For The Love Of Port

Hiya folks. I've been lurking here for a bit and finally decided to join and subscribe to the TNDB so I thought I'd make a quick intro post.

Me: 42, grew up in NYC suburbs (Nyack), moved to the Connecticut Shoreline in 2001. Married, 1 daughter nearly 10 (going on 15). Business owner (ecomm and whsl distribution). I like food, wine, tequila, boats & fishing - not necessarily in that order.

I've enjoyed Madeira for many years. I was originally turned on to it by my brother in the late 80's/early 90's, when he worked in the wine trade (first in retail and then in the import/distribution side, he now builds custom wine cellars). I remember him coming home with these dusty late 19th, early 20th c. bottles which seemed, given their age, preposterously inexpensive. Unfortunately, in those days I couldn't afford to collect wine, my purchases were mostly limited to buying a case here and there for short term consumption...if only I knew then what I know now.

I started buying and collecting wine about 8-9 years ago. My tastes generally run to balanced, food friendly wines with good acidity and some fruit...in other words I'm a Burgundy guy. I also am a huge Huet fan- particularly of their demi sec wines which are, IMO, one of the relatively bargains left in France. I also buy some Bordeaux (2nd/3rd growth- Ducru, Leoville, and Calon Segur). The only new world wine that I buy consistently is Ridge Monte Bello.

About 6 years ago my brother in law gifted me with a 1964 Kopke Colheita and I (and my wife) simply loved it. I made the 'mistake' of telling my brother this and he 'helped' me move on to gateway drugs like tawny ports (Taylor 20/30/40 all have permanent homes on my bar these days). Soon after I received a bin ends offer from a retailer offering 1968 Blandy's Bual at a great price (~$135/ea). Soon after receiving the single bottle that I'd ordered I opened it; I called them the next day to take every other bottle they had left...and have since hunted down every 'reasonably priced' bottle of the '68 that I could find.

As you all know my timing couldn't really be worse; in the ~3 years or so that I've been actively pursuing Madeira I've watched prices soar upwards and availability plummet. Oops.

Generally I seem to prefer the sweet/acid balance of Boals the most but I'm happy to enjoy Malmseys as well. I've only had a few Terrantez experiences and I've not yet had a chance to try a Verdelho or Sercial, never mind some of the more esoteric grapes. I do have a bottle of Blandys 1968 Verdelho, I just haven't tried it yet and some RWC Verdelho & Sercial as well to serve as 'intros.'

The bulk of my collection is 1960's because that seems to have the best QPR (relatively speaking) but I've managed to purchase a few early 20th c. Buals as well. Some of my treasures include; 1907 D'Oliveira Malvasia, 1908 D'Oliveira Bual, 1914 Welsh Bro's Malmsey (a gift from my brother from his retail days)...I'm also pretty close to a 20th c Blandy Bual vertical - I also have 1907, 14, 20 (bottle & mag) '48, '59, '60, '64, '68, '69, '71 & '77 and I'm bidding on a '54 now.

Thank you all for the great tasting notes and information - I look forward to learning more with all of you.

Hart Davis Hart has the 1969B in magnum.

Matt,


Great to have another Madeira lover on board.

Thanks gents.

Gary, that mag at HDH has to be the worst price ever at $1327 for a 1969 Blandy's Bual. In my opinion that's like $350-500 worth of juice, depending upon how much value you place on the large format (none for me) and $409/ea would be a reasonable price.
I've spoken with them about this recently because I was sure that that $1327 had to be for all 3 of the mags, not just one, but they even pulled their invoices to confirm it.
The 'crazy' thing is that they bought those for/from a tasting they were doing with Chris Blandy and they also they have mags of 1920, purchased at the same time, for sale for less 10% less...or I should say 'mag' since I bought one of the 2 they had. :)

The prices on the Island for the magnums of 1920 are pretty expensive, but the 69 is much more reasonable. I saw those offerings and marveled why one would get the 29 when the fabulous 1920 is near the same price!

Eric Ifune wrote:Matt,


Great to have another Madeira lover on board.

YES! Welcome aboard!

Eric - you raise an interesting point...which brings me to a question. Given the recent dollar/EU exchange rate I'm considering either a buying trip or simply buying abroad then somehow (exploring this in another thread) getting it home.

When I'm searching on wine searcher the same handful of stores in Europe always come up, I know there's stores not listing there but it's always theses guys who have variety.
Turville, Peter Wylie, BBR and Fine & Rare in the UK
Das Wein in Germany
Garrafeira Nacional in Portugal
Rivens and Les Verres Bavards in Belgium

So, the question is this; I want to take advantage of the exchange rates this takes the UK places off of the list so is there any point of going to Madeira itself with regards to purchasing well or am I better off buying in Lisbon, Belgium and Germany?

The prices on the Island are not that great. The reason to go there is to get things not sold in the states like Borges or ABSL. D'Oliveiras is the only one still with old stocks. You can get the 1850 Verdelho there. The oldest the Maderia Wine Co. has is the Blandy's 1920 Boal. H&H did have the heavenly quartet for sale, but you could probably do better at auction.
I've not bought from any of the companies you've listed. I do know that Garrfeira Nacional in Lisbon is a famous shop, my parents actually went there once years ago, but their prices tend to be on the high side.

Eric Ifune wrote:Matt,


Great to have another Madeira lover on board.

Ditto!

Welcome to the board. I also live on the CT shoreline (near New Haven). Good to have another Madeira lover in CT.

Matt,

Nice to have you aboard and thank you for the introduction.

Eric wrote:

D'Oliveiras is the only one still with old stocks. You can get the 1850 Verdelho there. The oldest the Maderia Wine Co. has is the Blandy's 1920 Boal.

Parsing the above:

Actually there are a few companies with older stocks of bottles from the 19th century ... including Madeira Wine Co.
However, these bottles are NOT offered for sale commercially. One can see LOTS of older bottles than 1920 at MWC, some, MUCH older. Again, not for sale at this time. Will they ever be?

Thanks for the warm welcome.

Marco - CT offline?
We're pretty close and between us there's tons of options...anyone else in our area?

Eric, Roy - anyone - mind giving me hints on where to shop? I monitor the major US auction sites, I'm all over Wine-Searcher...what else is a boy to do? Particularly if I want a 'good deal' (relatively speaking)....this is why I've been posting re: buying overseas/transport/euros/etc. I feel like I've been a few years (decades) behind when I wanted to be buying Madeira.

Roy, when you talk about the companies with old stocks that's really more like the company's reference library and not commercial quantities, correct?
Also, any spots left for the May trip? My wife might be on board for this - can you email me the particulars please?

Matt K wrote: Marco - CT offline?
We're pretty close and between us there's tons of options...anyone else in our area?

That would be cool. I have a few wine friends (not real Madeira folks, though), but they are more in the Westport area, which is a longer haul. I may do a wine dinner in the next month or two. I'll keep you posted.

Out of curiosity, do you know of any good BYOB places in CT?

Eric is right...The prices at Garrafeira have skyrocketed.. En example : in 2002 I bought two 1795 CVM T for EUR 810 each . Since I bought two, 10% discount . And I got addional 10% VAT back...

Eric Ifune wrote:The prices on the Island are not that great. The reason to go there is to get things not sold in the states like Borges or ABSL. D'Oliveiras is the only one still with old stocks. You can get the 1850 Verdelho there. The oldest the Maderia Wine Co. has is the Blandy's 1920 Boal. H&H did have the heavenly quartet for sale, but you could probably do better at auction.
I've not bought from any of the companies you've listed. I do know that Garrfeira Nacional in Lisbon is a famous shop, my parents actually went there once years ago, but their prices tend to be on the high side.

You are right Eric. If you are lucky, you can by wines much much cheaper in Madeira. ABSL wines can get only in local stores, "caraffeiras". Artur and Edmundo sell the company to D'Oliveiras. BUT, you can do 2 things. Try to by wines direct from companies. Some do sell directly, for example D'Oliveiras. Or go there, by wines and use Portugese post office! You can send wines in you home using Portugese post. They even have special pagages molded in styrofoam.

Marco, I'd be open to offline wine dinners as well. My brother might be interested in joining us as well - he does a lot of NYC offlines with the NYC crowd but his GF lives up here so he is up on the Shoreline most weekends.
Here's a link to a yelp search for BYOB, Milford <>OSB, sorted by highest rated. I've only been to 2 of the 10 and one is mamouns in New haven, which I wouldn't bother with but the other is Saray is W Haven which I have been to many times and is a family favorite. I could also probably get us into Cafe Routier in Westbrook with a reasonable corkage fee - with a decent sized group I think they'd even do a special menu for us.
http://www.yelp.com/search?find_desc=BY ... 1922238054
Also, if we could put together a group willing to go to Uncasville there's a great Chinese place near Mohegan Sun where we could do Peking Duck, etc...not quite NYC level but the best HK/Cantonese style I've found in CT by far.
For a super casual place that allows BYOB (we'd have to bring stemware too) Udupi Bhavan in Middletown is amazing though we'd have to do some careful pairing - I usually bring a 6 pack. :)

Reidar - haven't prices everywhere skyrocketed since 2002? Is Garrafeira tracking the curve or are you saying they're over the market increase curve?

V P - So if I went there I would find products not exported - that makes sense. what do you mean lucky wines/much cheaper? How/where? :)
Would buying at the D'Oliveiras lodge be a good value or just perfect provenance?
I don't think shipping via post office is a good option for me - the USA has strong import laws for alcohol and shipping alcohol via our postal service is technically illegal if I recall correctly.

I may be able to do Uncasville. My wife could get some time at Mohegan Sun and drive home, if necessary.

Gary

I was just thinking 'wasn't Gary from MA" to myself...I'd also be willing to host, I'm pretty close to Uncasville.
Sending you a PM on an idea. :)

Actually there are a few companies with older stocks of bottles from the 19th century ... including Madeira Wine Co.
However, these bottles are NOT offered for sale commercially. One can see LOTS of older bottles than 1920 at MWC, some, MUCH older. Again, not for sale at this time. Will they ever be?

One can hope. I remember seeing quite a few non-Madeira Wine Company wines there. 6 bottles of Borges 1862 Terrantez anyone?