For The Love Of Port

Top 3 (descending order): 1808 Tarquino Lomelino Sercial Conde do Carvalhal 1789 Avery's Cama do Lobos 1862 Terrantez "bottled by CJZ" Also excellent: 1846 Leacock Terrantez 1864 Barros e Sousa Malvasia Faja 1927 Blandy's Bastardo Demijohn Selection 1880 Barbeito Malvasia 1827 Quinta do Se...

It was fascinating to follow this online from London, having attended the December 2013 London sale in person. The 2013 prices, which were surprising at the time, now look more than reasonable. I was particularly interested in four lots, and bought the three more modestly priced ones all above top e...

Thanks for info, Paul. Sometimes I wonder how many 1720 Pather around... Mine was bought from Patrick Grubb ca. 2002.. Hard to know, but as I understand it, but it existed in demi-john form until fairly recent times, which certainly helped preservation. That could mean 20 bottles, but I think it is...

Looked at this, and now they call the Pather Terrantez ? For me that was new? Any comments ? :scholar: I have heard another hypothesis from a very good source. I can't find my notes at the moment, but I have it written down somewhere. If I remember correctly, it is likely to be a blend, with the co...

I went to the pre-sale tasting last week and took the morning off to go to the auction yesterday. I see that Richard Mayson has a excellent write up on the pre-sale tasting on his website. I have little to add other than I slightly preferred the 1877 Terrantez to the 1870 Verdelho, although both wer...

This has just arrived in the UK. Fortnums will have it on their shelves next week. I tasted it a few weeks ago at the London Trade tasting of Madeira. I've much admired the different Barbeito 20yo bottlings of Malvasia. And the 30yo was excellent too, although one could argue whether it was really w...

I tried this wine in June 2006, two weeks after it was bottled. This is indeed quite a dry wine, as indeed was the earlier bottled version under the Adegas do Torreao. Not intensely so, but the dryness is accentuated by the high acidity and characteristic bitterness. It is a good wine, but perhaps n...

No important grape variety grown in the C18 or C19 is extinct in the sense of the dodo. Liddell (already cited by Reidar) lists a number of vines in his book on p.85 that he believes no longer exist on the island: there is also a question on whether Vidonia was a grape variety or not (Appendix 6). G...

I'm not sure how and if this will improve in bottle. But it is a great wine now. It is better than Acciaioly 1802. Hauntingly beautiful and harmonious. Acciaioly 1802 seems clumsy, too powerful, too old, alongside. Delicious. But then so are many of the Jardim Fernandes Verdelhos too. I would every ...

Currently, there are six exporting companies in Madeira: Justino Henriques, Madeira Wine Company, Henriques & Henriques, Barbeito, Borges and d'Oliveira. That's it. (Barros e Sousa are essentially a small concern only purchasing 3 tonnes or so of grapes a year with a few sales in mainland Portug...

Marco, that's it. Just west of Cabo Girao (the really big cliff), east of Campanario. You can even see the cable car on Google Earth.

Regarding the quality of the Justino Henriques / Broadbent vintage wines, I have tasted a number of them, including the 1933 M, 1934 V, 1940 S, 1954 V, 1964 B, and 1978 T. Some wines are ok in my view, but that's about it, relative to other vintage wines from other producers. For example, when I ope...

As I understand it, the aim of recent attempts to produce table wine is to supply a proportion of the local market, say 10% or so, rather than having to import 100%. The production of table wine is actually more profitable than making madeira. The idea is not to produce grand wines for export. There...

Reidar, My assumption is that this wine was bottled from cask, but perhaps you can check that out when you next go to Funchal. Certainly the bottles I saw looked new. (Btw, one method favoured by Barbeito for rebottling old wines in bottle, or generally whenever bottle sickness is a problem is to op...

Roy, I have tasted the 1950 Terrantez, and agree that it is very fine. It is made in the Jardim Fernandes style ... very elegant, pure, not too sweet. Very much like their superb demi-seco verdelhos from the 1940's and 1950's, but with the added complexity of a bitter thread of true Terrantez right ...

Am I the only one who thinks the Cossart Malmsey 1920 a tad overrated? Not that it is bad, but there are a number of C20 Malmseys I would rate above this (e.g., 1906 Leacock's and 1934 Faja from Barros e Sousa). I think Liddell's ****(*) is perhaps a fairer assessment. Broadbent in Vintage Wine stat...

Having tasted all the usual suspects, I am amazed at the quality of the current 10yo Barbeito releases (S, V, B & M). Very pure. (Incidentally, to my taste, much more preferable to the older wines imported to the US as the RWC Historic Series.) But the best Barbeito Colheitas are something else ...

Reidar, I'm just back from Funchal and I can confirm that the 1927 Bastardo came from Adegas de Torreao. It is now bottled and is available for tasting at the winery and is very remiscent of the AdT bottle I opened earlier this year. (The Leacock 1927 is much darker and sweeter, btw, although not ne...

Hi Reidar, It's quite odd that there are four 1927 Bastardos (Leacock, d'Oliveira, AdT, H&H), and very little subsequently and before. I understand that the d'Oliveira is from a purchase (approx 3 years ago???) of a warehouse of wine in Funchal (I'm not sure of the original source/owner). I thin...

Faja dos Padres is historically the most renowned vineyard in Madeira. Its fame was for Malvasia. Alex Liddell gives a detailed account on pp.99-102 of his book. Despite this fame, there appear to be very few existing wines that come from Faja dos Padres, mainly because the vineyard seems to have ha...