HELP with a bottle of Madeira!!

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Fred T
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Joined: Wed Mar 01, 2017 6:14 am
Location: Rakvere, Estonia

HELP with a bottle of Madeira!!

Post by Fred T »

I registered on this forum just to ask for help. Have googled like crazy but found nothing.

The bottle is a Blandy's Henry The Navigator wine with seal and everything. Can someone tell me something about this bottle? Age? Value?

pictures of the bottle:

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Mahmoud Ali
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Joined: Sat Nov 22, 2008 6:50 am
Location: Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

Re: HELP with a bottle of Madeira!!

Post by Mahmoud Ali »

Fred,

That's a fine looking retro bottle but, like you, I could find nothing about it. Clearly it is an older branding that likely hasn't been made for quite some time. Blandy is an old and reputable company and one would hope that they would boottle decent enough Madeira into a brand named after a figure prominant on the early history of Madeira.

The packaging suggest a bit of a kitschy angle so though old it's likely not ancient. Certainly it ought to have some curiosity value. Madeira, by virtue of how it is made, is almost indestructible and it is quite likely that even if this was a modest bottling the years would have added complexity and depth.

I'm sure there are others on this forum who can shed more light on this.

Cheers .................... Mahmoud.
Fred T
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Joined: Wed Mar 01, 2017 6:14 am
Location: Rakvere, Estonia

Re: HELP with a bottle of Madeira!!

Post by Fred T »

I guess, from research, that my bottle is from the 50s. It is definetly after 1937, that year they started printing the JNV on the seal.

This is a bottle i found on the web, that is very similar to my bottle (specially the Blandy's writing and overall desing) and it is from the 50s. I wrote also to Blandys directly and i am waiting for an answer. Keep you also updated!


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Eric Ifune
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Re: HELP with a bottle of Madeira!!

Post by Eric Ifune »

I've not seen that style of JVM selo. The one's I've seen have a different crest. The wicker seems in very, very good condition.
Blandy's has a famous wine, Duke of Clarence Malmsey. It's a 3 year old. The old labels had a similar vib to them. I'm going to guess this is also an estufa blend. Probably drier than Malmsey.
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Roy Hersh
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Re: HELP with a bottle of Madeira!!

Post by Roy Hersh »

Given the wicker packaging, I believe this to be a less expensive bottling, as Eric mentioned from Estufa production. Likely a 3 or 5 year old blend and less likely from a specific grape. It may also be one of the Meio-Seco or Meio-Doce type blends that were seen more often in the 1950s-1970s; but can still be found today, (ie D'Oliveiras).
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Fred T
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Joined: Wed Mar 01, 2017 6:14 am
Location: Rakvere, Estonia

Re: HELP with a bottle of Madeira!!

Post by Fred T »

Old thread, but lets try one more time. I have this old Madeira, Blandy's. Henry The Navigator. Someone told me that these were souvenir bottles, sold to passing cruise ships. Can someone guess what this rare bottle might be worth? Im not gonna sell the next day, its mostly for myown interest. The Selo has J.N.V printed, so its bottled prob between 1940s and 1970s? Any new help would really be very helpful.
Contacted also Blandy's driectly, but they didn'd respond, sadly.
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Fred T
Posts: 4
Joined: Wed Mar 01, 2017 6:14 am
Location: Rakvere, Estonia

Re: HELP with a bottle of Madeira!!

Post by Fred T »

I found only 1 place, where the same bottle is presented. So this bottle is very rare https://www.garrafeiranacional.com/en/m ... or-1l.html
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