Visitors to the heart of California can experience Old World techniques and state-of-the-art technology at the wineries along the Madera Wine Trail. The area, cooled by the San Joaquin River on the southwest and the Sierra Nevada on the east, features warm summer temperatures, varied soils and generations of families growing winegrapes. Madera was designated an American Viticultural Area (AVA) in 1985 and includes both Madera and Fresno counties. Many wineries along the Madera Wine Trail remain open for curbside and retail pickup during the pandemic, according to the Madera Vintners Association, which operates the trail. Social distancing and the use of masks are encouraged, and guests should check with each location for hours of operation before visiting. For a map or more information: maderawinetrail.com. Visit the Madera Wine Trail
barrel-aged tawny ports can acquire butterscotch and caramel, he said. Some younger ports, Ficklin said, “move into nice, smoky menthol f lavors, with some chocolate.” Unique to ports, Ficklin said, is they can be aged longer than many other wines: “A port that is six, seven, 10, 30, 50 years old is absolutely amazing. We use a lot of the same equipment that any other winery would use, but we still have wines barrel-aged 30 years and bottles that date back to the first wines that my father made in 1948. The wine library is where all of these old, dusty bottles are. Normally, you wouldn’t find that at any other winery.” Pairing ports No matter the length of the aging process, ports are often served as a dessert wine, but can also be paired with savory dishes. During the holiday season, Ficklin said port wine pairs well with richly f lavored cheeses, chocolate and caramel desserts, and salted and smoked nuts. He has paired different ports with different courses during a meal, and uses ports to enhance dishes from poached pears to pork roasts. For the holiday season, the winery promotes a hot buttered tawny, which features
Legacy in a bottle—and barrel The three most common styles of port are vintage, t awny and ruby. Vint age por t s re su lt f rom an individual year’s harvest and are bottled young, less than three years of age. Tawny ports spend their entire lives in a wooden barrel and then are bottled, ready to drink. Ruby ports are two to three years old and typically represent a blend of different years; they’re meant to be consumed young. Ficklin Vineyards produces all three styles. “The vineyard’s f lagship, Old Vine Tinta port, is made in a solera system, where you only remove a portion of the wine that was started back in 1948 by my father and add younger wine, so it’s a little bit of each vintage from every year and literally a living picture of the wine we’ve made here,” Ficklin said. “Ports offer quite a diversity of f lavors and vary from vintage to vintage and style to style,” he added. The Touriga grape, for example, yields a ruby port offering f lavors of boysenberry, pomegranate and a hint of nutmeg, whereas a barrel-aged tawny port of the same variety features dark caramel and toffee with cobbler and pecan f lavors. A tawny port contains a lot of sweet fruit f lavors, especially berry, cherry and plum, and some chocolate tones. Older,
www.californiabountiful.com 9
Powered by FlippingBook