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Cultivating a passion for fortified wine
3 August 2022 by Infinite Ideas in Classic Wine Library, Wine and spirits
Wines go in and out of fashion. Madeira’s heyday was in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, but recent decades have seen a revival of interest in this unique wine. Tourism in the 1970s brought a new audience, and then, in 1986, Portugal joined what was to become the EU, aiding trade as well as leading to investment in the vineyards and a raising of quality standards. (Read more)
Extract: Madeira (2nd edition) by Richard Mayson
22 July 2022 by Infinite Ideas in Classic Wine Library, Extracts, Wine and spirits
Nearly every Madeira wine worshipper has come to it after having had a Damascene moment. I recall my own quite vividly. I had only been in the wine trade for two years when I attended a pre-sale tasting in October 1986 at Christie’s in London for an auction held to commemorate the six-hundredth anniversary of the Treaty of Windsor. (Read more)
Extract: The wines of Georgia by Lisa Granik MW
13 June 2022 by Infinite Ideas in Classic Wine Library, Extracts, Wine and spirits
Qvevri: the vessel of dreams
Qvevri are the clay vessels used for making wines according to the traditional Georgian winemaking method. (In western Georgia they are called churi.) They are found in the marani, more wine storage shed than cellar in some cases, but it can be a perfectly designed cellar. (Read more)