Sercial Madeira

Madère Sercial

What it is

Casks shipped to the Indies as ballast came back better than they left, so Madeira's growers reproduced the tropical crossing on land: estufagem, months of gentle heat that cook the wine and leave it nearly indestructible. Sercial is the driest of the noble grapes, known on the island as Esgana Cão, dog-strangler, for an acidity that scrapes the mouth clean.

In the kitchen

It has already been cooked and oxidised, so an open bottle keeps for months standing in a cupboard. Add it to a consommé or a veal jus off the heat, at the very end — boiled hard it loses the saline lift you bought it for.

Goes with

Beef Button mushroom Shallot Black pepper Veal rump Bay leaf

Same species

Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale DOP Amontillado Armagnac Banyuls Brandy de Jerez Champagne vinegar

Also used with

Amourettes (spinal marrow)

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