Bottle found in my aunt's basement... What is it?

[Marco D.]

I sadly had an aunt pass away last year. While going through her basement, my cousins found this bottle in her basement. It's a 1900 Bual, but I can't quite make out the producer. Any info on what this bottle might be? Thanks...

I uploaded the pics onto PORTraits...
http://www.fortheloveofport.com/portrai ... ?pos=-1422
http://www.fortheloveofport.com/portrai ... ?pos=-1423

[Alan Gardner]

Marco,
The producer appears to be Barros - however I've never seen a Barros that old - my oldest was from the 30's - and my notes on 1900's that I've encountered don't seem to match anything on the bottle.

[Marco D.]

Marco,
The producer appears to be Barros - however I've never seen a Barros that old - my oldest was from the 30's - and my notes on 1900's that I've encountered don't seem to match anything on the bottle.

Barros was my first guess as well, but what should be the "B" sure looks like a "S"...

[Glenn E.]

Marco,
The producer appears to be Barros - however I've never seen a Barros that old - my oldest was from the 30's - and my notes on 1900's that I've encountered don't seem to match anything on the bottle.

Barros was my first guess as well, but what should be the "B" sure looks like a "S"...

It does indeed, but if you compare it to the "B" in BUAL and look carefully you can see that parts of the lower "B" have been lost, including a good chunk of the vertical bar on the left and the lower half of the top arc on the right.

[Peter Reutter]

Dear Marco
Also there appears to be another letter before BARROS and I think it is the remains of an A, especially when you compare it to the A in BARROS.
So this wine could also have been produced by Araujo de Barros, a small producer that is hardly known. The only two vintage Madeiras I know about is a 1891 Sercial and a 1895 Verdelho.
All the bottles of Barros e Sousa I have seen carry the ABSL letters and most of them also carry the ABS seal on top of the wax cover shown in the picture I included. May be you could take a second look at the bottle?
Regards
Peter

ABSL wax seal.jpg (27.42 KiB) Viewed 1087 times

[Peter Reutter]

And I just found Erics TN of the Araujo de Barros 1895 Verdelho, what a coincidence...
I will try to dig out some old info I have on the special history of this wine and post it here.
Peter

[Marco D.]

Dear Marco
Also there appears to be another letter before BARROS and I think it is the remains of an A, especially when you compare it to the A in BARROS.
So this wine could also have been produced by Araujo de Barros, a small producer that is hardly known.

I had not thought about Araujo de Barros. I too saw what appears to be an "A" before the BARROS and thought it might have stood for Artur, thus thinking Artur Barros e Sousa. According to the Alex Liddell book, Artur Barros e Sousa had markets in Trinadad and Venezuela. I have several relatives who immigrated from Madeira to Venezuela and thought perhaps my grandmother picked the bottle up in Venezuela during one of her many travels there. But... the lack of ABSL is telling. Also, as I recall, there was no wax capsule, just a metal one, with no markings. Perhaps it indeed is Araujo de Barros.

More info... As I looked through the neck, the wine is VERY light in color. There is moderate crusting on the bottle. I suspect this did not see much wood aging and was bottled quite a long time ago.

[Roy Hersh]

I have a TN on that wine that will be out soon too, as Eric, Sean, Stewart, David S. and a bunch of other FTLOP'ers were here to celebrate David's 50th birthday. This was possibly the greatest Verdelho I've ever tasted ... or closely rivaling the 1850 D'Oliveiras at the top. The coincidence about Marco having this exact same obscure bottling, nearly at the same time ... is stunning.

[Marco D.]

The coincidence about Marco having this exact same obscure bottling, nearly at the same time ... is stunning.

Well, not the exact same bottling. This is a 1900 Bual...

[Marco D.]

I had another noted Madeira expert look at this and suggested that the word on the bottom might say "Santos". Anybody know of any producer with this name?