Madeira newbie, looking for advice

Madeira seems a magical mystery wine. Made on islands in the middle of nowhere, intentionally and severely oxidized, off-dry or even sweet.
I feel like it’s a void in my wine knowledge. Anyone have recommendations on where to start? Labels, styles, food pairings? Would love to get more familiar with it, but it’s such an odd duck.

Start with a selection from the Rare Wine Co. historic series, going from the dry Sercial to the sweet Bual or Malmsy. That will give you an idea if you like Madeira, and steer you to a preference. Price is mid-$50s. Don’t go cheaper unless you are looking for cooking wine.
The drier Madeiras can be apertifs or accompany rich food, the sweeter ones after the meal, or with dessert. They all have sufficient acidity to keep them from being cloying.

If you find love them you can go for the higher end, prices starting the $100s, but don’t go buying from the extremely limited stock before then.

Turn the clock back 30 years and you could have bought the best from the 1800’s for a song !

The first tip is I could give you is that Madeira doesn’t spoil. A friend of mine kept a bottle open for 30 years; it was just fine. There isn’t much that the passing of time can do to a wine that is already thoroughly oxidized from the get go.

The other tip I could give you is that Barbeito is producing the zippiest, most acid driven Madeiras out there, and Ricardo Diogo’s work on the Bastardo grape is particularly outstanding.

Great advice here…

The RWC bottles are such a value.

+1 on the RWC’s but especially look for the one-offs. Their regular ones are high quality but the one-offs like the Jefferson, Porto Moniz, etc. are special.

Thanks very much for these recommendations. I had looked at the RWC bottlings, but was not sure how they compared to “gold standard“ bottles, or how “typical“ they are. I will definitely seek them out.
Anybody have any strong feelings on food pairings with these? Seems like there could be some very interesting possibilities, but I do not know which direction to go in.

The thing is low end Madeira isn’t all that great. At least if you are looking for typical wines that people enjoy. The lower end wines are almost a whole 'nother thing.

The Rare Wine Co bottlings give you a nice window into better Madeira without breaking the bank. Madeira isn’t really like other regions where you can play around in the kiddie pool while you figure it out. But the RWC bottles give you a medium range to play around with to see if you want more. Plus, they’re just good wines and cover a good range of styles. And as Tomas mentions they’ll live in the fridge for a long time. The bigger ones make nice late night sniffs. The lighter ones can work with dinner.

I went to one of RWC’s Madeira dinners where it was served with every course. All went fine, but the most memorable was that they were the only wines I ever had that really jived with a soup course.

Agree with Keith about Madeira and soup, which is usually so hard to pair. I’ve also been shocked by how well it can pair with some difficult savory foods like Szechuan and even some Indian dishes. It’s one of those wines that’s worth trying when nothing else seems to be working. It doesn’t always come through, and the sugar level obviously makes a huge difference, but there can be high highs.

Hoping it can help (I love these wines, among the very best in the world) …
History, grapes, classification, market + some glories, mostly Barbeito here (report by Attila Aranyos) :

I’ve also had good experiences pairing some of the drier Madeiras with dishes that used nuoc cham as a component.

Barbeito makes the Rare Wine Company’s Historic Series. Agree it’s a good and easily found place to start.
If you can find them, Borges 15 year old series are terrific.
One food pairing I really enjoy is Verdelho with fried chicken. The high acidity really makes the combination shine.

Barbeito, Pereira d’Oliveiras, Bland’ys, Cossart & Gordon, Henriques y Henriques, …

Looking for high acidity, sercial should also be an interesting pairing …
But globally, verdelho is for me the most qualitative grape (compared to sercial, boal ans malmsey).

Cheese

Nate, you are spot on in calling Madeira a magical mystery.

My advice would be to read Noel Cossarts book Island Vineyard.

Also, if it’s possible for you I would strongly recommend visiting Madeira itself whenever you are able. It is a beautiful and wonderful place.

In 2013, I had dinner with a few friends at the Herbfarm in Woodinville, Wa. Just for the hell of it, we all had a 2 OZ pour of what they were calling “The oldest wine in the world”. It was a 1795 Barbeito Terrantez Maderia, and the story was it was in Napolean’s collection. They even printed certificates for all of us, attesting we drank it. I can still recall the nose and finish. It was the most amazing wine I’ve ever had. I just kept smelling it. I could not help myself, even after the glass was empty. It may have been the experience, as well as the wine that made it wonderful to me, but I’ll take it either way…

Sounds like an awfully familiar bottle!

Because we had this one a few weeks ago:

I can attest to the nose here being quite profound.

WOW!

Move had pre-Civil War Madeira at Berns, but damn, that’s pre-1800s!!!

Also, if it’s possible for you I would strongly recommend visiting Madeira itself whenever you are able. It is a beautiful and wonderful place.

Yes. It’s the Hawaii of the Atlantic but European rather than Asian influenced. The local table wines have improved immeasurably the last few years. The food is fantastic!

I wouldn’t call the 1795 Barbeito Terrantez the oldest wine in the world. There was at least 4 other producers of Terrantez that year. Christies sold several bottles of the Borges 1720 Pather and 1760 Terrantez just last week. Probably from one of the Borges family. The oldest wine for sale was probably the 1715 JCA Terrantez, last seen at auction a few years ago. The 1795 Barbeito originally belonged to the Hinton family before Mario Barbeito bought it in the mid 20th Century. Last year, Ricardo Freitas found a small demijohn of this that his mother stashed. The Rare Wine Company got it but I haven’t seen if for sale. Mannie Berk of the RWC probably is keeping it for himself.

Neither do I, since I’ve seen at least 1772 and 1715 drunk here in Finland within the last couple of years.

The oldest wine for sale was probably the 1715 JCA Terrantez, last seen at auction a few years ago.

I suppose that isn’t the same bottle that was drunk here in Finland about a year ago? One of my acquaintances who is quite an avid collector of fortified wines (especially those older ones) managed to purchase one a few years back or so. Didn’t get to taste it, but I’ve seen the empty bottle.