TN: 1863 Miles Malmsey Solera Madeira

[Steve Shapiro]

Again served with Blandy 1863 Malmsey solera. Dark brown, green rim. Intense orange peel, lemon zest and prune nose. Prunes and molasses in mouth, with orange overtones continuing. Heavier, but less complex than the Blandy. Good acidity. Moderate length finish. 17+/20. Group preferred this to Blandy's. (1/17/12). If one can extrapolate from the results of this tasting, I'd say that airing the decanted wine for about one day per decade in the bottle looks like a good guess. It allowed enough time for the reduction/ bottle funk to blow off and for the flavors to develop. Longer airing initially added to the complexity, but eventually resulted in decrease in the intensity on the nose and in the mouth. At any point in the airing process, stoppering the bottle stabilizes the wine which the remains little changed for years.