AN OLD MADEIRA M’DEAR?

100-YEAR-OLD MADEIRA ON SALE AT WAITROSE

Oscar Wilde famously wrote, "One should never trust a woman who tells one her real age. A woman who would tell one that, would tell one anything." Thankfully the same is not true of an aged Madeira, which comes into its own as the years pass by.

For the first time, Waitrose will sell a 100-year-old Madeira. The D’Oliveiras 1910 Sercial Madeira (70cl) goes on sale this month, thankfully a little goes a long way, as each bottle will cost £250.

Described as a magnificent example of the heights aged Sercial can reach, the D’Oliveiras is a deeply complex and rich Madeira. Presented in an elegant dark wood box, this is a wonderful and unique gift.

But there are more affordable bottles available as Madeira sales are seeing something of a renaissance boasting a twenty per cent increase year on year with the top selling Blandy’s Duke of Clarence (75cl) selling for £11.99.

According to Nick Room, wine buyer for Waitrose, “The beauty of Madeira is that it does not spoil once the bottle is opened which makes perfect sense if you like the occasional tipple – there’s no pressure to finish off the bottle!

“Our customers love to cook and entertain at home and Madeira seems to be the drink they’re turning to. They tell us they are serving the sweeter varieties over ice instead of the old fashioned ambient aperitif straight from the cupboard.

“The less expensive bottles continue to prove popular in cooking, it is the ‘go to’ wine, the perfect ingredient in many of our mushroom dishes”.

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Continuing Madeira’s upward trend; online at Waitrose Wine Direct, the Madeira pages are some of the most visited on the gift site with bottles ranging in price and age. The most expensive is our 100 year-old D’Oliveiras 1910 Sercial (70cl) there are only twenty-four bottles available at £250, less expensive but still with age on their side are the seventy-year-old Blandy’s 1940 Madeira (75cl) at £180 and the 1968 bottle of D’Oliveiras Boal (75cl) for £65.

More affordably on sale are much younger bottles including the fifteen-year- old Madeiras from Henriques & Henriques, a Bual and a Verdelho at £19.99 (50cll).

A full range of Madeiras are stocked in stores nationwide and at Waitrose Wine Direct ( www.waitrosewine.com ). -ends- For further information please contact Sue Finnegan at ZPR. Tel 07966 541 810 or 020 7896 3404 or email [email protected]

Notes to editors Recommendation. Blandy’s Alvada 5-year-old Rich Madeira 50cl. £12.69 A new style of Madeira made with 50% Bual and 50% Malmsey. The perfect introduction for anyone trying Madeira for the first time.

Background.

Madeira is a fortified Portuguese wine made in the Madeira Islands. The wine is produced in a variety of styles ranging from dry wines which can be consumed on their own as an aperitif to sweet wines more usually consumed with dessert. Cheaper versions are often flavoured with salt and pepper for use in cooking.

The islands of Madeira have a long winemaking history dating back to the Age of Exploration when Madeira was a standard port of call for ships heading to the New World or East Indies. To prevent the wine from spoiling, neutral grape spirits were added. On the long sea voyages, the wines would be exposed to excessive heat and movement, which transformed the flavour of the wine as the wine producers of Madeira found out when an unsold shipment of wine returned to the islands after a round trip.

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Today, Madeira is noted for its unique winemaking process which involves heating the wine up to temperatures as high as 60°C (140°F) for an extended period of time and deliberately exposing the wine to some levels of oxidation. Due to this unique process, Madeira is a very robust wine that can be quite long lived even after being opened. Most countries limit the use of the term Madeira or Madère to only those wines that come from the Madeira Islands. In Europe, this principle is enshrined in the European Union by Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) status.

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