Created for The Rare Wine Company by Barbeito’s brilliant winemaker, Ricardo Freitas, the “Declaration of Independence” Madeira is based on years of historical research by Rare Wine Company’s founder Mannie Berk and fellow Madeira historian, Aaron Nix-Gomez. It captures a style of Madeira favored in 1776 America: refined, elegant, a pale copper color, with its very modest sweetness balanced by bracing acidity, and featuring an aromatic complexity that, in the 18th century, would have been imparted by a long ocean voyage in barrel. To create this richly evocative Madeira, Ricardo blended five old Madeiras from his priceless collection of barrels and demijohns. Balancing power with bracing salinity, 15% of the blend was a magnificent 80-year-old Tinta Negra, while 8% was a 1991 Vintage Sercial. The vines that produced the Sercial are so close to the sea on the island’s north coast, the grapes are often bathed in sea spray during the growing season. It is a measure of Ricardo’s blending mastery that the five components represent five different grape varieties—Bual, Verdelho, Bastardo, Tinta Negra and Sercial—all seamlessly integrated.