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The Breckenridge Distillery recently released its first Madeira Cask Finish, one of 4 award-winning wine cask finishes, in California with Craft Whiskey Club in May. Breckenridge Distillery looks to release the Madeira nationally in select markets in 2021. Among their other wine finishes, the Port Cask Finish was a 2017 Best American Blended winner at the World Whiskies Awards, the PX Sherry Cask Finish a Best American Blended winner in 2018 and 2019 and in 2020, the Sauternes Cask Finish was awarded gold at the World Whiskies Awards.
Madeira Tasting Notes
Our award-winning Breckenridge Bourbon marinated in Madeira casks; rich in flavor, without an overpowering sweetness. Maraschino cherry with notes of plum tease the palette, flavors of smoked cherrywood and leather are quickly to follow. Finishing with a hint of Baker’s chocolate, this will quickly become a go-to delight.
Madeira Story
Known for tasting notes of roasted nuts, toffee, orange peel, and burnt sugar, Madeira wine is matured in oak casks that make an enticing vessel for finishing Bourbon. Its colorful history and ties to the Colonial Era of America also made this project one worth undertaking.
Madeira wine is produced from a small number of varietal grapes grown on terraces called poios on the rocky island of Madeira, 300 miles north of the Canary Islands. Due to the warm climate, its fruit is picked earlier with a higher acidity than other wines.
Initially shipped by the Portuguese around the Cape of Good Hope, this wine was exposed to all the wrong winemaking variables including equatorial heat, constant rocking motion, and oxidization. Factors that would ruin nearly any wine gave Madeira its signature style, and a historic Napoleonic naval blockade created the need to fortify this wine with brandy to prevent spoilage during extended periods at sea.
Once a favorite of early Americas, Madeira was drunk to celebrate George Washington’s inauguration, toast the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and caused an anti-duty riot in Boston a few years before the notorious Tea Party.
The history of Madeira is as rich and deep as the hue you’ll notice when nosing your glass, and this is the sexiest cask-finished Whiskey we’ve made yet.
