Liquor & Spirits

Fortified & Dessert Wine

Dessert Wine

QUADY

Wines and Spirits

Essensia: From 100% Orange Muscat with an aroma reminiscent of Orange Blossom and Apricot, and a lingering refreshing aftertaste, this is a dessert in a glass or the perfect accompaniment to one.

Elysium: From 100% Black Muscat with an aroma of roses and complex litchi like favor, it is another dessert in a glass. Great with vanilla, dark chocolate, Blue cheeses, and candlelight.

Electra: This is a picnic wine, light delicate and refreshing, like a breath of springtime, a bouquet of flowers and the taste of peach and melon. Only 4% alcohol, from Orange Muscat, Electra goes well with spicy picnic foods, salads pastas, and dessert.

Starboard Batch 88 Vintage character port from 75% Tinta Roriz, the balance Frank's vineyard, this has great fruit, a chocolate character and a wonderful rich smooth taste. Ready to enjoy now.

Vintage Starboard From Frank's Vineyard, planter mainly to Tinta Cao and Tinta Amarela, 1987 and 1989) have been declared. Following the Portuguese practice, declared vintage port is aged no more than 2 years in barrel before bottling, these are rich spicy wines with a healthy level of tannin, dark color, and a long life. The 1987 is harder and needs more bottle aging than the lush 1989.

LBV, 1991 late bottled vintage port, from Frank's Vineyard, it was aged extra time in wood and fined to make it drink well when released. This is an elegant port, beautifully ready to drink.

1986 Vintage Port - Frank's Vineyard The last '"vintage port" made by Quady since he now calls these "Starboard," the 1986 matured beautifully great complex aroma, full firm favors.

Spirit of Elysium: 80 proof spirit twice distilled in Cognac style pot still from Black Muscat. Floral aroma and very smooth clean flavor. Double gold winner and National champion for grappas.
The Quady Winery Story

In 1971, Andrew and Laurel Quady left Southern California smog and Andy's pyrotechnics job and headed north. Andy enrolled in the master's program at U.C. Davis, graduating in 1973 with a Master of Science in Food Science, specializing in Enology. He worked for several different companies in Lodi but it was at the now defunct Lodi Vintners, at the urging of friend Darrell Corti, where he made the first Quady port, from Amador County Zinfandel.

In 1976 he joined Hcublein's United Vintners winery in Madera but continued making port, moonlighting in a small winery behind His House. The turning point came in 1980 when an experiment with Orange Muscat (named because the grapes have an aroma reminiscent of orange blossom) resulted in an extraordinary new wine with an amazing floral fruit character and suppleness. Essensia was a success and Andy was no longer moonlighting.

Meanwhile, in 1978, he had arranged planting of a vineyard of traditional Portuguese port varieties on a ranch in Plymouth owned by Frank Alviso and John Hahn. The vineyard was named Frank's vineyard. In 1981, to acquire additional missing port varieties, Andy visited Portugal with Davis ampelographer, Dr. Harold Olmo. They brought back a new collection of Portuguese varieties, two of which have now been released from quarantine.

In 1983, Don Gallagher, a grower from Manteca, offered Quady a load of Black Muscat, a black skinned muscat grape which can have a rose like aroma. The former buyer, Novitiate, had gone out of business. These grapes became the first Elysium, magenta in color with a haunting rose-like aroma.

1984, a new modern winery was completed, and Michael Blaylock, a Fresno State graduate, and now co-winemaker, joined the staff.
One result of the Portugal trip was the discovery that a major port variety, Tinta Roriz already exists in California but under the name Valdepenas. In I985, Quady began making port from Tinta Roriz (Valdepenas) which is now the basis of his Starboard - Batch 88. Light in tannin with rich fruit and a chocolate flavor, Roriz is a perfect base for vintage character style port.

Since 1985, Essensia and Elysium have been favorites in the U.K. But to sell his port in the EEC, a new term was needed ("port" is a protected place name). Recognizing that the word port has more than one meaning, Quady trademarked "Starboard," the perfect euphemism for a port which is not from Portugal. Starboard Batch 88 (a blend of several different years) is a ready to drink vintage character port. Vintage Starboard, like vintage port is meant to be aged in the bottle.

In 1989, he double distilled in the cognac manner two muscat distillates. Crystal clear but not at all like grappa, Spirit of Elysium and Spirit of Malvasia are clean, smooth and aromatically muscat.

In 1990, Quady decided to produce a new type of dessert wine, light, delicate and very refreshing. He tasted Orange Muscat juice as it was turning into wine. When the juice was just on the verge - half way between wine and grape juice, he bottled a small test batch. The wine tasted wonderful, but the alcohol was only 4% (most wines are at least 12%). Using sterile filtration to prevent refermentation, he bottled it anyway and named the new creation Electra.