Old-time religion: Madeira in the world
April 11, 2012 § 1 Comment
No matter how relevant Madeira might actually be to your life, today’s wine column will likely remain irrelevant because you won’t go out and taste Madeira. We all face challenges breaking out of habits. But I’m warning you, it will be your enormous loss. Madeira is beautiful wine, and especially resonant with history, culture and intrigue.
Our way in is via Mannie Berk, chief instigator at Rare Wine Co., which specializes in Madeira although their library collections of traditional wines from Europe, as well as more accessibly priced wines, are special and important in their own right. Don’t let this all get filed under “entertaining advice columns whose advice I don’t take.” Instead, use Madeira as an opportunity to develop courage!
Admittedly, all of my experience with Madeira wine has been literary: Shakespeare’s Falstaff, a few memorable meals in Tolstoy’s War and Peace, and each and every Napoleonic War series ever written (Hornblower, Aubrey et Maturin, etc.) and the link with courage is well documented: the official beverage of the brooding duelist.
But you convince me, this summer I’ll actually drink some. Thanks for the post!