For The Love Of Port

I would love to open a bottle of Madeira for Valentine's Day ... but my wife doesn't appreciate it, so that is out of the question. So we'll likely opt for Champagne, followed by Port.

That's my story ... I have introduced Dorene to some amazing Madeira bottlings over the years and she really finds them not to her liking. More for me, but it would be much nicer if like Port, she enjoyed sharing in great bottles of Madeira.

Does your spouse or loved one enjoy drinking Madeira?

While we don't have much to go on, I'd have to answer that with "maybe". We've only had Madeira one time, when a waiter mistakenly brought a flight of 5 Madeira's when what she ordered was a flight of 5 Tawny Ports. I as recall, both of us liked some of them somewhat, but it's really not enough data to go on. That's another corner of the wine universe to explore some day!

My wife likes Madeira, but at the same time, I feel a little like Fred buying Wilma a stegosaurus skin bowling bag for their anniversary if I go that route.

In my wife's case, it is among her favourite wines.

She's usually curious whenever I open anything over 50 years old, so yes, she tastes, but doesn't comment lavishly enough to allow me to make a decision about preferences. Nearly always the comments are reserved for great sweet Rieslings. Perhaps someday we'll make a trip to Madiera and I'll see if that batters down her resistance to multi-hundred-dollar bottles.

In my madeira Group (16 servings/botle) about 40% are 'full shares' with their spouse (and mine has a full pour).
About another 20% are 'shared pours' with a spouse (1 serving between two), with the balance being 'singles'.
So we usually end up with around 20-22 attendees overall.

That also enables us to have 4-5 Madeiras at each sitting - so about 1/4 bottle for each 'full participant'.

Unfortunately, that doesn't leave any 'leftovers' so I don't get too many chances to see how open bottles evolve over time.

I feel quite fortunate, as my wife loves both Madeira and Port, is fine with me buying more of both than I probably should, and enjoys taking taking Roy's tours to Portugal (they are great, btw).

Alan Gardner wrote:In my madeira Group (16 servings/botle) about 40% are 'full shares' with their spouse (and mine has a full pour).
About another 20% are 'shared pours' with a spouse (1 serving between two), with the balance being 'singles'.
So we usually end up with around 20-22 attendees overall.

That also enables us to have 4-5 Madeiras at each sitting - so about 1/4 bottle for each 'full participant'.

Unfortunately, that doesn't leave any 'leftovers' so I don't get too many chances to see how open bottles evolve over time.

Too bad Toronto is so far from Piqua, Ohio, Alan.

By the way, did you travel to MoCool last August? Barbara was under the weather, so to speak, but is recovering nicely.

Didn't make Mocool - it was a week earlier than usual - hence close to my birthday and we had already booked in the Carolinas.
And I hear it may have been the last Mocool!
But NOT the last of the Ports, Madeiras (or Rieslings!).

So, if you ever head this way...........

I have tried a few times over the years to get her interested, but my wife dislikes even the smell of Madeira!

Both my wife and I are _crazy_ about Madeira. We discovered it together during our 2003 honeymoon trip to the island, and we feel roughly the same about how much we can afford to spend on it. During our return trip to the island last April, we had to decide what our budget was for bottles to bring home. I think we were each individually ashamed to admit to the other how much we wanted to spend, but we ended up proposing roughly the same number. I am probably the one who is more uncontrollably addicted, so 4 times out of 5, it's my idea to tap into our meager supply of vintage stuff, but she also joins me 4 times out of 5. Every once in a while I insist she have some without me to ensure that I'm not getting more than my fair share and she doesn't say "no".

Don't know.

Neither Carl nor I have tried Madeira as of yet.

Isaac Krauss wrote:Both my wife and I are _crazy_ about Madeira.

Marty's has a good selection of Madeira at competitive prices. My better half like Madeira. I don't think she's much of a fan of Sercial, but likes Verdelho and Bastardo's like me, lol...