Wines of the week: Three bottles for Shakespeare’s Birthday
‘’Good wine is a good familiar creature if it be well used’’ says Iago, in Othello, one of many references to wine in the plays of William Shakespeare, whose birthday is celebrated today. So what wines did the Bard of Avon single out….?
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Your support makes all the difference.A glass of Sack….
Dry Old Oloroso Sherry NV
Sack is sherry, the brandy fortified wine from southern Spain and very popular in Elizabethan times. Referred to by name more than any other wine by Shakespeare, sack is always associated with the comic character Sir John Falstaff in both parts of Henry IV, where he delivers a long speech in tribute to ‘good sherris [sic] sack.’ But which of the many sherry styles to drink? Try the very rare Oloroso, which matches the kind of foods Falstaff loved – rich game stews and Stilton cheese.
£9 (as part of case of 6), Marksandspencer.co.uk
A butt of Malmsey….
Blandys - Malmsey 10 Year Old
Malmsey’s most renowned appearance is in Richard III where the Duke of Clarence is drowned in a butt, or cask, of Malmsey in the Tower of London. A rich, sweet wine made from the Malvasia grape in both Greece and the Canary Islands; there are also references to ‘Canary wine’ in the plays, particularly Twelfth Night. But by the time Shakespeare was writing, the main source was most likely the Portuguese island of Madeira, still renowned for wines like Blandy’s Ten Year Old Malmsey. Ideal with hard cheeses and rich desserts.
£19.18, Thedrinkshop.com
A flagon of Rhenish….
Karl May Gutswein Riesling Trocken 2015
One of several name checks for Rheinish wine is in one of the most famous Shakespearean scenes, when the gravedigger tells Hamlet that the jester Yorick, once ‘poured a flagon of Rhenish over my head’ – so it may well also be the poisoned wine drunk in the final scene. The name derives from the Rheinhessen or Rhenish Hesse region, the largest German wine area and today, home to seafood friendly dry Rieslings like the Karl May Gutswein Riesling Trocken 2015. Much drier than the sweeter styles once preferred, but like Shakespeare, great wine is always open to new interpretations….
£12.99, Laithwaites.co.uk
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