Rare Wine Company Historic Series - your fave?

[Roy Hersh]

To emphasize America’s deep historical connection to Madeira, each wine in the series is named for a U.S. city where Madeira was popular in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Here are the current Madeira from this series which Rare Wine Co. owner Mannie Berk had crafted on the island from blends he was directly involved with creating.

Which is your favorite and if you want to comment on any or all of these, please feel free to do so:

1. Charleston Sercial Special Reserve
2. New Orleans Terrantez Special Reserve
3. Boston Bual Special Reserve
4. New York Malmsey Special Reserve

[Eric Ifune]

I love the New Orleans; unfortunately, its the one I don't own and it's unavailable. The Rare Wine Co is doubtful anymore will be made or released. After that, I like the Boston Bual. I like the acid/sweetness balance.
The Rare Wine Co. also released an Imperial Malmsey, blended by the late John Cossart of Henriques&Henriques. Its substantially more expensive than the Historic series. I've a bottle waiting on the hit list once my liver fully recovers.

[Brian C.]

I bought my wife the New York Malmsey for her birthday and we have really enjoyed it. I have yet to try the others.

[Andy Velebil]

Ive not had the special New Orleans yet But of the others I like the Bual the best and closely behind that the Malmsey. The sercial comes in an easy third place and is the weekest of the three i've had, but still a good bottle on it's own.

[Gary Banker]

The New Orleans is my favorite. I have one bottle left. The Boston Bual is next.

Besides the four wines that Roy listed, there is also the Wanderer. There is a description of it on the Barbeito website under "our wines / other projects". I think sixty bottles were made from TNM from the 1940s. RWC seems not to have decided what to do with it yet. Maybe Roy could convince them to sell the wine.

[Alan Gardner]

My vote also goes for the Bual.
However, although they're quite good as an 'everyday' wine, I made the mistake of including some in a blind tasting. There they did not perform well, in particular showing very short in the finish.
But, in their favour, I've seen them on several restaurant wine lists, so they are very useful in raising the profile of madeira.

[Roy Hersh]

Alan,

I agree with everything you wrote. My personal favorite, is the New Orleans as I am stricken by the extraordinary chameleon-like qualities of Terrantez as a grape. The Historic Series version on its own is stunning. We put it into the last "Road Show" tasting blind (a friend of mine, Dan Tisch did this in addition to his other fantastic bottle) to see how it would fare and for me ... although I have normally rated it around 93 points and on its own, delicious ... it paled by comparison to the big guns at this event.

I must say, I truly enjoyed your controversial and provocatively ponderous views all last weekend and found you to be a great deal of fun to have with us. Thank you for adding a different dimension to the weekend. I hate when we all agree at a tasting. It would be like having a fine flight of Ports or Madeiras where they all were linear, which is no fun compared to a flight where there is great character and highs and lows. I find the unique perspectives from newbies, to intermediates to extremely well versed palates, makes for stimulating debates on whatever level, and most of all ... a ton of educational fun. As you witnessed all weekend, the only thing that was as great as the commaraderie and drinking of the wines ... were the varying opinions during discussion time.

[Michael Whitehead]

i have only had the charleston & the new york, both excellant!

[Marco D.]

Another vote for the New Orleans bottling.

I'm curious about the Imperial Malmsey... is it marketed with a RWC label or a H+H label?

[Eric Ifune]

It has a RWC label, but H&H is listed on it. The back label is a tribute to John Cossart by Mannie Berk.

[Roy Hersh]

So it must be a fairly recent bottling (within the last year) as John passed away in 2008. Mannie was a good friend of John's. I only met John once and he was quite the character and a great reconteur.

[Moses Botbol]

I have had the Boston, Charleston, and New York. I found them to be similar in quality for the style, but have bought the Boston the most... Maybe by that measure it would be my favorite?

I would probably say the New Orleans Terrantez would be my first pick, but haven't had it yet

[Eric Ifune]

I guess it's possible that it was bottled before John Cossart died and the back label placed after it got to the states. I know that when the RWC first advertised the Imperial, John had just died.