For The Love Of Port

I think this might also be relevant to a post about the 1899 Terrantez. Everybody seems to agree that this is a 'strange phenomenon' - why was there Terrantez in 1899 but almost nothing else? Also it is pretty well agreed that there were no terrantez grapes in madeira at that time (OK maybe a vine o...

Roy: Not sure if this is the right place for this. If not, please delete or move.

I have found a private seller in Reno with an old madeira - but he doesn't ship. Can anybody help in any way? I do have a US address I can ship to.

Of course, this isn't a 'real' madeira - for many reasons! But the mention of the solera system reminds me of a visit to a Finger Lakes winery (no names) where I was cheerfully told by the guide that they made a very good sherry. It was made using the Solera system - it was called that because they ...

My one & only bottle of this was bought in the mid-80's at retail (not the winery). It was the squat bottle too.

I recall that some of the members passed on (or got divorced - not sure). About 15 years ago I bought some madeiras at auction in Chicago that seemed to come from the cellar of a member of that group (although it may have been a Charleston SC group). The surviving members had picked over the cellar,...

Served blind at a "mystery wines" tasting: Colour med gold/walnut; green/gold rim and amazingly bright gold highlights in the body of the glass. Nose: Characteristic volatile acidity - everyone identified as a madeira; background aroma of hazelnuts. Palate: First impression was of dryness ...

Surprisingly the alcohol level in the wine seemed low - not what I would expect for a Madeira. Not sure it was even 18%! Certainly didn't seem so. With that course we also had a table wine (Ridge, Santa Cruz Mountains, Chardonnay 2005) and the 'weight' of each wine was similar in the mouth. Could it...

1882 Vintage Verdelho – AO-SM (Bottled Madeira Wine Company, December 1984) NOTE: The designation “AO-SM” denotes the original source of the Madeira. Some landowners in Madeira used to bottle wine under their initials, sometimes adding the village or the vineyard. AO-SM denotes that the wine was ow...

I promise to try harder to post tasting notes: 1907 Vintage Bual – Blandy (no selo de garantia, so old bottling) Bright tawny colour with olive rim. Nose typically sweet with some orange notes, followed by caramel – hint of lemon toffee; Palate notable for perfect balance of sweetness and acidity, s...

My bottle certainly has the 'z' spelling i.e malvazia.
Does this mean it is different from yours (assuming they are both Barros)?

Thought I'd make the heading somewhat generic to encourage notes etc. However, in digging out my 1907's for a tasting later this month (in Toronto - probably will be populated by regular members of my group, but if anyone's near here on Nov 24, send me a message and I'll let you know if there's a ca...

Just over a year ago our 'group' bid at auction on over 50 lots of madeira. Typically we're successful on around 30% of bids. In that auction we got ZERO (and were second highest bid on only 2 lots). That alerted me to changes in the marketplace, and I grabbed some of the RWC older madeiras. I was s...

Hi Peter, Sorry about your experience which, fortunately, seems to be very rare. I've been fortunate enough to have many old bottles and can really only recall one that was undrinkable. Bizarrely, I recall it as being an 1839 Verdelho (unknown shipper) - but it was almost 20 years ago (before I had ...

Yes, he mentioned this in his interview a couple of months back (NY Times?). Its average age is higher than the others too (50 IIRC).
But agree, not in their published inventory.

Alan Gardner

I spoke to both Bartholomew and Michael about these (they were in Toronto for a special tasting). They claimed that these were 'specially' blended for Broadbent (I don't recall who did the selection, but I think it was Michael). Of course, this was for the initial batch we received in Canada. Assumi...

I've had both several times - the 5 year-old MANY times. All of my madeira group bought the 5 year-old heavily about 5 years ago. HOWEVER the subsequent release (in Ontario 2-3 years ago) was a very different wine. Much less complexity and tasted dull - compared with the brightness of the original p...

My Madeira group has tried this several times - would have to check my files for details, but we've found a consistent pattern. The longer barrel-aged versions have ALL been more viscous. The mouth-feel is much sweeter regardless of style. Preference has been all over the place - in general though, ...