Sercial 10 Year Old Reserva, Barbeito

Wine Variety: Sercial is the same grape as the Esgana Cão (Dog Strangler) grown on the Portuguese mainland. On Madeira, Sercial is grown in the highest vineyards. Tricky to ripen at these altitudes, Sercial makes a tart, acidic wine that only softens with extended cask ageing. It has given its name to the driest, and perhaps most delicate, of the four madeira styles.

Wine Region: As with other fortified wines such as port and marsala, madeira came about through necessity. Wines that tasted good on the island had turned distinctly manky by the time they’d been transported back to Blighty. Adding a healthy dollop of spirit alcohol was just the thing to stabilise the stuff and ensure it arrived on the tables of Britain in perfect condition. In madeira’s case, the story does not stop there, however. It was discovered that the gradual heating of the wine transformed added depth and complexity. Still, today, barrels of the finest madeiras are placed by open, south-facing windows in the winery over the summer months where they are slowly “cooked” by the sun. For cheaper wines, a period of estufagem (i.e. “cooking”) is undertaken in stainless steel vats. The end result is a remarkably stable product that, unlike port or sherry, can be left in a decanter for a couple of months or more with no adverse effect on its quality, should you be able to resist the temptation that long...

Wine Producer: Ricardo Diogo is the third generation to run this family Madeira house, and since 1993 has been breathlessly elevating it to a world class wine producer. Accolades aside, Ricardo's approach is proof that recovering the best aspects of tradition, along with meticulous attention to detail and years of blending experience, results in extreme levels of complexity. The wines we list are aged using the canteiro method, where characteristics and colour are achieved naturally, in cask.