TN: 1882 AO-SM Verdelho Vintage Madeira

[Peter Reutter]

This Verdelho had been bought by the MWC from D'Oliveiras in the 1970ies or 1980ies, shown by the letters AO-SM (Anibal D'Oliveira, Sao Martinho) on the bottle. A lot of the bottled wines had these letters removed later since the mid 1990ies but this bottle had been older, so the letters were intact. The wine showed a warm and dark iodine color with long legs in the glass. The nose was wonderfully harmonious with just the right amount of VA to add complexity, toffee and dates as well. The palate showed a perfect balance of sweetness and acidity, in fact the wine was quite sweet for a Verdelho, lots of fruit and raisins, toffee and creme brulée, also a background of roasted aromas that were also dominant in the long fruity finish. A wonderful wine and the first highlight of the tasting!

[Peter Reutter]

So here is a picture:

1882 Blandy Verdelho AO-SM.jpg (9.65 KiB) Viewed 777 times

[Peter Reutter]

uuuups, sorry, wrong picture, we had the Miles version...
But again, this jsut shows the fact that MWC bottled these AO-SM (D'Oliveira) wines under different brand names to meet the markets demands. There are versions of Cossart, Blandy, Miles, I have never seen a Leacock though.

1882 Verdelho AO-SM Miles.jpg (105.33 KiB) Viewed 770 times

[Roy Hersh]

I just finished my last sip of this one and now am heading into the 1890 CG Malmsey. Our impressions were not too far off, but I felt stylistically that it showed drier for a Verdelho and was closer to a slight more sweet version of Sercial. I really enjoyed it though and my TN will be in the July newsletter.