Episode 1 - Andrew's Desert Island Wine

Andrew discusses his love for Madeira and why it would be his desert island wine.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

So let me ask you, gentlemen, a question. If you're a castaway on a deserted island, I always thought desert island, but apparently it's actually a deserted island, which makes sense. There's a bottle of wine that washes up on the shore. What would you want that wine to be?

SPEAKER_01 0:16

So I would say probably something fortified, uh, something sweet. I think a port would be probably would that that would get you the most bang for your buck.

SPEAKER_02 0:27

That's a good point. Yeah, it's fine. You know, your answer is not that far off from mine, which would be Madeira. So as I was contemplating, okay, what to talk about, I was thinking, you know, selfishly, I have a fortified wine exam next week. Two, Madeira is one of my absolute favorite styles of wine. And three, next at the time of recording, essentially next month, uh, will be the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, which famously they toasted with Madeira. And when George Washington was inaugurated, they toasted with Madeira. Madeira is inextricably linked to American history, and that's something that company that um producers like Rare Wine Company, Manny Burkett Rare Wine Company, have been trying to kind of re-establish. So I thought it'd be kind of interesting if you're up for it to just kind of a little kind of overview of this extraordinary wine.

SPEAKER_00 1:16

Now I know why you brought Madeira over.

SPEAKER_02 1:19

Oh, you know it.

SPEAKER_01 1:20

You know, yes. It's such a it's such a challenging style of wine for young people to approach. At least let me rephrase that. As a former young person, I found that as a I I didn't know anything about it. And when I did, I found it very confusing and and uh it took a while to get a palate for it.

SPEAKER_02 1:40

Interesting. Um you know, in a way, I almost feel like it could be a truly it has maybe an opportunity with younger people in that it's something that you can open and it's gonna be good for years on end if you don't get through it. Um it can be very versatile with food pairings. It's uh there's only a handful of producers that make it. There's a lot of history. So for younger people, uh, usually authenticity and is something that's kind of of key interest to them. Um, so I hope that it has maybe a little bit more of a presence. But um I think but to your point, there's also kind of a lot to kind of weed through label-wise. Like, what is verdello? What is bual? What the heck is a colleito or a how do you sp how do you pronounce freshquera? Uh I apologize. I apologize to any Portuguese listeners out there, so I'm sure I just absolutely butchered that.

SPEAKER_01 2:25

Yeah, we're really popular in the Portuguese community. Oh, we really cornered that market, yes.

SPEAKER_02 2:30

But uh yeah, Madeira is, you know, as you probably well know, it's closer to Morocco than it is uh actually to Portugal, although it's uh a part of Portugal. And it was discovered by the Portuguese in 1419. Captain Zarko is given the credit for that. And Madeira actually translates to uh wooded island, and it was incredibly forested. And so when Europeans first arrived, I mean, we did what we do best when we come across, you know, pristine habitat. We destroy it. So they set fires, and as the legend goes, they burned the island for seven years. That's probably not true, but they burned it, and that actually resulted in a lot of ash that is linked to the high vigor of the soils, along with it being a lot of volcanic soil out there. But um then you they essentially they brought in slave labor and they also had wealthy families from the Minho and the Douro settle uh on the island and they planted wheat and sugar cane and some grapevines. And sugarcane was kind of the main crop for them, but then they had competition with other Portuguese colonies, mainly in Brazil, and so that market kind of crashed. Um, and that's when grape growing kind of took off. The first documentation of planting vines out there was around 1450, 1453, um, when Venetian navigator Alvisto Mosto, which I think sounds like a great Italian director, uh, he stated that Prince Henry the navigator ordered the that the land should be planted to Malvasia from Candia, which is uh capital of Crete. And so I mean now refer to this grape as Malvasia Candida. And then shortly after other high acid grapes like voile, Cercial, Rodello, um, Tarantes followed suit. Like the Canary Islands, Madeira was a really important stopping off point for trade ships, and British merchants set up shop and expanded distribution opportunities in the 160 and 1700s. Now, ironically, Madeira was actually seen as a part of Africa for the according to the British. So what happened is then in the 1660s, King Charles II, who, if you ever watch Horrible Histories, he loved party. Um, he was part Scottish, French, Italian, a little bit dame, but 100% party and a mole shit.

SPEAKER_01 4:38

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:38

Um, anyway, uh, great skit. But uh, he banned the import of European products uh unless they were shipped on British vessels uh and from British ports. But Madeira was exempt from this, which resulted in a lot of economic opportunities for merchants on the island. And they established uh trade connections with American colonies in um Charleston and uh Savannah and New York and throughout throughout the US. With that, then later on you had 17 in 1703 the Matthew N Treaty, which when Madeira was recognized as a part of Portugal, um, you know, it was given, they gave favorable or lower rates of duty. The English and the Portuguese basically signed the Matthew N treaty, which gave Portuguese goods a lower rate of duty, so expanded opportunities for Portuguese goods. Um, but the main thing that's really famous about Madeira, of course, is you know how you make it is a result of heat and oxygen. And what they would do is that they would, you know, stick the wine in these boats and ship them off to, you know, the West Indies and colonies. And uh what they found is that famously when the vines, you know, came, you know, when they were exposed to the heat of the tropics, they took on a very desirable, quote unquote, matterized character. They found that these wines were way better than the stuff that was aging on the island. And so there became this term called Vina Dorora, which is essentially uh wine of the round voyage. And so they would from the 17th century all the way up until the early 20th century, which I think is absolutely bananas, uh, they would stick these, you know, Cast of Madeira on a ship and have them set sail and then come back and then try and sell them. Um, but of course, that's not very economically feasible. Uh and then, of course, you know, you run the risk of uh pirates and shipwrecks and all that kind of fun, adventurous stuff. So the other option is the cantero method where you're aging it in lofts for a prolonged period of time. But then in 1794, there was a physician named uh Pantelao. Again, I apologize to the Portuguese, uh, Fernandez, who basically created the estufagum. Um, and it was it's and essentially it is a vat where you heat it with like a hot water jacket or a coil and you cook the wine for a period of time. And it was it was a way to kind of hasten that sort of development that you would get by putting it on ships for long voyages, but the quality that you achieve is nowhere near what you would get from long aging. And so there were actually attempts to ban the Estufaga method in 1803, 1804, and 1832. But of course, you know, economics went out. It's a very efficient method, and it's become a lot better uh in the recent years. But uh yeah, sort of the heyday for Madeira was the 1700s, uh, and things were looking pretty good in the 1800s, but then of course you had um uh you had mildew in the 1850s, and then you had the American Civil War, so you lost market opportunity, then you had phylloxra, then you had World War I, you had the Great Depress, then you had um you know the Great Depression, World War II, and then kind of shifting taste in the latter part of the of the 20th century. Um so sales have stabilized for Madeira, but it's nowhere near as popular as it was. Um, it's interesting because when you look at the island, it is technically a warm Mediterranean climate, but it has um oceanic and subtropical mesoclimates. And so, as you can imagine, fungal pressure is very high. And there's ways you can go about it to mitigate that fungicide um leaf removal. There's also the uh latatas, um, which are these basically it's a pergola system that encourages airflow. And then back in the day you could plant other crops underneath, so it was very, you know, efficient from a farming perspective for small family farmers. And then there's also um another thing called Espoder, which is you know uh spur pruning. But you also have volcanic soil, it's a warm climate, and you have lots of rainfall, and so you can get up to 150 hectoliters per hectare, so very, very high yields. What that is in tons per acre, nobody knows. Um, but you can basically you can grow a lot of grapes and they'll pick them usually around between 9 and 11% alcohol, so really high in acid. That's one of the things I absolutely love about this style of wine. And then you'll ferment it anywhere from a couple days to maybe a couple weeks, and then you add a neutral grape spirit, so you're not taking away from the character of the wine or the maturation process to like 95, 96% um ABV. And then there's two options that you have. One is the estufaga method, where you stick it in that heated tank for anywhere, or basically for a minimum of three months, and you heat it up between 113, 122 degrees. Um, you also leave a little bit of head space as um the combination of oxygen and heat will basically accelerate that maturation matterization process, and then you'll chill it down, filter it, uh, and then you can maybe age it in other tanks or barrels if you want. And that's usually used for three, maybe five-year-old Madeira. Tinta Negra is kind of the main grape that gets used for that. And then, of course, there's the cantero method where you're heating it naturally in these lodges or warehouses that will get from anywhere from 74 to 104 degrees Fahrenheit. And there's a lot also a lot of variation where these lodges are located, even where your cask is located within the lodge. So the northern part of the island is actually a little bit is cooler. And, you know, the maturation process is a little bit slower compared to, say, maybe around Fun Chau in the south end of the island where it's a lot warmer. And then within that warehouse, you know, if you have a cast that's at the higher, you know, closer to the ceiling, that's gonna be warmer than at the at the bottom of the lodge. And so younger wines will be placed higher up to kind of kick things off with their maturation process, and then they may be brought lower down to kind of slow down maturation. And then if a producer feels like the concentration is at an appropriate level, they can then put them in demijons to kind of stop that process, if you will, or to slow it down, I should say. There's different styles, of course. There's uh, like I said, Vreshgera, which is like 20 years aging in barrel. Um, then there's also a style called Collieta, which is what I brought tonight, where it's popular with producers because it's only five years of aging, which you know, you tell that to other producers, and that's that's still a long time to age in barrel, but you know, a little bit better uh return on investment than you know, 20 years, if you will. You know, the main grapes, 86% of what's planted is Tinta Negra. And then um there's also Verdello is the second most planted, and then you have Boal, Malvasia, and Malvasia, there's actually an umbrella term. Uh there's Malvizia Candida, which was one of the first violes that was brought to the island back in the mid-15th century. And then there's uh, but it's prone to powdery mildew. And then there's another grape called Malvasia de Sao George, which is it's prone to some botrytis, but that's more widely planted. And the nice thing too with Madeira is that if you're going off of varietal labeling, you can get an idea of what the sweetness level is going to be if you do a little bit of investigation. So like a Circeal is always going to be kind of off-dry, you know, some sweetness, but really high acid and a little bit leaner. And then you get all the way to Malmsey and it's going to be full-on sweet, but has that beautiful acidity to balance it. I think one thing, too, that is extraordinary with Madeira is its food pairing possibilities. Like just last night I had for dinner, it's a great thing you can do when you're an adult, if you can eat, you know, breakfast or dessert for dinner. I had uh uh French toast with uh with Malmsey. It was a fantastic pairing. And I've had, say, a five-year-old Madeira, a simple five-year-old Madeira with barbecued pulled mushrooms, and I've had Cercelle with um, you know, roasted tomato dishes and stuff like that. So there's, and mainly because of that beautiful acidity, that's what makes them, I think, such fantastic food wines. You know, sadly, it is a struggling style. Um, there's only about 450 hectares planted on the island, and that's divided between about 3,000 growers who sell to eight different main producers. And most of your growers are in their 50s or 60s. They can technically make two to three times more money growing bananas, and they also have pressure from real estate development. Are there kids interested in interested in farming and taking on that responsibility? Uh likely not. Like I said, sales have stabilized, but it's still really a challenge. And when you look at it from a quality perspective, about 86% of the Madeira produce are what you call the corrente, which is about two to three year old Madeira. So not stuff of like, you know, outstanding quality, but every day, if you will, or then about 20% of that is uh Madeira that's used for cooking. And then the kind of the Colleita, the fresquera, that's really high-end bottling, so that only accounts about 2.5% of sales. But thankfully, there has been a gradual increase in sales value driven by the colleitas and the fresqueras. Uh recently I went to Compline here in Napa and they had a Madeira class. They poured an 80-year-old Tinta Negra, they had a 91 Cercial that was amazing. And then there was a guy there who was friends with Manny Burke, and he was walking around and he had this little plastic bottle uh with a blue painter's tape on it that said 1795.

SPEAKER_00 13:46

Holy cow.

SPEAKER_02 13:47

And he said, Do you want some? And so, of course, yes. So I got two spritzes. My friend Tatum got two spritzes. Now, I don't remember the rest of the night, and I woke up in somebody else's bed. But totally worth it. Totally worth it. Let's remember, let's let's find out where that guy. No, it was so I only got like the two spritzes, but it was fresh and lively. And that that tasting was um sort of conducted by Ricardo Freitas, who's known as one of the one of the great winemakers on the island of Madeira. And he had this quote that I thought was really poignant, which is that time makes the miracles. And I think that that's one of the cool things about Madeira is that if you can taste something that's really old, is actually with any wine in general, any old wine, even if it's not great, I think one of the coolest things is to taste it and think about what happened in all those years leading up to the moment that you tasted that.

SPEAKER_00 14:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:40

You know, and that's kind of a cool trip, if you will. And I think also one last note too, as I kind of, you know, as I go, as I'm banging on about how much I love Madeira, uh I love all wines, I love all styles of wine. I love Napa Valley Cabernet. It's really been around since the 60s, since arguably 70s, maybe the 50s. Yeah, maybe some earlier stuff, but not that long. Something like Madeira, that's been around since they started fortifying it in the late 1600s. I think it's also part of the reason why we all love wine, why we get into it is this idea of tasting history and experiencing something that generations before have experienced and somehow we can connect with them. So, yeah, drink more Madeira.

SPEAKER_00 15:26

Very cool. Well, it's cool to see with Madeira, there's still super duper old wine that's in barrel. How you can find Madeira that's still sitting in in one of the lodges in on the island from 18 something. Yeah, which is insane to think about. It's wild, yeah. So you really wonder how much is in that barrel.

SPEAKER_01 15:48

It's a puddle on the bottom. Yeah. It it it uh this is going in a slightly different direction, but what are the what's the who's the primary market for Madeira these days?

SPEAKER_02 15:58

You know, the largest market is France, um, followed by Madeira itself. However, the French tend to drink, not insulting any French people. I love the French, um, but generally speaking, the the market tends to be less expensive, Madeira's, so more everyday stuff. Whereas like the premium uh Madeira really is going to be the domestic market for uh for Madeira and Portugal uh and the US.

SPEAKER_00 16:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:22

And you were at this Madeira tasting. What was the um it's it's slightly I'm sure it's skewed based on where it was taking place, Napa in a place for wine lovers. But what was kind of the predominant demographic in that tasting?

SPEAKER_02 16:40

You know, I would say probably were you the youngest person there? Oh my friend Tatum was. Oh, but she also works for a rare wine company, so yeah, she doesn't count. Um boy, come to think of it. I'm I may have been the youngest person there. I'm 34. So I think most people were I'd say 40s, 50s. Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_01 17:03

Younger, younger than I would have thought. Yeah, yeah, right. I was I was trying to say, yeah, how much AARP membership. It it is interesting though. It's it's not a wine um that uh wine growing region I'm particularly familiar with. Um but to your point, it is really fascinating. I think one of the things is you learn about wine, and maybe there's wine consumers that really don't care about uh the history of it. But if you have a fascination for history either coincides with winemaking or uh I suppose just a love for history in general, wine is so connected in uh victory and loss throughout a nation's history or through periods of time, you're gonna have a hard time separating wine from historically significant events. And I just always find that very fascinating. Yeah, well said.

SPEAKER_00 17:55

I think the hard thing today with with premium sweet wine market is I feel like the global connotation of sweet wine now, if you just talk about sweet wine as a whole, it's thought of as maybe inexpensive or poor quality.

SPEAKER_02 18:10

Yeah, and then Liebfrau Milch.

SPEAKER_00 18:13

Yeah, white. Yeah, exactly. And it gives that a negative connotation of oh, it's sweet, it's not gonna be any good, or why is it so expensive? Then there's also the issue of with these sweet high alcohol wines, is it's 20% alcohol. And it's it's it's pretty high, and a lot of people today don't want the high alcohol.

SPEAKER_02 18:32

Yeah, yeah. Well, I feel like the great irony with that is I feel like you can do a little pour, a little, and you're good. Yeah, you know, if you like on days that I drop that I don't drink, I have a little bit of you know, Madeira, which that maybe I have a problem, but you know, I'm happy.

SPEAKER_01 18:47

That's that's just to get you into work.

SPEAKER_02 18:49

It's exactly, you know, that's why I start the day before I brush my teeth, you know. A little momy to get you motivated.

SPEAKER_01 18:54

There you go. There are some fantastically delicious, low alcohol dessert style wines, even locally are produced.

SPEAKER_00 19:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:03

And people see dessert wine as something that you have after dinner or as your your nights winding down. But to kind of what Andrew was talking about is this is this these are wines that you can compare and have with virtually not any not not anything for every wine, but it it it runs the gamut. There's there's a vast uh scope of uh food that you can have with these wines. And and so be be more brave in the wines that you drink and in what you drink them with or eat them with.