TN: 1835 Brown Madere Imperial, Nicolas

[Peter Reutter]

After I had been able to taste this wine twice, now had been the third time. The bottle had been bought at auction and since it was leaking from the transport I had overwaxed the cork. Until the 1970ies, the Nicolas Company, wine merchants in Paris had a couple of small casks filled with old Madeira, and the bottle had been from one of these casks. I had decanted the wine 8 days before the tasting, knowing that it was a very concentrated wine. Initially the wine had displayed a disgusting nose of sweating horse and insane amounts of VA. Now the color was medium bright ebony and the nose still had some VA, but also fruit, toffee and violets. The palate showed lots of acidity, but well balanced with medium sweetness, fruit and violets again, also some roasted aromas in the background that led to long and bitter finish. A concentrated wine and quite complex.

[Alan Gardner]

Peter,
I've stumbled over a few of the 'Brown' madeiras but have never been sure whether this was a 'Family' name or just a descriptive term or style. Certainly I haven't found in references to a madeira producing Brown family on the island.
Can you add anything?

Alan

[Peter Reutter]

dear Alan,
I would guess (and it's reallya just a guess) that it would mean something similar to "brown" Sherry, in the sense of a Cream Sherry with a darker color and a certain amount of sweetness. So "brown" would name a certain type of Madeira, not a family that produced it.
Peter

[Roy Hersh]

This was my least favorite of the four Madeiras from Peter's tasting. Not that I didn't enjoy it, it was certainly unique and with a level of acidity not often found. Enamel stripping! Dry but quite tasty, quite complex but lacking real pleasure for me. Certainly a ponderous pour and with good length, but just not my style. TN in the July newsletter that should be out in the next several days.

[Peter Reutter]

It had been the third time I had tasted this wine. Even though it was not a complete miss this time, the other two times had showed a wine with more complexity. I could not help but get the feeling that this bottle had started to "dry out" and loose cohesion. When I got it in the beginning of 2008 it had been leaking badly and knowing I was going to open it soon I had simply overwaxed it even though the level was at the bottom of the shoulder- may be that was a mistake. It was powerful and very concentrated, but certainly not my favourite. The other wines were much better, especially AO-SM 1882 Verdelho, HMB 19245 Boal and CG 1890 Malmsey