Cedar Ridge is excited to announce our new dessert wine, Cedar Ridge V, inspired by the traditional Madeira wines from Portugal.
“One of the best parts about wine and food is how they can travel you around the world without ever leaving your seat. Smells and flavors that mimic moments in history and culture,” said Cedar Ridge’s Winemaker Kent Foulker. “After a trip to Portugal and the island of Madeira, Jeff Quint challenged me to create one of the most unique wines ever to be produced.”
Cedar Ridge V is a Madeira-inspired dessert wine created by the Canteiro process—a process used only for the highest quality Madeiras. V was made by harvesting white grape varieties from our estate. Grapes are crushed, pressed, fermented, and fortified by our brandy. After aging in the winery for three years, a portion of the wine graduates to our five-barrel solera system for a minimum of five summers in the intense Iowa sun.
“Our solera system is a series of five barrels you may have noticed sitting outside our event center over the last few years. Each year, we bottle about 350-400 bottles from the final barrel; and then top that barrel off with the barrel next to it in line. Then, we refill that barrel with the one next to it, and so on until we have open space in the fifth barrel,” Foulker added.”This is where the graduating wine joins the fun outside. This system creates a more and more complex product over the years as the average age in the final barrel increases with each passing vintage.”
Baking Cedar Ridge V in the sun caramelizes the sugars in the wine, creating rich and nutty flavors. It is also a form of pasteurization, allowing V to age for an extended amount of time even after the bottle is opened. This is contributed with a perfect balance of acid and alcohol.
Cedar Ridge V will be available for purchase at our Tasting Room in Swisher starting on November 19, 2021.