Madeira, Wine for the Ages – part two.

This is the second of a two-part segment entitled, Madeira, Wine for the Ages. Let’s talk grape varietals. Sercial is wonderfully focused and bright with almond-like aromatics and searing acidity and is often transformed with cask aging to something of poise and beauty. Verdelho ripens more easily and can produce smoky and seductive wines of a […]

Madeira, Wine for the Ages – part one.

As an ominous easterly wind howled across the Atlantic ocean two intrepid ship captains in the service of the illustrious Portuguese explorer Henrique o Navigador, vessels battered by the unforgiving waters of the open sea, were blown off course making landfall on a small island that they would christen Porto Santo. The following year, in […]

Water into Wine

Each time I have crossed the majestic Loire river in north-central France I have been silenced by its magnitude and power. Gushing from the earth at the base of the 5,000 ft. peak, the Mont Gerbier du Jonc in the southeastern departement of the Ardeche, the last major wild river in Europe that defines the […]