Producer: Blandy’s
Wine: Alvada 5 Year Old Rich Madeira
Vintage: NV
Country: Portugal
Appellation: Madeira
Wine Type: Fortified – Dessert/Aperitif
Primary Varietal: Malvasia and Bual
Grade: B+
Designation: Excellent Value
Price: $15 (500 mL)

How times change. Seems like just yesterday we were toasting the Declaration of Independence with a tumbler of fancy Madeira; today you’d be hard pressed to find this type of wine on most restaurant lists or wine shop shelves. Blandy’s, a two hundred year old Madeira brand, is out to change all that with a new and stylish bottling that strives to bring Madeira out of the 18th century and into the 21st.

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Four official grapes are used to make quality fortified wine on this Portugese island: Sercial, Verdelho, Bual and Malvasia (Malmsey). Usually they are bottled as single varietals, but Blandy’s decided to shake things up a little with Alvada by blending Malvasia and Bual together. These grapes are usually responsible for the sweetest styles of Madeira and I am in love with the nutty, burnt sugar and crème caramel aromas and flavors that they bring to this wine. The Alvada is mouth-searingly acidic in an attractive way, and this is a true trait of Madeira. I believe that this style of wine should always accompany food. And not just dessert – although the Alvada is delicious with poached pears and pineapple upside down cake! One of my favorite matches with this bottle, however, is salted almonds and a piece of hard, crumbly cheese like Manchego (I know, wrong country, but it still works).

Madeira is an acquired taste and a true anomaly in the wine world – the more you heat it, the more you shake it around, the more you expose it to oxygen, the better it gets. Because the wine has already been so oxidized during the winemaking process, you can open a bottle, leave it in your fridge or wherever and still continue to enjoy it for months to come.

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