Region
Ukraine › Crimea
Type
white · still · fortified
Alcohol
19%
Volume
700 mL
Tasting Notes(1)
4.0
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Коктебель's madeira is built on Shabash and Crimean Albillo alongside Sercial - two local field varieties next to the classic Madeiran one. What makes it madeira is heat rather than the blend. The fortified base goes into large oak buts left deliberately unfilled and stands out on the estate's open-air madeira terrace through the Crimean summers, working at something like 35 to 40 degrees for several years. That is baking rather than the gentle warming of an estufa, and the oxidative, caramelised character of the style comes out of it. The terrace at Shchebetivka is usually described as the largest in Europe.
The collection tier adds a second clock. After the years in oak the wine goes to bottle for at least three more before release, and collection stock is held far longer than the minimum - a 1975 harvest drunk now has spent most of a lifetime in glass, with the cask work long finished before that began.
It finishes at 19% with sugar around 40 g/L. By madeira reckoning that is the dry end rather than a dessert style, closer to Sercial than to Malmsey.
The cuvée is no longer made, and this bottling predates the 2014 Russian occupation of Crimea.