Quady Winery, located in Madera, California, was founded in 1977 by Andrew and Laurel Quady. In 1980 they made a name for their small winery by adding a fortified white desert wine created from a relatively unknown Orange Muscat grape.
Winemaker Mike Blaylock is a California native with an undergraduate degree in wildlife zoology who began his wine education as a member of the Peace Corps working to develop jobs for fishermen in the Philippines. Upon his return to the US, he received his graduate degree in enology from California State and joined Quady Winery in 1984.
Quady concentrates on the production of desert wines from Muscat varieties, redefining the common understanding of Muscat wines. Their Essensia and Electra wines are made from Orange Muscat, while the Elysium and Red Electra come from the Black Muscat variety. Essensia is a great accompaniment to a wide variety of desserts, making and especially great pairing with almond and stone fruit flavors like peach or apricot. Elysium is wonderful with blue cheeses like Gorgonzola, but also pairs well with chocolates carrying notes of red fruit or vanilla.
Electra and Red Electra are low alcohol wines, with only 4-5% alcohol. Their smooth sweetness makes them ideal candidates to bring along on picnics, while the 15% alcohol content of Essensia and Elysium wines make them ideal to replace desert entirely.
The winery also produces several other wines. New wines include an Amontillado style Sherry called Palomino Fino, and an aromatized wine with a dry finish called Deviation. The winery also produces two vermouths, one sweet and one extra dry, called Vya and a concord based wine called Purple. The sweet Vya was awarded “Best Vermouth in the World” at the 2009 London International Wine Challenge. Quady Port wines, wittily named Starboard, offer a smooth standard Batch 88, and an aged Vintage Starboard.
This small winery is completely redefining the way wine drinkers think about the traditional Muscat wines, and are expanding the desert wine market with unique varieties of the Muscat grape.
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