Books and Other Writings About Madeira

[Scott R.]

I am a huge bibliophile. I've parsed the forums and while I've found threads on individual books like Madeira by Alex Liddel, I've not found any thread dedicated wholly to the topic of books and writings about Madeira. Of course, one might argue that since less than half a dozen books were published in the 20th century on the topic it might not warrant its own thread. Luckily, as we continue further into the 21st century we are fortunate that there seems to be a renewed and growing interest in this splendid wine and with it a growing thirst for knowledge.

Feel free to post your thoughts on books about Madeira as well as relevant blogs, articles, and the like.

[Scott R.]

Oceans of Wine by historian David Hancock was published in August of 2009. This makes it, as best I can figure, the first book about Madeira published in the last decade. Its a massive tome, weighing in at over 650 pages filled with copious citations. It looks like a gem of a book that, unfortunately, I have yet to read.

Has anyone read it yet?

[Eric Ifune]

I did not know of this book. I'll have to get it. I'm in a place I cannot drink Madeira; but I can read about it!

[Roy Hersh]

Scott,

Nice to have you breathe a breath of fresh air into this quiet part of our Forum. I have tried over and over to keep it lively, but there are only a handful or two who have remained active in the Madeira Forum here. Hopefully, with some zeal, you can help me to re-enliven it as it would be a shame to see this area quiet down, which it has started to do.

I love your topic and when I have a bit more time, will stop in to enter my own bibliography on books from my library.

I assume you are probably aware that Mannie Berk, proprietor of the RWC, has spent some of the last 5 years on a comprehensive book on Madeira that many of us are waiting to hit the marketplace?

If you check the FTLOP article archives on the homepage of this website, you will find many articles I've penned over the years on Madeira, including Road Shows that I've organized around the USA and articles from other tastings and presentations I've been involved with, as well as travelogues from trips there the past five years (4 of which were guiding tours). Before you wake up to read this, there will also be a new homepage BLOG entry on Madeira on the site too. I'm doing my best.

[Reidar Andersen]

Thanks for book tip !! This has passed my attention and the 680 pages is now ordered at Amazon !!

[Scott R.]

Roy,

You've done a great job thus far and I hope I can keep the ball rolling as I'd love to be in touch with others who are upset by the relative dearth of information on Madeira.

I look forward to your posting your personal bibliography. I will do the same when I have some time (I'm currently in the process of trying to locate a affordable copies of Cossart's Madeira, The Island Vineyard and Simon and Craig's Madeira: Wine, Cakes, & Sauce).

I'm a aware that Mannie Berk is working on a Madeira book and I eagerly await it. I've read a well-written (and beautifully designed) pamphlet of his entitled A Century Past: Madeira Parties in America. I look forward to seeing what he can do with more time and space.

I will be sure to read up on the FTLOP articles and will be headed over to the read the blog entry in just a few minutes.

[Reidar Andersen]

Fikk mail fra Amazon today since I have bought books from George Saintsbury earlier. Anyone know something about this book ?

The Writings of Prosper Merimee Last Stories
George Saintsbury
Price: $17.50

Product Description
Publisher: Croscup amp Holby Company Publication date: 1905 Notes: This is an OCR reprint. There may be numerous typos or missing text. There are no illustrations or indexes. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. You can also preview the book there.

While searching I found out his old book has been issued again in 2008. I bought an old used one through them some years ago.

Notes on a Cellar-Book (Hardcover)
~ George Saintsbury


Reidar

[Scott R.]

Reidar,

The "new" 2008 edition of Notes on a Cellar-Book is annotated by Thomas Pinney, an English professor who also happens to be an incredible wine historian. I highly recommend it.

For those of you who aren't familiar with this text, it is (or, at the very least, was) a quite famous piece of wine literature. It was originally published in 1920 by the then retired George Saintsbury, an English writer and critic. The book is a somewhat haphazard collection of notes, menus, and opinions concerning wine and there are pertinent chapters on Port and Madeira. If not only for some of its memorable quotes, it is a fascinating glimpse into the world of wine in the late 19th- and early 20th-Centuries.

The first chapter can be read here: http://www.ucpress.edu/books/chapters/10909.ch01.pdf

[Reidar Andersen]

Thanks Scott... Will add these two books to my Amazon order together with the "680 pages". Will keep the order open a few days
more before I press the button "Order now". Looking for a couple of other books...

[Peter Reutter]

Also a book worth mentioning is "Madeira" by Rupert Croft-Cooke, published in the UK in 1961 by Putnam & Company Ltd, sort of like a forerunner of Alex Liddell's "Madeira".

[Reidar Andersen]

Peter,

I checked Amazon for that boook by Rupert Croft-Cooke, one used from 1966 at $ 99.91 !

[Peter Reutter]

Peter,
I checked Amazon for that boook by Rupert Croft-Cooke, one used from 1966 at $ 99.91 !

Uuuups , why dont you try http://www.zvab.de (the central platform for the German antique book shops, also available in English, with a HUGE catalogue), there it can be found at a price range from 15 to 30 Euros, sounds like a good deal to me . I paid 35 Euros a couple of years ago.

[Scott R.]

Peter,

Thanks for the suggestion. I've never seen this book before, though I heard it mentioned (Liddel references it in Madeira). Anyway, I'll be certain to keep an eye out for it.

[Scott R.]

Has anyone purchased (available from RWC) or come across "Henry Walters Madeira Sale 1943 (reprint)?" I imagine this is an auction catalog, but I am curious as to what's in it, how many pages it is, and what auction house originally published it.

Thoughts anyone?

[Gary Banker]

The catalog was printed by Greig, Lawrence, and Hoyt, Ltd, who are descibed as importers and wholesalers. The catalog refers to an "exhibition and sale" of the madeira and other wine, cognac, and whiskey. The catalog describes each lot, giving the history and quantity. There were 16 lots of madeira. Many of the lots have limits on the quantity allowed per customer.

[Karen L.]

Hello to the forum,

I was surprised and delighted to find this forum. I am a collector of Madeira wine and knowledge. This is a short intro to say hi and offer some tips on books. Some old, very interesting out of print books are availabe as electronic books. The folloing link is to a book written by Ward McAllister: Society As I Have Found It. In particular is chapter XX on page 267 of the .PDF http://www.archive.org/details/societyasihavefo00mcaluoft
I will post more shortly onsources of old information.
Regards Karen L

The Hotel ASTOR wine list for Madeira wine mentioned by McAllister:
MADEIRA.
Henry Clay, imported into Boston in 1826.
Madeira, F.B.
Madeira Oliveiro
L.P. Madeira
Blackburne's
Blackburne's Reserve
Howard, March, and Co.'s Madeira, imported for the Astor House, F.
Newton, Gordon, and Murdock's (GM)
Oliveires Reserve, 17 years old
E.I. Leacock, old, dry
Leacock, M.L., imported, 1826, into New Orleans
Murdock, Yuille, and Woodrope, MY
Yellow Seal, original N.G.M. delicate
D.V. Sercial, very delicate
Brazil, V.I. very old, a favourite wine
Brown Seal, old Monteiras, 'superior'
Nabob
Red Seal, old, bottled, East India
Eclipse Madeira
Rapid, imported 1818
Green Seal, Virginia Madeira, light and very delicate
White Top, very old and delicate
Thorndike, very old and 'superior'
Edward Tuckerman, Esq., Scott, Laughnan, Penfold,and Co.'s, imported 1820, P.M. [Scott Loughman & Co. 1823/24]
Gratz, yellow seal, 1806
Do. green seal, 1806
Do. black seal, 1806
Do. red seal, bottled 1806
Wanton, exceedingly delicate, thirty years in wood, W.
John A. Gordon's Madeira, imported into Philadelphia 1798
Caroline, an old family-wine
Gordon, Buff, Inglis, and Co.'s, imported by H.G. Otis
and Edward Tuckerman, Esq., 1811, G.
Stalk's Madeira, bottled in Calcutta, imported 1825
Hurd's Madeira, bottled in 1822 in Calcutta [Burd’s? NY collector]
Essex, Jr., imported 1819

[Reidar Andersen]

Thanks a lot Karen, long time no see.. back .

I have downloaded the book, and have it easy available and will read a few pages every
day between other surfing and other work..

Reidar

[Peter Reutter]

Good to hear from you, Karen, and welcome to this forum.
We can only benefit from your input
Peter

[Philippe B.]

well i have just read David Hancock's book 'An ocean of wine'. for all of us who believe that a great madeira is one of the ultimate joys
of life it has to be a 'must read'. does it help to enhance the pleasure of enjoying a glass of classic madeira? probably does by giving one a complete background on a wine which stands alone as the essence of what a grape can produce. madeira, historically, is not straight forward: are old vintages pure vintages, or have they been refreshed over the years by wines of a younger vintage. i think not, ivbam, tells us that they have. but it's not here nor there. i bring no proof to my opinion, nor does ivbam for that matter. classic madeiras speak for themselves: no other wine offers such richness, complexity and, most importantly, pure enjoyment.
comments from my learned collegues?

[Karen L.]

Here is an excerpt from a 1906 book on eating healthy? Note the old Madeira names.

Description

This section is from the book "Eating To Live", by John Janvier Black 1906 J.B. Lippincott & Co.. Also available from Amazon: Eating to Live.
Madeira

Madeira, so far as the old wines are concerned, is almost a passed wine. A moderate amount of this wine is still preserved in the cellars of collectors, and possibly now and then, from these sources, can be found commercially. The late Ward McAllister, a good judge, called Madeira the king of wines. He was doubtless correct.

During the past winter I visited the Madeira Islands. It is a lovely spot with tropical temperature. The islands are evidently of volcanic origin thrown up from the bottom of the sea. In our winters it is becoming more and more a health resort, and deservedly so. It is the home of the grape. Until within a few years most of the old vines yielded to disease and wine-making became a thing of the past. The people have succeeded now to a great extent in eradicating disease among the vines, the grape is now again flourishing, and wine-making is again quite an industry. As these wines become seasoned by age we may again begin to find good Madeira in the markets at a reasonable price.

It is well to know something of wines, even if we are not all connoisseurs. We should know something of their merits and history, when they are discussed, as they often are, so cheerily, at a pleasant dinner. In times passed, I have tasted some of the good old stock Madeiras, and the flavor of a Butler 16, or of a Thorndyke sercial, or a Charleston Blandy of 1828, lingers still close to my palate, and I wish I could enjoy them still. Alas, I cannot do it, even if I could find such in existence, for the old stocks must have nearly passed away, and the long lapse of the Madeira grapes from disease has made impossible the replenishing of the old stocks, and the new wines are as yet unfit to drink; and if they were, probably modern methods will make impossible the old wines of the honest old days. Madeira is the most gouty of wines, and many among us cannot touch it, even if we get it, and it is not, as the French would say in regard to Madeira, "Chacun a son gout," but rather "each one as to his gout."

Ward McAllister said Madeira was a national wine and only matured well in our Southern States. It raises man's vitality and leaves no headache. McAllister said age always improved a good Madeira, but never a poor one.

There are stock Madeiras in this country to-day over one hundred years old, but if always in glass, I do not see how they have improved much, unless they have been recorked every seven years and allowed access to the air for some time McAllister's best way of keeping Madeira was in the garret, with a corn-cob for a stopper. Light and air do not injure its flavor. The proper glass from which to drink Madeira is the thin pipe-stem wineglass.

The old stock Madeiras were, most of them, named from the ships which brought them over, and the famous ones were the Marsh and Benson 1809, the Coles, the Stuyvesant, the Clark, the Eliza. In Philadelphia the Butler 16 was famous. In Boston the Kirby, the Amory 1800, and 1811, and the Otis. In Baltimore, the Marshall, the Meredith, or Great Unknown, the Holmes Demijohn, the Mob, the Colt. In Charleston, the Rutledge, the Hurricane, the Earthquake, the Maid, the Tradd Street. In Savannah, the All Saints 1791, the Catharine Banks, the Louisa Cecilia 1818, the Rapid 1817, and the Widow. I will add the Blandys as among the noted and better stock wines of the day. One of the Blandy Brothers was the head of a well-known Delaware family, some of whom reside there now. At the present time the house of Blandy Brothers is the leading commercial house at Fun-chal, Madeira Islands, which house was founded many years ago, the head of the house coming from England. This house is now active in doing good work in rehabilitating the wine industry on the islands, so long interrupted by the disease of the vines, now probably conquered.

Cheese and nuts bring out the flavor of sherry, port, and Madeira, and this is why they come in so well and cause a cheery lingering over the wine. This may all appear to be fudge and gossip as introduced here, but I assure you it is history and worthy of being preserved. In the old days many gentlemen imported their pipes of Madeira, even from the days of the early settlements on the James River in Colonial times, where the old planters exchanged their grain for supplies for their families and plantations, and the pipe of Madeira was a frequent article in the exchange. Again, should any professional friend at any time have one of the old boys "with a toe" for his patient, and on one of his visits find him suffering and cast down and even emphatic in his remarks condemnatory of gout, I advise him to give the old gentleman these lines to read, not whereby to do penance, but to bring to his mind possibly visions of the good old days now past and gone, and to help assure him and to reassure him that there had been other sufferers, too, who had passed through it all, and that again, even to him, dark as the present may look, le bon temps Viendra.

Port wine is a very gouty wine, in which fermentation has been arrested by adding a certain amount of alcohol. It improves greatly by age and in the bottle, it only being necessary to watch the corks and recork it about, as a rule, every five or six years. It is an astringent wine, and is used in diarrhoeas when wine is indicated. It is often used for making the famous "mulled wine," which is a good tonic taken with a cracker. The sweet wines, as a rule, in any quantity are rather indigestible and should be taken merely in social life by the thimbleful. The Tokays, Malagas, Lach-rymae Christi, etc., contain more sugar and less alcohol. Age renders them dryer as the sugar goes to alcohol, but even this does not recommend them, even for sick women, who, as a rule, defy all the rules of hygiene in their love of sweets, especially the cordials, Malagas, and sweet champagnes.

There is one thing to remember about all wines: a sound wine may be acid, but this acidity is owing to the natural acid of the wine, tartaric acid. A spoiled wine, or turned wine, is sour because it contains acetic acid or vinegar, which has developed because the fermentation has gone too far, and it has soured just as cider or perry sours after a short keeping.

Karen L