Madeira in Magnums - Pro or Con?

[Roy Hersh]

In the past decade, as happened with Ports too, large format bottles of Madeira were approved for sale for the very first time.

The first I ever saw and quickly owned was a 1920 Blandy's Boal in magnum. Those seemed to disappear pretty quickly from the market place and between what is already in bottle along with remaining 750's ... I do not believe there is any left in toneis at this point.

I have seen 3L and both 5L and 6L bottlings and also think I noticed a 9L bottle at Blandy's, and possibly an 18L too, (which is kind of crazy) ... containing 2 full cases of Madeira in one bottle.

But back to magnums. Friends that I have discussed this with have varying views. On the positive side of the coin, they have said that since oxidation has no effect on the wine ... why not get magnums which can virtually last for years once opened. On the negative side, I've heard comments that it is a total waste and that 750 ml bottles might just keep the remaining wine, healthier and showing better in a smaller format. I don't necessarily agree with that, but YMMV.

I opened one not long ago, a 1957 Blandy's Bual for celebrating Dirk Niepoort's 59th birthday, and while getting two large glasses out of that bottle for myself, this was shared with DOZENS of party goers, much to their delight ... which was why I brought a magnum along to share.

I do own a half dozen magnums of Madeira and living here in Porto, there is zero difficulty in finding occasions for opening them. I like to share gems like this, the youngest of which is a 1985, the oldest is that 1920 Blandy's Bual.

So, what is your opinion on the larger formats and more specifically, magnum bottles of Madeira?

[Mark L]

I can imagine that there are many who don't see the "utility" of large format madeira since oxidation is not a significant problem. I suppose I will leave the chemistry to more qualified individuals, so my personal opinion is:

I wish there were more magnums available! I enjoy sharing, and there is something alluring to me about sharing an unusual sized bottle of something I like with a bunch of people I like. The magnum allows the wine to be a bit of a centerpiece, visually speaking, which I think helps with the storytelling and impact of the wine in some way (and therefore, to a miniscule extent, the audience's enjoyment of it). I have never had a 3L, 5L or 6L, so I'm not sure how unweildy pouring small quantities from bottles like these is, but it must be quite a centerpiece indeed!

If Ricardo (@Barbeito) started bottling some of his older stuff and blends in magnum, I'd probably find them irresistible to get.

The other positive is that you don't need to worry about finishing such a large bottle, not just because of oxidation, but also because you'll be storing it upright anyway.

Looking forward to to hearing what others think.

[Eric Ifune]

I still have wine in 750's open for several years. Still fine. I've no problem with holding wine in glass, and large formats are fun!

[Glenn E.]

I still have wine in 750's open for several years. Still fine. I've no problem with holding wine in glass, and large formats are fun!

[looks sideways at RWC New York Malmsey sitting on the fridge that's been open since 2009]

I also have 3-4 bottles with maybe 100ml each in them from the 2016 Seattle Madeirathon.

Yeah, no problem at all keeping open bottles of Madeira.

[Moses Botbol]

If it were something I'd be apt to drink a few times a month; a magnum would be great. I'd like to just have cool empty madeira magnum. If I drank it all to get it; even better.

[Scheiny S]

I think it'd be great.

[looks sideways at RWC New York Malmsey sitting on the fridge that's been open since 2009]

I'm impressed. I had that for the first time this year, I don't have any left to save for fifteen years

[Glenn E.]

I think it'd be great.

[looks sideways at RWC New York Malmsey sitting on the fridge that's been open since 2009]

I'm impressed. I had that for the first time this year, I don't have to save for fifteen years

It's an "experiment" that I'm deliberately leaving mostly untouched. Roy has a story about a Madeira that he was once served that had been open for 10 years at the time, so I thought it would be fun to try it myself. Well... at right around 10 years old I served a small sample to a Madeira expert, and his guess was that it had been open around 6 months. I'd say the experiment was a success! It's now over 14 years, but there's very little left anymore.

[Roy Hersh]

The past 2 years I've squirreled away half a dozen more magnums of Madeira. Talk about a party in a bottle. They are a LOT of fun!

A group of peeps came to Madeira during a private tour to Madeira, in celebration of the host's 60th birthday this past October. I held onto all bottles we did not finish, as obviously we pay for them. Mario feels like it is wrong to open them all on the last night of the tour. We disagree on that score, because those of you who have been to "THAT" evening, know the venue and what the end of our last supper turns into. Madeira chaos.

It also pretty much ensures that participants flying back to the states the following morning, will sleep from Lisbon all the way home to their local airport in the USA.

But in October, I acquiesced and tried Mario's way, as this group had a bunch of novices, for the most part. So the last 3 or 4 nights, there was typically a theme to what I brought ... Terrantez one night, all bottles from a specific year another, etc. The last night a few magnums were brought out and a few 750s too. One was the 1978 Blandy's Terrantez and there were others from Blandy's too that night. We left all leftovers to the restaurant to drink or sell to others, cook with ... or whatever.

But I noticed that there was about 60% of the 1978 Blandy's Terrantez left. I decided it was too precious to leave behind, as after all ... the restaurant made out very well with what they received. I would have stayed at the table .. if some of our usual suspects had been on this tour, and sat with friends until the bottle was done. But as I brought along magnum holders in my wine suitcase and they were full already, I decided I'd leave some items behind, and knowing that I was not leaving until a 10 pm flight directly back to Porto, thought I'd have a decent chance that nobody at that time would notice half a magnum or so, sloshing around in my suitcase.

I wrapped it really well in a pair of jeans and put all my worn clothing around it and took a chance. Fortunately, the airport was the quietest I'd ever seen it. Who is flying out from Madeira that late at night on Monday .... to Porto? Actually there were 20-30 of us, as it was the last flight out of Madeira that evening. I got very lucky, as the bottle arrived in perfect condition. I wound up sharing an ounce here and there with friends who were over and others from the Port trade who were dropping off samples of '20/'21 VPs. I also wound up slowly sipping the rest while writing the the Nov. and Dec. newsletters. I am going to invest in more magnums of Madeira. And like Marc said above, they make for an eye opening centerpiece when they hit the table.

I did check across the island, and the largest format I saw was an 18L bottle. Imagine 2 whole cases of Madeira in one bottle?