TN: Henriques & Henriques 10 Year Old Boal

[Ray Barnes]

I was supposed to have this wine on Monday but when 4 close friends were here together today, and heavy snow hitting saturday night and tomorrow, i decided that Monday might be less than an opportune time. To the best of my recollection, this is my first ever experience with a Boal madeira.

First of all I find the color very intriguing and attractive. It is a rich burnt orange red, very much like red zircon or pyrope-almandine garnet. The color looked quite brilliant in a sunny, cold late morning and afternoon (yes i was drinking madeira with what turned out to be breakfast at 11am). The long slender bottle and label is distinctive too.

I removed the stopper with the intent to let the wine breathe in the bottle before pouring. With it sitting on my desk a few inches away, I could smell the wine almost at once. Talk about an OPEN bouquet. It smelled almost of a cuvee of Grand Marnier and Cointreau, with some walnut and almond tones as well. Very attractive indeed.

The wine from the get go was showing a lot of richness, again dominating in this exotic liqueur like orange essence with nuttiness, then after several minutes revealing a brown sugar flavour. When really swishing/chewing the wine, I felt a salty tang all around the edge of the tongue, combined with a sweetness on the top of it, at the same time. This was very pleasant. Nice acidity indeed. The alcohol is perceptible but is not too heavy. The finish was 30 seconds or more. One of my guests claimed he could smell the wine on my desk, while sitting on the sofa halfway across the office. He also preferred it to the 1998 Chateau Grand Pontet, a fine St. Emilion Grand Cru. A nice chocolate flavour came up after maybe 75-90 minutes. It was difficult frankly to leave this wine alone because it kept involving.

All of the guests and my wife agreed that this was an excellent drink and a superb match for cheese, chocolate, and especially roasted salted almonds. I would personally take this ahead of most liqueurs and cognacs. This wine also had excellent viscosity and strength. For a cold weather drink, one could a lot worse and not much better.

It retails here for $61.03 Cdn a bottle. I think at $40 to $45 it would be a great bargain, but I can live with this price as well. It has received scores of 93 and 91 points from WS and wine-pages.com (Tom Cannavan), which I would say are well deserved. An excellent effort. Now I want some vintage madeira. This stuff is far superior to Blandy's Duke of Clarence.

[Ray Barnes]

As an afterthought ( ), everyone involved yesterday had never experienced a madeira like that before, and I have to admit it was a great honour and privilege for me to do this. When I called my mom yesterday afternoon, who was very kind to give me this bottle for my birthday and another one for Christmas, she asked, "why are you sharing it", to which I replied, "because that is the nature of good wine, that is what it is supposed to be for". I wish I understood the process of madeira making much better, and have to continue up the learning curve. Everyone seemed quite astounded when I gave them a (likely very) rudimentary history of the island, the tradition, Canteiro method, the noble varietals, and seemed genuinely surprised that wine of such power and grace even existed. It looks like madeira, at least in this part of the world, has made some new friends. So in spite of the many toasts, compliments and sincere expressions of appreciation from my dear friends for being given the opportunity to try something new and exciting, I still have to say the pleasure was all mine. It was a great day.

[Peter Reutter]

dear Ray,
reading your two posts was so much fun, I enjoyed this very much. And yes, Madeira wines is something special and I am glad to see, that another wine lover became "hooked" for life. And you could not be more right in saying that "sharing is the nature of a good wine"
Best
Peter

[Eric Ifune]

Ray,
I hope you related to your friends and family that Madeira is a particularly "American" wine. It's acidity was refreshing in the hot, humid climate; and it tolerated (and even thrived on) the ocean voyage particularly well. It found great favor in the 18th the early 19th centuries. It was George Washington's favorite and the Declaration of Independence was toasted with it at the Continental Congress.
I'm glad you and your friends have discovered a new experience.

[Ray Barnes]

Yes Eric, I told them about how the fortified wine used to be the best when it made the nautical trip across the tropics - and back again. One of the guests was from Ireland and he loved that bit of history. I also mentioned its great popularity long ago in the US especially along the east coast.

The first couple arrived at 11am, intending to stay until noon, and left at 1:30pm. The second couple glad partied along with the first - who were strangers until then! - and kept company with us until almost 7pm. As a social icebreaker, this wine could not have done a better job.

By the way we also tried out the excellent 2005 Domaine Zind-Humbrecht Pinot Gris Thann - and the unaminous opinion was that honors were very evenly divided between the two wines.

One of the guests, en route to the Cactus Club Cafe for late lunch, 10 minutes after leaving the house, claimed he could still taste the madeira. :!:

Cheers,
Ray

[Ray Barnes]

Peter, thanks for your kind feeback. If I ever have the pleasure to meet you in person, it will be an honor to share a glass or two of madeira with you. (That goes for Eric too)

Ray :)

[Ray Barnes]

Two full days after initial uncorking (or unstoppering), the wine's bouquet has grown even more complex, developing notes of toffee, chocolate, and even a bit of cinnamon. My daughter had a small sip and was immediately impressed with this wine's refined aftertaste. This bottling remains a strong effort and an excellent introduction to this extraordinary part of the world of wine. One of the guests from the Saturday party has already purchased a bottle for his own cellar. I also hope to get some more.

Ray

[Ray Barnes]

Three days after unstoppering, this wine's richness of bouquet and concentration was still growing. The bottle is now empty, but luckily I have one more for Christmas. Although an open bottle is supposed to last for several months, I doubt very much I shall ever prove this through my own experience.

The gentleman who tried it this afternoon was born in the Savoie region of France and grew up in Italy. Although he has been lucky to enjoy several excellent wines most of his life, this was his first experience with a good madeira. His reaction was even more favourable than the others who came here on Saturday. He declared this the best wine he has tasted in 2008, and has given me the go ahead to order on his behalf a half case of the Imperial Malmsley being offered by the RWC. I expect to share this with him. He is hitting the big 5-0 next fall, and wants to have a private celebration before or after the public event, featuring some vintage madeira of equal or greater age. If I ever form a Madeira Club in my home town, he will be a charter member.

He made one comment about this wine I have not heard expressed elsewhere. He compared it to a voluptuous brunette, very full bodied and sensual. Can't say I disagree with him.

Ray

[Eric Ifune]

He made one comment about this wine I have not heard expressed elsewhere. He compared it to a voluptuous brunette, very full bodied and sensual. Can't say I disagree with him.

I can see where the brunette part came, but the wine originally started out as blonde (white wine)!

[Ray Barnes]

In retasting this wine on New Year's Eve twice (morning and afternoon, with different guests), I am somewhat reluctantly, in the interest of journalistic accuracy and integrity, reporting unsolicited comments made by both of them. It seems these two gentlemen, the first of whom had never had a good madeira in his life until today, seemed to concur on an unusual olfactory element I had previously overlooked, or perhaps chose not to mention. Apart from the characteristics of brown sugar, honey, raisins, orange rind, wood and alchoholic tones of the bouquet, they both were certain, independently of each other, that this wine also had a certain positive muskiness in its bouquet, not unlike that of ambergris, as I observed, or as they observed...of a woman in estrus. For the sake of compliance with forum rules, I will not state point-blank what they said, but they were both convinced the wine has pronounced aphrodesiac qualities that would be especially appealing to the male. It seems the majority of men who have tasted this wine - and even my wife noticed this on December 20 - treat it as though they are almost addicted to it. This is not an observation I have read about elsewhere, but it is perhaps worth mentioning nonetheless. Perhaps madeira would be an ideal honeymoon wine (again I am using a euphemism, compared to what was actually said here). I cannot help but laugh a bit while typing this, because the truth is indeed stranger than fiction.

Ray

[Ray Barnes]

Oh yes...the first gentleman said something like, "you know, this would be really great with a woman, or even better with two women." To which I calmly responded, "I shall have to take your word for it."

[Peter Reutter]

This is getting better all the time ...
Honestly, I very much enjoy reading this, having had one (only one) experience like that myself with the 10 yo Boal of Leacocks in 2004, tasting it with two couples new to Madeira wine. One of the tasters stated, that the wine made him "hot". We were sure he meant the alcohol and/or the heated room, but then he explained that the wine "turned him on". His wife just grinned...

[Ray Barnes]

This wine has made two more friends in the last 24 hours, tasted alongside the 2004 Chateau Leoville Barton. Although neither of them echoed sensualistic sentiments expressed elsewhere, they agreed that the madeira had considerable depth, complexity, length, wonderful bouquet, and was very satisfying. The lady at the tasting considered it superior to the local British Columbia ice wine, which is roughly twice the price. All 3 of us felt the honors between the very fine claret and the boal were very evenly divided, and in a grand meal, would both be very welcome.

Having advanced some funds to Jason towards the purchase of the 1834 and 1863 Barbeitos, my anticipation for these great wines is increasing.

My wife also took the liberty of using some of this boal this morning in a chicken recipe. It worked well. :)