Bourdeaux obviously
Luncheon claret presumably
Embrace the drift
Supper 9 to 12. That’s some late eating just my style!
That’s fantastic. So many curiosities.
I’ve seen Riesling given the “cabinet” spelling on old list previously. But I’ve never seen it on a Champagne. Very curious as to what that means. I have to assume some about the sugar level.
Four Ports but 30 Madeira’s. I did not know it’s popularity in the states carried on that long. I love that the $12(!!!) example is simply marked “M”.
Hoping @Eric_Ifune and @andy_velebil take a gander at this.
Is this from a Francois Audouze dinner?
Perfect!
called about corkage. two bottle limit. can’t be on the list.
I’ve noticed a lot of 1800s menus having a large Madeira list. What was the cultural change that caused America to drink less of it?
Think Madeira was more stable for shipping on a several week to months long sail vs regular wines. As shipping became quicker regular wines would hold up. Just my thoughts
In fact, Madera first became oxidized and heated when shipped as casks from the islands to the Caribbean back to the American colonies. Then English people drank Madeira at home, where it went directly north, and also tried it in the colonies heated and warmed, and realized the wind that went south, rather than north was better
And that’s why the technique was applied to production on the islands.
Good question. We know there was large, growing fortified wine production in California from the mid-1800s. We know the US population was growing rapidly, so even the same import volume could be losing market share. Then there was phylloxera. Then we had Prohibition. Planted acreage plummeted somewhere in there. Disruptions change habits. There are generational preferences. As an example, the Absinthe fad took hold because of phylloxera, meeting a need and having a hook. It took a massive misinformation campaign and legislation for the French wine industry to get their market share back. I was just reading how in Oporto the government was pushing a replacement crop, but one of the growers got in early pioneering grafting in the region, saving the Port industry. In Madeira it seems the difficult slopes were just abandoned.