The Rare Wine Company Historic Series 'New York' Malmsey Madeira

The classic pairing for blue cheese is Port, but I'd like to suggest an intriguing alternative: Malmsey Madeira. Let's break it down.

The whole idea behind blue cheese and Port is an 'opposites attract' approach to pairing, which I love (salty/sweet). Madeira, like Port, is a fortified wine. A fortified wine is a wine that's had a distilled spirit (usually a grape brandy) added to it, which halts fermentation, boots shelf life, lends a more luxurious, silky texture, and leaves behind some of the natural grape sugars, rendering the fortified wine sweet or somewhat sweet. Madeira comes from the island of Madeira, which is Portuguese yet closer to Africa. Malmsey, like the wine I'm recommending here, is one of the four noble grapes grown on the island. Malmsey Madeiras are the sweetest of the four, though it's rarely as sticky sweet as Port.

Pro Tip: take your Malmsey-blue cheese pairing to new heights and serve it with pecans, candied or toasted.

Here's another great thing about Madeira: you can't kill it. Leave it in the sun, on top of the fridge, wherever regular wine hates to be stored. It's already been cooked and oxidized to hell and back into this wonderful libation, and once opened it'll stay good for YEARS.