For The Love Of Port

I have been noticing that Madeira lovers start out drinking the sweeter styles and some never change their interest and always love these heavy weights, while others move towards drier styles. Do you have a preference and is so why?

Pick from one of these:

NOBLE GRAPES:
Sercial
Verdelho
Boal
Malvasia (Malmsey)

OTHERS:
Bastardo
Terrantez
Moscatel
Negra Mole

Roy, you know me. I'm a verdelho and boal fan. I haven't enough experience with terrantez. Did that picture of you kissing the terrantez vine turn out?

Roy,

Bual
Verdelho


João Rico
Portugal

Roy,
I guess you start with the type of Madeira wine that suits your overall wine-style best. For example I started with Boal and especially Malmsey, since I usually go for the sweet desert wines.
And then you grow in experience and along the way you have a few mind-changing experiences that suddenly win you over for the other Madeira grapes.
For myself I can say that the more I tasted, the more I came to like Verdelho and Sercial, but especially Terrantez. Looking back from what I have tasted so far, Terrantez and Sercial have been the overall best grapes for me.
Regards
Peter

I think my tastes in Madeira have mirrored my wine preferences in general. I started with big ripe California Cabs and slowly migrated to Burgundy, Loire and German Rieslings. I slowly started to crave more acids. In Madeira, I started with Malmsey and Boal and slowly migrating to Verdelho and (to a lesser extent) Sercial.

I haven't had a large amount of Madeira so.....I really like the Malmsey, and I guess that sweetness is a result of the sweet Ports. But I also like Bual and Verdelho (that VB the Rare Wine Co. had was great) and the one Terrantez I had was good.

Verdelho and Terrantez.

I actually had Sercial first in the 1970's. I got it for a chestnut soup recipe, but drank most of the bottle. When I started to drink madeira again in the late 1990s, I had mostly Bual and Malmsey/Malvasia because the people I drank with preferred the sweeter styles. I prefer Verdelho and Terrantez now because I seem to be able to find more nuances in them.

Gary,

I am also first and foremost a fan of Verdelho and second would be Terrantez too. It would be a tough choice for 3rd place between Sercial and Boal, but in that case, I'd probably pick Boal if I had to make the pick.

I love Verdelho which I find is the right mix of dry vs. sweet and when the acidity is right on (as they usually are) they can be really something amazing. Trust me, I LOVE Malvasia too but it would not be my first choice in a purchase or off a wine list.

Eric,

The pic of me kissing that Terrantez vine is pretty funny although only one of the two came out, so I am glad we took 2. It is the only time, I have ever seen a Terrantez vine.

Thanks for bringing back the great memory. How about Mr. & Mrs. Sulphur and their bull? I'll tell the story when I get around to the trip report. But I just wanted to make you laugh out loud.

Oh! The bull! I forgot!
Thanks for the laugh!

I'm really a fan of Malmsey first and Boal second. I haven't spent much time with the others, but plan to this year to work up food pairings with them.

John

Forget food, try body shots.

Roy Hersh wrote:Forget food, try body shots.

Hmmm, I like the way you think.

John

Without an extensive across the board tasting knowledge of all the grapes and styles of Madeira I'll have to chyme in with basically what I have drank the most of as I have yet to drink as much Madeira as I'd like to settle on favorites.

I have really enjoyed almost all of the Boal I have had and probably b/c I would naturally start out with the sweeter ones I have also have had a few great late 19th century and turn of the century Moscatels too. I have only had one Verdhelo from Barbeito...I'm forgetting the vintage, but wow wow wow, that was a crazy good wine as everything was just perfectly balanced with it.

Ask me this question in another few years!

I have not had a lot of experience with Madeira. I started out with Malvasia, but now if I had a choice to buy equally "quality" wines for the same price, I would go with:

Terrantez
Sercial

I would not be surprised if this taste migrates over time still as I gain more experience with added data points for each wine!

Jay