A fun conversation about very special wines, part 1
Here is the link to the CBS Saturday morning segment with much better quality
Adventures Of A Black Belt Sommelier
A conversation about wine with a TV star, part 1
[inaudible] >> Good morning, Bartholomew. I hope you recognize that as Madera folk music. >> Well, I couldn't hear it. >> Okay, so we're glad to have a star of stage screen and TV. Join us this morning on Adventures of a Black Belt, Soleil and we're glad to have the world's expert on Madera. Join us this morning to talk about Madera. >> Do you agree that you're the world's expert on Madera? >> I would be considered one of them for sure. But probably what's more significant is my role in the reintroduction of Madera to America because I moved to America in 1986, '85 and worked for a family and my job was to teach Americans about port, but then they bought something called a Madera wine company, and asked me to, if I could sell Madera in America and I knew the history of Madera in America, and I said, of course, and so I reintroduced Madera into America in 1989, having been absent since prohibition with the exception of Darryl Korte, who's in Sacramento, at Korte Brothers who did bring in some Madera for his shop. But basically, it was absent in the US market. Until 1989, when we launched it, actually in San Francisco at the Four Seasons, and overnight, it was back in restaurants, and it's been going on since 1989 until now, and I think you're going to show a clip from this past Saturday, CBS Saturday morning, where I went to meet the crew to talk about Madera with them, and a funny back story to that is that they had contacted all the Madera producers saying, we'd like to come and spend the day filming in Madera, and none of them had responded positively because they just saw another wine writer trying to get a freebie trip to Madera, trying to take up our time, so none of them accepted, and so CBS knowing that I live in America would understand the power of CBS contacted me, and I said, well, I'll catch you fly over to Madera, and I'll meet you there. And we were with a couple of Portuguese who run Madera companies there, and one of them asked the CBS person, well, how many people watched the CBS Saturday morning, and when the producer answered about 12 million, you could see the penny drop, and he said, that's more than the entire population of Portugal. Well, let me see if I can pull that up, and we'll watch it real quick. Sure. OK, I can't minimize it while I'm recording. I can't minimize my screen to bring it up while I'm recording this, and there's no point in doing it if I don't record it. Right. We could start again, and you could set up the share screening, and I could share it. OK. Oh, this is just becoming info. Oh, here we are. OK. Here we go. All this rain on Paris, and it was fixed. We're going to take you about 1,500 miles away now to a Portuguese island that's actually closer to Africa than continental Europe. Madeira is part of an island chain in the Atlantic Ocean that's mastered one export, a fortified one that bears the island's name, and as Ian Lee shows us, this uniquely European creation has a deep connection to the earliest days of the United States. The Portuguese island of Madeira is an unforgiving landscape, clouds, puggets, jagged peaks, but in the valleys below, the vineyards carved out of forests and cling to this deep volcanic rock. And what they ultimately produce is arguably more American than apple pie. Madeira is should be the national wine. Bartholomew's Broadbent's mission is to reintroduce the wine to the US by helping Americans connect with their past. Not only is it an important American distribution, it's invented by shipping to America. It became the biggest selling wine in America. Ships hold the wine for months while traveling to the New World, accidentally turning it into something special. These whole chips got really big on the taste of it, or this is better before it left, so Madeira was discovered by mistake by mistake. The sweet mistake quickly became a hit. George Washington drank pints of the fortified wine every day, and the founding fathers toasted the signing of the Declaration of Independence with Madeira. What are we looking for? So, the hallmark of Madeira is the assumption that it makes clouds for different ways you want to drink it. This particular wine has a nice humming spot. That's very delicious. Something very smooth, very smooth, very spicy. The secret to the smooth, unique taste, break all the rules. Everything you watch the wine, you can do it in Madeira. It's too fresh. One to share continues the non-conventional wine-making tradition, and justinos. You can put it on here, no ability. That is quite warm. You won't find Madeira aging in a cellar. The wine likes it hot, traditionally stored in attics. But these days, large fats eat the wine to 113 degrees to speed up the process. Temperature will change not to only the color, but also the aroma and will make it better-winding. Thank you. Madeira's other secret is the grapes connection to the land and people. Giulio Fernandez takes us up the mountain to the extreme heart of the operation. What makes Madeira so special? First of all, look at the landscape. It is really. But the city of Madeira is the greatest currency, completely unique in the world. 1,200 small family farms grow grapes in every milk and cranny. For them, it's part-time work and full-time flavor of love. This is a cultural thing. As you see, the landscape doesn't allow you to have long minds. And they are very cold. You say, "My grapes here are wonderful." Wonderful grapes. Well, cheers to that. Yes to that. Produce some delicious wines. They need more glasses. Yeah, that's a bad problem. And just maybe prevent enough to turn an old American vintage into a new 21st century tradition. This should be the wine that every American celebrates. It's almost like a chocolatey color. Yes. It smells like fruits to me. I love it. Fantastic. Cheers. Cheers. Thank you, Jeff. Oh, great. So that worked out okay. That was great. Yeah, how about that? So I want to tell you that this project that you took on. So much to talk about in the Olympics. Oh, no. There we go. Oh, God. Gathering of the world's greatest athletes and also people. I've been that super easy thing. Because I've met my daughter's college tuition. Sharing the scene. But it's fine. She's not really an academic kid to be honest with you. So far it's been incredible. Okay, I'm going to stop recording.