Settling

The precipitation (settling out) of solid matter in wine. SEDIMENT, for example, settles out of a mature wine.

Of the five styles of Madeira, sercial is the sweetest.

Answer: False.

False. Sercial is the driest style of Madeira with 0% to 6% residual sugar. The sweetest style, malmsey, has 10% or more residual sugar. Madeira’s sweetness designations in ascending order are: sercial, verdelho, terrantez, bual, and malmsey. These are also the names of the grapes from which each style is made. Sercial grapes specifically are grown in the coolest vineyards and the difficulties they encounter in ripening make for tangy, elegant Madeiras with a bracing, crisp, almost salty grip and a dry, nutty flavor.

“One day her mother said to her, ‘Come, Little Red Riding Hood, here is a piece of cake and a bottle of wine. Take them to your grandmother, she is ill and weak, and they will do her good.’ “

—“Rotkäpchen” (Little Red Riding Hood or Little Red-Cap)
Printed in Kinder-und Hausmärchen, a collection of German fairy tales first published in 1812 by the Brothers Grimm

In 1989 and 1990, two California school districts in Culver City and Empire, respectively, banned this version of the tale over concerns about the mention of alcohol in the story.

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