 years are a minimum of 20% alcohol. The older the wine, the higher its alcohol level. Plan accordingly when you go on a wine tasting trip.
- Most of Madeira should be served at 18%-19% degrees. Wineries recommend chilling their dry and medium-dry wines as it makes them taste nicer. Do not chill fortified Madeira in a bucket with ice. Instead, put it in a fridge for 10 to 15 minutes.
- You do not need to decant Madeira wine. Letting it breathe is not going to make any change to the taste of wine. The only time you want to decant Madeira is when you serve older wines known as Frasqueiras. The reason to decant Madeira is to rid of the sediment in these old wines.
- Use proper glasses, such as tulip-shaped port glasses or white wine general-purpose glasses, for your tasting.
- When tasting Madeira of various dryness levels, always start with dry and finish with sweet wine.
Tasting notes and food pairing recommendations:
J. Faria and Filhos 3 years old sweet Madeira.
The first-ever Madeira we tasted was a sweet 3 years old Tinta Negra produced for J. Faria and Filhos. The said bottle, together with Bolo de Mel, was a present from our Madeiran host. While we do not know the exact method of aging, based on the taste profile of this wine, we think it was produced using the estufagem process. Estufagem is a quick way to age the wines by heating them for three months in stainless steel tanks, followed by aging the cooled wine in Brazilian Satinwood vats.
- Rich ochre in colour, on the nose, this wine has an aroma of fig and burnt sugar.
- On the palate, this wine tastes of bitter burnt caramel, fig, and honey with an undertone of lemon.
- Even though it comes below the expected 19%, the alcohol in this Madeira is very pronounced and overwhelming.
While we expect a Madeira wine to be hot, we do not expect the alcohol to be offensive on the palate or throat.
We found that to be the case with the J. Faria and Filhos 3 years old sweet Madeira. Yes, this wine has a long palate persistence. But the predominant aftertaste feeling on a palate is that of an unforgiving alcohol burn and, to a lesser extent, of a bitter lemon. For us, this wine lacks depth. There is no balance or complexity to it.
While we found a couple of suitable food and wine pairing recommendations, the best way to use this wine is in cooking.
Use it in Madeira pan sauce to go with pan-fried chicken or as a not so secrete ingredient to go in Madeira meatloaf.
Food pairing recommendations
Cheese:
- We liked how this wine pairs with Caciotta-like local cheese that we bought from one of the Madeiran grocery stores. Made with cow’s milk, it has a thin rind and a creamy, smooth, and semi-soft texture beneath it. The cheese that worked the best for us was the one with red bell pepper pieces. This pairing is based on a concept of harmonious contrast between food and wine.
Dessert:
- The very first food pairing for this wine was Bolo de Mel, given to us by our host. While we do not like this Portuguese dessert staple, there’s no denying that this paired really well with our wine.
- Our favourite dessert pairing was dark chocolate-dipped strawberries, a bomb-proof pairing recommendation for any sweet Madeira wine. (see our recipe here: Fresh, dark chocolate covered strawberries)
Bottom Line
After spending two weeks tasting Madeira wines and trying out various food pairing ideas, we arrived at a couple of conclusions we are happy to share with you.
- Even when they call it dry, Madeira is a sweet wine. It goes really well with desserts. If you are looking for a wine to go with your cake, you can be sure there’s a bottle of Madeira for that.
- Whenever you decide on food and wine pairing, remember Madeira is a social wine and does not require a big meal.
Related posts:
Stay tuned for more Madeira wine tasting notes/food pairing posts.
We look forward to hearing how well our tasting notes and food pairing recommendations worked for you.
Do you have a superstar food pairing recommendation to go with any of the wines featured in this post? Please leave us a comment and share your experiences.
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