Substitute for madeira wine

by Rick
(Victoria)

Rick asks:
I need to make a Madeira sauce, but no Madeira is available. What do I use as a substitute?

Darby says
I think that recipes which specify a particular wine for a dish are sometimes going a little over the top, see for example my answer to this question about Barolo.

In the case of Madeira we can start by noting that is is a fortified wine from the island of the that name in the Atlantic. It is a Portuguese territory.

Madeira wine is not readily available in Australia, you can find it if you look in specialist shops but it is generally too expensive for cooking...hence Rick's question.

The nearest substitute for madeira would be Australian sherry or muscat. Under new naming rules sherry is now called 'apera' in Australia

Does the recipe specify sweet or dry madeira? Use sweet or dry sherry accordingly.

Buy a cheaper brand for cooking. I would never use a wine costing more than about $15 in cooking.

Rick let us know how the sauce goes and tell us what you served it with via a comment.

PS. A good history of Madeira and the wine trade in the Atlantic can be found in Oceans of Wine by David Hancock