By, Victoria Prever
1 min read
Please don’t tell me you’re detoxing for January. The word means as close to nothing as a word can mean. When it’s attached to a foodstuff – “the miracle detox powers of goji berries” – it makes me grit my teeth in anger.
But if you tell me you’re abstaining from or cutting back on strong drink for the month, I’m with you. And if reduction is your chosen strategy, let your thoughts turn to madeira.
It’s a wine that has a wonderfully colourful history which I won’t even pretend to explain. Any wine reference book will fill in the general picture and Alex Liddell’s Madeira (1998) is a fine work, though out of print.
For educated drinking purposes, the basic thing to know about madeira is that it is deliberately subjected to high heat and given prolonged exposure to air. “Cooked” flavours and oxidation (sometimes called madeirisation) are supposed to be bad for wine, but they are the very essence of madeira.
