For The Love Of Port

I recently picked up an 1899 Blandy's Terrantez at auction and found an interesting neck tag that stated something like "specially selected for Bloomindale Bros, New York, a division of Federated Department Stores".

It seems like a very small bottling (189 bottles)... very odd... anybody ever seen other department store madeiras before?

I have not seen any references to older bottlings, but according to their web site, Barbeito has produced five special wines for Fortnum & Mason. They include an over 40 year old boal.

Fortnum's do have some interesting "Own Label" wines. Although I don't often look at their madeiras, I frequently buy one or two bottles of their "Own Label" port. The current vintage port they have on the shelves under the Fortnum name is the 1997 Niepoort.

Alex

Marco D. wrote:I recently picked up an 1899 Blandy's Terrantez at auction and found an interesting neck tag that stated something like "specially selected for Bloomindale Bros, New York, a division of Federated Department Stores".

It seems like a very small bottling (189 bottles)... very odd... anybody ever seen other department store madeiras before?

So you were the one that outbid me (assuming it was bottle 37, and you bid in the last hour)! I’m glad it found a good home (even if I did drive up the price for you).

I've had "an" 1899 several times and am still convinced it isn't "pure" Terrantez (I don't think there was any being grown on the island in 1899) and have never before seen this particular bottling. I still have two other Madeira Wine Company bottlings.
One is labelled Blandy (who have bottled for NY retailers on several occasions - I have some bottlings with a comparable neck label "Especially selected for SHERRY WINE & SPIRITS Co. Inc. 679 MADISON AVENUE, NEW YORK" - and these seem to be from around the same time.
The other is stencilled Leacock - and also has the tell-tale AO-SM stencil, indicating it was almost certainly purchased from d'Oliveiras when they sold off some of their old stocks in the 70's and 80's.

However, my other similarly labelled wines have a back-label indicating they were bought (by Blandy’s) “from D. Eugénia Bianchi Henriques, a partner of [Blandy’s] who inherited …wine from her family”.

Nevertheless, I suspect ALL the 1899’s came from a single source – if indeed there was no commercial quantity of Terrantez growing on the island then it’s unlikely that two separate sources would have existed.

Incidentally, based on my tasting ‘assessments’ , my theory is that this is an older Terrantez that “may” have been topped up with Bual (perhaps in 1899). It’s a little sweeter than most Terrantez.

And not sure if I’ve posted this before, but my “living will” specifies this wine as one to be opened if I’m ever in a coma/vegetative state. My friends will be invited to taste this and a sample poured between my lips. If I don’t come back for this – there’s no chance I will ever come back, and they can pull the plug! (And this over the strong objections of my lawyer who had to draft the document).

Alan Gardner wrote:So you were the one that outbid me (assuming it was bottle 37, and you bid in the last hour)! I’m glad it found a good home (even if I did drive up the price for you).

Guilty as charged. :)

I've had one other 1899T, a Welsh Brothers with an AO-SM marking. It was indeed quite sweet and many tasters also thought it was probably not "pure" Terrantez. I always wondered about this... couldn't this Terrantez just have been vinified in a sweeter style? It is curious, however, that given the rarity of the varietal, only Terrantez seems to have been produced in 1899.

Ahhh... the curious mysteries of Madeira...

Alan,

What makes you think Boal was added to top off the wine to make it sweeter. What if just 5% was originally made with Tinta Negra Mole? It certainly would not surprise me.

Indeed it might have been Tinta Negra Mole (perhaps for topping up).
My "bual theory" is purely speculative anyway.
Certainly it doesn't taste like any other Terrantez (I actually prefer the 1899 and 'mostly' my preferred style is Bual).
Also my 'theory' is that something happened in 1899 in order for that vintage to be attached to the barrel (again I'm speculating that it was still in barrel). Hence my 'topped up with something in 1899' theory. (It seems highly likely that Terrantez itself was virtually extinct in 1899 according to all literature I've seen - and it's non-appearance for another 30 years seems to support this).
In Cossart's book he identifies that 1895 was "the first normal vintage since 1873" so I would expect relatively young vines (mostly) in the remainder of the 1890's, which 'might have ' been used to stretch older vintages (maybe a better word is refresh - either way stocks of 1873 wine and later would have been relatively scarce - NEW aside - so why so much 1875?).
But, to my knowledge, I've never had a 100+ year old Tinta Negra Mole, so can't even speculate on what that would taste like (although I have had a few at 50 years that were impressive). So I speculate that a sweeter style was added (based on taste); the structure of the wine suggests Bual (to me) rather than Malmsey; and I have no idea what a Tinta Negra Mole boost would do, so I didn't really consider it. But, now that you raise it, that's a serious option.

So does anybody have a 100-year-old Tinta Negra Mole, so we can find out what it tastes like? Or perhaps this 1899 is truly Tinta Negra Mole entirely - in which case we do know whart it tastes like.

Of course we can't leave any discussion of the 1899 Terrantez without relating the story of how the LCBO (Ontario Government Monopoly) imported 1 case only of the 1899 Terrantez for sale (sometime in the 80's IIRC). AFTER its release to the public, a brouhaha arose as a lab technician went to the press claiming that the LCBO was selling 'cancer-causing' wine and that his attempts to save Canadians from this plague had been ignored (it was rumoured this technician had been passed over for an anticipated promotion).
Indeed madeira in general (and the 1899 in particular) had elevated levels of ethyl carbamate (other fortified wines e.g. sherry also 'suffer this fate'). And ethyl carbamate has indeed been shown to cause skin cancer in rats, but no proven tumours in any humans.
So all remaining stocks (estimated at about 4 bottles) were ordered to be returned to Head Office to be destroyed. Astonishingly when the store managers went to retrieve these from the shelves, they had all been sold earlier in the day. Amazing coincidence - I think that I've tried this wine at least half a dozen times and so far I seem to be thriving.

Oh yes, a subsequent press article estimated that the doses 'applied to the shaved skins of the rats' were the equivalent of drinking a case of 1899 Terrantez a day, every day for 20 years! No comment on what that amount of alcohol would do to one. Or who could afford it!

But, thanks to our glorious protectors, we haven't seen that wine since. And last month a long-established sherry (fairly expensive) was similarly withdrawn for the same reason, despite its having been sold here previously and still being acceptable in EVERY other (importing) country in the world. Of course, our lab testing must be the best in the world to detect this when all others fail - and this very old solera must have undergone significant change undetected by sherry drinkers everywhere.

I have a couple of the 1899 T from Borges, bought directly from them, most probably the last they sold. About 5-6 years ago.

And note, guys, backlabel says it was bottled in 1996 !! There still may be treasures hidden in the back-rooms over there ! :idea:

Hi Reidar,
Any idea if it originated from the same 'batch' as the others?
Do you know if it was bottled from glass, or barrel?

Hi Alan
No idea about glass or barrell etc. When I bought them I did not think
about the 1899 T "mystry" we talk about now. But next time there I will check with Helena og Isabel.