TN: 1863 Miles Malmsey Solera Madeira

[Steve Shapiro]

All tasted together (1/29/10) The question frequently arises about the proper airing of madeira. I'm convinced that I've diminished the wondrous flavors of the wines on occasion, by inadequate air exposure prior to drinking. In the past I've suggested that for every decade the wine has been in the bottle, the wine should be aired for one day prior to pouring. With time, I evolved to airing for a week per decade in the bottle. The only authority I've come across mentioning the issue was Noel Cossart in his 1984 book. He suggests a few hours of air time for young wines and overnight airing for older wines, presumably those that have been in bottle for a number of years. My son David and I cooked up the following experiment to try to resolve the issue. I took 5 identical bottles of Miles 1863 Malmsey solera, bottled in the 1980s, bought as part of a full case in the early 1990s, and stored upright together in my temperature and humidity controlled cellar. All bottles were decanted, the bottles cleaned, and then redecanted immediately back into the original bottle. The bottles were then left unstoppered from the time of decanting to the time of the tasting on January 29, 2010. The various bottles were decanted 6 weeks, 2.5 weeks, 3 days, 1 day, and 2 hours prior to the tasting. The wine decanted 2 hours before the tasting was passed one time thru a Vinturi wine aerator. The wines were bagged and served blind to 23 tasters who were told only that the wines were malmseys with soleras started during the U. S. Civil War. My son, a wine professional and myself knew the purpose of the tasting. The order of service was random and unknown to all. The following are my tasting notes, in the order of wine service:All wines were dark amber/brown in color with a medium green edge. The scores are mine. The group scores reflect fisrt place/ second place/ last. #1. (Open 3 days). Nose of molasses, a touch of cloves, and a little coffee. In the mouth molasses, a little oriental spice, excellent acidity. Full, rich finish. 18, improving to 18.5/20 over 2 hours in the glass. 7/4/0. #2. (Open 6 weeks). Nose sweet, but molasses less obvious; picked up a little pecan; much less aggressive nose than other wines. Medium body with molasses, but seems thinner than #1; acidity fine. Slightly shorter but still lovely finish. 17+/20 early and late. 3/7/0. #3. (Open 2.5 weeks). Full molasses nose plus toffee, nuts and a little cloves; alcohol shows thru a bit. Excellent balance in mouth with mixed spices, moderate molasses, fine acidity. Full, rich finish. 18/20 early, 17.5 late. 5/4/1. #4. (Open 2 hours, passed thru Vinturi aerator once). Overwhelming nose of fuel oil plus alcohol, overwhelming the orange peel and molasses. Again molasses predominates in mouth, with a little B and B, but the petrol smell persists enough to be distracting; excellent acidity. Rich long finish. 16/20 early and late. 0/1/19. SRS note: Based on previous experience with the wine, I detected no obvious effect of the Vinturi aeration. #5. (Open 1 day). Initial nose had enough petrol to be off-putting, but much of this blew off with time, resulting in a nose almost identical to #1. Again similar to #1, but seemed a little less full and rich; excellent acidity, long finish. 17 early, 18/20 late. 3/8/0. 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. I'm interested in the experience of others.