Chronic Negress

Thanks to 1winedude, our WBW topic is Baked Wines. Since wine is never just about what’s in the glass, our topic opened up a world of memories and sent the Negress on a search to her favorite store. I was going for the Leacock Madeira since esteemed documentary filmmaker Ricky Leacock had been an old lover. It’s the same family and Ricky is one of the better memories of my life. The store had the Leacock wine listed as being in stock on their website, but once I arrived in the wilds of Wayne, I found out it was a two day order. However, one of the crack staff suggested the Broadbent, noting it was bottled by the Leacock folks in the same place. I figured this was close enough for WBW work and took it home.

In addition to the dreamy, steamy memories of Ricky, I have another relationship with Madeira that isn’t quite so happy. If you follow the Negress’ electronic bread crumbs online, you may be aware that she passed her WSET Advanced Certificate with merit. The exam is no picnic with one blind tasting, 50 multiple choice questions and five short answer questions. The folks at the International Wine Center in New York where I took my exam sent out a helpful e-mail to guide our studying. One of the tips was, “study fortified wine keeping in mind there is more to fortified wine than Port and Sherry.” Much of the WSET course is Franco-centric so I was hammering away at the Vins Doux Naturals, figuring this would be the direction they would go in. There’s a concise chapter on Madeira in the text which I barely skimmed. After all, how could they get a short answer question out of Madeira?

Well, they could and I was aghast, trying not to weep into my test booklet. I had breezed through the 50 multiple choice questions and done a memory dump on everything I know about Bordeaux. The wine labeling and cost questions were pretty easy, but there it loomed. Madeira. Madeira. Please tell us what you know of Madeira, Suddenly I see there’s no memory of Madeira (you can sing that last portion and the next two sentences to the tune of “Maria” from “West Side Story.”) Say it loud and it sounds like flaying.  Say it soft and it sounds like praying. Praying I was. What grapes? Tinto Negra Mole, Sercial, Verdelho,  Boal and Malvasia/Malmsey. Rack the barrels and put them in a estufa, a heating chamber. The five year old reserve I’m quaffing as I write this is 19% abv and is heady, caramel-like and rich. I’m drinking before eating and am feeling a warmth spread through me. This is the opposite of the chill I felt in the IWC exam room when I had to write down all the stuff I just copied from my book into this entry. I started scribbling every basic fact I could remember about fortified wine including, “For the love of God, Montresor!” I noted that line was from the Poe story about Amontillado and hoped a literary wrong answer would at least let the graders know I didn’t think Madeira was the same as vinho verde.

So here I am facing down my past with a glass in hand. This time it came out a lot better than last time. Here’s a picture of the bottle resting comfortably on my dining room mantle that took me nearly an hour to jam it into this post. I need a drink.