1860 Leacocks Sercial Solera

[Jim Wagoner]

A merchant friend of mine just bought 6 of this madeira and asked me if I knew anything about it. I have never had one. Has anyone tried this? I have had the Cossart Gordon 1860 Sercial Solera but have never seen this one. Was there a connection between these two houses in the 1860's like there is now through the Madeira Wine Co? My point being, if these houses were aligned in these day's can it be assumed, or not, that these are essentially similar wines? Any information you can pass along to me I would appreciate.

[Eric Ifune]

I don't have experience with either wines, but I know that after formation of the Madeira Wine Association, many of the wines were pooled and some of the same wine was labeled with the different company names. I wouldn't be surprised if they were the same.

[Jim Wagoner]

Thanks Eric. I will pass that on.

[Roy Hersh]

Jim,

I've reached out to a source in Portugal to see if they can shed some light on this for you.

As soon as I hear anything, I will be back in touch!

Roy

[Roy Hersh]

Jim,

I am sorry it took me an entire 9 hours to get the answer for you:

This reply came from Francisco Alberquerque, the chief winemaker for all of Madeira Wine Association:



1860 Sercial Solera – Cossart Gordon or Leacock?

“The wines are essentially the same although the ageing and bottling slightly differentiates them.

The Cossart Gordon was bottled in 1988 and immediately released for sale. The Leacock's lot is the same wine however disgorged and rebottled and re-branded in 1998 and then released.

Although different in bouquet the wines are generically similar. The Leacock's shows more spice and more balsamic, given the additional bottle time and aeration at the re-bottling.“

As you can note, the wine is the same, the difference being that the Leacock lot is disgorged and re-bottled wine therefore showing a little more lifted aromas from the aeration at the re-bottling.

The origin of the wine is Cossart Gordon.

Cossart Gordon joined the Madeira Wine Association in 1953, amalgamating their stocks into the general company stock. Leacock’s having joined with Blandy’s in 1925. Throughout the post-war years (1945 on) the general trend was for the Madeira Wine Company as it was by now called to produce one wine in whichever style and brand it according to requirement. However the old Vintage lots, ageing wines and Solera’s were maintained separately. Subsequent to my family’s involvement in MWC we have worked to recreate an individual identity for each of the brands and therefore now produce distinctive wines for each company be it Cossart Gordon, Leacock’s or Blandy’s.

Therefore from the above one can reasonably safely say that all pre-war MWC brand Madeira’s are distinctive and individual to their brand, bottling between this date and the mid 1980’s were produced and bottled according to requirement and that since 1989 we have again produced wines individually.

When we bottle some of the individual older post war Vintages we identify the house style and bottle to that house/brand.




I hope that helps you and your retailer friend Jim!

[Jim Wagoner]

Roy

Thanks for the information. Interesting and informative. A friend of mine outside London has a private wine business which sells to the UK trade and to private customers also. He sometimes buys wines from a gentleman who has a large cellar and buys wines to lay down and sell at some future time. My friend heard he was going to quite the business and he had some older Madeira. My friend bought some of the wines he had from the 1800's, 1860 Leacocks Sercial Solera, 1965 Lomelino Verdelho Solera, and 1970 Lomelino Sercial Solera. I have passed your friends notes along to him, and I know he appreciates it. Thanks again Roy.

Jim