ON THE ROAD | Giacomo Apolloni & Elvio Sgaria in Madeira
When they’re not scurrying around the Club and bringing bottles to your table, our wine team try to get out and about to as many regions as they can. This autumn, two of the London somms headed to Madeira – and not just for the sunshine…
Two of our London team – Deputy Head Sommelier Giacomo Apolloni (above right) and Sommelier Elvio Sgaria (above left, who has since taken up post in 67 Pall Mall Verbier) – recently headed out to Madeira to visit one of our key suppliers there, Blandy’s. As well as visiting the island’s steeply terraced, volcanic vineyards, they took in both the producer’s old and new cellars, where the all-important cask-ageing takes place.
Over the course of a couple of days, Giacomo and Elvio visited a range of Blandy’s 450 growers, trekking across the island and takings in its varied landscapes, topography and vineyards, which are trained differently according to their aspect and grape variety. ‘It’s a small island, but there are seven different micro-climates,’ says Giacomo. ‘We’d go from one side of island, where it was misty and raining, and then 20 minutes later on the other part of the island it was glorious sunshine.’
Those sunny conditions are integral to the ageing of Maderia, and it was Blandy’s new cellar, on the north of the island for easy access to the port, that was most striking. There, the fortified wine is aged over extensive periods in old wooden casks before storing in sun-baked attics. ‘With Madeira, the most important stage is the ageing in barrel. Because it is fortified, as soon as the wine is bottled, it doesn’t change,’ says Giacomo. ‘The cellar doesn’t need air-conditioning – it follows the temperature of the seasons.’ He was also struck by the on-site cooper, who works full-time at Blandy’s crafting staves to repair the old barrels. ‘I thought being a sommelier was demanding, but that’s a really tough job.’
The pair returned with a rather notable souvenir from their trip, in the form of a Melchior – that’s 18 litres – of the 1982 medium-dry Verdelho for pouring in the lead-up to the festive season. Madeira is famously long-lived, and we thought the bottle might last until Christmas, but in fact it didn’t make it into December. Fortunately, Giacomo was able to put the tastings from the trip, and the contacts made, to good use by following up with an order of the same format of the 1972 vintage of the richer Bual variety, into which Members are making similar inroads as we speak. ‘Some of the Buals can be overpowering,’ said Giacomo, ‘but this has a great balance between sweetness and acidity.’
And the highlight of the trip? ‘A 1920 Bual. It was absolutely classic – very complex, with dry fruit, cinnamon, cloves… So rich and concentrated.’ One for next year, perhaps…
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WHAT
I’VE
LEARNED
Olivier Humbrecht MW, Zind Humbrecht
ON
THE
LIST
Mariachiara Faccin
IN
THE
VINEYARD
Klein Constantia, South Africa