Blandy's Sercial Madeira
Madeira is a tough nut - in the sense that it’s hard to find and not easy to understand what the heck it is, besides for cooking Madeira Chicken. Madeira is a fortified wine in a range go sweetness, from dry to sweet styles. It gets its name from the island of Madeira, Portugal, located about 400 miles off the coast of Morocco. Madeira’s unique taste comes from heating the wine, cooling it, ageing and fractional blending. The heating creates a wine with rich tertiary flavors of roasted nuts, orange peel, stewed fruit, burnt caramel, and toffee. The super high acidity is the true identifier of this wine, which comes from it’s subtropical climate, uber steep slopes, volcanic soils and types of grapes used. There are 5 permitted noble grapes that can be used (and labeled) for Madeira - Tinta Negra, Sercial, Verdelho, Boal and Malvasia. This is the minimum amount of aging a wine labeled with one of the noble varieties is permitted. Varietal Madeira represents the highest quality Madeira wine, perfect for aperitifs or dessert wines. For more information on the process Madeira 101.
Sercial is the brightest, crispiest style of Madeira. Sercial shows lemony, spicy, herbaceous notes and often displays a stony mineral character on the palate. These wines have a slight sweetness that is offset by their acidity, especially when served chilled.
Blandy’s 10 year Sercial Madeira is a medium amber color. It has intense aromas of caramel, orange peel, burnt brown sugar, toasted walnut, wood, pine nuts, cloves, lemon peel. The palate is medium-dry, high acid, medium bodied, high alcohol and intense flavors of caramel, orange peel, burnt brown sugar, toasted walnut, wood, pine nuts, cloves, lemon peel. It is well balanced with good concentration and intensity.
Pair with sheep’s milk cheeses, hard and crumbly cheeses such as Aged Cheddar, foie gras, chicken with cream sauce, chestnut soup, beef Wellington. The high acidity makes it such a great food pairing for any rich sauces, cheeses or high fat dishes - it cuts right through the richness.
