For The Love Of Port

Haakon Berg wrote:I bought the Malvazia reserve at H&H in 2009, then it was 650 euros, and so were the others.

Don't tell us that...

Mystery bottle from H&H
I bought this from a private source on the island who claimed it was bottled in 1927 and contained a much older wine from H&H. The seal carried the letters JJH and the source believed these to be the initials of some Joao Joachim Henriques and the wine belonged to his private collection. H&H however had no knowledge of such a collection. On the front there was no label or stencils what so ever, but on the back there was the typical H&H Label stating that the wine had been bottled in 1927 and rebottled in 1955 and 1975. Receiving the bottle, I noticed that the wax top was missing about a fifth and that this part had been covered with some additional sealing wax. I asked the seller about this and according to him, the IVBAM had inserted a needle into the bottle to obtain a sample, confirming the age and the high quality of the wine. When I contacted the IVBAM they responded that they did not carry out such procedures and that they never had contact with the seller. So I concluded it was a fake and put the bottle aside in a far corner of my cellar.

Following the H&H thread here on the forum, I remembered the bottle and opened it today to put some light into this. The cork was a cut off used cork from another wine bottle, part of some Portuguese wine name still printed on it, not older than a couple of years. Ok, so this is all fake, I thought. But much to my surprise the wine was a genuine Madeira, in the Verdelho-range of sweetness and evidently “old”. The tasting note is as follows:

Rather light oak/straw color with greenish rim and orange core. The nose is sweet and fruity, with orange peel, chestnut, some VA, little nutmeg and a promising backbone of molasses. The palate starts with a fiery attack of acid, almost a little raw, but old cognac, citrusy fruit and hazelnut follow swiftly, leading over to a base layer of molasses. The wine is viscous with a wonderful texture. The middle of the wine is drying out fast, but the acidic green-tea finish is quite long, with some hazelnut to end it. Very probably a Verdelho, but could also be a Verdelho-base blend. Surely an old wine, a little over the top, but still enjoyable. 91 points in 9-2013.

So up to you - any ideas what this might be?
Peter

Hi Peter.
I don't know exactly which bottling this was, but I do know that H&H have/had many non vintage bottlings of not well known provenance and history. Some under the H&H label and other not. I have a few bottles labeled Michael Jardim but having the similar H&H back label showing bottling and rebottling dates. Michael Jardim was an old director of H&H. I'm guessing your bottle is from H&H but one of these with an unknown history.

When I drank my 1860 Old Boal five or six years ago, I noticed that the labels were in quite good condition and posted them here, 30 December 2007 is the posting date on this forum, and there are plenty of replies and pictures. Hope this helps. I don't know how to move them here or I would. Take a look via the search button, just use 1860 as the search parameter and scroll to the above date.

John Trombley wrote:When I drank my 1860 Old Boal five or six years ago, I noticed that the labels were in quite good condition and posted them here, 30 December 2007 is the posting date on this forum, and there are plenty of replies and pictures. Hope this helps. I don't know how to move them here or I would. Take a look via the search button, just use 1860 as the search parameter and scroll to the above date.

John,

i just saved them and repost themselves here - if you don't accept that I repost them here please tell me so that I can remove them immediately.

As for copyrights I hereby declare that all rights do belong to John Trombley...

As for the bottle: did you ever have the chance to look if there's THE regular H&H label UNDER the golden label from the importer???

Thanks for your participation.

Reidar Andersen wrote:I have not the possibility to send anything now, but will do later...On the way out of the country..

But front says:

Henriques & Henriques

Reservas
Sercial
H.H.
Re-engarrafado 1965 ( not 1964 as I said above )
Re-engarrafado "..............

And some in Portoguesa

Back:

SERCIAL VINTAGE 1964

This will serve to certify that this bottle contains
a very old Sercial Madeira, which when
Inherited by Mr. Joao Joaquim Henriques
Managing-Director of this firm, from his father
who died in 1805, was known to be a wine of
the 1864 Vintage. This wine was kept and aged
in oak casks until bottled in 1965.
Only 1506 bottles remain in existence.

This bottle is no: 1485 ( stamped )

Then an unreadable signature/stamp

Director
Henriques & Henriques
Madeira-

Hi Reidar,

may I ask if you will have the chance to post your pictures here?

BTW: thanks for your email which I found interesting and which confirmed my thoughts.

Hi

I am now in the island of Boracay , Philppines and I have sent the pictures, as requested by you, to you as email...

You can post them here if you want.... though I have no idea what you mean " confirmed my thoughts" ???. Sorry..

Reidar

Reidar Andersen wrote:Hi

I am now in the island of Boracay , Philppines and I have sent the pictures, as requested by you, to you as email...

You can post them here if you want.... though I have no idea what you mean " confirmed my thoughts" ???. Sorry..

Reidar

Reidar,

didn't want to post them right away without any comment, but will do now.

Re: My thoughts: your bottles also confirmed my initial thoughts which lead me to this threat.

Have a nice vacation,

Andreas

Andreas,

The pictures already belong to FTLOP since they were originally posted here. The ones you reposted and even the others still on that original post are free to be reposted here. But thanks for your courtesy.

I'll take a look at my empty bottle and see if there are any hidden labels on it.

This is one of my favourite threads on FTLOP, so I thought it deserved bringing back after an 8 year hiatus

I’m trying to create my own ‘Heavenly’ collection. Recently I purchased a bottle which is labelled Sercial E.C. as opposed to the Sercial H.H., plus it also carries a different bottling date, so my assumption is that it could be a new member of the H&H Ancient Reservas.

I asked H&H directly but they couldn’t be sure either way
“The reason why a different bottling was called E.C. is quite difficult to identify now a days, this Sercial was originally bottled earlier than 1961 or 1965, what you can read on the label is the date of re-bottling (re-engarrafado) not "engarrafado" on that E. C. lot, the re-bottling which occurred on 23/03/1990 was at the time of my colleague winemaker, Luis Pereira, now retired and, the little "L" it is his name initial, written by his hand. It was very common in those days re-bottling taking place not at the same time for all the bottled wines therefore same wines have been re-bottled in different years.
”
I haven’t tasted the single bottle I have, so can’t yet confirm if it’s from the same stock as Sercial H.H. Has anyone else on this forum come across the Sercial EC or better still, tasted it?

Cheers

Andrew

H&H has many bottlings of this approximate age and quality. The Heavenly quartet was a name given to the Grand Old Bual, WS Bual, Reserva Malvasia, and Reserva Sercial by Alex Liddel. These bottles were the most common and most commonly seen for sale. However, there's also a Reserva Terrantez, Reserva Verdelho, a BS Malvasia, and Reserva Moscatel. I'm sure there are others. These were not made/released in large numbers so are not so well known. I've tasted the Terrantez and Verdelho and they are superb. I've not had the BS Malvasia or Moscatel but have seen them at auction.

Don't forget the RR!!!

I think my quest to collect all of the Henriques & Henriques Ancient Non-vintage Reservas has gone as far as it can go.

The Heavenly lineup is definitely missing at least 2 others: Malvasia Candida and Boal AB. Let me know if you think of any other NV releases that should be there.

13 included in the pic below:
Seco, Sercial E.C., Sercial H.H., Velho Verdelho, Ribeiro Real, Terrantez Reserva, W.S. Boal, Grand Old Boal, Velho Boal, Malvasia Reserva, Malvasia B.S., Velhissimo Doce and Moscatel Velhissimo
Plus I’d love to find another bottle of the Ribeiro Real with the classy old H&H front label. Like the similar pics below and the one that Andreas posted earlier in thread. I also found some photos of the branded front label for V.L Verdelho which I'm assuming is Velho Verdelho. 3 different seals/capsules used by H&H

Hi Andy!

Funny enough I am currengly thinning my cellar and one of those wines to be auctioned off is a H&H RR.

I am not sure if it is commerce corner or if I can say where a fraction of my Madeiras will be auctioned soon...

And some additional ones...

Long time has passed since we started this thread and we all got wiser (hopefully) and older (unfortunately).

I do not know if Reidar still reads or contributes but he has always been helpfull with his knowledge, as have been a few other of you guys, Eric, Andy^2 (Velebil & "Murray), Roy (of course) and also others.

Now, for the reason of reviving:

I have always been a defender of the opinion that some of the Reservas have a "date" on them, which had been communicated in the 50ies or 60ies and then been forgotten.

To make myself clearer:

1) the Grand Old Boal had a label stating 1860 over the original H&H label...unfortunately my bottle broke in transit 15 years but I saved the label
2) the WS Boal had a label stating 1848 over the original H&H label...I found this in the www but do not have a bottle myself (not of the golden label one)
3) the Malvazia Reserva has a label stating 1875 over the original H&H label...I do own a bottle with the golden label
4) yesterday I finally received a bottle of Verdelho Reserva with the golden label stating "1863" and I was curious enough to remove the golden label to see what is beneath this and finally: "Dry Verdelho Reserva"!!! That is all I ever wanted to know!!! Confirmed. Mission accomplished.

So...back in the 5o/60ied Hammer Corp. imported the H&H wines and received the Vintage info from them; all the bottling and rebottling years are 100% accurate on the Hammer golden labels, so I have NO doubt that also the Vintages are correct and originally been recorded and then forwarded from H&H towards hammer who then printed those on their label.

Hope that anyone's interested in that info.

Cheers

Andy

...

Quick addition:

The "Dry Verdelho Reserva" is for sure a different wine than the Velho Verdelho from Cossart, which I also have, but due to the fact that the VV has the small white label with blue framelines on the opposite side and also that the "Dry Verdelho Reserva" (1863) has the typical H&H embossed glass on the bottle's shoulder makes the difference.

Good detective work Andreas! Love seeing the old label hidden below

The part that puzzles me is the quantity of bottles

Take the Malvasia 1875, your labels say only 316 in existence, This was printed in 1957. If you are saying that the Malvasia 1875 is the same as the NV Malvasia Reserva then the quantity of 316 is way too low. H&H have been selling this wine consistently over the past 50 years, if there was only 316 in 1957 this would be unlikely. So this makes me wonder maybe they aren't the same wine.

Also it goes against the 'story' that some of these reservas were inherited in 1850 when H&H was started, although it works for the WS Boal