For The Love Of Port

This sounds weird.

I've had this wine twice and never detected a "cardboard" aroma or taste. I hope you don't have a flawed wine and this aroma blows off. The last time I had it, I decanted 3 days and it was absolutely wonderful.

Let us know how it turns out.

The picture in the weblink above looks very much like the one I bought at the Graham's tasting room in Villa Nova de Gaia. I have had great luck with it... works like a charm. When I used to work at K&L Wines in SF, I would do the port tastings there and would use the tongs on the older bottles....

Another interesting question is: if someone decides to store their Madeira in an upright position after years on having it stored on it's side, does it matter? Is the (possible) harm already done after years of storing it on it's side. The more I read, the more I might be tempted to store it upright...

I had a 1966 Noval that was British bottled (Berry Brothers & Rudd, I believe) two years ago, and it was absolutely stunning. Fresh, youthful and almost too young...

Roy Hersh wrote: As far as corked Madeira, has ANYBODY here ever had one?

Over the couple dozen Madeiras that I've had, I don't recall ever having a corked one... interesting...

Excellent info in this thread... thanks. Until I find some compelling reason to store my Madeira upright, I think I will continue to store mine on its side. Having said that, I did find this little tidbit about storing wine upright. Some research was supposedly done that found a cork adhered better ...

Conventional wisdom states that Madeira should be stored upright as opposed to "on it's side", presumably since oxidation is not a serious enemy to this type of wine and a drying cork poses no hazard. But if stored on it's side -- will it hurt? It seems if upright or "on its side"...

Thanks for the info, Fred.

I was talking to Managing Director Adrian Bridge at a port tasting in New Canaan, CT and he assured me there would be no VV.

I guess I can now assume that the regular blend would have been compromised.

I hear that there will be no 2003 version of this wine. Does anybody have any inklings as to why? If the vintage was that good, I would expect them to produce this bottling. Perhaps it was not up to snuff? Or perhaps quantities were too low?

My experience is that older Madeiras ALWAYS show better after decanting a day (or more). The general rule of thumb I use is the longer it has been in bottle (if you know the bottling date), the longer you should decant (between 1-3 days typically). Since a bottle will easily keep you going for sever...

I have had this wine along with the 1900 J M Fonseca Setubal... although both wines were wonderful and possesed layers upon layers of flavors, the D'Oliveira Madeira was the hands down winner... much more focus and intensity.

Just had a Blandy's 1880 Verdelho Solera this week. Wonderful! A bit drier in style with nervy acids, but my what complexity... caramel, orange peel, chocolate, spices, etc. All this for under $200.

Count me in as another fan of solera Madeiras... vastly under-appreciated. They are indeed rare to find these days, as it is no longer legal to produce this category of Madeira any more. I find this to be a shame and I'm not sure what the reasoning was... perhaps they feel the world is more "vi...

I have always been a huge "Madeira Nut", yet have never tried a sample from the (rarely seen) varietal Bastardo. Does anybody know where it stands on the sweetness scale (say, compared to Sercial/Verdelho/Bual/Malvasia). If anybody has tried a Bastardo, I would be curious about which one a...

I like the idea of a Travel board... it would be even better if we could upload pictures. Any way of doing this?

--
Marco DeFreitas

I too am shocked by the expensive bottles in the windows of shops in Lisbon, Porto and Sintra. One of the better shops I've been to is Napoleao in Lisbon (Rua dos Fanqueiros, I believe)... nice selection, but the prices are a bit high and the staff a bit pushy.

--
Marco DeFreitas

My personal experience has shown that British bottlings tend to be more "youthful"... not better, just younger.

I also heard the rumor that British bottlers "cherry-picked" the more tannic, age-worthy pipes.

--
Marco DeFreitas

I remember attending a Madeira tasting put on by the Rare Wine Company in New York several years ago... one of the most memorable nights in my life. My notes are here: Madeira Tasting Notes

Roy,

I would definitely be interested in such a tasting and can certainly contribute. I am in Connecticut, and New York City is only an hour away. Keep me posted if anything materializes

Marco DeFreitas