TN: 1830 Quinta do Serrado Malmsey Vintage Madeira

[Alan Gardner]

The bottle was opened and I had the first poured sample – no decanting or resting time. These are the notes from that sample. All of my previous tastings of this wine were after decanting or resting. This bottle from the original first tier release at auction.

Appearance: Medium-dark walnut with much paler green/gold rim (surprisingly pale).
Nose: Chocolate pudding! None of the nuts and raisins that I recall from previous bottlings.
Taste: Astounding acidity – tastes like this will age another 100 years (at least). Yet still perfectly balanced – weight and fruit in complete harmony except none of the heavier nutty caramel notes I expected. If tasted blind would never pick as malmsey (I’ve found the same thing in all the bottles I’ve tried – always tastes less sweet than I expect) – to my palate is less sweet than the 1827 Bual. Immense length – aftertaste lingers for multiple minutes.

A later sample was very similar – I may have imagined some ‘extra’ toffee notes. But after the dessert the impression was even drier – approaching Terrantez.

Incidentally does anybody know the ‘real’ story behind this wine (and/or the 1827 Bual)?
I’ve read the auction blurbs (i.e. 50 years in demijohns before bottling in 1988) but also recall that these wines were ‘drifted’ out over several auctions, implying a reasonably large # of demijohns. Also, they didn’t come through the normal retail channels – they just sort of “appeared”. At the time I thought it unusual that such a large quantity had been virtually unknown, so on my next trip to Madeira I asked several contacts about the wine. But nobody seemed to want to talk about it (strange, I thought) so tried even harder, finally getting the cryptic comment that “all was not what it appeared to be”. Without resorting to too much rumor and innuendo, can anybody add anything?

Incidentally, I’m not alleging a Rodenstock-style mystery – my tasting of the wines confirms their undoubted authenticity as fine Madeiras. But, in particular, the 1830 Malmsey has NEVER struck me as a Malmsey – and based on last night’s tasting still doesn’t. It’s just too fresh-tasting.

[Peter Reutter]

I have only had this wine twice (both times in 2007) and I got a rather rich than sweet impression from it, that's right, and lots of acidity as well and very very concentrated. Others have described the wine as rather sweet. But as fas as I know the wines (1830 M and 1827 B) were bottled at several times for a number of sales at Christie's spread out over 2 1/2 years, so there might well be some variations between the different bottlings. I have the exact number of bottles from both wines written down somewhere, but as I recall both were above 100 cases. In an old Christie's auction catalogue they tell you that the wines came from a family estate of Antonio Eduardo Henriques in Cama de Lobos.
If there is a different story to these wines, I would very much like to hear it, since both wines are excellent, even though the 1827 Boal was my clear favorite.

[Alan Gardner]

Yes - I originally bought from the first 'tranche' at Christies (and the third).
100 cases certainly qualifies as a 'huge' treasure - and from a 'Henriques' - but still not offered through a 'known' shipper.

Doesn't that also raise a 'flag' with you?

[Marco D.]

I have seen two different looking bottlings of this wine. One has the large, cursive hand writing on it, and an other has small block letters (still hand painted). I think I remember someone saying that the small block lettered bottles were bottled earlier than the cursive script bottles.

[Alan Gardner]

The cursive script bottles were definitely from the first 'tranche'. The labels weren't yet available and were sent later to the purchasers.
I haven't seen the 'block' letters bottles. My later purchase (3rd tranche) had the newly printed labels already attached.

[Marco D.]

The cursive script bottles were definitely from the first 'tranche'. The labels weren't yet available and were sent later to the purchasers.
I haven't seen the 'block' letters bottles. My later purchase (3rd tranche) had the newly printed labels already attached.

Roy has some pics of the block(ish) letter bottles for both the 1830M and the 1827B:
http://www.fortheloveofport.com/images/ ... 6_pair.jpg
http://www.fortheloveofport.com/images/ ... 7_Boal.jpg

I've never seen the paper labels, other than the back labels that states the wine comes from QdS (unless that is what is considered "the label").

I've tasted the 1827B on three occaisons and it definitely showed variation. For what it's worth, the best bottle had both the hand-written cursive script AND a paper back label (I assume this would be the 3rd tranche?).

I wonder if the block(ish) labeled bottles are the second tranche or some other "covert" bottling.

By the way... interesting thread. I had no idea about possible mysteries concerning these bottles.

[Alan Gardner]

Thanks for the pics.
Maybe there's an even simpler explanation - perhaps several different people hand-lettered the bottles - if there were really 100 cases (or any large amount) - that's an immense challenge.
Certainly it seems there wasn't a stencil, so maybe it's just different people sharing the task. And presumably these were packed separately, so any single purchaser would likely get similarly marked bottles.

As for the 'mystery' - it just struck me as strange that so much wine would be 'discovered', yet not be referred to anywhere in the (admittedly sparse) literature. But it wasn't until I got evasive answers to a 'harmless' query that I thought something didn't quite 'smell' right.
But again, to emphasize, despite the 'smell' it tastes wonderful and has all the expected characteristics of an ancient madeira (albeit the malmsey still tastes dry to me).

Or maybe I'm just paranoid (or perhaps properly trained to ask questions - having uncovered several financial frauds in my career, including foiling an attempted identity theft on my wife's accounts by spotting some 'strange' occurrences, and identifying exactly how one of my own credit cards had been counterfeited - but that's another story).

[Peter Reutter]

Compared with the information strategy of other "discovered" Madeira wines a lot of questions remain indeed. Over the years I have bought several "discovered" wines from Mario Barbeito and he was never evasive or even reluctant about giving information about where the wines had been discovered, number of casks, how much wine had been found in liters, resulting bottles, characteristics of the wine and a even some chemical analysis.
Since these wines usually sell in a range of a few hundred dollars per bottle, i think this would only be fair to the potential buyer. Also since the only real proof is the shippers reputation, it would definitely create some trust from the buyer.
I wonder what documents or proof Christie's had, before they sold the wine? May be someone of Christie's is attending the forum and can answer these questions? Even though I really enjoyed both wines a lot, I would very much like to know the truth.

[Gary Banker]

Rare Wine Company has sold both the 1827B and the 1830M. I would assume that they researched the history before buying the wine. Have they ever published much information on the history of the wine?

[Alan Gardner]

The Rare Wine Company have mostly posted tasting notes on these wines (e.g. Broadbent's), but I did find this snippet in an old circular (2002):

“[Henriques & Henriques] was founded in 1850 by João Henriques, a
major Cama do Lobos grower whose holdings included the famed Quinta do Serrado.”

Which raises the question of why H&H didn't market these wines.

[Roy Hersh]

The hand painting/stenciling of Madeira bottles still takes place today in the most traditional manner. It may be a dying art, but there are producers that still maintain this wonderful artisan approach to their packaging.

[Peter Reutter]

Here are two beautiful pictures of Edmundo Olim of ABSL doing the stenciling:
http://www.madeirawineguide.com/pics/ab ... -1-pic.jpg
http://www.madeirawineguide.com/pics/ab ... -2-pic.jpg

[Reidar Andersen]

Anyone tried the Serrado 1872 Terrantez ??

[Roy Hersh]

No, that is a hard to find bottle and I've not even seen TNs on it before. Have you tried one Reidar or are you just teasing us?

[Reidar Andersen]

Not teasing, but since I have only one, I have not opened it. Look at the story behind, very exciting ! :!: :!:

1 Aged in wood cask until 1906, when was stored in demijohn until 1927.

2 In 1927 was stored in a small old cask with 180 litres capacity.

3. In 1988, the wine was delivered in the hands of the mother of Ricardo Freitas by the Araujo family (old Quinta Serrado owners), it was bottled a total of 120 bottles.

4. In 1996 the wine was changed to better bottles and Barbeito used new corks again. In that same year all 120 bottles have been sold to RWC. 3,2 Baume.

So guys, this is a jewel.

Best

Reidar

[Jim Silverman]

<<Rare Wine Company has sold both the 1827B and the 1830M. I would assume that they researched the history before buying the wine. Have they ever published much information on the history of the wine?>>

According to the RWC demijohns of the wine were discovered in 1988 in the cellars of the great granddaughter of the man who made the wines. The family bottled the wines, most (?) of which was sold at Christies on Dec. 7, 1989.

The family kept some of the wine and eventually sold some to the RWC.

See the RWC newsletter for June 3, 1997.