Tavern Fortififed Wine

Question 1

Rare Wine Company Charleston

Answer 1

Vintage: NV
Grape: Sercial, dog strangler (Esgana Cao in Portugese). Driest style of madeira due to it’s very high levels of acidity and lower sugar development.
Sercial, verdelho, bual and malmsey are white grapes
Tasting notes: salty caramel, with a drier palette
Price: 15/Glass

Question 2

Rare Wine Company Savannah

Answer 2

Vintage: NV
Grape: Verdelho, second most planted variety on the island and produces a dry style madeira, but more body than Sercial.
Tasting notes: Drier style, with candied citrus, spicy honey and smoke.
Price: 15/glass

Question 3

Rare Wine Company Boston

Answer 3

Vintage: NV
Grape: Bual, ‘Boal’ In Portuguese, a family of grapes now renamed ‘Malvasia Fina.’ Less lush compared to Malmsey, both in weight and sweetness.
Tasting Notes: Dark brown sugar, woodsmoke, baking spice, and candied orange
Price: 15/glass

Question 4

Rare Wine Company NY

Answer 4

Vintage: NV
Grape: Malmsey, Malvasia, family of similar grapes. Sweetest of the styles, and pairs well with cheese because of it’s fruit cake, confected profile.
Tasting Notes: Lush, toffee, fruit cake, plum, fig, and marmalade
Price: 15/Glass

Question 5

Antonion de La Riva

Answer 5

Vintage: NV
Producer: M Antonio de la Riva
Grape: Palomino Fina
Region: Sanlucar de barrameda DO, Andalucia, Espania
Style: Manzanilla Pasada Sherry
Tasting Notes: Salty, dry style, hay, oxidized fruit
Wine Notes: Well Regarded Sherry house bought by Beam Global, Willy Perez and Ramiro Ibanez, bought the rights in 2017. Aged under a flor of yeast and preveents oxidation. Manzanilla Pasada is a less common variation where the flor beings to deplete due to the age of the wine and the wine slowly oxidizes. Richer, older, more complex wines.
Price: 12/Glass

Question 6

Bodegas Tradicion Amontillado Vors 30 Year Old

Answer 6

Grape: 100% Palomino Fina
Appellation: Jerez-Xeres-Sherry DO, Andalcuia, Espania
Tasting Notes: Dried Fruit, dates, apricots, honey, hazelnut, and saline finish
Wine Notes: Founded by Joaquin Rivero Valcarce in 1998, making it a very young sherry house. Rivero revived an old family Sherry production from the grave after a successful stent in real estate. The average age of wine for this wine is actually 45 years old. They blend and do not produce wine themselves.

Amontillado is a mix of styles between fino and olorosso, sharing biological and oxidative elements. The yeast floor dies, and the cask is designated amontillado and fortified again to prevent oxidation.

price: 12/glass

Question 7

Fonseca

Answer 7

Producer: Fonseca
Grapes: Port Grapes
Region: Porto DOP, Douro
Style: 20 Year Tawny
Tasting Notes: redolent of ripe and mature fruit, subtle hints of oak.
Wine Notes: One of the oldest and largest port houses. David Guimaraens is the current winemaker and oversees all the winemaking and blending for all four of Taylor Fladgate’s Brands.

The aging style of the winemaker, warmer daytime temperatures, create an atmosphere that ages the wine faster, loses more liquid in cask more quickly, and results in a baked quality in the wine.
Price: 15/Glass

Question 8

Smith Woodhouse

Answer 8

Vintage: 2004
Producer: Smith Woodhouse
Grapes: Port Grapes
Style: LBV
Tasting Notes: Brooding fruit with mellowed notes of baking spice and earth
wine notes: Must from a single vintage, held in cask for 4-6 years to make the wine accessible in it’s youth.
Price: 12/Glass