A Slightly Sweet Thanksgiving: Madeira and Lambrusco Wine

admin — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 06:16:08 +0000

A bottle of Madeira was probably poured at some of the earliest Thanksgiving celebrations. Madeira is produced on a beautiful volcanic island of the same name which is 360 miles west of Morocco and 700 miles south of Portugal, which governs it. The history of Madeira’s wine is nearly as old as that of the island. The island was first settled by Europeans (led by the Portuguese explorer Zarco) in 1419. By 1455 a visitor from Venice wrote that Madeira’s vineyards were the world's most beautiful. Within a century, the wine from these vineyards was well established in markets throughout Europe and by the 1600’s it had become the most popular wine in Britain’s North American colonies. Madeira is produced from grapes grown on terraces cut into the island's steep mountainsides. Like Port, Madeira is a “fortified” wine to which brandy has been added. But unlike other fortified wines, Madeira is also heated for several months, either in special vats or in the attic lofts of the Madeira lodges. For two centuries, Madeira was the wine of choice for most affluent Americans. Francis Scott Keyes is said to have penned the Star Spangled Banner, sipping from a glass of Madeira. George Washington's inauguration was toasted with Madeira, as was the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Wealthy families from Boston to Savannah established extensive collections of Madeiras. Madeira became high fashion, and “Madeira parties” (a forerunner of today’s wine tasting) became major social events. There are four major types of Madeira, named according to the grape variety used. Ranging from the sweetest to the driest style they are: Malvasia (also known as Malmsey or Malvazia), Bual (or Boal), Verdelho, and Sercial. Verdelho is the main ingredient of a medium dry light wine called "Rainwater" which is very popular in the United States. The cheaper wines are made from Tinta Negra Mole. The legend around the name started when the contents of a shipment to Savannah, Georgia, were diluted by a heavy rain that hit the casks left standing on a beach. The recipient of the shipment liked the lighter taste and ordered more. There are many stories around Malmsey which was exported as early as the 15th century. In 1478 the Duke of Clarence preferred death by drowning himself in a cask of Malmsey to the death by sword. In Shakespeare's "Henry IV" Poins accuses the Prince of Wales to have sold his soul for a glass of Malmsey and a chicken leg. One of John Falstaff's drinking friends is named after his Malmsey-reddened nose. Even Napoleon, stopping over on the island on his way into exile on St. Helena in 1815, took some Malmsey to brighten his days. Malmsey remains unquestionably the most famous Madeira wine. Even now, many would agree that a good Malmsey crowns a perfect meal like no other wine. The combination with coffee, cookies or nuts is classic, as is the combination of a good bitter chocolate. But also on its own, Malmsey itself is an excellent dessert. Lambrusco wine has also seen its share of Thanksgivings especially in the 70's and 80's when it was the biggest selling import wine in the United States and over 3 million cases were exported from Italy each year. The Lambrusco grape has a long winemaking history with archaeological evidence indicating that the Etruscans cultivated the vine. In Roman times, the Lambrusco was highly valued for its productivity and high yields with Cato the Elder stating that produce of two thirds of an acre could make enough wine to fill 300 amphoras. The most highly rated of its wines are the frothy, frizzante (slightly sparkling) red wines that are designed to be drunk young from one of the five Lambrusco denominazione di origine controllata (DOC) regions: Lambrusco Grasparossa di Castelvetro, Lambrusco di Sorbara, Lambrusco Salamino di Santa Croce, Lambrusco Reggiano, and Lambrusco Mantovano. Lambruscos are usually made as either Red or Rosado (Rosé). They can either be secco (dry), amabile (semi-sweet) or dolce (sweet). A white version of Lambrusco called Bianco is also made in small quantities. This is made by separating the skins from the grapes before vinification. Although traditional Lambrusco is an almost entirely cork-stopped, dry (secco) red wine, the Lambrusco Reggiano DOC is also used to make amabile (slightly sweet) and dolce (sweet) versions of Lambrusco through use of up to 15 percent of the Ancellotta grape. The first dry, cork-finished, limited production DOC Lambrusco was introduced in the United States in 1995. The wine is noted for high acidity and berry flavors. Many of the wines now exported to the United State include a blend of Lambrusco from the different DOC and is sold under the Indicazione Geografica Tipica (IGT) designation Emilia. The amabile styles make for a wonderful aperitif. The secco style can be merged with almost any type of food. It really is versatile. The dolce style makes a nice dessert by itself or perhaps served with a cookie or biscotti.

This is a post from: The Wine Cellar Blog

Empress Josephine’s Wine Cellar

admin — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 20:01:29 +0000

Bordeaux wine lovers may credit the 1855 Exposition Universelle de Paris and Emperor Napoleon III's "Official Classification" with putting Bordeaux wine on the map. But, it turns out that his grandmother the Empress Josephine, first wife of Napoleon Bonaparte may have ignited French passion for the wine. Prior to Josephine raising the status of Bordeaux to an elixer fit for nobility, it was seen as an inferior product suitable only for the English who had been stubborn lovers of claret, or red Bordeaux wine, for four centuries. At the time of the French Revolution, Burgundy and Champagne reigned supreme, in fact, not a single bottle of Bordeaux is known to have been kept in the wine cellars of King Louis XVI. When Marie-Josephe-Rose de Tascher de La Pagerie (aka Empress Josephine) died in 1814, she left a heap of unpaid bills and a golden legacy to social historians. Marie-Josephe-Rose, was among other things, a great connoisseur and collector of clothes, and an innovative gardener and botanist. The written inventory of her final possessions at her chateau west of Paris has inspired studies and exhibitions on subjects as varied as the fashion trends and gardening styles of the early 19th century. Josephine was also a celebrated hostess and, although not a great drinker, a great collector of wine. The official inventory of her possessions at her death includes more than 13,000 bottles of wine from all over the world, from Cyprus, Italy, Greece, Spain and Portugal as well as South Africa and Hungary. The empress also kept hundreds of bottles of rum from her native Martinique, which she used in rum punches and served at dinner parties in gilded bowls. Josephine's chambermaid described her as a "very sober woman." She was partial to very sweet wines including champagne, but drank it all with moderation – like Napoleon. The Emperor Napoleon's favorites were Burgundy and Champagne, but he also grew fond of South African wines during his time in exile on Saint Helena, the South Atlantic island where he died in 1821 at age 52 – not far from Cape Town. Study of Josephine's 1814 "wine list" reveals something that may seem unsurprising but was, at the time, extraordinary. Almost half of her bottles and barrels came from vineyards around Bordeaux, little known chateaux that later would become some of the greatest names in wine: Latour, Lafite, Margaux and Haut-Brion. Was the Empress Josephine the cause of the great switch in French wine tastes which allowed the vineyards of Bordeaux, and especially the great chateaux of the Medoc, to emerge by the mid-19th century as the most prized wines in France and the world? This is one of the subjects explored in an entertaining exhibition, La Cave de Josephine (Josephine's Cellar), which has started at the Chateaux de Malmaison, where Josephine lived for the last 15 years of her life, and died in June 1814, aged 50. The exhibition, which will move to Germany and Italy next year, also examines other changes in the art de vivre of the French nobility which followed the fall of the monarchy. Before the Revolution, an aristocratic French dinner-party was a kind of immense, stand-up buffet in which all dishes were served at once. Wine glasses were kept on trays by servants and topped up as required. After the revolution, France gradually adopted the "Russian" style, now universal, of serving different, sit-down courses one after another. Wine glasses began, to be placed permanently on the table. These changes were driven partly by the post-Revolutionary lack of legions of low-paid servants. France had also finally cracked the "industrial secret" of how to make crystal wine glasses, something previously known only to the British.

This is a post from: The Wine Cellar Blog

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A Slightly Sweet Thanksgiving: Madeira and Lambrusco Wine

Empress Josephine’s Wine Cellar