Rare Wine Co. Thomas Jefferson Special Reserve Madeira
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Robert
Parker
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For years, Rare Wine Co. had wanted to honor Jefferson’s love of Madeira with a commemorative bottling as part of their Historic Series. And in 2012, The Thomas Jefferson Foundation and Monticello agreed to collaborate with the winery on this project.After more than a year’s work—perfecting the blend and producing the wine—it was launched with a tasting and lecture at Monticello on October 9, 2013.
Joining at the launch was Ricardo Freitas, who’d masterfully blended the wine, and Monticello’s resident wine historian, Gabriele Rausse. The wine itself is a spectacular fusion of elegance and depth, and youth and antiquity. The oldest component in the blend is more than 80 years old, a fact that Jefferson would undoubtedly have appreciated.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Deep and complex, the NV Thomas Jefferson Special Reserve (Rare Wine Company) unwinds in the glass with notes of walnuts, espresso roast, dried fruits, beeswax furniture polish, candied peel and spices. Full-bodied, layered and sumptuously textural, it's built around racy acids and concludes with a long, elegantly bittersweet finish. This is a blend of 10% very old Favilla Vieira Malvasia with the balance dry Madeira.
It took years of work, but in 2003, they began releasing the wines which are named in honor of American cities with strong ties to Madeira. New York Malmsey, Boston Boal, and Charleston Sercial all eerily resemble vintage Madeiras -- thanks to the inclusion of wines ranging in age from 30 to 60 years old in the blends. Working with Vinhos Barbeito, which possesses one of the great libraries of legendary 19th century Madeiras, each wine represents a style of Madeira popular in the cities they're named after.
A steep, volcanic island in the Atlantic Ocean that rises to over 6,000 feet at its highest point, Madeira actually sits closer to Morocco than Portugal, the country to which it belongs.
Today the vineyards of the island cover tiny step-like terraces called poios, carved from the basalt bedrock. Aptly named Madeira, this fortified wine comes in two main styles. Blended Madeira is mostly inexpensive wine but there are a few remarkable aged styles. Single varietal Madeira (made from Sercial, Verdelho, Boal or Malmsey), is usually the highest quality and has the potential to improve in the bottle for decades.